One Walk

Dear Lord God, under the sun You have given us seasons; season of warmth and seasons of cold, season of plenty and seasons of scarcity, seasons of light and seasons of darkness. So it is with the study of Your Word and so it has been during the days of this Lenten season. There are days when You reach and pick me up, lifting me out of own weakness and self pity, then there are days when You let go to see if and how I will stand on my own. What will I chose to do? How will I act when I do not feel Your presence? Can I practice what You have taught me? Have I gained strength through Your teachings, have I grown in knowledge and wisdom? Will I let the fires purify me? Or will I like the Israelites traveling around Edom, panic and seek to judge and blame others for my state and condition. O Lord I know the answer is in and through Jesus Christ Your Son and My Savior, for as he states in today’s Gospel, "You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins, for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he.", "When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that  I am he ". Lord God, O My Jesus through the Holy Spirit it is only thee that I seek; in good times and bad, in happy times and sad, in business and loneliness. For while there is much I still do not understand, I do know that it is as You say. While there are many mysteries still to be revealed, I do know that the truth lies in You. And while I know I will stumble and fall many more times, I do know You will always be there to pick me up. O Lord Jesus, gentle and humble of heart, full of compassion and maker of peace, You lived in poverty and suffered persecution for the cause of justice. You chose the Cross as the path to glory to show us the way of salvation. May I always receive the word of the Gospel joyfully and live by Your example with the hope of lighting the way for others to see and find You; for I know I am not of this world, but a child of Your kingdom, only seeking to find my way home. Continue to guide me Jesus. In Your Holy name I ask and pray for guidance and Your mercy and grace. Amen.

Our Lord knew that to draw strength and efficacy from fasting, something more than abstinence from prohibited food is necessary. Thus He instructed His disciples and, consequently, disposed them to gather the fruits proper to fasting. Among many others are these four: fasting fortifies the spirit, mortifying the flesh and its sensuality; it raises the spirit to God; it fights concupiscence and gives power to conquer and deaden its passions; in short, it disposes the heart to seek to please only God with great purity of heart.

— St. Francis de Sales

Numbers 21:4-9

4 From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the people became impatient on the way. 5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food." 6 Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. 7 And the people came to Moses, and said, "We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people. 8 And the LORD said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and every one who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live." 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent, and set it on a pole; and if a serpent bit any man, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

Bible Study: [8] If anyone who has been bitten looks at it, he will recover: "and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that those who believe in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting" (John 3:14-15).

Psalm 102, 2-3, 16-21

2 Do not hide thy face from me in the day of my distress! Incline thy ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call! 3 For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace. 16 For the LORD will build up Zion, he will appear in his glory; 17 he will regard the prayer of the destitute, and will not despise their supplication. 18 Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people yet unborn may praise the LORD: 19 that he looked down from his holy height, from heaven the LORD looked at the earth, 20 to hear the groans of the prisoners, to set free those who were doomed to die; 21 that men may declare in Zion the name of the LORD, and in Jerusalem his praise,

Bible Study: [Psalm 102] A lament, one of the Penitential Psalms. The psalmist, experiencing psychic and bodily disintegration (Psalm 102:4-12), cries out to God (Psalm 102:1-3). In the temple precincts where God has promised to be present, the psalmist recalls God’s venerable promises to save the poor (Psalm 102:13-23). The final part (Psalm 102:24-28) restates the original complaint and prayer, and emphasizes God’s eternity.

John 8:21-30

21 Again he said to them, "I go away, and you will seek me and die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come." 22 Then said the Jews, "Will he kill himself, since he says, `Where I am going, you cannot come’?" 23 He said to them, "You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he." 25 They said to him, "Who are you?" Jesus said to them, "Even what I have told you from the beginning. 26 I have much to say about you and much to judge; but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him." 27 They did not understand that he spoke to them of the Father. 28 So Jesus said, "When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority but speak thus as the Father taught me. 29 And he who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him." 30 As he spoke thus, many believed in him.

Bile Study: [21-30] He whose ambassador I am is with me. Jesus’ origin is from God; he can reveal God. 10 [21] You will die in your sin: i.e., of disbelief; cf John 8:24. Where I am going you cannot come: except through faith in Jesus’ passion-resurrection. [22] The Jews suspect that he is referring to his death. Johannine irony is apparent here; Jesus’ death will not be self-inflicted but destined by God. [24,28] I AM: an expression that late Jewish tradition understood as Yahweh’s own self-designation (Isaiah 43:10); see the note on John 4:26. Jesus is here placed on a par with Yahweh. [25] What I told you from the beginning: this verse seems textually corrupt, with several other possible translations: "(I am) what I say to you"; "Why do I speak to you at all?" The earliest attested reading (Bodmer Papyrus P66) has (in a second hand), "I told you at the beginning what I am also telling you (now)." The answer here (cf Proverb 8:22) seems to hinge on a misunderstanding of John 8:24 "that I AM" as "what I am."