CHRIST, THE DAY OF SALVATION

WEDNESDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF LENT

Isa 49:8-15; Ps 145:8-9,13-14,17-18; Jn 5:17-30

The Son’s Paschal Mysteries reveal the Father

God the Father is the source of every good gift, which the Son mediates. The Son, who is the Eternal Word, reveals the will of the Father. As the word of God, he comes to us through the ages, illuminating and guiding us according to the plan of the Father for our salvation. But his salvific and redemptive work took a definitive and concrete form at his incarnation. His coming in human nature is the day of salvation prophesied by the prophet Isaiah as we read. “At the favourable time, I will answer you, on the day of salvation I will help you. (I have formed you and have appointed you as covenant of the people.) I will restore the land and assign you the estates that lie waste.” At the incarnation of the Son, the Father has caused the water of salvation to flow from the heavenly sanctuary for our sanctification and redemption. It is the time of favour when grace is made abundant for all. The life and the work he accomplished in his humanity is the light that has illuminated every corner of the earth and caused those imprisoned in darkness to come forth into the light and the freedom of salvation. In the light of his humanity, our human life has become meaningful and re-ordered to God.

The superabundance of grace of God for every man everywhere is the fulfilment of the prophecy of the abundance of pastures on every bare height. “On every roadway they will graze, and each bare height shall be their pasture. They will never hunger or thirst, scorching wind and sun shall never plague them; for he who pities them will lead them and guide them to springs of water.” Just as the rock that followed the children of Israel along their path leading through the wilderness provided them refreshing water on their way to the Promised Land, the sacred humanity of our Lord and his mysteries remain with us as we journey through life to heaven. The paschal mysteries are these pastures and springs of water on which he refreshes his own through the Holy Spirit he has given to us. The difficulties, pains, sufferings, and physical death that plagued human life and existence have now become paths to our eternal dwelling with God. As prophesied: “I will make a highway of all the mountains, and the high roads shall be banked up.” None of these happened by human hands but by God alone. The only work we are to do is to receive and believe the word he has spoken to us. We are to feed on the mysteries he has given us in his Word.

The Father accomplishes all things by his word and has entrusted our salvation to him. Jesus bears witness to this when he says: “My Father goes on working, and so do I.” Not everyone believes in the word God communicated to us that culminated in the incarnation of the Son of God. The people who refuse to believe in the word of God make the paschal events real in our lives, who profess that the Son became man and lived among us. Hence, we not only believe, meditate, and contemplate the paschal mysteries of the Son, but we also make these mysteries alive in our lives. The mission the Father entrusted to the Son continues in us who believe in his life and mysteries. “I tell you most solemnly, whoever listens to my words, and believes in the one who sent me, has eternal life; without being brought to judgment he has passed from death to life.” As we meditate and eat these mysteries of our Lord, we become what we eat, namely, the Son of God. “For the Father, who is the source of life, has made the Son the source of life.”

Let us pray: O God, who reward the merits of the just and offer pardon to sinners who do penance, have mercy, we pray, on those who call upon you, that the admission of our guilt may serve to obtain your pardon for our sins. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.