Daniel 3:14–20, 91–92, 95; Daniel 3:52, 53, 54, 55, 56; John 8:31–42

The story of the men in the fiery furnace, from the book of Daniel, is a colorful story and the subject of a great old Gospel song. It tells the triumph of God’s power in the face of a cruel king’s persecution of Jewish exiles. In the twentieth century, furnaces of a different kind consumed millions of bodies in the Nazi holocaust.

Numbers 21:4–9; Psalm 102:2–3, 16–18, 19–21; John 8:21–30

Today’s First Reading, with the sign of the bronze serpent lifted up to cure snakebitten Israelites in the desert, parallels Jesus’ statement in the Gospel that when he is “lifted up” on the cross all will recognize him and his mission from the Father. These passages put me in mind of the popular lenten devotion of the Way of the Cross.

Daniel 13:1–9, 15–17, 19–30, 33–62; Psalm 23:1–3a, 3b–4, 5, 6; John 8:1–11

Two women accused of adultery are the focus of today’s Scriptures. We add to the mix a lay Franciscan whose conversion from a state of public sin inspired others to penance in the thirteenth century. From the book of Daniel comes the story of Susanna, a woman wrongly accused of adultery. It becomes the occasion for the hero of the book, young Daniel, to trap the elders who lusted after Susanna and brought the false accusation.

Year A: Ezekiel 37:12–14; Psalm 130:1–2, 3–4, 5–6, 7–8; Romans 8:8–11;John 11:1–45
Year B: Jeremiah 31:31–34; Psalm 51: 3–4, 12–13, 14–15; Hebrews 5:7–9; John 12:20–33

Jeremiah 11;18–20; Psalm 7:2–3, 9bc–10, 11–12; John 7:40–53

In the classic Saint of the Day: The Definitive Guide to the Saints, which I used alongside the lectionary in preparing these reflections, there’s a great description of St. Teresa of Avila: “Like Jesus, she was a mystery of paradoxes: wise, yet practical; intelligent, yet much in tune with her experience; mystic, yet an energetic reformer.

Wisdom 2:1a, 12–22; Psalm 34:17–18, 19–20, 21, 23; John 7:1–2, 10, 25–30

“You know me, and you know where I am from. I have not come on my own. But the one who sent me is true, and you do not know him. I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me” (John 7:28–29). These words are from today’s Gospel of John, as Jesus, threatened by his enemies, nevertheless comes to the Temple in Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles. He begins to teach openly about who he is. His words challenge those who would claim intimacy with God but are in fact far from it.