Objective of the week: To encounter Jesus on the cross and experience the greatest mercy that saves humanity.
INTRODUCTION
Last week we prayed on The Last Supper which we celebrate on Holy Thursday. This week we will encounter Jesus in His Passion on the cross and experience the greatest mercy that saves us and the whole humanity. God continues to be faithful in the midst of our unfaithfulness. He continues to pour out His love and mercy to us on the cross. He, who is love, can’t deny and be false to Himself- His being merciful. His love that forgives, accepts and embraces who we are. He does this because we are His. We are His children, created by Him that is why He is pouring out so much mercy even to give His Son on the cross. Let us follow Jesus in His suffering on the cross and experience His immense love for us. MONDAY Understand His Mercy for You 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.(John 3:16-17) 27 So God created mankind in his own image,in the image of God he created them;male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27) Understanding mercy is often difficult for people as we tend to be a generation of vengeance. God, however is merciful even though we do not meet the standards of righteousness that God intends to have. But because He is our Creator, He can’t deny Himself but pour out His mercy to us even though we don’t deserve it. Mercy is poured out for us because He loves us and He can’t give us up even if it entails giving up His own Son. Our Creator cannot afford to lose His creation. Do you understand His mercy for You? How can you extend His mercy to others? TUESDAY Christ Died For Us Sinners 6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, howmuch more shall we be saved from God’s wrath throughhim! 10 Forif, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! (Romans 5:6-10) How can we doubt of God’s love? The evidence of love is in the death of Christ. Sinners as we are, we are powerless to work out our own salvation. God, in His sensitivity offered His Son for the atonement for our sins and delivered ourselves from the depth of guilt and misery into which we are drowned. God initiates the relationship with us. This fellowship has been initiated through the death of Jesus Christ, so that through this relationship we can begin to conform to the image of God by being permitted into His presence. This is God’s mercy poured out for us to develop relationship with Him. How can you sustain this relationship with God? WEDNESDAY You are Worth Dying For 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. (Matthew 26:37) 46 About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli,Eli,lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”) (Matthew 27:46) 5 he[a] predestined us for adoption to sonship[b] through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will. (Ephesians 1:5) Jesus at the cross experienced real human emotions. The nature of His sufferings on the cross is His substitutionary work that made Him the object of God’s wrath which we deserved. The cry of Jesus was a cry of submission and dependence. It was not a cry of despair. In our sufferings, do we see it as a call for submission and dependence to God? Do we live our life with dignity in spite of our pain and sufferings knowing that Jesus declared on the cross that we are worth dying for? THURSDAY Your Debt Has Been Cancelled By My Death On The Cross 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life inChrist Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23) 13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.(Colossians 2:13-14) Jesus Christ was willing to pay our debts by dying in our place thus erasing out the record of our debt and pardoning our sins. Our sins has been nailed on the hands and feet of Jesus on the cross. As Jesus died for us, let us also die from our sins and to make ourselves worthy of the death of Jesus on the cross. Am I living my life worthy of the death of Jesus on the cross? FRIDAY The Cross Restored Our Relationship With God 16 See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me. (Isaiah 49:16) 4 Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give people in exchange for you,nations in exchange for your life. (Isaiah 43:4) The cross is God’s statement of just how much He loves us. When we think of the immensity of God’s love, consider the price that was paid. It was His precious Son that was sacrificed on the cross to pay for our sins. Through the cross, our relationship with God was restored. This is how God is reaching out to us because we are precious in His eyes. Who are the concrete people that you need to reach out in order to restore the broken relationship? How can you reach out to people that needs restoration in their relationship with God and to others? SATURDAY Announce the Merciful Love of Christ 25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his motherthere, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her,“Woman,[a] here is your son,” 27 and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, thisdisciple took her into his home. (John 19:25-27) All of us have personal experience of sorrow in our lives. The Blessed Virgin Mary who suffered when she saw her Son being hurt, invites us to lift our gaze and to discover so many suffering members of the mystical body of Jesus, and announce to them the merciful love of Christ by giving them comfort through service and charity. Who are the concrete people that needs your comfort today? SUNDAY 5thSunday of Lent 1st Reading: Isaiah 43:16-21 Responsorial Psalm:Psalm 126 2nd Reading:Philippians 3:8-14 Gospel: John 8:1-11 Comments are closed.
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