Tuesday – 5th Week of Lent

Gospel – John 8: 21-30

Lifting Up

Inside the Tomb, Church of Holy Sepulchre

So how’s your Lent going?  Has your prayer been more frequent or more focused?  Has fasting been a hardship or a blessing?  Have you been more aware of and more responsive to the needs of others?  Have you grown in your spiritual life and in your relationship with the Lord?  Or has the world brought you down and you ended up taking a few steps backward?  Or maybe you just stalled out and hit a brick wall, wandering off the path?  Or maybe we are just slacking, as we find the Lenten Season grinding us down.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus makes a clear statement of His divinity.  When asked who He was, He replied “I AM”, a direct connection to God at the burning bush - I AM WHO I AM!  But He also reflects on what is to come – His crucifixion and death!  He talks about being ‘lifted up’, an obvious reference to Him being ‘lifted up’ on a cross so that we may have eternal life.

Lenten Season is quickly running out!  We have barely a week to go before the events of the Triduum.  Maybe it’s time for us to ‘life up’ our game!  In one way or another, we are all struggling; we are all finding the practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving anything but easy.  So how about one last, concentrated, focused push toward Easter! 

And maybe one final thought – we know this journey is difficult and from time to time we all falter and give up hope.  We feel abandoned and deserted.  But Jesus reminds us: “The one who sent me is with Me. He has not left Me alone”.  We are not alone!

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