Sister Kathleen Bierne
Third Sunday of Lent
John 2: 13-25
“Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they came to believe the Scripture and the word Jesus had spoken.”
Memory, what a gift it is! Like all gifts, however, it can be a mixed blessing. Memories can bring comfort, joy, make us laugh and enrich present relationships. Memory, however, can also re-open deep grief, remorse, guilt and regret for choices made and unmade in the past. The disciples must have experienced all of these emotions and more as the memory of Jesus’ words and actions flooded in on them after his death. As I pray with these sections of Scripture from John, I often think of how bitter-sweet must have been those days for the friends and followers of Jesus, especially in the in-between time of the death/resurrection and Pentecost. When they remembered, however, and reflected as we do today, John tells us, “they came to believe the Scripture and the word Jesus had spoken.” We who are living in the “in-between” times today are the recipients of these same words, remembered, spoken and recorded for our prayer. We are living in the aftermath as well as the experience of the Paschal Mystery as we celebrate this 3rd. Sunday of Lent. We remember with the early disciples and are called again to believe. I thank God for the gift of memory, knowing well that it is a fragile gift, often eroded by age and illness. May our memory and our faith unite to bring the words of Jesus and belief in the Word to a new depth of faith as we move deeper into the Lenten Liturgies.
Oh Wisdom, Holy Word of God, Source of All Being, you bring to us the Living Memory of your Presence with us. Give us the gift of faith that as we remember, we too will come to believe, “the Scripture and the word Jesus had spoken.” Amen