Friday March 22, 2024

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“God is revealing His love to the world through you, and He thanks you.”

Good News Reflection for:

Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent
March 22, 2024

Today’s Prayer:

Jesus, may persecution, mockery and rejection never stop me from following You and from enjoying Your eternal love. Amen.

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Today’s Readings:

Jeremiah 20:10-13
Ps 18:2-7
John 10:31-42
bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032224.cfm
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/daily-mass-reading-podcast-march-22-2024

Have your good works been misunderstood?

Holy Week is about to begin — the most awesome eight days of the liturgical year, beginning with Passion Sunday and ending with Easter Sunday. These Good News Reflections are now going to take us deeper into the journey of uniting ourselves with Jesus, connecting our sufferings to his sufferings, our passion to his passion, our need for the glory of resurrection to his glorious resurrection.

Using today’s Gospel passage as a meditation, we can unite ourselves to Jesus in the pain of rejection. Recall how you have done good works — the Lord’s work — and you’ve been misunderstood or discredited.

Perhaps you have loved a troublesome relative or coworker or neighbor with the forgiving, unconditional love of Jesus, while others turned away in disgust. And because you did not join them in rejecting this person, they concluded that you have unhealthy or immoral feelings toward him/her.

Perhaps someone has tried to take advantage of you at work or in ministry or financially, and you obeyed Jesus’ command to go the extra mile and to give away the extra shirt, and those who saw this told you to fight back and demand fair treatment. Then, because you didn’t follow their advice, they condemned you as a fool.

Who is saying “let us denounce him!” about you, like we see in today’s first reading? Who is watching for your misstep? Who is trying to trap you in order to prove that you are not the good Christian that you claim to be? Who is seeking vengeance against you because of the holy stand you’re taking on some issue that makes them feel uncomfortable?

If you are truly serving the Lord, you have earned the disapproval of people who don’t understand what you’re doing and why. Gloriously, you now know how Jesus felt when it happened to him. And he knows how you feel. He’s helping you endure your sufferings. He is giving you his strength and endurance and determination to do the Father’s work.

When it wears you down — when the persecution and disapproval and condemnation seem like too much — remember to take time to rest and mentally connect yourself to the Passion of Christ. Pray and ask the Father to tell you what he thinks of you. Meditate on his opinion of you — he approves of you! He appreciates what you’re doing! He delights in you!

God is revealing his love to the world through you, and he thanks you. You are his beloved child and he is very pleased with you.

If you want to continue reflecting on today’s Gospel reading, John 10:31-42, watch Terry and Ralph’s program “Good News for Today”: How to Stand Up to Persecution at gnm-media.org/how-to-stand-up-to-persecution/.

© 2024 by Terry A. Modica

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