In the first reading, God describes the covenant He has made with Abram: he will have a long line of children and land that is their own. The reading ends with a somewhat ominous expectation that God expects the newly renamed Abraham and his descendants to be faithful to this covenant.

Jesus is teaching in the temple and being misunderstood once again by the Jews. What he says is for us as much as for them and so we believe him when he says, “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

At this late point in Lent, it's likely that whatever Lenten practices we had prepared for we have either failed, or we are desperately looking forward to Easter so we can go back to the way things were. It seems to be part of our human nature that we struggle with real and enduring change. Sure, we can pray a rosary a day - for a while, we can promise to be on time - for a bit, we can give up cursing, complaining, and gossip - till we can't. It's almost as though these kinds of changes require grace. We can't do it on our own.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation is an important part of the Lenten season, as we contemplate our sins that led Jesus to the Cross. In today's reading, Susanna demonstrated to us how a clean heart can enable God to do great things for us.  The devil attempted to accuse her using wicked men as false witnesses.  Sound familiar? Has this ever happened to you? The devil often holds our sins up in judgement before our God. He points his nasty finger at us, spewing his false lies through wisps of smoke and glass circus mirrors, distorting truth. "Aren't you terrible? God doesn't love you," he lies.  We stand daily in his court, waiting for our sentence like Susanna.

Temple Guards Become Preachers Temple guards were among the many Jews listening to Jesus Christ that day. These guards were good men, men of prayer who hungered and thirsted for God. Their usual place to pray was the temple where they served. Today, God himself was speaking back to them. They were being fed the Word of God straight from Jesus’ lips. The Lord, the Living Water himself, satiated their thirst. They listened, and were convinced, that Jesus was the prophet and that he very well could be the long-awaited Messiah.

Today the Scriptures reveal a paradox that just and good people in society and the church can be persecuted for doing good. They are perceived as a threat by those who don’t want to change. We read, ‘Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us.’ In the Gospel the people say of Jesus, ‘Is this not the one they want to kill? They say this because he healed a man on the sabbath and violated strict Jewish law. Jesus puts the dignity of the human person over the Law.