PALM SUNDAY OF THE PASSION OF THE LORD

29 MARCH 2015

          Saint Mark begins his Passion with a woman who “wastes” some very expensive perfume pouring it over the head of Jesus.  When others criticize her action, Jesus defends her.  She is "wasting" the expensive perfume to anoint his body for burial.  Throughout his public ministry, he has been "wasting" his life in loving service of others.  Now, he will bring that "wasting" to its conclusion by giving himself to the ultimate demon, which is death.   

            The Passion invites us to evaluate how we "waste" our lives to imitate his example.  The Passion portrays people who fail to "waste" themselves, choosing instead to hold on closely to themselves.  The Passion gives us some choices. We can be like Judas, who sees the handwriting on the wall and holds on to the thirty pieces of silver to protect himself.  We can be like the young man who had previously left everything to follow Christ.  Now, he leaves everything to run away from him.  We can be like Peter, who holds on to his fear and denies his relationship with Christ.  We can be like Pilate, who holds on to popularity instead of standing up for the truth.  Or we can be like the religious leaders, who hold tightly to their positions, which are threatened by the example of love and mercy given by Jesus.

            But the Passion also gives us some positive examples letting go and "wasting" ourselves out of love.  We can be like the owner who opens his fists to the rope of the colt to allow Jesus to ride into Jerusalem.  We can be like the man who opens his upper room for the Last Supper.  We can be like Simon of Cyrene, who opens his hands to help Jesus carry his cross.  Or we can be like the centurion, who opens his eyes to see the truth for which Jesus was condemned to die:  that he is the Son of God who enters death, so that we can face death ourselves.

            Because the Lord "wasted" his life, he was raised from the dead.  We celebrate this central Mystery of our faith when we enter into the Sacred Paschal Triduum on Thursday evening.  Please join us for the major Liturgies.  The Mass of the Lord’s Supper begins at 7:30 on Holy Thursday evening.  The Celebration of the Lord's Passion is at 1:00 on Good Friday afternoon.  The Easter Vigil begins at 8:45 on Holy Saturday evening.  We celebrate the Lord's Resurrection at all Masses on Easter Sunday.  Times for the other liturgies are in the bulletin and on our website.  The church will be open throughout the Triduum for watching and praying. 

            In participating in the Triduum liturgies, we can recognize the ways in which we have failed to "waste" ourselves out of love for Christ and others..  But we also gain new strength and hope as we open our hearts and our fists to the central Mystery of our faith, which promises that those who waste their lives will be given more than we can ever imagine.

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT

22 MARCH 2015

          When the Prophet Ezekiel spoke to his people, they had been in exile in Babylon for over three decades.  They had given up any hope of returning home.  They had taken the lowly jobs which migrants, immigrants, and strangers would accept.  They began to intermarry.  There was no home.  Jerusalem was in ruins.  The Temple had been destroyed. They were permanently buried in the grave of exile.  But, Ezekiel speaks for the Lord and promises that they will be raised up and will return home.  The Lord could raise up his people from this grave of exile, something no human could ever do.

            When Jesus arrives in Bethany, he confronts a similar situation.  His friend, Lazarus, has been dead for four days.  Most Rabbis would argue that the spirit of a person might hover over a body for three days.  By this time, there is no hope!  Even the sisters of Lazarus, who are also good friends, chide him:  “Lord, if you had been here, our brother would not have died.”  Jesus even weeps at the tomb of his friend, troubled deep within his gut over the horrible power of death and what death does to people.  After praying a prayer of thanksgiving, Jesus confronts the hopeless situation and orders Lazarus to come out of the tomb.  He tells them to unbind Lazarus and gives him back to his sisters.  Only the Lord can raise up a dead person.  No ordinary human could do that.

            For centuries, this set of readings has been used in connection with the third and final Scrutiny for the Elect, those preparing for Baptism at the Easter Vigil.  At the 8:45 and 10:30 Masses, we pray over the four who are preparing for the Easter Sacraments.  We pray that they may let go of whatever might still bind them to the tomb of sin and prepare them to enter into the watery tomb of baptismal water.  At the Easter Vigil, we will pray a prayer of thanksgiving over the water and ask the Father to raise up the newly baptized from the waters of Baptism to share with Christ his transforming resurrection. 

            In less than two weeks, we will celebrate the Sacred Paschal Triduum.  These final days of Lent can help us to intensify our preparation for these Mysteries.  As the Elect prepare to enter the watery tomb of Baptism, we have to admit that we have not always kept our baptismal promises.  To borrow the words of Saint Paul, we were given the indwelling of God’s Spirit when we emerged from the waters of our Baptism.  In not keeping our Baptismal promises, we have lost our trust in the promise made that we will live with him if we die with him.  We have to be honest enough to admit that we have slipped back into the flesh, into giving into our sinful passions and returning to the death filled tombs of our selfishness.

            With the Sacred Paschal Triduum in sight, we can renew our Lenten prayer, fasting, and almsgiving as a way of disciplining ourselves to the more difficult task of dying daily to self, of keeping our baptismal promises.  Please take advantage of the Sacrament of Reconciliation as an integral part of that preparation process.  Confessing our sins and receiving Sacramental Absolution returns us to the innocence of the day of our Baptism.  Please come to the Lenten Penance Service on Tuesday evening, when sixteen priests will be present.  Father Peter Jarret already knows that his homily has to be very short and to the point.  There is strength in numbers!  We are not alone in seeking the Lord’s mercy and sharing in his risen life.  Nor are we alone when we renew our Baptismal promises at Easter with a clear conscience.

            

FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT

15 MARCH 2015

          In the Prologue of his Gospel, Saint John identifies Jesus as the Word, present from the beginning, who is a light shining in the darkness.  He goes on to explain that the Word, the light, became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  Today, Saint John explains how Jesus Christ manifests himself as the light of the world in the course of his earthly ministry.

            Jesus picks an ideal time.  It is the Feast of Tabernacles, a fall festival when faithful Jews pitched their tents in the field as a reminder of their ancestors dwelling in tents in the desert in their deliverance from slavery to freedom.  The priests would dip water from the Pool of Siloam with golden pitchers and pour the water over the Altar in the Temple, brilliantly lit by burning torches.  As their ancestors looked forward to their arrival into the Promised Land, participants of the Feast of Tabernacles looked for the arrival of the messiah.

            Jesus picks a man who has never seen any light to help him in this revelation.  He dismisses the popular notion that the man’s blindness was a result of sin, smears a mixture of clay and spit on his eyes, and tells him to wash in the Pool of Siloam.  For the first time in his life, this man sees light.  As he faces the reaction of those around him, he begins to see the real Light of the world in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.  At first, he defends Jesus as a good man who has been very kind to him.  As the Pharisees accuse Jesus of being a sinner for doing the work of healing on a Sabbath, he identifies Jesus as a prophet.  Finally, when he is thrown out of the Synagogue, as many members of the Christian community of Saint John had been thrown out of their Synagogues, he acknowledges Jesus as Lord and worships him.

            The early Church used this Gospel on the Fourth Sunday of Lent to help the Elect in their final weeks of preparation for Baptism.  The Elect could easily identify with the anonymous man born blind.  Like him, their eyes had been opened gradually to the truth about him:  that he is the Light of the world, and that the Light given to them in Baptism can dispel the darkness of their lives.  This Sunday, the four Elect of our parish hear these same words.  At the 8:45 and 10:30 Masses, we pray the Second Scrutiny over them, asking God to remove whatever may still keep them from seeing fully the truth about Jesus Christ.  We pray that they prepare for Baptism at the Easter Vigil not because a spouse or parent or friend brought them to the Catholic Church, but because they have truly encountered Jesus Christ, the Light of the world.

            The Elect become an invitation for the rest of us to check our own vision of faith.  Even though a lit candle was entrusted to us when we were baptized, we must admit that we do not always allow that light to shine through our thoughts, words, and actions.  Like Samuel, we sometimes judge other people according to their outward appearance, instead of looking at them as God does.  Or like the Ephesians, we can fall back into darkness, instead of basking in the bright light of Jesus Christ and his way of living.

            We wear rose on Laetare Sunday to encourage us in the Lenten prayer, fasting, and almsgiving we have undertaken.  Those Lenten disciplines have the potential to allow the bright fire of God’s love to expose the darkness caused by our bad and sinful choices.  The rose color reminds us that we are more than halfway through Lent.  Even if we have not been entirely faithful to our Lenten commitments, there are still two and a half weeks left in Lent to give us a chance to pick ourselves up and start over.  Lent can continue to open our eyes more fully to Jesus Christ, the Light of the world.  When we renew our baptismal promises at Easter, we will understand more fully the truth that the Lord draws us to his bright presence and out of the darkness of our failures to live our baptismal promises.  

THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT

8 MARCH 2015

            In the Gospel of John, Jesus slowly reveals himself.  He first reveals himself at a wedding feast at Cana in Galilee.  In turning water into wine, he reveals that he can change the ordinary water of our human existence into divine partnership with God.  He is the faithful bridegroom seeking a bride, seeking those who will recognize him as the Christ and who will follow him.

            Today, the bridegroom travels to seek new followers who will become his bride.  At the well, his ancestor Jacob had wooed Rachel and took her for his bride.  But that well is located in Samaritan territory.  For centuries, Jews and Samaritans had been enemies.  At that well, he not only speaks to an enemy, but to a woman, an action that would be forbidden.  In his thirst, he asks for a drink, knowing that drinking from a Samaritan woman’s bucket would render him ritually impure.  Ritually impure, he could not enter the Temple or have contact with others.

            The woman is open to how Jesus reveals himself to her.  At first, she recognizes him as a kind man who treats her with respect.  When she finds that he knows about her former husbands, she sees him as a prophet who speaks the truth without condemning her.  Finally, he plainly reveals himself as the Christ, the seventh and most perfect bridegroom who truly loves and can fulfill her deepest thirst for meaning and for love.  She leaves her bucket, her most valuable possession and becomes the first evangelist, announcing the good news to the people of the town and bringing them to meet Jesus to recognize for themselves that he is the Christ.

            From very early in the Church’s history, this Gospel has been used on the Third Sunday of Lent to guide the Elect in their preparation for Baptism.  They are invited to reflect on how they have come to know Jesus and how they have gradually come to see him as Christ.  No matter how many false bridegrooms they have been chasing to satisfy their thirst for love and meaning, the Bridegroom seeks them out and invites them to the well of the Baptismal Font.  Through those life giving waters, their sins will be washed away.  They will emerge one with Jesus Christ.  They will put on the white garment that speaks of their incorporation in Christ. 

            There are four Elect in our parish preparing for the Sacraments of Initiation at the Easter Vigil.  Those of us who have been working with them know that they are not terrible sinners.  But, they acknowledge their bad choices and prepare to encounter the bridegroom, who will quench their thirst in the waters of Baptism.  As they open their hearts to the truths of today’s Gospel, they will go through the first Scrutiny at the 8:45 and 10:30 Masses.  We will pray over them and ask the Lord to strengthen them in their journey.

            If the Elect resemble the anonymous Samaritan woman, the rest of us are more like the disciples who return and are amazed that Jesus is talking to a Samaritan woman in public.  Those disciples have spent time with him and are trying to learn the truth about him.  But they still don’t get it.  We too have come to know Jesus in the waters of our baptism and have listened to him speaking to us in the Word.  Like the Israelites in the desert, we too have complained that the Lord does not seem to be in our midst at times.  Like the anonymous woman, we too have chased other bridegrooms who could never satisfy us.  We have wandered away and tried to find satisfaction in all kinds of things:  pleasure, wealth, success, fame, and any number of false gods.

            This Season of Lent provides us with an opportunity to prepare to renew our Baptismal promises at Easter.  Through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we can draw closer to the One who has justified us by his death.  In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we acknowledge the ways we have chased after other bridegrooms.  Joined with the Elect, we renew our commitment to the Bridegroom who has given his life of his, his Bride, the Church.