Wednesday of the Second Week of Easter
April 19, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041923.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we continue what we began on Monday, a long immersion in John’s Gospel which will not conclude until Pentecost.

As a guide in praying with the glorious Gospel, I am using a book from the series “A Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture”. This particular volume is “The Gospel of John” by Francis Martin and William M. Wright. These authors open their work with this beautiful introduction:

Pope St. Gregory the Great compared Scripture to
a “smooth, deep river
in which a lamb may walk
and an elephant may swim.”

These words certainly apply to the Gospel of John.
Within its pages are found divine teachings
articulated with simple images such as water and light,
memorable stories composed with literary and dramatic skill,
and glimpses into the very mystery of God,
proceeding from the most profound mystical illumination.
Like the loaves and fishes multiplied by Jesus,
the Gospel of John provides a superabundance
of spiritual teaching, edification, and challenges to all its readers,
whether beginners or experienced.

---

Our Gospel today gives us the central point inspiring John’s entire Gospel:

God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.

John 3:16

---

As we go deeper into our post-Easter journey, on the way to the confirmation of Pentecost, we need to keep repeating this amazing truth to ourselves …

And it helps to remind ourselves as well that “God so loved ME … that God gave God’s ALL for me.”

---

As we pray with John’s Gospel over the next several weeks, we will be doing the same work that the Apostles are doing in our first reading from Acts.  We will be telling the story of Love – the story of Jesus who lived, died and rose from the dead to save us.

Each little part of that story can teach us and change us.  By our choice to believe, and to act on that faith, we are transformed from darkness to Light in the power of the Resurrection.

And this is the verdict,
that the light came into the world,
but people preferred darkness to light,
because their works were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light
and does not come toward the light,
so that his works might not be exposed.
But whoever lives the truth comes to the light,
so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.

John 3:19-21

---

For today, we may want to consider any darkness in our world or in ourselves that we wish to carry into God’s amazing Light and Love. There, let us lay the darkness down and pray to live the truth which John encourages us to live.

---

Poetry: “Truth”, said a traveller by Stephen Crane

“Truth," said a traveller,
“Is a rock, a mighty fortress;
“Often have I been to it,
“Even to its highest tower,
“From whence the world looks black.”

“Truth," said a traveller,
“Is a breath, a wind,
“A shadow, a phantom;
“Long have I pursued it,
“But never have I touched
“The hem of its garment.”

And I believed the second traveller;
For truth was to me
A breath, a wind,
A shadow, a phantom,
And never had I touched
The hem of its garment.

---

Music: God So Loved the World – Sir John Stainer

God so loved the world,
that He gave His only-begotten Son,
that whoso believeth in Him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.
For God sent not His Son into the world
to condemn the world;
but that the world through Him
might be saved. Amen.