Friday, April 8

Jeremiah 23:1-8

Psalm 107

Romans 8:28-39

John 6:52-59

Jeremiah 23’s first 8 verses hold great comfort for us; for no matter how lost or discouraged we might feel, we can see that God will always be with us. With His help, we’ll be saved from our sins and from ourselves. We know that through Christ’s death and expiation of our sins, we can be sure of salvation.

Psalm 107 assures us that God is faithful and will hear whenever we call for help. We have His promise that when we live according to His commandments, we’ll overcome our difficulties. In turn, our obligation is to thank him for all our blessings. It’s so easy to pray for help in times of worry and trouble, but we forget to say thank you to God when our pain goes away or the situation we’re praying for is resolved. Those prayers of thanksgiving are as important as our cries for help. So the message of the Psalm is two-fold: Call upon God in our troubles, and thank Him for His help.

The passage in Romans 8 tells us that He is not a remote God. All of our struggles in life and all the agonies we suffer are part of His plan. How do we respond to our troubles? Pray, yes, and trust; for St. Paul says, “If God is on our side, who can be against us?” We know that His love is boundless, since He gave His son who died for us. Therefore, nothing can separate us from His love. Live confidently!

In John 6, we find the words, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you can have no life in you.” Yes, we eat His flesh and drink His blood in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, but moreover we must take Jesus into our lives and make Him part of ourselves, taking on His way of thinking and living, letting Him take over our desires, our very personalities, every day and every minute. Very, very hard, but that’s what Lent is all about!

Elizabeth and Ian Bremner