Bible Diary

Daily Reading

Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent

LECTIONARY
249

FIRST READING

JER 11:18-20

I knew their plot because the LORD informed me;
at that time you, O LORD, showed me their doings.

Yet I, like a trusting lamb led to slaughter,
had not realized that they were hatching plots against me:
"Let us destroy the tree in its vigor;
let us cut him off from the land of the living,
so that his name will be spoken no more."

But, you, O LORD of hosts, O just Judge,
searcher of mind and heart,
Let me witness the vengeance you take on them,
for to you I have entrusted my cause!

PSALM

PS 7:2-3, 9BC-10, 11-12

Response: O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge.

O LORD, my God, in you I take refuge;
save me from all my pursuers and rescue me,
Lest I become like the lion's prey,
to be torn to pieces, with no one to rescue me.

Do me justice, O LORD, because I am just,
and because of the innocence that is mine.
Let the malice of the wicked come to an end,
but sustain the just,
O searcher of heart and soul, O just God.

A shield before me is God,
who saves the upright of heart;
A just judge is God,
a God who punishes day by day.

GOSPEL

JN 7:40-53

Some in the crowd who heard these words of Jesus said,
"This is truly the Prophet."
Others said, "This is the Christ."
But others said, "The Christ will not come from Galilee, will he?
Does not Scripture say that the Christ will be of David's family
and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?"
So a division occurred in the crowd because of him.
Some of them even wanted to arrest him,
but no one laid hands on him.

So the guards went to the chief priests and Pharisees,
who asked them, "Why did you not bring him?"
The guards answered, "Never before has anyone spoken like this man."
So the Pharisees answered them, "Have you also been deceived?
Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?
But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed."
Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them,
"Does our law condemn a man before it first hears him
and finds out what he is doing?"
They answered and said to him,
"You are not from Galilee also, are you?
Look and see that no prophet arises from Galilee."

Then each went to his own house.

Daily Reflection

It is said that people throw stones only at fruit bearing trees. This is so true in the history of the chosen people of Israel. They first rejected the prophets who brought them God’s Word, and then even rejected the Son of God Himself.

In the first reading, Jeremiah talks to the Lord about how his conspirators seek to destroy him. He goes to the Lord because he knows that God is just and can be completely trusted to resolve his every fear.

In the Gospel, Nicodemus who had listened to Jesus’ words pleads his case before the members of the Sanhedrin who were conspiring to have Him done away with. Nicodemus reminded them about the Law that did not permit anyone to pronounce judgment on a man before hearing his case.

We may say we listen to God’s Word, but do our actions bear this out?