Mar 18: I Am the Son of God

Raffaello Sanzio: La Disputa (detail)
Stanza della Segnatura, Palazzi Pontifici, Vatican, 1510-11

Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent

Gospel: Jn 10:31-42

“The Father is in me and I am in the Father (NRSV, Jn 10:38b).”

Father, over the centuries, from the time that we first recognized you as God-for-us, as you called forth out of Egypt, we tried to win over your favor by offering gifts of incense, the first fruits of the land and the sacrifice of animals. Finally, in what had to be for us the fullness of time, we recognized in your only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of this had been to no avail. We finally came to see that it was in Jesus, in his life, death and resurrection that we become one with you. Jesus who receives life from you as his Son, the uncreated Word made flesh, gives himself totally to you in everything that he is. Jesus is the gift that unites us to you because his Spirit, your Spirit, has been poured out upon us so that we may join in offering ourselves to you with and through him. Jesus is therefore the one true Lamb who takes away the sins of the world.

Father you are one, one as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As your being is one so is your act. We, your created children, act here and there, now and then. You just act. In fact, because you are one, your being is your act and your act your being. Father, as you give us your life in our Lord Jesus, so you give us your life in all that you do. Every moment is then the saving moment. You save us in creating the universe and humanity. You save us as we accept the gift of your Spirit in the womb through the Word always present to us. You save as we say “yes” to you in faith in each moment. You save as we accept forgiveness and reconciliation with you after having sinned and turned away from you, a forgiveness which is always freely offered. You save us in the visible, effective signs of your one act that is your being: in baptism, in the Eucharist and in all the sacraments and in your written Word.

Father, we are grateful to you for the great gift of your life that you share with us, life offered to all, in every moment in every place. And we thank you for the great effective sign of that gift, our Lord Jesus, your only begotten Son, the uncreated Word made flesh, who makes you, Father, and your saving act, visible in the world.

Alleluia. Amen.