Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent

Readings of the Day

As we draw close to the concluding days of Lent, Saint John’s Gospel details one of the darker chapters in his account of the life of our Lord Jesus. We are told in today’s reading that the enemies of Jesus had resolved to eliminate the threat that they perceived him to be by planning to kill Him.

Considering these grim circumstances, it is instructive that the liturgy pairs this account of the impending threats to Jesus with a reading from Ezekiel about the restoration of the people of Israel to the Promised Land after their captivity in Babylon. Ezekiel was a Hebrew prophet who was taken captive during the Babylonian Exile, and his writings were primarily directed to his fellow captives who - by that time in history (approximately 570 B.C.) - had been so widely scattered among surrounding nations by the Babylonians that they seemed all but lost as a people.

Deprived of their land, their king and their Temple, Ezekiel’s devout contemporaries would have despaired that the Twelve Tribes of Israel would ever be united again as one nation, one kingdom under God. As an antidote to this despair, Ezekiel tells his listeners of God’s promise of a coming restoration of that would bring them back into the Promised Land - inspiring within them a hope that God would someday revive them as a nation.

This juxtaposition in today’s readings between darkness and hope is I believe intentional, and very apropos for us as we prepare to begin Holy Week – a time which includes moments of great darkness, but which concludes with the great hope of God’s saving power that is the Resurrection. 

For many of us who work at Catholic Charities agencies, we can also experience this juxtaposition between darkness and hope: so often in our offices, parish centers, food pantries, soup kitchens, intake centers and residential facilities, we meet with individuals and families at dark and difficult moments as we try to provide them with the help that they need - whether it is providing nutritious food to the mom struggling to make ends meet for her family, help with rental assistance for the ailing veteran under threat of eviction, or giving immigration assistance to the young couple fleeing oppression abroad. As many of us can attest to from personal experience, receiving assistance of this sort not only helps those we serve out of their immediate need, but very often also inspires in them and in their families hope to live the dignified lives that they are called to live for being made in the image and likeness of God.   

The motto of many Catholic Charities agencies is simple but profound: “Providing Help. Creating Hope”.  As we begin this holiest week on the Christian calendar, may we who are privileged to do this important work that “provides help” and “creates hope” remember the great gift of hope that Easter is – as well as the gift of life restored which Easter brings, that no darkness can long prevail against.       

Tom Dobbins Jr. is Justice and Peace Coordinator in the Department of Social and Community Development of the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York, a producer for Sirius/XM’s Catholic Channel and Chair Emeritus of the Roundtable Association of Catholic Diocesan Social Action Directors.

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