Daily Reflection Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Today’s Scripture readings could really be a “How to Book on Parenting.” In our first reading, Isaiah speaks of God’s instruction on how to relate to the people. His fatherly concern has given us a covenant. Through this promise God instructs us to take care of each other. The Father wants only good things for his children. If God shows mercy to the people, then we are to do the same for each other.  Even when we cry out that we are forsaken, God tells us that we are never forsaken, just as a mother will not forget the child of her womb. We are never forgotten.
 
    Psalm 145 instructs us to be gracious, merciful, and kind, slow to anger. Just as the Lord is good to all, so must we be. We are instructed to be compassionate with one another, with our own personal family and with our family of the world.
 
    In the gospel, Jesus tells us “My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.”
Because the Father loves the Son, he shows him everything that he himself does. The Father’s good parenting skills instruct us his children not to judge anyone.
If we do not honor the Father, we will not honor God’s children. The work of God is living, giving, sustaining, and calling forth life.  Our love for God encourages us to do the same for each other. How we follow our Father’s lead depends on our own life’s circumstances, our level of intimacy with God, our heart’s reaching out to those in need-- emotionally and physically.
 
    The Pharisees are infuriated that Jesus has made himself equal to God.  They have been scrutinizing Jesus for three years, yet they still don’t understand his message. Instead of questioning Jesus about his words as did Nicodemus, the Pharisees criticize, ridicule, and threaten Jesus.
 
    So, where do we fit into this handbook on parenting that arises from both Isaiah’s and Jesus’ words? Everything in today’s Scripture encourages us to deepen our experience of our God. In order to accomplish that, we need to spend some quality time with our God each day. Any family that does not spend time with each other gradually disintegrates its relationships.
 
    Jesus often tells us to love each other as God loves us. Perhaps, we need to assess if our love for people is all-inclusive or discriminatory. Even though we are of the same family, we are different. So, let’s appraise our responses to people who are different from us in our family of God. If we broaden our understanding of each other’s physical and cultural family, we will accept the good in one another. Just as siblings have skirmishes with one another, so we may have hurtful words for those in our universal family. But just as the Father loves the Son, just as the Son obeys the Father, just as our Mother God will not abandon us, so we follow and imitate this love for one another.
 
    In her poetic artistry, Edwina Gateley expresses this universal love for which we all strive.
 
Called to Say Yes
 
We are called to say yes
That the Kingdom might break through
To renew and to transform
Our dark and groping world.
 We are called to say yes

That honeysuckle may twine
And twist its smelling leaves
Over the graves of nuclear arms.
 
We are called to say yes
That black may sing with white
And people pledge peace and healing
For the hatred of the past.
 
We are called to say yes
So that nations might gather
And dance one great movement
For the joy of humankind.
 
We are called to say yes
So that rich and poor embrace
And become equal in their poverty
Through the silent tears that fall.
 
We are called to say yes
To a God who still holds fast
To the vision of the Kingdom
For a trembling world of pain.
 
We are called to say yes
To this God who reaches out
And asks us to share
His crazy dream of love.