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Saturday of the
Fourth Week of Lent • Lent 2026 • Year A • Beads of Joy Blog II
✝️ Today's Mass Readings
First Reading: Jeremiah 11:18-20
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 7:2-3, 9-10, 11-12
Gospel: John 7:40-53
📖 The Gospel - John 7:40-53
The crowd is divided
over Jesus. Some say He is the Prophet. Some say He is the Messiah. Some want
to arrest Him. The guards who were sent to arrest Him came back empty-handed.
The chief priests demand, why did you not bring Him? And the guards say simply,
never has anyone spoken like this man.
🙏 Gospel Reflection
Never has anyone
spoken like this man. That is one of the most extraordinary testimonies in all
of the Gospels, and it comes not from a disciple, not from a believer, but from
the guards who were sent to arrest Him. When they heard Him speak, they just couldn't
do it. They came back empty-handed and reported that they could not explain it. We have
never heard anyone speak like this man.
What was it about the way Jesus spoke? Not
just the content, though the content was revolutionary. Not just the authority,
though He spoke with an authority unlike the scribes. I think it was the
combination of absolute truth and absolute love delivered simultaneously. Every
word Jesus spoke was completely true and completely kind at the same time. He
never sacrificed truth for kindness or kindness for truth. He held them both
perfectly and inseparably, and people felt it. Even the people who came to
arrest Him felt it.
Jeremiah, in today's first reading, is again
facing the plots of his enemies, like a trusting lamb led to slaughter, he has
not realized they were hatching plans against him. And yet he entrusts his
cause completely to God. That is the posture of the just person, not naive, not
aggressive, but completely given over to the One who judges justly.
As we reach the end of this final full week
before Holy Week, the tension in the Gospel is palpable. The crowds are divided,
while the authorities are plotting. The guards are disarmed by the voice of
Jesus, and He keeps speaking. He keeps revealing, offering, for never has
anyone ever spoken like this man. Jesus is still speaking, through His Word,
through this season of Lent, through the quiet praying of the Rosary, through
the mystery of faith that has held your heart through all the years you have
been saying yes to Him.
💭 Reflection Question
If you were one of
those guards sent to arrest Jesus and you heard Him speak, what do you think He
would have said that stopped you in your tracks? What is the word He has spoken
to YOUR heart during this Lent that you have not been able to walk away from?
📿 Today's Rosary - The Sorrowful Mysteries
Today's Focus
Mystery: The Agony in the
Garden
The guards were sent
to arrest Jesus in John 7, and in John 18, they will finally succeed, in the
garden of Gethsemane. But today they returned empty-handed because His hour had
not yet come. As you pray the first Sorrowful Mystery today, stand at the edge
of that garden with the awareness that the hour is now almost here, and that
Jesus will walk into it completely willingly.
🌹 Our Lady of Fatima - Today's Connection
Never has anyone
spoken like this man. And yet, never has anyone interceded like this woman. Our
Lady of Fatima's voice has been crying out for over a century now, pray,
repent, return, the hour is urgent. She speaks with the same combination of
absolute truth and absolute love that silenced the guards in today's Gospel.
Those who hear her message and take it seriously are never quite the same. As
you pray your Rosary this Saturday and prepare your heart as we are one week
away from Palm Sunday, let her voice join His, two voices speaking love and
truth simultaneously, drawing you toward the most sacred week of the year.
🕊️ Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, no one has ever spoken like You. In this Lent, You have spoken to my heart in ways I
could not have anticipated. I have heard You. I could not walk away. As I enter
this final week before Holy Week, let me carry every word You have spoken this
season into the sacred days ahead. Amen.
©2026 James Dacey, Jr., OFS
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