Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
“Thus says the LORD: In a time of favor I answer you, on the day of salvation I help you . . .” What Isaiah prophesied, we know and experience in Christ. Have you noticed that this past Sunday we turned a corner in our journey toward the Easter Triduum? The readings have shifted from their focus on repentance and have taken on a more hopeful tone. In this reflection, I want to take a different approach and simply highlight the words of hope that the Church gives us today. May they resonate deeply within your being.
I encourage you to read the Isaiah passage slowly and allow God’s promises to ring within you. My basic summary of the highlights:
God keeps us as His covenant people
God restores the land (symbol of giving back more than what has been lost)
God sets free the prisoners and those trapped in darkness
God provides pasture for his sheep, even in barren places
God feeds us and provides refreshment
God protects us
God has compassion on us
God makes our paths straight and level
God receives all peoples
God comforts us and shows us mercy
In what way(s) do you need to realize these promises in your own life? Take a moment and reflect.
The passage concludes, “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.” God will never forget you. Allow that truth to permeate your heart, mind, and soul.
Similarly, I encourage you to read today’s psalm slowly and meditatively. Then consider this summary of its rich assurance:
The LORD is:
Gracious, merciful,
slow to anger, of great kindness,
good to all
compassionate toward all his works,
faithful in all his words
holy in all his works,
just in all his ways
near to all who call upon him in truth.
The LORD lifts up all who are falling
and raises up all who are bowed down.
Which of those attributes of God do you most need to know and experience today? Ask the Lord for the grace to know God in these ways and to trust God more fully.
From Jesus in today’s Gospel, we receive these hopeful truths in anticipation of Easter:
“For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life,
so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes . . .
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.”
Have you received the Father’s gift of eternal life in his Son? I hope so! If not, spend the remainder of Lent at the foot of the Cross, repenting of your sins and expressing deep gratitude to Christ for suffering and dying for you. Allow the Father to “raise the dead and give life” to you! And may this Easter be a time of rejoicing like never before for each one of us as we celebrate our salvation and enter more fully into Christ’s resurrected life. Christ’s shalom to each of us,
-Elizabeth Wells