Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Isaiah, chapter 35, verse 3-4
3 Strengthen hands
that are feeble, make firm knees that are weak, 4 Say to the fearful
of heart: Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God, he comes with vindication;
With divine recompense he comes to save you.
Isaiah
in this chapter is proclaiming the deliverance of Israel specifically but upon
examining the wording in this verse it is referring to the day of our death. On
that day our hands will be feeble, but our hearts must remain strong. Will you
be vindicated and what recompense will be due you? Honestly few will be due recompense,
but our Lords love is such that he wishes to save us at this final hour with
the sacrament which was formerly called the “Last Rites”.
1524 In addition to the Anointing of the Sick, the Church
offers those who are about to leave this life the Eucharist as viaticum.
Communion in the body and blood of Christ, received at this moment of
"passing over" to the Father, has a particular significance and
importance. It is the seed of eternal life and the power of resurrection,
according to the words of the Lord: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my
blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." The
sacrament of Christ once dead and now risen, the Eucharist is here the
sacrament of passing over from death to life, from this world to the Father.
1525 Thus, just as the sacraments of Baptism,
Confirmation, and the Eucharist form a unity called "the sacraments of
Christian initiation," so too it can be said that Penance, the Anointing
of the Sick and the Eucharist as viaticum constitute at the end of Christian
life "the sacraments that prepare for our heavenly homeland" or the
sacraments that complete the earthly pilgrimage.
Such
is the Love of our Lord that we should be delivered. His love is such that by
receiving our Lord in the viaticum he delivers us to the Father saying here is
blood of my blood and He transfers His recompense; His vindication to us. There
is no greater love then this!
The Last Blessing
Let us pray. Most gracious God, Father of mercies and
God of all consolation, Thou wish none to perish that believes and hopes in
Thee, according to Thy many mercies look down favorably upon Thy servant
(handmaid) N.____ whom true faith and Christian hope commend to Thee. Visit him
(her) in Thy saving mercy, and by the passion and death of Thy only-begotten
Son, graciously grant to him (her) forgiveness and pardon of all his (her) sins
that his (her) soul in the hour of its leaving the earth may find Thee as a
Judge appeased, and being washed from all stain in the Blood of Thy same Son
may deserve to pass to everlasting life. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
Lord, teach
me to be generous. Teach me to serve you as you deserve; to give and not to
count the cost…to labor and not to ask for reward, except to know that I am
doing your will. (Saint Ignatius, Prayer for Generosity)
Lord, let me not fear death with an
empty fear, but with a wise and holy fear. An empty fear does not make men any better, but a wise and holy fear urges them to improve their
lives. I will prepare for death by trying today to please you more and more in
my thoughts, desires, words and actions. If I live this day as You desire, I
shall be ready at any moment, and death will be nothing worse than Your loving
call. Amen[1]
The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear? The LORD is my life’s refuge; of
whom should I be afraid? (Ps. 27:1)
Prayer. MAY our fasts be
acceptable to Thee, O Lord, and, by expiating our sins, may they make us worthy
of Thy grace, and conduct us to eternal salvation.
EPISTLE. Daniel xiv.
28-42.
In those days
the Babylonians came to the king, and said: Deliver us Daniel, or else we will
destroy thee and thy house. And the king saw that they pressed upon him violently:
and being constrained by necessity he delivered Daniel to them. And they cast
him into the den of lions, and he was there six days. And in the den, there
were seven lions, and they had given to them two carcasses every day, and two sheep:
but then they were not given unto them to the intent that
they might devour Daniel. Now there was in Judea a prophet called Habacuc, and
he had boiled pottage, and had broken bread in a bowl: and was going into the
field, to carry it to the reapers.
And the angel of the Lord said to Habacuc: Carry the
dinner which thou hast into Babylon to Daniel, who is in the lion’s den. And
Habacuc said: Lord, I never saw Babylon, nor do I know the den. And the angel
of the Lord took him by the top of his head, and carried him by the hair of his
head, and set him in Babylon over the den in the force of his spirit. And
Habacuc cried, saying: O Daniel, thou servant of God, take the dinner that God
hath sent thee. And Daniel said: Thou hast remembered me, O God, and Thou hast
not forsaken them that love Thee. And Daniel arose and ate. And the angel of
the Lord presently set Habacuc again in his own place. And upon the seventh day
the king came to bewail Daniel: and he came to the den, and looked in, and behold
Daniel was sitting in the midst of the lions. And the king cried out with a
loud voice, saying: Great art Thou, O Lord the God of Daniel. And he drew him
out of the lion’s den. But those that had been the cause of his destruction, he
cast into the den, and they were devoured in a moment before him. Then the king
said: Let all the inhabitants of the whole earth fear the God of Daniel: for He
is the Savior, working signs, and wonders in the earth: Who hath delivered
Daniel out of the lion’s den.
GOSPEL. John vii. 1-13.
At
that time: Jesus walked in Galilee; for He would not walk in Judea, because the
Jews sought to kill Him. Now the Jews feast of Tabernacles was at hand. And His
brethren said to Him: Pass from hence, and go into Judea: that Thy disciples
also may see Thy works which Thou dost. For there is no man that doth anything
in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly. If Thou do these things,
manifest Thyself to the world. For neither did His brethren believe in Him.
Then Jesus said to them: My time is not yet come but your time is always ready.
The world cannot hate you; but Me it hateth: because I give testimony of it,
that the works thereof are evil. Go you up to this festival-day, but I go not
up to this festival- day: because My time is not accomplished. When He had said
these things, He Himself stayed in Galilee. But after His brethren were gone
up, then He also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret.
The Jews therefore sought Him on the festival-day, and said: Where is He?
And
there was much murmuring among the multitude concerning Him. For some said: He
is a good man. And others said: No, but He seduceth the people. Yet no man
spoke openly of Him, for fear of the Jews.
Lenten Calendar[3]
Read: The Servant Songs, Day Two: (Within the
Book of the Prophet Isaiah we encounter four poetic sections known as the Songs
of the Suffering Servant. The specific identity of this Servant of the Lord
remains the topic of scholarly debate. Perhaps it refers to the prophet Isaiah
himself, perhaps the entire nation of Israel, or possibly the promised Messiah.
Christian faith sees these prophetic utterances fulfilled in the life,
ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Lord. Because of the Christian
identification of the Suffering Servant with Jesus, the four Servant Songs
become a way of encountering the Lord during this Lenten Season. Not only do
they give us a sense of the commitment and endurance that characterized his
messianic ministry, but they become a way of touching the bruised face of the
Messiah, of hearing the resolute determination that sustained him in the midst
of trial, and of rejoicing with him in God’s ultimate vindication of
his calling and service.)
The second song, spoken in
the Servant’s own voice, tells of being selected from the womb to become God’s
mouthpiece and help renew the nation.
Pray: Take time with the second Servant Song
today. Read Isaiah 49:1-7.
Act: The prophet proclaims the call and
destiny of the servant of the Lord, who is called and chosen to reveal the
light of God to the world.
·
What
a terrible revolution in their whole being: In their intellect, no thoughts but
of crime! In their will, no love but for evil!
·
There
is no repentance for the angels after their fall, just as there is no
repentance for men after death.
·
Christ
gave the Devil power over Himself so that he might be tempted and led into
danger and persecuted even to the point of death, so that He might in this way
liberate us from the Devil’s power.
·
In
the Book of Genesis, we find a precise description of lie and falsification of the
truth about God, which Satan (under the form of a serpent) tries to transmit to
the first representatives of the human race: God is jealous of his own
prerogatives and therefore wants to impose limitations on man (see Gn 3: 5).
Satan invites the man to free himself from the imposition of this yoke by
making himself “like God.”
Rene Descartes (1596-1650), founder
of Analytical Geometry and Modern Philosophy
In the
beginning of his Meditations (1641) Descartes wrote:
“I
have always been of the opinion that the two questions respecting God and the
Soul were the chief of those that ought to be determined by help of Philosophy
rather than of Theology; for although to us, the faithful, it be sufficient to
hold as matters of faith, that the human soul does not perish with the body,
and that God exists, it yet assuredly seems impossible ever to persuade
infidels of the reality of any religion, or almost even any moral virtue,
unless, first of all, those two things be proved to them by natural reason. And
since in this life there are frequently greater rewards held out to vice than
to virtue, few would prefer the right to the useful, if they were restrained
neither by the fear of God nor the expectation of another life.” (Descartes
1901).
“It
is absolutely true that we must believe in God, because it is also taught by
the Holy Scriptures. On the other hand, we must believe in the Sacred
Scriptures because they come from God.” (Descartes 1950, Letter of Dedication).
“And
thus, I very clearly see that the certitude and truth of all science depends on
the knowledge alone of the true God, insomuch that, before I knew him, I could
have no perfect knowledge of any other thing. And now that I know him, I possess
the means of acquiring a perfect knowledge respecting innumerable matters, as
well relative to God himself and other intellectual objects as to corporeal
nature.” (Descartes 1901, Meditation V).
Daily
Devotions
[1] Paone, Anthony J., S.J. My Daily Bread,
Confraternity of the Precious Blood.
[2]
Goffine’s Devout Instructions, 1896
[3]http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/liturgical-year/lent/april-9.cfm
[4]Thigpen,
Paul. Manual for Spiritual Warfare. TAN Books.
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