Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Official Translation

Reading 1 – Exodus 32.7-14

The Lord spoke to Moses, “Go down;
for your people, whom you brought up
out of the land of Egypt,
have corrupted themselves!
They have turned aside quickly
out of the way which I commanded them.
They have made themselves a molten calf,
and have worshiped it,
and have sacrificed to it,
and said, ‘These are your gods, Israel,
which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’”

The Lord said to Moses,
“I have seen these people,
and behold, they are a stiff-necked people.
Now therefore leave me alone,
that my wrath may burn hot against them,
and that I may consume them;
and I will make of you a great nation.”

Moses begged the Lord his God, and said,
“Lord, why does your wrath burn hot
against your people,
that you have brought out of the land of Egypt
with great power and with a mighty hand?
Why should the Egyptians speak, saying,
‘He brought them out for evil,
to kill them in the mountains,
and to consume them from the surface of the earth?’
Turn from your fierce wrath,
and repent of this evil against your people.
Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants,
to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them,
‘I will multiply your seed as the stars of the sky,
and all this land that I have spoken of
I will give to your seed,
and they shall inherit it forever.’”

The Lord repented of the evil
which he said he would do to his people.

Responsorial – Psalm 106.19-20, 21-22, 23

R. Remember me, the Lord, with the favor that you show to your people.

They made a calf in Horeb,
and worshiped a molten image.
Thus they exchanged their glory
for an image of a bull that eats grass.

R. Remember me, the Lord, with the favor that you show to your people.

They forgot God, their Savior,
who had done great things in Egypt,
Wondrous works in the land of Ham,
and awesome things by the Red Sea.

R. Remember me, the Lord, with the favor that you show to your people.

Therefore he said that he would destroy them,
had Moses, his chosen one,
not stood before him in the breach,
to turn away his wrath to destroy them.

R. Remember me, the Lord, with the favor that you show to your people.

Gospel – John 5.31-47

Jesus said to the Jews:
“If I testify about myself,
my witness is not true.
There is another
who testifies about me.
I know that the testimony
which he testifies about me is true.
You sent to John,
and he has testified to the truth.
But the testimony which I receive
is not from a human.
However, I say these things
that you may be saved.

He was the burning and shining lamp,
and you were willing
to rejoice for a while in his light.
But the testimony which I have
is greater than that of John,
for the works which
the Father gave me to accomplish,
the very works that I do,
testify about me,
that the Father has sent me.
The Father himself, who sent me,
has testified about me.
You have neither heard
his voice at any time,
nor seen his form.
You do not have his word living in you;
because you do not believe him whom he sent.

You search the Scriptures,
because you think that in them
you have eternal life;
and these testify about me.
Yet you will not come to me,
that you may have life.
I do not receive glory from humans.
But I know you, that you do not
have God’s love in yourselves.
I have come in my Father’s name,
and you do not receive me.
If another comes in his own name,
you will receive him.
How can you believe,
who receive glory from one another,
and you do not seek the glory
that comes from the only God?

Do not think that I will
accuse you to the Father.
The one who accuses you
is Moses himself
on whom you have set your hope.
For if you believed Moses,
you would believe me;
for he wrote about me.
But if you do not believe his writings,
how will you believe my words?”