Dear Brother and Sister in Christ,

Welcome to Catholic Mass Readings in Biblemsg.com. We are on the March 28, 2023 in the 5th Tuesday of Lent. Today’s Mass readings and reflection on NUMBERS 21. 4-9;JOHN 8. 21-30. In our daily reflection today, the Main theme is If you repent, God will relent

Catholic Mass Readings

Main Theme of the Day: The Best offering!

Today’s Readings

First ReadingNUMBERS 21. 4-9
Gospel ReadingJOHN 8. 21-30
The Readings are taken for NAB

First Reading

NUMBERS 21. 4-9

Thus says the Lord:

4 From Mount Hor they set out on the Red Sea road, to bypass the land of Edom. But with their patience worn out by the journey,

5 the people complained against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!”

6 In punishment the LORD sent among the people saraph serpents, which bit the people so that many of them died.

7 Then the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you. Pray the LORD to take the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people,

8 and the LORD said to Moses, “Make a saraph and mount it on a pole, and if anyone who has been bitten looks at it, he will recover.”

9 Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he recovered.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 102:2-3, 16-18, 19-21 (R. 2)

Response: O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you

Gospel

JOHN 8. 21-30

21 He said to them again, “I am going away and you will look for me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going you cannot come.”

22 So the Jews said, “He is not going to kill himself, is he, because he said, ‘Where I am going you cannot come’?”

23 He said to them, “You belong to what is below, I belong to what is above. You belong to this world, but I do not belong to this world.

24 That is why I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins.”

25 So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “What I told you from the beginning.

26 I have much to say about you in condemnation. But the one who sent me is true, and what I heard from him I tell the world.”

27 They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father.

28 So Jesus said (to them), “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me.

Catholic Homily for Today

Focus: Many consider faith only a matter of religion and spirituality. Consequently, they reduce it to the practice of some religious activities or believing some doctrines and traditions. But true faith is a matter of relationship and faithfulness to God

1.  “Unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins”, so says Jesus to the Jews in the gospel. This would mean that only faith in him will save them from their sins. But what is this faith that they lack? How is it seen? We see so many signs of lack of faith in both readings

2.   To lack faith is to forget God’s blessings and great favours in our life. The Hebrews, on their way to the Promised Land completely forget the mighty deeds of God during their Egyptian slavery. Subsequently, they become ungrateful and start blaming Moses and God

3.  They forget how God saved them from dying experiences and kept them alive. They conveniently forget how God led them through the Red sea, how He continued to sustain them with water from the rock and Manna from heaven. But they protest to Moses, “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food”. Ingratitude and the spirit of complaining and grumbling is another clear sign of a lack of faith

4.   Lack of faith also implies wrong judgment and valuation. The Hebrews regard manna which is God’s own food from heaven as loathsome and worthless food but crave those onions, garlic, and meat, the food of slavery as something desirable and delicious

5.   In the light of the gospel, lack of faith essentially means to be of this world and to be below. For Jesus tells the unbelieving Jews that they do not believe him because “you are from below, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world”

6.   What to do then? How to grow from lack of faith to true faith? Realise our sinfulness and repent for our wrongdoing, as the Hebrews did. Look up to Jesus. Raise our sight and be focused on him, just as all those dead bitten by serpents looked up to the bronze serpent and came back to life. Rise from what is below and worldly. Do not belong and cling to the standards and ways of the world.

Direction: Our faith will be true only when we raise ourselves from this world and belong to God. This concretely manifests itself in doing always the things that are pleasing to God, as Jesus did

Note

Hope you had a good experience reading the catholic reflection for the day. With another inspiring message we shall meet in the next post. Stay Tuned in Biblemsg.com Thank You.