Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent: Daily Lenten Meditations

A SAD COMPLAINT

“O My people, what have I done to you or wherein have I molested you? Answer Me.” Strange, pitiful cry of the heavenly Father wounded by the waywardness of His rebellious children! Strange, indeed, yet stranger still that same sad lament on the lips of the Gentle Master!

“What have I done to you? Wherein have I molested you?” Our Divine Friend, our heavenly Benefactor, kind, with more than a father’s strong kindness; loving, with more than a mother’s tender love; prodigal in His bountiful giving even to the last drop of His own life’s blood—and yet His very children treat Him as if He were a tyrant who by wanton cruelty has deserved their hatred!

And myself? True, I may not have to accuse myself of anything so wicked as that. I love our Lord, of course I do, and yet I cannot deny that He has ample cause to address to me that heartbroken query: “What have I done to you?”

With creature friends I take such care to give no cause for pain, but with Jesus—well, at times I just seem not to care. I disregard His precious love to take a creature’s love instead. His gifts, unstintingly bestowed, I grasp with scarcely a word of thanks—at times I even use those very gifts to wound Him. The promises I sometimes make, I break at will, and even utterly disregard His commands. His company I seldom seek, and when I do I am so very rude. And when He comes to visit me I act almost as if He were a nuisance in my life.

Ah! Worthy indeed am I of that sad complaint: “What have I done to you?” And what shall I answer?

O Sweetest Heart of Jesus, I implore that I may ever love You more and more.

EPISTLE AND GOSPEL: Taken from the Angelus Press 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal

EPISTLE:  Is. 1:16-19

Our souls shall be made white as snow.

Thus saith the Lord God: Wash yourselves, be clean, take away the evil of your devices from Mine eyes: cease to do perversely, learn to do well: seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge for the fatherless, defend the widow. And then come and accuse Me, saith the Lord: if your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool. If you be willing, and will hearken to Me, you shall eat the good things of the land: saith the Lord almighty.

GOSPEL:  Jn. 9:1-38

Healing of the man blind from his birth, who was sent to wash himself in the pool of Siloe.

At that time Jesus, passing by, saw a man who was blind from his birth: and His disciples asked Him: Rabbi, who hath sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind? Jesus answered: Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents; but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of Him that sent Me, whilst it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world I am the light of the world. When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle, and spread the clay upon his eyes, and said to him: Go, wash in the pool of Siloe (which is interpreted, Sent). He went therefore and washed, and he came seeing. The neighbors therefore, and they who had seen him before that he was a beggar, said: Is not this he that sat and begged? Some said: This is he. But others said: No, but he is like him. But he said: I am he. They said therefore to him: How were thine eyes opened? He answered: That man that is called Jesus made clay and anointed mine eyes, and said to me: Go to the pool of Siloe, and wash. And I went, I washed, and I see. And they said to him: Where is he? He saith: I know not. They bring him that had been blind to the Pharisees: Now it was the Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. Again therefore the Pharisees asked him how he had received his sight. But he said to them: He put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed, and I see. Some therefore of the Pharisees said: This man is not of God, who keepeth not the sabbath. But others said: How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them. They say therefore to the blind man again: What sayest thou of Him that hath opened thine eyes? And he said: He is a prophet. The Jews then did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of him that had received his sight and asked them, saying: Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then doth he now see? His parents answered them and said: We know that this is our son and that he was born blind: but how he now seeth we know not, or who hath opened his eyes we know not: ask him; he is of age, let him speak for himself. These things his parents said, because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had already agreed among themselves, that if any man should confess him to be Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. Therefore did his parents say: He is of age, ask himself. They therefore called the man again that had been blind, and said to him: Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner. He said therefore to them: If He be a sinner, I know not: one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see. They said then to him: What did He to thee? How did He open thine eyes? He answered them: I have told you already, and you have heard: why would you hear it again? Will you also become His disciples? They reviled him therefore, and said: Be thou His disciple: but we are the disciples of Moses. We know that God spoke to Moses: but as to this man, we know not from whence He is. The man answered and said to them: Why, herein is a wonderful thing, that you know not from whence He is, and He hath opened mine eyes: now we know  that God doth not hear sinners: but if a man be a server of God and doth His will, him He heareth. From the beginning of the world it hath not been heard, that any man hath opened the eyes of one born blind. Unless this man were of God, he could not do anything. They answered and said to him: Thou wast wholly born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out. Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and when He had found him, He said to him: Dost thou believe in the Son of God? He answered and said: Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him? And Jesus said to him: Thou hast both seen Him, and it is He that talketh with thee. And he said: I believe, Lord! (Here kneel.) And falling down, he adored Him.