Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent
March 15, 2024
Today’s readings:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031524.cfm
The wicked said among themselves…
Wisdom 2: 20-22
“Let us condemn him to a shameful death;
for according to his own words, God will take care of him.”
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.
In our readings, the Holy One meets the opposition of those who plot against him. They rationalize their persecutions, proclaiming them as acts of justice. They expect their victim to crumble under the pressure of their judgments. What they do not expect is a return of goodness, gentleness, and forgiveness – a recompense of holiness. They do not expect the great contradiction of the Cross, and they are incapable of comprehending it.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
As Lent deepens, and we come closer to the shadows of Calvary, we are summoned into the sufferings of Jesus to test our own understanding of this Great Contradiction.
What does Christ teach us about payback, unforgiveness, revenge, violence, and war – the popular “recompenses” of our culture to any resistance or injury we encounter?
What might a “recompense of holiness” look like in my life when I meet gracelessness in another person or situation?
How might it transform our belligerent culture if we modeled our behaviors on the holiness of Jesus?
Poetry: Peace-making Is Hard …. – Daniel Berrigan, SJ
hard almost as war.
the difference being
one we can stake life upon
and limb and thought and love.
I stake this poem out
dead man to a dead stick
to tempt an Easter chance—
if faith may be
truth, our evil chance
penultimate at last,
not last. We are not lost.
When these lines gathered
of no resource at all
serenity and strength,
it dawned on me
a man stood on his nails,
an ash like dew, a sweat
smelling of death and life.
Our evil Friday fled,
the blind face gently turned
another way. Toward Life.
A man walks in his shroud.
Music: He Trusted in God – from Handel’s Messiah
Lavish Mercy 
Recompense—I like the part that says what they do not expect is a return of goodness, gentleness and forgiveness.
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Recompense of Holiness may be confronting a person without hostility or simply walking away. Depends on the circumstances. Thanks Sr. Renee
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