Thursday of 5th Week in Lent
- JOHN BAPTIST DE LA SALLE, Priest
Though a canon of Reims and very learned, “Monsieur” John Baptist de la Salle (1651-1719) was a humble and simple man who tried to lead an evangelical life. He was struck by the lack of chances in the lives of poor, uneducated children. To remedy this, he first gathered some companions to help him, then founded the Brothers of the Christian Schools, whose contribution to education is greatly admired. Under the pressure of calumnies he discreetly withdrew from the institution he had founded.
First Reading: Genesis 17:3-14
Then God said to him, “This is my covenant with you: You’ll be the father of many nations. Your name will no longer be Abram, but Abraham, meaning that ‘I’m making you the father of many nations.’ I’ll make you a father of fathers—I’ll make nations from you, kings will issue from you. I’m establishing my covenant between me and you, a covenant that includes your descendants, a covenant that goes on and on and on, a covenant that commits me to be your God and the God of your descendants. And I’m giving you and your descendants this land where you’re now just camping, this whole country of Canaan, to own forever. And I’ll be their God.”
God continued to Abraham, “And you: You will honor my covenant, you and your descendants, generation after generation. This is the covenant that you are to honor, the covenant that pulls in all your descendants: Circumcise every male. Circumcise by cutting off the foreskin of the penis; it will be the sign of the covenant between us. Every male baby will be circumcised when he is eight days old, generation after generation—this includes house-born slaves and slaves bought from outsiders who are not blood kin. Make sure you circumcise both your own children and anyone brought in from the outside. That way my covenant will be cut into your body, a permanent mark of my permanent covenant. An uncircumcised male, one who has not had the foreskin of his penis cut off, will be cut off from his people—he has broken my covenant.”
Gospel: John 8:51-59
Jesus said, “I’m not crazy. I simply honor my Father, while you dishonor me. I am not trying to get anything for myself. God intends something gloriously grand here and is making the decisions that will bring it about. I say this with absolute confidence. If you practice what I’m telling you, you’ll never have to look death in the face.”
At this point the Jews said, “Now we know you’re crazy. Abraham died. The prophets died. And you show up saying, ‘If you practice what I’m telling you, you’ll never have to face death, not even a taste.’ Are you greater than Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you think you are!”
Jesus said, “If I turned the spotlight on myself, it wouldn’t amount to anything. But my Father, the same One you say is your Father, put me here at this time and place of splendor. You haven’t recognized him in this. But I have. If I, in false modesty, said I didn’t know what was going on, I would be as much of a liar as you are. But I do know, and I am doing what he says. Abraham—your ‘father’—with jubilant faith looked down the corridors of history and saw my day coming. He saw it and cheered.”
The Jews said, “You’re not even fifty years old—and Abraham saw you?”
“Believe me,” said Jesus, “I am who I am long before Abraham was anything.”
That did it—pushed them over the edge. They picked up rocks to throw at him. But Jesus slipped away, getting out of the Temple.
Prayer
Lord our God,
through Jesus we know
that you care for children and the young.
As we celebrate today John Baptist de la Salle,
a great educator especially of the poor among them,
we pray you that the Christian community
may be greatly concerned
about giving a worthwhile future to them.
May they learn to live
according to the values of the gospel.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.