Wednesday in the Fourth Week of Lent, April 3, 2019

Salvation Time Is Every Time
Introduction 
When Jesus is questioned and blamed for curing a paralyzed man on a Sabbath, He says how he is like the Father. Yes, after the work of creation, God rested on the seventh day. But the work of redemption is on-going, the Father and Jesus are always at work, even on a Sabbath. Both continue the work of liberation, comforting and loving, bringing abundant nourishment to the chosen people, raising up, all expressions of the work of salvation. God passionately declares that he is with us, that he cannot forget us, that he wants us to live in his love, that he is faithful to his covenant even if his chosen people are not. Jesus is the sign of God’s love. He is the source of life now among us. With Jesus, we have to seek the Father’s will.

Reading: Isaiah 49:8-15
Thus says the LORD:
In a time of favour 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!
Along the ways they shall find pasture,
on every bare height shall their pastures be.
They shall not hunger or thirst,
nor shall the scorching wind or the sun strike them;
For he who pities them leads them
and guides them beside springs of water.
I will cut a road through all my mountains,
and make my highways level.
See, some shall come from afar,
others from the north and the west,
and some from the land of Syene.
Sing out, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth,
break forth into song, you mountains.
For the LORD comforts his people
and shows mercy to his afflicted.
But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me;
my Lord has forgotten me.”
Can a mother forget her infant,
be without tenderness for the child of her womb?
Even should she forget,
I will never forget you.

Responsorial Psalm: 145:8-9, 13cd-14, 17-18
R. (8a) The Lord is gracious and merciful.

The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness.
The LORD is good to all
and compassionate toward all his works.
R. The Lord is gracious and merciful.

The LORD is faithful in all his words
and holy in all his works.
The LORD lifts up all who are falling
and raises up all who are bowed down.
R. The Lord is gracious and merciful.

The LORD is just in all his ways
and holy in all his works.
The LORD is near to all who call upon him,
to all who call upon him in truth.
R. The Lord is gracious and merciful.

Verse before the Gospel: John 11:25a, 26
I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord;
whoever believes in me will never die.

Gospel: John 5:17-30
Jesus answered the Jews:
“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 answered and said to them,
“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,
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.
Nor does the Father judge anyone,
but he has given all judgment to the Son,
so that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father.
Whoever does not honour the Son
does not honour the Father who sent him.
Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word
and believes in the one who sent me
has eternal life and will not come to condemnation,
but has passed from death to life.
Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here
when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God,
and those who hear will live.
For just as the Father has life in himself,
so also he gave to the Son the possession of life in himself.
And he gave him power to exercise judgment,
because he is the Son of Man.
Do not be amazed at this,
because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs
will hear his voice and will come out,
those who have done good deeds
to the resurrection of life,
but those who have done wicked deeds
to the resurrection of condemnation.

“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.”

Commentary
In the face of a dismal outlook, Isaiah today encourages a downtrodden people. The day of help and salvation is at hand. Zion may well have thought that she was abandoned. But that was no more likely than that a mother would forget her child. The Johannine Jesus today clearly indicates that the time of salvation has arrived.
Christ’s opponents are determined to kill him, not only for violating the Sabbath but for making himself equal to God. Jesus responds to the charge on various levels, clearly affirming his equality with God. Let us take a look at these claims.
There is no Sabbath observance for the Father, who is always at work, as is the Son. There is, moreover, a mutual ongoing communication between Father and Son. The Son does only what he had learned from the Father. The Father is a life giver, as is the Son. The Spirit life, so dominant in John, is the first gift of the risen Christ to his apostles; it is this life that Jesus shares with the Father.
One of God’s principal functions in the Old Testament is that of judge. This too he has consigned to the Son. Whoever honours the Son honours the Father as well and is destined for eternal life. The one who refuses is destined for death with a negative judgment. But as Christ states elsewhere, a negative judgment is self-inflicted. Condemnation comes from the “naysayer” himself and is simply affirmed by the judge.
Finally the Son has made his own the will of the Father. Nothing will happen to Christ by human devices; everything is in accord with what the Father has directed.
The equality of Father and Son is clearly affirmed. Jesus’ right to heal on the Sabbath is upheld. To know Jesus is to know God; he is “the way, the truth and the life.” In our Christian dispensation, there is no other way to reach the Father except through him.

Blessing
No one can say, “God has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.” As a mother cannot forget the baby at her breast, God can never forget us. May God bless you, that Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen!