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Wednesday of the
Fourth Week of Lent • Year A • Beads of Joy Blog II
✝️ Today's Mass Readings
First Reading: Deuteronomy 4:1, 5-9
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 147:12-13, 15-16, 19-20
Gospel: Matthew 5:17-19
📖 The Gospel - Matthew 5:17-19
Jesus makes a
statement that must have shocked His listeners, do not think that I have come
to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
And not the smallest letter, not the smallest part of a letter, will pass away
until all things have been accomplished.
🙏 Gospel Reflection
There is a tendency
in every generation to want a Christianity without demands, a faith that is
warm and affirming and asks nothing difficult of us. And Jesus looks at that
tendency straight in the eye and says, not the smallest letter will pass away.
Not the tiniest stroke of the pen. The whole thing stands. And not only does it
stand, but it also goes deeper. His fulfillment of the law doesn't flatten it.
It radicalizes it.
Moses understood this in Deuteronomy today.
He says to the people, observe these commandments. And then he says something
remarkable: this is your wisdom in the sight of other nations. Your
faithfulness to God's law is itself a witness. The way you live is a
proclamation. There is no such thing as a private faith that doesn't touch the
way you treat people, handle your money, speak with kind words, love with a sincere
heart, and make sacrifices to help others.
This is one of the things the Rosary has
taught me over all these years of praying it, the mysteries are not just
beautiful stories to contemplate. They are the school of life. The Annunciation
teaches you to say yes. The Visitation teaches you to go to others in need. The
Agony in the Garden teaches you to surrender. The Crucifixion teaches you the
cost of love. Every mystery is a lesson in fulfilling, not abolishing, the law
of love. Not the smallest letter passes away. It all counts. It all matters. It
all leads ultimately to Jesus.
💭 Reflection Question
Is there a
commandment or a teaching of Jesus that you have been quietly trying to abolish
in your own life, rounding the edges, making exceptions, looking for the
loophole? What would it mean to let it stand completely today?
📿 Today's Rosary - The Sorrowful Mysteries
Today's Focus
Mystery: The Crowning with
Thorns
Jesus, who said not
one letter of the law would pass away, was Himself the Word made flesh, and they
put a crown of thorns on that Word and mocked it. As you pray these beads,
meditate on the One who fulfilled every demand of love perfectly, even to the
point of being crowned with the very rejection of those He came to fulfill it
for.
🌹 Our Lady of Fatima - Today's Connection
Moses tells the
people today that observing God's commandments will be their wisdom before the
nations, and that how they live will be a witness. Our Lady of Fatima's entire
message is built on exactly this. She did not ask for grand theological
arguments. She asked for the faithful living of the faith, daily Rosary,
regular confession, the wearing of the Brown Scapular, and devotion to her
Immaculate Heart. Small, faithful observances that together build a life that is
a witness. Not the smallest letter passes away. Not the smallest bead of the
Rosary either.
🕊️ Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, You came
not to abolish but to fulfill. Help me to stop looking for the exits and the
loopholes in Your teaching. Let every letter of Your law of love stand in my
life today, and let the way I live be a quiet witness to what it means to follow
You. Amen.
©2026 James Dacey, Jr., OFS
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