Wednesday, March 4th
To complete today's challenge, find time to prayerfully read through the reflections below, attend a recovery meeting, and share what's on your heart and mind on today's discussion board.
REFLECT
After reading today's reflections, make sure to listen to Brother John's personal reflection.
Wednesday of the Second Week of Easter
We’ve probably all been at sporting events when someone in the crowd holds up a sign that reads “John 3:16”. Many of us can probably quote this first verse of today’s Gospel reading verbatim. It has become so familiar that we might even overlook the depth of its meaning. In his commentary on this verse, Saint John Chrysostom writes:
“He, the immortal, who is without beginning, the Infinite Majesty, they but dust and ashes, full of ten thousand sins, who, ungrateful, have at all times offended him; and these He ‘loved’…‘He gave His Only-begotten Son’, not a servant, not an Angel, not an Archangel…no one would show such anxiety for his own child, as God did for His ungrateful servants.”
As people recovering from addiction and unhealthy attachments, we’ve experienced the love, grace, and mercy that comes when the Lord hears our desperate pleas. As today’s Responsorial Psalm reminds us, “from all [our] distress he saved [us]” (Psalm 34:7). We know He is trustworthy and can perform the seemingly impossible if we submit to His will.
Just like the early apostles of today’s first reading who were miraculously released from prison and told to “tell the people everything about this life,” we too must share our experience, strength, and hope with others with holy boldness (Acts 5:20).
By working the Twelve Steps, we have the means to escape the imprisonment and darkness of reckless, destructive behavior and live in the light that glorifies our loving God who gave His only son for our salvation!
Reflection Questions
- What obstacles prevent you from going forth with holy boldness to share what God has done for you?
- Are there areas of your life that still linger in “darkness”? Are you willing to bring any of them to light?
Daily Mass Readings
First Reading: Acts 5:17-26
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Gospel: John 3:16-21
Reflection by Kay P.
Saint Cesar de Bus
(1544-1607) — Cesar was born in a Papal State that is now part of France. He became a soldier at 18 and fought the Huguenots (French Calvinists). After the war, he took some time for painting and poetry, then tried to join the navy but illness prevented him. Having been a fairly virtuous person up to this time, he lived three years in Paris indulging in pleasures. When his brother, a canon (priest), died, Cesar took up his position for the income. He experienced a conversion, was ordained a priest at 38, and became distinguished for teaching catechism. He founded the Fathers of Christian Doctrine, and Saint Francis de Sales called him “a star of the first magnitude in the firmament of Catechesis.”
Pope Saint Paul VI said of this patron of catechists at the beatification address on April 27, 1975, “Perhaps that is the secret of his constancy, or in any case, what always enabled him to over come his difficulties and start off again with increased energy; we are referring to his ‘spirit of repentance.’” Does a spirit of repentance give you renewed energy in recovery?
“Everything in us must catechize and our conduct in life must make us living catechisms” (Saint Cesar de Bus).
Reflection by Brad Farmer
Other Saints
Discuss
Share your thoughts and connect with others on this journey.
Brother John shares about the fruitlessness of sacrifice and suffering, despite not always being willing to accept them when he was younger. How has accepting suffering and sacrifice in your own life been fruitful in your faith and recovery?
Log in to join the discussion.
I do not recall a time when God did not give me what I asked for. It seems to me that God has always been very good to me giving me exactly what I have needed (mostly in meditation/prayers/homilies) when I needed it for positive inspiration and reflection. Sobriety was a longer process, but after years of binge drinking when it became daily to the point of desperation he again put in line exactly the people I needed to come into recovery.