31 March 2026 - not surprised

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

"Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me."

He knew the one who would betray him, but did not immediately single him out. Rather, he forced them all to engage in introspection about whether and under what circumstances any one of them might betray him. We know that, except for Judas, they wanted to imagine themselves as people who would never do so. But, appropriately, they weren't entirely confident in themselves. They didn't know what circumstances would bring. Nor did they have absolute confidence in their moral character. Hence they asked, "Surely it is not I, Lord?" (see Matthew 26:22). This lack of trust in themselves was later confirmed when they all fled and thus failed to be the loyal friends and disciples of Jesus that they wished to be. But in this instance Jesus was identifying, not the fact that the disciples would choose avoidance of danger over following Jesus, but rather the active hostility of Judas. He probably began sincerely, as someone who really believed in Jesus, and wanted to see his mission succeed. He had, at one time, truly been a friend to Jesus. But somehow that friendship had soured along the way, his trust in the plan of Jesus failed, and his belief in his ability to accomplish his mission was compromised. But this was all the more tragic because it was truly a betrayal. And it was truly a betrayal because it had once been a true friendship. Hence the way Jesus singled out Judas alluded to a Psalm:

Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me (see Psalm 41:9).

But what tenderness Jesus showed in identifying his betrayer in this way. By demonstrating that he knew in advance what would happen he revealed that he was still fully in control of the situation, choosing to lay his life down rather than having it taken from him. By referring, however obliquely, to Judas as a friend, even in this last moment of their fellowship, he seemed to indicate that, for his part, he hadn't abandoned Judas, even in spite of the full knowledge of his betrayal. Such unearned mercy and steadfast love ought to have made it possible for Judas to repent and return even after committing the most grievous of possible sins. It was clear that this reality remained with him after he did what he did. It was obliviously in conflict with the despair he felt over what he had done. And although from an external perspective it appeared that the despair won yet may we hope that in some way unseen by all he accepted the mercy that Jesus never ceased to offer him.

Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.

Normal people glorify themselves by demonstrations of their wealth, their power, their talents, or their privilege. But Jesus was glorified in weakness and in self-surrender. He was glorified in his death because it was there that he definitively revealed his love for the Father. His Father's love for him was also revealed, even before the resurrection, since it was only this love that could explain the motivating force behind Jesus's unwavering resolve, his willingness to embrace the cross. It was because he believed so absolutely in the love of the Father that he was able to entrust the salvation of the world to that love. 

Jesus answered, "Will you lay down your life for me?
Amen, amen, I say to you, the cock will not crow
before you deny me three times."

Sometimes we hear Jesus speak about our weakness and we think he is speaking in condemnation. But his point was not to condemn Peter. It was rather to give him hope that Jesus was not surprised by his flaws. Jesus knew that although the Spirit was willing the flesh was very weak indeed. So hindsight about this statement from Jesus may have first given Peter cause to kick himself and feel even worse, as kind of divine 'I told you so'. But that was not the intent. The intent was to give him hope enough to return, so that his threefold denial could be repaid with a threefold affirmation of love.

Jesus was in control even when he appeared to be anything but. It appeared he was overwhelmed by circumstances beyond his control. But he made those very circumstances conduce to the salvation of the world. Our world and indeed our own lives often appear to be out of our control. But, if we love Jesus, he can still make all things work together for our good (see Romans 8:28). For a time we must still contend more with weakness than with glory. But glory, like the dawn, shall come.

And I am made glorious in the sight of the LORD,
and my God is now my strength!
It is too little, he says, for you to be my servant,
to raise up the tribes of Jacob,
and restore the survivors of Israel;
I will make you a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.

Tom Booth - The Jesus Song

 

30 March 2026 - the impracticality of love

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

"Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days' wages
and given to the poor?"
He said this not because he cared about the poor
but because he was a thief and held the money bag
and used to steal the contributions.

We need to be careful lest we demonstrate the same duplicitous nature as Judas, who acted as though he cared for the poor in order to appear virtuous. When we are so fixated on practical matters and material gain the useless extravagance of love tends to offend us more than inspire us. The fragrance of love that fills the house, meant to inspire us, seems to choke us instead. Yet, to merely human ways of thinking, such acts of love as the anointing of the feet of Jesus do seem hugely impractical. We tend to see people who would go to such lengths as weak or as dominated by emotion rather than being ruled by rational logic. We might even expect Jesus to defend the point made by Judas, condescendingly explaining to Mary how the money could be put to better use. But he did the opposite:

So Jesus said, "Leave her alone.
Let her keep this for the day of my burial.
You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.

Somehow Mary's seemingly excessive display of love, when one considered whom it was that she anointed, and what he was about to do for her people, and for all of humanity, was the most appropriate act possible. Respecting the dead probably seemed rather negligible in the grand scheme of possible goods. Thus this pre-anointing in particular probably seemed insignificant. Yet it turned out that proper concern for the dead was the only attitude that was appropriately attuned to the eventual possibility of resurrection. It looked toward the final solution to the ultimate problem facing mankind. Sin and death also had symptoms, and it was appropriate to treat them. But treating the symptoms would never solve the underlying problem. Nor could any merely human effort. If one wanted to truly love one's neighbor she needed to prioritize her love for Jesus himself, since only by his death could the victory of life be realized.

Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil
made from genuine aromatic nard
and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair;
the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. 

What seemed to be an utterly impotent act was revealed to be more significant than many eminently practical and functionally successful programs and policies. It didn't exactly do or accomplish anything. It was valuable in itself, for what it was: an outpouring of love. And yet it did have an effect after a fashion since "the house was filled with the fragrance". The fragrance was like that of a liturgical offering. But its pervasiveness was an invitation to all who were close to give themselves over more fully to the love of the one who inspired this love in one of his beloved.

Matt Maher - Your Love Is Extravagant

 

29 March 2026 - prisoners of hope

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Go into the village opposite you,
and immediately you will find an ass tethered,
and a colt with her.

We note first how precisely Jesus had everything planned out. There was a donkey and a colt in a specific place he predicted. He gave specific words which were adequate to address the concerns anyone might have about why the disciples were taking them. There was a specific place where he desired to celebrate Passover, and a chosen individual who would consent to host he and his disciples. 

His mission as a messiah appeared to be reaching a climax as they entered the city. It must have looked to the disciples like he was in complete control and knew exactly what he was doing. And he was and did. But what he was doing was still not what anyone really expected. These anecdotes about his careful planning may have been merely several among many intended to demonstrate that he was in fact in control, particularly as it would soon appear that he was anything but. He wanted his disciples to realize that although he would be handed over it was because of a more fundamental way in which he handed himself over. His life would not be taken from him. Rather, "I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again" (see John 10:18). The horror that was about to unfold was no accident, but rather part of the eternal plan of God, designed to bring about our salvation.

Say to daughter Zion,
"Behold, your king comes to you,
meek and riding on an ass,
and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.

He was not coming to begin a military conquest, as Matthew indicated by citing the words of the prophet Zechariah. It might have seemed that his supernatural insights and abilities would have been perfect for the military leadership necessary to throw off the yoke of the Romans, as though he were a modern Maccabees. But the yoke of the Romans was not his target. His strategy and tactics were rather employed to take aim at the true enemies, Satan, sin, and death itself. A good human tactician might find a way to resist an oppressive foreign rule. But only a divine intellect could ensnare death itself so as to destroy it. Let us hear a little more from the prophet Zechariah that speaks to what Jesus would accomplish and how:

As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you,
I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope;
today I declare that I will restore to you double (see Zechariah 9:11-12).

Because of the new covenant in his blood Jesus would indeed set prisoners free from the waterless pit of death. Therefore they would be no longer prisoners of the enemy, but prisoners of hope, waiting to receive double for all that they had endured and suffered. 

The crowds preceding him and those following
kept crying out and saying:
"Hosanna to the Son of David;
blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord;
hosanna in the highest."

No doubt the crowd recognized that Jesus entering the city in the way he did was an explicit confirmation of the fact that he was the messiah. Finally, they thought, his victory was at hand. And again, it was, but not in the way they expected. And so they shouted with joy and the top of their lungs and laid their cloaks on the path before him. And this is our tendency as well. We celebrate Jesus when he seems triumphant, his Church when it seems effective, and the way God is at work in the world when it seems direct and unchallenged. But we are often as quick to change our tune as were the crowds, as were even his own disciples.

We may go out from the Passover meal singing the Hillel songs. But when we try to endure with him in the garden we tend allow sleep to overtake us rather than remain present to him in distress. Once the crowd comes out with swords and clubs we are typically as quick to flee as anyone rather than stay with Jesus and share his fate. 

Then all the disciples left him and fled.

It is hard for us to come to terms with the necessity of the death of Jesus, that our salvation had to come about in this way, rather than by some easier and more pleasant means. If he had been looking merely for a military success it surely would have been possible to keep everything positive for his allies, at least for the moment. But as he had his sight set on solving a more intractable problem more was required. He knew on Palm Sunday that those who sang hosanna would later be the same ones to shout, "Crucify him!" But these were the very people he desired to save. And it was from this fickle inability to commit themselves to the Lord from which he would save them. He had to expose the duplicitous and sinful nature of the common heart of humanity in order to bring it into the light and heal it.

Even before the Father fully vindicated Jesus through the resurrection there were already signs of hope. How could it be otherwise? By dying, the king had in fact already triumphed.

And behold, the veil of the sanctuary
was torn in two from top to bottom.
The earth quaked, rocks were split, tombs were opened,
and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised.

These initial signs were persuasive enough to make those keeping watch say, "Truly, this was the Son of God!" Yet even so, Jesus was still in the tomb. Life seemed to continue without missing a beat, as though the very Lord of life had not gone missing. The women, at least, seemed to sense that this was not, could not be, the end of the story.

But Mary Magdalene and the other Mary
remained sitting there, facing the tomb.

For our part, we know well how the story ends. But we do well not to rush through the path that leads to that end. From staying as close to Jesus as we are able on this journey of his we hope to have new levels of love for him awakened within us. We hope to learn to be prisoners of hope even before we see that hopes realized.

I will proclaim your name to my brethren;
in the midst of the assembly I will praise you:

Hillsong Worship - Hosanna

 

28 March 2026 - for worse or for better

Today's Readings
(Audio)

What are we going to do?
This man is performing many signs.
If we leave him alone, all will believe in him,
and the Romans will come
and take away both our land and our nation.

The ability of the darkened human mind to blind itself to the action of God among us is striking. When many others, for good reason, came to believe that Lazarus had been raised, and therefore came to believe in Jesus, the Sanhedrin didn't even consider the possibility that they might be right to do so. They were so worried about the persuasiveness of the signs that they feared that eventually "all will believe in him". Perhaps they saw themselves as intellectual elites who would not be fooled like everyone else. But it is not exactly clear that they were certain his signs were false. They seemed more concerned about the practical matter that his signs were inconvenient for the status quo which they enjoyed at that time in relative comfort. Yes, they were under the power of the Romans. But at least they still possessed their land and their nation, and were able to enjoy their ancestral heritage. Things were far from as good as they could be. But they were mainly concerned about all of the ways in which they could easily become worse. But they were so concerned as to miss the much bigger picture which was nevertheless clearly unfolding in their midst.

You know nothing,
nor do you consider that it is better for you
that one man should die instead of the people,
so that the whole nation may not perish.

Caiaphas clearly intended to say that Jesus ought to be put to death so that the Romans would not turn hostile and dispossess them of their land. Without realizing it, he was in fact suggesting that the greatest possible goods, the possibility of reconciliation with God and eternal life, should be sacrificed for the political status quo. All that was represented by the raising of Lazarus was rejected in favor of a basic affirmation of the Roman occupation. In a way, it was like the people who complained when they were led forth from Egypt. They preferred the comfort of servitude to the freedom of the Sons of God. 

Through the gift of prophecy at work because Caiaphas was the high priest, however, God said something else. He stated the truth of the value of the sacrifice of the lamb of God: that it was better for one man to die, bearing the sins of the people, and thus saving all. If Jesus died in this way the whole nation need not perish in a way that was spiritual and eternal. And it was not only the nation that stood to gain from the sacrificial self-offering of Jesus. It was all of the dispersed children of God who would be gathered together as a result of his death and resurrection into a new and everlasting Kingdom who would benefit together. Thus there was something at stake much greater than the political status quo. By giving himself up to death Jesus would unlock the promise made through Ezekiel in our first reading:

I will take the children of Israel from among the nations
to which they have come,
and gather them from all sides to bring them back to their land.
I will make them one nation upon the land,
in the mountains of Israel,
and there shall be one prince for them all.

Hopefully we ourselves are not so blind to the goodness of God as were the religious leaders in the time of Jesus. But we nevertheless sometimes encounter situations in our world in which people seem shockingly oblivious to the true, the good, and the beautiful. By the actions they take they absolutely seem to put first priority on the wrong things, ignoring or actually sabotaging higher goods as collateral damage. But we see that, as with Joseph, what man intends for ill good is more than able to use for his own purposes (see Genesis 50:20). It usually involves a cross before it involves a crown (as it did for Joseph). It almost always goes beyond our ability to understand or predict. But, and this is important, it is certain, more than the coming of the dawn.

I will turn their mourning into joy,
I will console and gladden them after their sorrows.

 

Matt Maher - Behold The Lamb Of God

 

27 March 2026 - not a word problem

Today's Readings
(Audio)

I have shown you many good works from my Father.
For which of these are you trying to stone me?

To even engage with him about the many miraculous deeds he had done was already to concede more than they wanted. For instance, they could complain about what he had done on the Sabbath only by mentioning one or more of the healings had had performed. Jesus preferred to keep the emphasis on the way the power of God was obviously at work in the world through him. But they wanted to argue about words, and often about technicalities, to keep the focus away from this elephant in the room. Other of his opponents did not find success in impugning the conduct of his disciples, whether that of not performing ritual washings, or of picking grain on the Sabbath. These Judeans therefore ramped up their critique, making him out to be guilty of one of the chief crimes against the Law, that of blasphemy.

“We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy.
You, a man, are making yourself God.”

To their credit they did correctly understand what Jesus had implied about his unique relationship with the Father. Yet they wished to ignore all of the works that seemed to indicate that his claim must be true, that the finger of God was really at work in their midst. They therefore thought a verbal assault would be irrefutable. Their logic: men are not gods, but you claim to be God, therefore you are a blasphemer. 

Jesus answered them,
“Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, ‘You are gods”‘?
If it calls them gods to whom the word of God came,
and Scripture cannot be set aside,
can you say that the one
whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world

Jesus did not then go to great lengths to explain the reason why the incarnation was in fact possible, or how the Second Person of the eternal Triune God could, without contradiction, take unto himself a human nature. Rather it seemed that he didn't want them to get hung up at that point in words or merely verbal disputes and miss the reality that was unfolding all around them. Scripture had used the term gods for those who were merely creatures made in God's image, and whose leadership roles in some measure mediated his presence. The implication was not that the term was empty. It was rather that if even those individuals, who were wicked, and would be punished, could be described in that way, how much more could Jesus be rightly addressed as the Son of God. If there was any valid analogy at all between God and man then perhaps reality had always been designed to be open to the incarnation. In any case, the Scriptures had used the word in that way, and so the opponents of Jesus ought not to be so utterly flabbergasted when he appropriated the term himself.

If I do not perform my Father’s works, do not believe me;
but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me,
believe the works, so that you may realize and understand
that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.

He wanted to direct their attention back to the works he did. The reason seemed to be that they had an excessive ability to deceive themselves in merely intellectual and abstract discussion. But if they actually gave their attention to the things Jesus was doing in their midst they would be more likely to "realize and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father".

Most of us probably know what it is like to spend too much time in our heads, in our own subjectivity. We are aware of our tendency to become confused and even deceived when we spend too much time on abstractions. Instead, let us focus more on the great things Jesus has done, just as Mary teaches us.

for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name. 
And his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation (see Luke 1:49-50)

Matt Maher - Great Things

 

26 March 2026 - before and after

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever keeps my word will never see death.

Everyone who had ever spoken before, who had given words to the people, whether Abraham, Moses, or one of the prophets, had all tasted death. The notable exception was of course Elijah, but that was a privilege peculiar to himself. It wasn't something imbued into the power of the words he shared. The Judeans correctly understood the magnitude of what Jesus was claiming.

Now we are sure that you are possessed.
Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say,
‘Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’
Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died?
Or the prophets, who died?
Who do you make yourself out to be?

Indeed it would be hard to conceive as one greater than Abraham, through whom the promises of the covenant were given. It was indeed unthinkable for a young individual born so much later in history to have a more important role than all of the pivotal players of Jewish antiquity. His opponents clearly thought that Jesus was doing nothing more than bragging, in a way that was difficult to challenge or to falsify. Therefore Jesus clarified his purpose, which was not to glorify himself.

Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is worth nothing;
but it is my Father who glorifies me,
of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’
You do not know him, but I know him.
And if I should say that I do not know him,
I would be like you a liar.

Jesus wanted to reveal his unique relationship to the Father. He could not pretend that he was not the incarnate Son of God merely to avoid unproductive conflict. He couldn't lie about his origins, because there was nothing more important to the salvation of the world than the truth of the claim that he came forth from the Father.

But I do know him and I keep his word.
Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day;
he saw it and was glad.”

In response to their question about whether Jesus was greater than Abraham he answered clearly in the affirmative, explaining that even Abraham himself acknowledged it. When Abraham laughed it was implied that he was rejoicing at the revelation, not just of the exile and return of Israel, but at the eventual coming of the messiah, the one through whom the promise that all the nations of the earth would be blessed would be fulfilled. Thus, although Abraham was born first, Jesus was prior in the sovereign plan of God, and thus was truly of greater importance to salvation history. The first in intention was last in execution, as the philosophers say. 

“You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?”
Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you,
before Abraham came to be, I AM.”

From the fact that Jesus claimed to have a unique relationship to the Father, and from the fact that he described his experience of time as having a perspective that was not limited to years of his mortal existence, they inferred that he was claiming to be something greater than merely human. He seemed to imply that he shared God's eternal perspective on reality. But far from being ready to discuss the point, they only sought to provoke him because they were eager to have grounds to take offense. Yet, as we have said, Jesus could not lie about such an essential truth. He told them directly, in unmistakable language that he shared his identity with the God who had revealed himself to Moses at the burning bush when he said "before Abraham came to be, I AM".

Rather than being ready to take offense let us be ready to rejoice at the hidden good at which our God is always at work. Let us take the advice of our psalm for today:

Look to the LORD in his strength;
seek to serve him constantly.
Recall the wondrous deeds that he has wrought,
his portents, and the judgments he has uttered.

Newsboys - Joy

 

25 March 2026 - hail, full of grace

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”
But she was greatly troubled at what was said
and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.

Gabriel addressed Mary in a way that echoed things God had spoken to a figure known as daughter Zion through the prophets:

Sing, Daughter Zion;
shout aloud, Israel!
Be glad and rejoice with all your heart,
Daughter Jerusalem! (see Zephaniah 3:14)

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
righteous and having salvation is he (see Zechariah 9:9).

Moreover, his greeting referred to something of which Mary may have been only dimly aware. He spoke of the fact that she had been filled with grace by God in the past in a way that continued until that moment. In some way Gabriel seemed to tie the fulfillment of the messianic hope spoken through the prophets to the grace that was present and at work in Mary. Is it any wonder she was greatly troubled? There was something unbelievably vast at work, a divine conspiracy in which she was now implicated. Since her youth she had seen herself as dedicated to God. But now her mind must have been running through various Scripture passages as she sought to put the pieces together and understand what was expected of her. And it was true that much was being asked of her. Humanly speaking, fear would have been a natural response to the call on the life of Mary. But the angel helped her to frame things correctly, from God's point of view.

Do not be afraid, Mary,
for you have found favor with God.
Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you shall name him Jesus.

It got more confusing before it became clear. Mary understood herself to be a virgin, and planned to remain in that state, as she indicated when she asked, "How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?". But it was this very commitment that helped qualify her to bear the savior of the world. She was sacred and set apart for the miraculous way Jesus would enter the world. In asking the angel how it would happen she did not mean to imply doubt that it was possible. Rather, she understood that her prior commitment meant that the birth of this child couldn't come about in the normal way. She was docile and wanted the understanding required to play her part well.

The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
Therefore the child to be born
will be called holy, the Son of God.

As the cloud of God's presence had once descended on the tent of meeting in the time of Moses so too would his presence overshadow Mary. It was this power and proximity of God that would be the direct cause of the birth of the child in such a way and to such a degree that he would, "be called holy, the Son of God". Mary was thus privileged and set apart. But she also became an example for us, an icon of the perfection of the Church at its beginning. From her we can learn how to allow the Spirit, who has now come to us as well through the Sacraments, to bring Jesus to birth in our own lives. If we remember this we will have the same cause for joy that Mary did, and the same sense of purpose animating our lives. We too will do our best to discern "How can this be" in our own lives, and respond to what we discover by imitating Mary's own assent to God's plan:

Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.”

Songs In His Presence - Bright As The Sun

 

24 March 2026 - when you lift up the Son of Man

Today's Readings
(Audio)

I belong to what is above.
You belong to this world,
but I do not belong to this world.
That is why I told you that you will die in your sins.

Since they belonged to the world they were destined to share its death directed destiny. Decay, entropy, and eventual dissolution were the ultimate defining realities of temporal existence. Humans were subject to "the ruler of this world" (see John 12:31) unless someone greater than the one who is in the world (see First John 4:4) set them free by plugging them in to a higher reality.

For if you do not believe that I AM,
you will die in your sins.

The point was not so much that he would punish them for unbelief as it was that unbelief would prevent them from availing themselves of their one opportunity for rescue. If they did not believe that Jesus had a unique connection to the Father, or that he was stronger than the forces of darkness, they would not open themselves to allow that power to come into their own hearts and work in them. An ark had been sent for their rescue. But they had to actually get onboard. Or, better, a power greater than death and stronger than the devil had finally appeared on earth. And now they needed to welcome that power into their own hearts so as to be transformed.

So they said to him, “Who are you?”
Jesus said to them, “What I told you from the beginning.
I have much to say about you in condemnation.
But the one who sent me is true,
and what I heard from him I tell the world.”

He had been revealing the truth of his identity and the reason that he came to earth for some time by then. But the people who heard had not been a receptive audience. Jesus could have said much in condemnation about the hardness of their hearts. He could have gotten frustrated. He could have gotten mad and sought retribution. But he was too deeply rooted in his own mission and purpose for that. He was too committed to helping the world to know everything he heard from the Father.

When you lift up the Son of Man,
then you will realize that I AM,
and that I do nothing on my own,
but I say only what the Father taught me.

When the Son of Man was lifted up upon the cross the people would have to reckon with the ugliness of sin. But as they looked on him whom they had pierced they could also experience the revelation of the ever greater love of God, love that was stronger than sin, more powerful even than death itself.

The one who sent me is with me.
He has not left me alone,
because I always do what is pleasing to him.

Although Jesus would in some way feel alone on the cross, bearing the alienation of the people from the Father, he always remembered that the Father was with him. Jesus remained on the cross, not out of weakness, but out of obedience. And his last words were words of trust in the Father as he handed over his Spirit. We see in Jesus the fact that death could not overcome the connection between the Father and the Son, even when it did its worst. This was meant to convince us that the Son is who he claims so that we might come to share in this connection. The only alternative is death. And we already know how toxic the is the poison of the seraph serpents. It only gets worse from here without the divine intervention of the great I AM. 

Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.

May we too hear the truth in the voice of Jesus and come to believe in him more deeply, that we may more fully share in his life.

The Maranatha Singers - Lord, I Lift Your Name On High

 

23 March 2026 - stone's throw away

Today's Readings
(Audio)

“Teacher, this woman was caught 
in the very act of committing adultery.
Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.
So what do you say?”

It was amazing the lengths to which the scribes and Pharisees went in order to ensnare Jesus in their trap. They did not particularly care about the sanctity of marriage, but used the law as an excuse to find fault with Jesus. The women, whose dignity, as one created in the image of God, they clearly did not recognize, was merely acceptable collateral damage as far as they were concerned. Jesus, who was the bridegroom of Israel, did care deeply about marriage. He himself had given the commandment that prohibited adultery. But he did so precisely because of how adultery tarnished the dignity of his creatures and made them less than they were meant to be. Offenses against the dignity of marriage made those guilty of them less capable, not only of human love, but of relationship with Jesus. But since it was precisely this relationship that he desired above all else his instinctive response to guilt was not first judgment, but rather mercy. The Pharisees assumed that Jesus might endorse stoning the woman, thus bringing upon himself the wrath of the Romans, who reserved to themselves the right to administer the death penalty. Or else they thought he would set mercy against the Mosaic law, contradicting the punishment Moses commanded. But he did neither.

“Let the one among you who is without sin 
be the first to throw a stone at her.”

They would likely have seen themselves as without sin, just as Paul once saw himself, saying "as to righteousness under the law, blameless" (see Philippians 3:6). But they also knew that Jesus did not consider them to be faultless. Thus he was not actually suggesting any of them could rightly throw a stone. But there was more. What they would have desired to do at that point was almost certainly to stone the woman themselves, in order to uphold their public image of righteousness. But they could not, since it would upset the Roman authorities. They were thus made to look like sinners in the eyes of the crowd. They had been caught in the trap they themselves set.

They set a net for my steps; my soul was bowed down. They dug a pit in my way, but they have fallen into it themselves (see Psalm 57:6).

The scribes and the Pharisees were thus humiliated and went away with no ability to respond. But what of the woman, whom they had used and abused for their own ends? She was in fact guilty. And Jesus was in fact without sin. He was qualified to throw a stone if he chose. But the one person who could see clearly enough to be eligible to issue forth punishment instead chose to show mercy. There was no board in the eye of Jesus and so he was able to see clearly enough to actually help this sister who had been wounded by her sin. The Pharisees and the scribes were the opposite, since their own vision was so impaired they caused damage around themselves wherever they turned. They suffered precisely the sort of darkening of vision described in our first reading.

They suppressed their consciences;
they would not allow their eyes to look to heaven,
and did not keep in mind just judgments. 

We are not without sin ourselves, since, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (see First John 1:8). But this need not be the end of our story as long as we continue to listen to our consciences and look to heaven. We can discover, like both Susanna, who was innocent, but also like the woman caught in adultery, that, "saves those who hope in him".

Bob Fitts - He Will Come And Save You

 

22 March 2026 - do you believe this?

Today's Readings
(Audio)

“This illness is not to end in death, 
but is for the glory of God, 
that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

The illness did not end in death, but it did pass through it as a middle point. Jesus did not act immediately so as to avert all suffering. Rather, he delayed, Lazarus died, and the hearts of Martha and Mary were broken. Yet we read that it was precisely because "Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus" that, "when he heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was". This is hard for us to reconcile. It did not seem like the act of a true friend, since it seemed clear by that point that he had the power to save him. And yet we are forced to recon both with the intentionality of Jesus in his choice but also with his obvious love for Lazarus and his sisters. We are not allowed to believe that he didn't care, for the evidence is against that option. Nor can we believe that he couldn't have acted, since by now his power as a healer was evident. Nor can we assert that he didn't fully understand the situation, since they made sure he was aware of it. No. He had sufficient knowledge, power, and goodness. But he did not use them as we would have done. His plan involved a greater good, and an objective that was less temporary than the momentary avoidance of suffering.

“Where have you laid him?”
They said to him, “Sir, come and see.”
And Jesus wept.
So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.”

We cannot even conclude that Jesus didn't act because it was easier for him, as though he were too lazy or disinterested to prevent the death of Lazarus. Rather we see that although he allowed suffering in order to bring forth a greater good, he did not disdain to share in that suffering. He asked Mary, Martha, and Lazarus to share in his cross in preparation for the when he himself would bear it. But the fact that Jesus allowed any suffering at all in the world was always predicated on the plan of God in which the death and resurrection of Jesus would redeem all suffering. It wasn't as though he allowed suffering and then remained aloof. Rather, he allowed suffering and then bore the brunt of it for us. Like Mary and Martha we don't always or often see the connection of our particular trials to the Paschal Mystery. But we can be sure that in us, as in Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, the consequences of sin and death are being overcome.

“Father, I thank you for hearing me.
I know that you always hear me; 
but because of the crowd here I have said this, 
that they may believe that you sent me.”

The immediate upshot to the fact of the death of Lazarus was that it demonstrated something about the power of Jesus that would have been otherwise merely hypothetical. As the time drew near for his own suffering and death he began to plant the seeds that that too would be intentional, not a defeat, but rather a victory of love. This was not something he could have conveyed on a chalkboard in a classroom, not something they could have accepted if he merely said it. They had to confront the reality of death in order to truly come to believe that Jesus was himself the resurrection.

Jesus told her,
“I am the resurrection and the life; 
whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, 
and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?”

We would suggest that the greatest good we see accomplished because of this specific plan of Jesus was precisely the fact that Martha was able to affirm her belief that Jesus was the resurrection and the life, something she did even before Jesus called Lazarus forth from the grave. Indeed it was almost as if it was her faith that drew the future reality of the resurrection into the present moment for Lazarus. Thus the sisters obtained something greater than to merely have their brother again for a few more years or decades. The witnesses were empowered to understand that, with Jesus, even death was not final. But they were also prepared to live on in the era of faith, during which they would still have to endure the consequences of sin and death, until the last day, when the reality they tasted that day would finally destroyed death forever and all things were transformed. 

There is something more important in this present age than to avoid death and prolong life. If our life is merely fleshly life, it does not avail, since in such a state we cannot please God. We are then living on a death-ward trajectory, not connected to the only life that can truly last. Here below what we need more than life itself is the gift we receive when we believe Jesus is the resurrection and the life, when we confess that he is the Christ the Son of God. That gift is his Spirit. When his Spirit is within us we may still feel the effects of death. The body is still in some sense dead because of sin. But the Spirit already has access to the resurrection. The connection is so real as to go beyond the spiritual into physical reality. It is actually precisely this that guarantees that our mortal bodies too will be raised to life. Thus we become the recipients of the promise made through the prophet Ezekiel:

Then you shall know that I am the LORD, 
when I open your graves and have you rise from them, 
O my people!
I will put my spirit in you that you may live, 
and I will settle you upon your land; 
thus you shall know that I am the LORD.

David Crowder Band - How He Loves

 

21 March 2026 - believe the hype

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Some in the crowd who heard these words of Jesus said,
"This is truly the Prophet."

They thought that Jesus was the one promised by Moses when he said that "your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen" (see Deuteronomy 18:15). If this were true Jesus was more significant than if were merely a compelling teacher or miracle worker. In that case he would not be speaking his own words, no matter how clever, since God said, "I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him" (see Deuteronomy 18:18), implying that adherence was no longer an optional extra for those who happened to vibe with what he said. The Lord continued speaking to Moses saying, "And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him" (see Deuteronomy 18:19).

Others said, "This is the Christ."

People were probably primed to debunk messianic claims, since there had been other pretenders to that position in the past. Others had claimed they fulfilled these promises of God to David for the restoration of Israel, but had failed to do so. Now people were on guard against believing hype or daring to hope. They had been disappointed before by people who might have been something but turned out not to be. So they easy thing for them to do was to poke holes in anything which dared them to hope again. They had been jaded. In many ways people in our world share this cynicism. They have placed their hope in many places and been disappointed. Most things that seem too good to be true are, in fact, not true. But the defensive posture of cynicism can lead us to miss the ways that God really at work in the world. We may use confirmation bias to support our assumptions. We may line up any number of purported 'facts' to justify what we believe a priori. We won't be open to the encounter God desires to have with us, nor to the good he desires to do, which far surpasses all our hopes and dreams.

So the guards went to the chief priests and Pharisees,
who asked them, "Why did you not bring him?"
The guards answered, "Never before has anyone spoken like this man."

Somehow it is often the sophisticated people who fail to find Jesus, because their own cleverness becomes a trap. Whereas it is the simple who are often less committed to intellectual abstractions and thus able to actually experience encounter with Jesus. The chief priests and Pharisees, if they heard the words of Jesus at all, only heard them through several layers of mental filters. But the guards heard what he actually said. They had probably heard other teachers, sophists, and charlatans. And they knew that this one was not like those others. They knew that he was not like anyone else, then or ever.

Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?
But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed.

Sometimes experts only use their authority to endorse their own existing positions. They take offense at the prospect of anything that would diminish or usurp their authority in the eyes of others. The Pharisees saw themselves as the ones who knew the law, and Jesus as an outsider and a threat to that claim. They became increasingly committed to the idea that Jesus was a fraud in order to protect their own positions. Or most of them did. But some of them were able to remain open enough to at least hear him out. 

Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them, 
"Does our law condemn a man before it first hears him
and finds out what he is doing?"

Nicodemus already had a sense that Jesus someone extraordinary. He saw his fellow Pharisees claiming to object on the basis of the law while not even giving Jesus the fair hearing which the law required. He was suspicious of this rush to condemn too quickly without hearing him out. Nicodemus himself maintained and encouraged a posture of humble openness to the possibility that one or more of the things that were claimed about Jesus were true. Such a posture is an antidote against both jaded cynicism and prideful cleverness. He is in this sense worthy of our emulation. If we open ourselves to the full reality of Jesus, if we allow ourselves to truly hear his words, and if, in response, we give him our hearts, we will find that he not only fulfills our deepest desires but that he indeed far surpasses them.

Elevation Worship - Here As In Heaven

 

20 March 2026 - where he is from

Today's Readings
(Audio)

But we know where he is from.
When the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.

What they knew about where he was from in earthly terms was partial at best, missing the most important data about his birth in Bethlehem, the city of David. It is always bad to judge people based on our assumptions about their origins. We typically overlook many concrete details of their existence and only arrive at stereotypes and prejudices rather than anything real. All the more so when the individual in question was both son of God and son of man. For, as much as they misunderstood his earthly origin, even more did they fail to grasp his heavenly origin. Though he already explained that he had been sent by the Father, they clearly didn't understand or accept it, so he challenged them.

You know me and also know where I am from.

They knew if they believed what he told them. Otherwise it could be taken ironically, in the sense of, 'So you think you know where I am from?'. Thus he went on to explain the sense in which they definitely did not know where he was from, and could not, since they did not know the who sent him. Sure, they knew about that One in some sense, and even worshiped him as their God. But they did not understand him on the sames terms that his only begotten Son understood him. Obviously, they weren't privy to the plan in which the Father decided to send the Son and the Son obeyed and allowed himself to be sent. So any understanding they did have was external, did not penetrate into the heart of God, and thus could not account for the origin of Jesus. Their preconceptions about Jesus and their presumptions about God were both insufficient.

Yet I did not come on my own,
but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true.
I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.

Here was an opportunity for the confused crowds to look beyond what they thought they knew in order to ask, 'Could it actually be as he said?' But instead of taking it as an invitation they received it as a challenge and became, first defensive, and then aggressive. They might have received the good news of the Gospel but instead heard only blasphemy. They were provoked like the wicked described in the first reading from Wisdom:

Let us see whether his words be true;
let us find out what will happen to him.
For if the just one be the son of God, he will defend him
and deliver him from the hand of his foes.

And so the judgment given in Wisdom applied also to those opponents of Jesus in Jerusalem in today's Gospel: 

These were their thoughts, but they erred;
for their wickedness blinded them,
and they knew not the hidden counsels of God;
neither did they count on a recompense of holiness
nor discern the innocent souls' reward.

Importantly, Jesus knew all this, and yet did not suddenly deviate from his plan to die for these very people who tried to arrest him and would one day agitate for his execution. They were his enemies, and yet, as with us all, he desired to offer his life to save them. Because we know this we can be sure that even when we make mistakes or fail to live as good friends of Jesus he does not on that basis turn aside from us either. He continues to pour out his love in the hope that we may eventually receive it and be restored. It is important for us to recognize in Jesus the presence of this God-like agape love that transcends any other love we have ever known. It is precisely in our weaknesses and failings that it becomes possible for us to be convinced of this love at the deepest level of our being. It is then that we will say with Saint John, and in the same spirit of wonder in which he said it, that "we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us" (see First John 4:16).

Newsboys - You Are My King (Amazing Love)

 

19 March 2026 - father in faith

Today's Readings
(Audio)

she was found with child through the Holy Spirit

It was discovered that Mary came to be with child through supernatural circumstances. Whatever may be said of Joseph's response, one thing is clear: he didn't plan for this. He understood that Mary was special, that he had a mission to watch over her and protect her throughout her life. But the element of the supernatural had probably not entered into his calculations. He saw himself as up to the task when it seemed to be a merely human task. But now it seemed to be much more.

Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man,
yet unwilling to expose her to shame,
decided to divorce her quietly.

Joseph was probably already concerned about the way an imperfect man such as himself could bring shame to his immaculate bride. It was precisely because he was righteous that he had an appropriate sense of his own weakness. And it wasn't as though he needed the definition of the Immaculate Conception handed to him in order to understand that Mary was special. But he probably still saw his mission to her in terms of his superficial value as a Jewish man, and what he could offer her on that basis. He thought of the ways in which he might have been interchangeable with a thousand other men, and so could conceive of filling that role himself. But when it was revealed the way that God was at work in the life of Mary it became clear to Joseph that more was needed. What she needed was not something that any decent man whosoever could provide. Instead, she needed the one specifically anointed and chosen by God for the task. The destiny of the child demanded it.

Such was his intention when, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,
“Joseph, son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.
For it is through the Holy Spirit
that this child has been conceived in her.

Holy fear made Joseph rightly doubt his own capacity. But the angel conveyed the fact that it was not merely what Joseph was in himself that mattered. What mattered was that he was in fact not an accidental addition to the story. He was chosen as a specific and necessary part of the plan. He was the son of David the great king, through whom Jesus himself would be a part of the royal lineage. It was precisely because of Joseph that Jesus was the heir to the promise made to David in our first reading:

I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins,
and I will make his kingdom firm.
It is he who shall build a house for my name.
And I will make his royal throne firm forever.
I will be a father to him,
and he shall be a son to me.

Of course just hearing that he was part of the plan still gave Joseph no sense of how a relatively ordinary man such as himself could somehow play that role. Thus the angel reminded him that it was in fact the Holy Spirit that was directing the show. Joseph knew well enough that he did not have the necessary competence in supernatural matters to make good decisions for the Holy Family or even to provide them sufficient protection from the forces arrayed against them. But he didn't need that competence. He needed instead to rely on the Holy Spirit who was already at work and would continue to work, not only in the lives of Mary and Jesus, but also in the life of Joseph himself.

She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins.

Thus Joseph was commanded to do something that only he could do. He was told to name the child, claiming him as his son, but also and at the same time as his savior. Joseph, for his part, did not argue the point or hesitate as he wavered between possibly choices. Rather, when he awoke, he obeyed. Such was the character of Joseph. He didn't always know the right way immediately. But when he learned it, he always gave immediate assent of faith. He was, in this sense, like Abraham, a father in faith. Thus, the following passage is also true of Joseph. Let us honor him with the words of Paul:

I have made you father of many nations.
He is our father in the sight of God,
in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead
and calls into being what does not exist.

Damascus Worship Featuring Aaron Richards - Hail Joseph

 

18 March 2026 - doing the work

Today's Readings
(Audio)

"My Father is at work until now, so I am at work."
For this reason they tried all the more to kill him,
because he not only broke the sabbath
but he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God.

Jesus explained the sense in which it was appropriate for him to work on the sabbath by stating that it was in keeping with the way his Father himself worked on the sabbath, as a commentary says, "Jewish reflection on the nature of God’s sabbath rest (Gen 2:2–3) led to the conclusion that God continued to perform two major activities on the sabbath: giving life and passing judgment on the dead, as seemed evident from the fact that people are born and die on the sabbath"¹. 

Amen, amen, I say to you, the Son cannot do anything on his own,
but only what he sees the Father doing;
for what he does, the Son will do also.
For the Father loves the Son
and shows him everything that he himself does,

The basis was not merely that God did it and it was thus acceptable for anyone. It wasn't as though everyone was eligible to dispense both life and judgment. Rather Jesus said it was appropriate for the Son to do what he received from the Father. He had a privileged relationship with the Father that was different from that of others. To say a normal man could do something because God did it would be blasphemy. For example, we are not to give our own moral laws or dictate our own ideas about good and evil. Jesus was indeed acting like God, but because he was himself God from God and True God from God.

and he will show him greater works than these,
so that you may be amazed.
For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life,
so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes.

Jesus did give life on the sabbath, in the sense of restoring those whom he healed. But he promised to demonstrate greater works than those healings. Those healings, and his judgment on those who were critical of them, were only meager foreshadowings, since the lives of those whom he healed would still end in death. But they pointed beyond to the resurrection on the last day. On that day those who had heard the words of Jesus and believed in him would pass definitively from death to life. The dead would hear the voice of the Son of God and live. So too would there be definitive judgment on that day, not merely like the temporary judgment of Jesus on the religious leaders, after which repentence was still possible. When the dead heard the voice of Jesus and came out from their tombs those who had done good deeds would be raised to life, but those who had done wicked deeds would go on to the resurrection of condemnation. Thus the activities from which God did not cease on the sabbath, that Jesus continued in his earthly ministry, would find their fulfillment on the last day when the just would enter into the perpetual sabbath rest of life together with God, and the wicked would be cast out.

I cannot do anything on my own;
I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just,
because I do not seek my own will
but the will of the one who sent me.

The opponents of Jesus may have been concerned that he was setting himself up as an alternative, a potential rival, to the God of Israel. They knew that for a mere human to actually have such power would result in selfish egotism preventing judgment from being truly objective. But, humanly speaking, Jesus did not introduce any of his own preferences or predilections into the judgment of God. Rather, he did what mere humans could not and perfectly received, internalized, and conveyed the will of the one who sent him. Thus he was able to judge with perfect justice. But not only that. Because of his connection to the Father he is the one who is able to help lead us beyond our own self-will in order that we too may truly seek the will of the Father. In this way, God fulfilled in Jesus what he promised through Isaiah.

In a time of favor I answer you,
on the day of salvation I help you;
and I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people,
To restore the land
and allot the desolate heritages,
Saying to the prisoners: Come out!
To those in darkness: Show yourselves!

1) Martin, Francis; Wright, William M. IV. The Gospel of John (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture): (A Catholic Bible Commentary on the New Testament by Trusted Catholic Biblical Scholars - CCSS) (p. 100). (Function). Kindle Edition. 

Who Is Like Thee?

 

17 March 2026 - leaving the pity party

Today's Readings
(Audio)

One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.
When Jesus saw him lying there
and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him,
"Do you want to be well?"

It may have once been the case that the man would have been able to answer Jesus with an unqualified yes. But now, after thirty-eight years, although he was at the pool as though he were still seeking healing, it was clear that he had in fact given up. After struggling for so long, seeing others healed, but not being able to make it to the pool in time, he was no longer able to maintain his hope. He was, at this point, going through the motions. But, we might wonder, why bother, if it wasn't helping?

The sick man answered him,
"Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool
when the water is stirred up;
while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me."

It seemed that if he couldn't attain the goal of healing he could at least indulge in self-pity. Maybe such a sad story was occasionally rewarded and he was given alms, encouraging the behavior. But one wonders if such an attitude wasn't actually self-destructive. Perhaps he could have found a way to the pool if he had showed a little more spirit. Or, if not, perhaps there was a better way to spend his days than in close proximity to a constant reminder of what could never be.

Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your mat, and walk."
Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked.

Jesus, however, neither indulged the man nor did he turn his back on him. Rather, if Jesus couldn't find the fire in the man's spirit that he desired to see, he would put it there himself. His answer was so powerful and direct as to bypass all of the man's apparent tendencies toward self-pity, hesitation, and self-sabotage. It had probably been long years since he had done anything in a way that would be described as immediate. But in response to the command of Jesus he demonstrated at once that not only his body but also his soul had been healed.

After this Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him,
"Look, you are well; do not sin any more,
so that nothing worse may happen to you."

Jesus did not imply that the initial illness was necessarily caused by sin. Rather he saw the tendencies that had developed in the man as a result of the illness and was aware that they could sabotage not only his daily life but also his spiritual growth. It would be far worse to abandon spiritual progress because of perceived lack of growth than to give up on a healing that was merely physical. Although Jesus healed him on both levels it would be necessary for the man to persist in the grace he had been given. The old ways he used to live need no longer define him. Our guess is that he probably took this positively, and truly valued what Jesus had done for him. If so, then telling the Jews that it was Jesus who healed him was well-intentioned, rather than revenge for ruining his pathetic but perhaps comfortable lifestyle. But. We each face both options as possible responses when we are healed by Jesus. We can begin to be active agents in the story of salvation using the grace we have been given. Or we can be upset by what is expected of us and turn against the one who healed us. Not sinning so that nothing worse may happen is indeed a lifelong process. But we who have been touched by the healing power of Jesus, who now walk by the Spirit, ought to know the goodness of what we protect by avoiding sin. It is the life of God within us, leading us to eternal life with him.

Wherever the river flows,
every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live,
and there shall be abundant fish,
for wherever this water comes the sea shall be made fresh.

Switchfoot - Meant To Live

 

16 March 2026 - believing and seeing

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Jesus said to him,
“Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”

Jesus said this in order to call those who heard to deeper faith. The royal official in particular might have been uncertain of whether or not Jesus could help, desperate to try anything with a possibility of saving his son. Even when Jesus critiqued those who had to see in order to believe he persisted in his initial request. He asked him to go to the place where the child was so that the healing could be accomplished in a manifest and observable way. He intensified the request, and perhaps also his faith, by addressing Jesus as Lord. It was as though he was admitting the critique of Jesus was correct but also that he didn't know any other way to ask.

Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.”

The response of Jesus was almost certainly a challenge to the royal official's faith. He called him Lord. But what did that really mean? Jesus responded to the effect that he would not and need not come but that the beloved son of the official would nevertheless be healed. If the official put his faith in the words of Jesus, he could believe in order to receive the desire of his heart. It reminds us of the lepers who were told by Jesus to show themselves to the priests and who were healed as they were obedient to his command. One might have thought that in his desperation the royal official would have pressured Jesus to come to be physically present to his son, to take every possible measure to see and make sure that the healing was accomplished. But it seemed rather that his desperation, which was certainly real, actually made him open to deeper faith. There was no indication of an argument with Jesus. Rather, he was told "You may go" and he went. As a consequence he received news along the way that what he had asked had been granted, precisely in the moment that Jesus had said, "Your son will live", precisely in the moment he believed.

and he and his whole household came to believe

The way that Jesus orchestrated the healing of the official's son brought him and his whole household to a deeper level of faith than if he had merely come and performed the healing in person. They now had every reason to trust the primacy of belief and understand how faith attains its goal. Yet stories such as this do also serve as signs for others. They are able to understand, not only that a sick child was healed, but also that a family was transformed, and it was through faith that it came about.

What Jesus did for the royal official's son was in fact a preview of coming attractions. The faith of the royal official called a little bit of the future described by Isaiah into the here and now of his present moment. He came to experience that:

I will rejoice in Jerusalem
and exult in my people.
No longer shall the sound of weeping be heard there,
or the sound of crying;
No longer shall there be in it
an infant who lives but a few days,
or an old man who does not round out his full lifetime;

Matt Maher - Lord, I Need You

 

15 March 2026 - blindsided

Today's Readings
(Audio)

In our readings today we have several examples of people who think they can see but cannot see as God sees. In the first reading the prophet Samuel seems to judge that Eliab is the Lord's anointed on the basis of his appearance. He has to be led by the Lord not to choose on that basis but to instead keep looking for what he would not have found on his own. In the Gospel we first have the disciples who saw the blind man and assumed the presence of sin. They had to be led by Jesus to see the man in a new way and understand his situation differently. His blindness was not about sin, but was rather to serve a purpose greater than himself in manifesting the works of God to the world. He who had every appearance of disadvantage would prove to be one for whom and through whom God could do great things, reversing the normal order of expectations. The crowds were not able to see beyond how things appeared to be. They defined the man by his blindness and so, once he could see, it was as though they themselves could no longer see him, as others said, "No, he just looks like him". 

Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this 
and said to him, “Surely we are not also blind, are we?”

The Pharisees, who in virtue of their position as teachers, ought to have seen the most clearly of anyone, were in fact the most intractably blind. They assumed that Jesus was a sinner and therefore could not have performed the healing miracle attributed to him. They refused to see what was in fact the case based on the preconceptions. They ought to have recognized that Jesus was, more than David, the Lord's anointed. But they were so invested in the belief that he was not that they already had a rule in place "that if anyone acknowledged him as the Christ, he would be expelled from the synagogue". They claimed to be disciples of Moses, and therefore implied that they could not be disciples of Jesus, since they did not know from where he came. But this fact, which they saw as a strike against him, was really the whole point that they were missing. They did not know where he was from, since he himself was the Word of God who had been sent by the Father and become incarnate. The word of revelation of from Father that Moses had delivered to the people was now standing before them in human form.

Jesus said to them,
“If you were blind, you would have no sin; 
but now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains.

Blindness itself is never a problem for God. The problem is an obstinate and willful refusal to recognize one's blindness in order to be healed. The blind man was sufficiently vulnerable before Jesus that he not only had his physical blindness healed but also his spiritual vision. He gained a more accurate insight, a clearer view, into the identity of Jesus than either the crowds or the Pharisees possessed.

“You have seen him,
the one speaking with you is he.”
He said,
“I do believe, Lord,” and he worshiped him.

People who had every appearance of vision proved to be the ones who were truly blind. The one who was truly blind was revealed to see things with absolute clarity. Thus continued the great reversal Jesus came to bring about, in which the proud were humbled, and the humble were exulted.

You were once darkness, 
but now you are light in the Lord.
Live as children of light, 
for light produces every kind of goodness 
and righteousness and truth.

Our lives do not end when we are enlightened at baptism, but rather begin. We must then choose to live on the basis of that new reality. We attain clarity about what is truly of the light and what is not. But we must learn to think and act in a way that is in keeping with the light. As new creations in Christ we must no longer be people who feel the need to hide in darkness to conceal the shameful nature of our deeds. Rather we should try to live in such a way that the light feels like where we belong. We do this by trying "to learn what is pleasing to the Lord". The more this is our chief motivation and the basis of our actions the less we will want to slip back into the darkness. In some ways it is easier to live in the darkness, but it always leads to disappointment. It's works are always fruitless. But the light, is, as it were, inevitable. And for those whom the Lord enlightens, and those who abide in that light, there is no greater joy.

 

DC Talk - In The Light