Daily Gospel - Readings for today, April 2, 2020, thursday

Reading for today April 2, Wednesday.

Reading the Book of Genesis 17,3-9.

When Abram prostrated himself, God spoke to him: "My covenant with you is this: you are to become the father of a host of nations. No longer shall you be called Abram; your name shall be Abraham, for I am making you the father of a host of nations. I will render you exceedingly fertile; I will make nations of you; kings shall stem from you. I will maintain my covenant with you and your descendants after you throughout the ages as an everlasting pact, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land in which you are now staying, the whole land of Canaan, as a permanent possession; and I will be their God." God also said to Abraham: "On your part, you and your descendants after you must keep my covenant throughout the ages.

Daily Psalms.

Psalms 105(104),4-5.6-7.8-9.

(R). "The Lord remembers his covenant forever."

Look to the LORD in his strength; seek to serve him constantly. Recall the wondrous deeds that he has wrought, his portents, and the judgments he has uttered. (R). 

You descendants of Abraham, his servants, sons of Jacob, his chosen ones! He, the LORD, is our God; throughout the earth his judgments prevail. (R). 

He remembers forever his covenant which he made binding for a thousand generations. Which he entered into with Abraham and by his oath to Isaac. (R). 

Daily Gospel Aclamation.

"Glory and praise to you, O Christ! Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life; you have the message of eternal life. Glory and praise to you, O Christ!" (cf. Jn 6:63,68)

Daily Gospel for April 2. John 8:51-59.

Today´s reading of the Holy Gospel, friday, april 2: Jesus said to the Jews: "Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever keeps my word will never see death." (So) the Jews said to him, "Now we are sure that you are possessed. Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, "Whoever keeps my word will never taste death." Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? Or the prophets, who died? Who do you make yourself out to be?" Jesus answered, "If I glorify myself, my glory is worth nothing; but it is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, "He is our God." You do not know him, but I know him. And if I should say that I do not know him, I would be like you a liar. But I do know him and I keep his word. Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad. So the Jews said to him, "You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?" Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM." So they picked up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid and went out of the temple area.

Daily Gospel Commentaries by Pope Francis.

In today´s Gospel, the Pope said that: "the mistake of the doctors of the law who were not good and wanted to stone Jesus, at the time there were also good Pharisees and doctors of the law, was to separate the commandments from the promise, from the covenant"; that is, "to separate the commandments from the heart of God, who had commanded Abraham to journey on".

Their mistake came from not understanding the path of hope: they believed that everything had been completed and fulfilled with the commandments.

However, the commandments find their origin in love for God´s faithfulness and are rules for going forward, indications for not erring; they help us to continue on until we reach the end of our journey in an encounter with Jesus. Yet the people of whom the Gospel speaks today did not know how to connect the fulfillment of the commandments with God´s covenant with their father Abraham. Continually they repeat: "there are laws we must observe!".

They did so because their hearts were closed, their minds were closed to everything that was new and to all that the prophets had foretold. For them the only thing that mattered was this: that we have to do it this way, and this is the way to proceed!.

This is the tragedy of the closed mind and heart. When the heart and mind are closed there is no room for God. Yes, we are merely who we are, and yet we are convinced that people have to do only what I say, and we are certain that we are doing just what the commandments say.

It is impossible for Jesus to convince a closed mind, impossible to give a new message which, in fact, is not new but is exactly what had been promised by God´s faithfulness and the prophets.

And yet Jesus’ interlocutors do not understand: their minds are closed, their thoughts are closed, because in their egoism, in their sins, they have closed their hearts. Theirs is a closed way of thinking that is not open to dialogue, to the possibility that there is something else, to the possibility that God might speak to us and tell us what the journey is like, and how he journeyed with the prophets.

Surely, these people had not listened to the prophets, and they were not listening to Jesus. Yet theirs went beyond simple stubbornness. No, it was more! It was the idolatry of their own thought:

"I see it this way, this is how it must be and there is no other way!"

The Pharisees in today´s Gospel had one single way of thinking and they wanted to impose this way of thinking on the people of God. Jesus therefore reproaches them for laying so many commandments on the backs of the people.

He reproaches them for their inconsistency, which resulted from their way of thinking: "this is how it must be done!".

They had adopted a theology that was a slave to this one way of thinking. In the end there was no possibility for dialogue, for opening oneself to the newness that God heralded through the prophets. Indeed, these people killed the prophets and they closed the door to God’s promise.

Daily Pope´s quote

"What does it mean to have a "pure" heart? A purified heart is the result of a process that implies a liberation and a renunciation. The pure of heart is not born thus, it has lived an interior simplification, learning to renounce evil in itself". (04.1.2020 - @pontifex)

Daily Gospel, meditation in video for April 2.

Listen now to the reflection corresponding to today´s reading of the Holy Gospel John 8:51-59. Word of God commented for daily life.