Catholic Mass Readings and Reflection April 08, 2025

08th April 2025 (Tuesday)

Psalter: Week 1

Readings of the Day

First Reading: Numbers 21:4-9

In those days: 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. 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.” Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. 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. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

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

R/. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.

Gospel Acclamation

V/. Glory and praise to you, O Christ.

R/. Glory and praise to you, O Christ.

V/. The seed is the word of God, Christ is the sower; all who come to him will live forever

R/. Glory and praise to you, O Christ.

Gospel: John 8:21-30

At that time: Jesus said to the Pharisees, “I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.” So the Jews said, “Will he kill himself, since he says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” He said to them, “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 unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.” So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. 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.” They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father. So Jesus said to them, “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 just as the Father taught me. And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” As he was saying these things, many believed in him.

Daily Gospel Reflection

Tuesday – Fifth Week of Lent

Main Point: Many consider faith as only a matter of religion and spirituality. Consequently, they reduce it to the practising 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”, 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 the 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.

4. 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.

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

6. In the light of the gospel, lack of faith essentially means to be of this world and to be below. 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”.

7. What to do then? How to grow out from lack of faith to true faith? Realize 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.

My Practice: 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