HOMILY FOR THURSDAY 4TH WEEK OF LENT, LITURGICAL CALENDAR YEAR B
THEME: You place your hopes on Moses but Moses will be your accuser.
BY: Fr Deotacious Chikontwe SMA
READINGS OF THE DAY
Exodus 32:7-14
Psalm 105:19-23
John 5:31-47
LITURGICAL COLOUR
PURPLE/VIOLET
INTRODUCTION
Good morning my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate Thursday of the Forth Week of Lent, Liturgical Calendar Year B.
ALSO RECOMMENDED: HOMILY FOR THURSDAY OF THE 3rd WEEK OF LENT.
FROM OUR FIRST READING
In the first reading, Moses pleads with God on behalf of God’s people who have turned away from God and worshipped a calf of molten metal, treating it as their god. This is the fundamental sin of idolatry. Yet, Moses does not give up on the people. He asks God to pardon them and God hears Moses’ prayer; God responds to Moses’ plea. Because of Moses’ prayer there is reconciliation between God and his people. If Moses worked to reconcile God’s people to God, Jesus did so to an even fuller degree. Saint Paul declares, ‘God reconciled us to himself through Christ… in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself’. The work of Moses pointed ahead to the even greater work of Jesus.
FROM OUR GOSPEL READING
In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the same kind of stubbornness and wicked attitudes that the people of God had exhibited as they all refused to believe in the Lord Jesus, in everything that God had done for them through His Son, Who is Our Lord and Saviour. The Lord had brought to them His truth, His Law and commandments personified in Him, the very essence of the Law and the Word of God manifested to us in the flesh, and He has performed many wonders and miracles, fulfilling the many prophecies and predictions that the prophets and messengers of God in the past had all spoken about. Yet, it was those very people who were supposed to be most knowledgeable and understanding of the Law and commandments of God, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who were the most stubborn in opposing God’s Saviour.
CONCLUSION
In this period of Lent, we are everyday celebrating God’s reconciling love revealed in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. Let us remember that, God continues to be at work in Christ today reconciling the world to himself. We are asked to respond to that reconciling work of God. Our call during this Season is to be reconciled to God our loving Father, a call which is inseparable from the call, ‘Be reconciled to one another’. We cannot return to God without returning to each other, just as, in the parable of the prodigal son, the elder son could not return to his father without being willing to return to his younger brother.
The Lord Be With You.
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