HOLY SATURDAY

15 APRIL 2017

            In 1833, a young, homesick English priest finally got a chance to return home after convulsing in Sicily.  As soon as he recovered, he jumped on the first boat and headed north.  While on his way, he wrote a poem about his feelings at the time, “Lead Kindly Light.”  This priest was John Henry Newman, who eventually became a Cardinal and now beatified on his way to becoming a saint.  His poem was intensely popular to the people of his day:

            Lead, Kindly Light, amidst th’encircling gloom,

                        Lead Thou me on!

            The night is dark, and I am far from home,

                        Lead Thou me on!

            At some level in our lives, especially when things go badly, this is our feeling.  Saint Augustine observed that, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in God.”  Tonight, we gathered in darkness that spoke of the darkness of the tomb of Jesus Christ.  We blessed the fire and the Easter Candle and lit it, coming into a darkened church to hear the proclamation that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead.  In keeping vigil and hearing the Word of God, telling us of the many ways God has led people along in their encircling gloom.  We have heard the fulfillment of all those actions when Saint Matthew describes the brilliant light of the resurrection: “his appearance was like lightning and his clothing was white as snow.”

            There are 11 children, teens, and adults who have recognized this light of Christ shining in the gloom of their lives.   Like the Israelites who passed through the waters of the Red Sea, they are ready to pass through the waters of Baptism to be freed from their sins and share the light of the risen Christ and become one with his Church. 

We’ve heard enough words.  Stephen, get the candle.  Servers, light your tapers from the Easter Candle.  It is time to see what becoming one with Christ looks like. Everyone, pick up your candles. As we light our candles, we pray for these good people who are convinced that the risen Christ is the only true light in a world with lots of garish lights that can never satisfy.

            Newman completes his poem with these words:

            The night is gone,       

                        And with the morn those angel faces smile!

            That is where we are in celebrating the Sacraments of Initiation.  Happy Easter!

GOOD FRIDAY

14 APRIL 2017

            The Passion according to Saint John is profoundly moving. He does much more than give an account of the suffering and death of Jesus.  His Passion provides a remarkable theological reflection on the depth of God’s love for us at many levels.  At the very time that the priests are preparing the paschal lambs for Passover meals, the real Lamb of God is being sacrificed – not on a sacred altar in the Temple, but on a hill of execution outside the city walls.  The ancestors of Jesus had expressed their desire for reconciliation with God by sacrificing lambs for centuries.  Now, in the death of the Word Made Flesh, that reconciliation has occurred.  The real Passover has begun and has fulfilled the Passover from slavery to freedom.

            At the center of this mystery stands the cross.  For the first five centuries of the Christian era, disciples of Jesus Christ could not bring themselves to portray the cross in art.  It was a sign of horror, humiliation, pain, and Roman cruelty.  And yet, it is this cross which we will bring up the center aisle, proclaiming boldly “Behold the wood of the cross, on which hung the salvation of the world.”  We will carry it over the mosaics of the Covenants embedded in the aisle.  Those mosaics provide insights into the ways in which God has used something as ordinary as wood to work out our salvation in time.

            The work of salvation began in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve failed God and themselves.  Instead of trusting that they had been made in the image of God as creatures, they wanted to become gods themselves.  They wanted to determine what is good and bad, what is right and wrong.  That grasping for divinity introduced sin and spelled disaster for the human race.  From the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they took the forbidden fruit.  Sin began with the wood of a tree, and the wood of another tree on Golgotha would defeat sin.

            In the second mosaic, we see the ark that Noah built out of wood to save creation from destruction.  We also see the dove bringing back an olive branch, a piece of wood signifying peace.  The next mosaic pictures the promise God made to Abraham that his descendents would be as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sands on the sea.  When Abraham endured his test in faith, he had his son, Isaac carry on his back the wood for his own sacrifice.  The next mosaic reminds us of the Covenant made with Moses, who carried a wooden staff to part the Red Sea and provide water from the rock.  The Israelites constructed the Ark of the Covenant out of acacia wood and carried it with them as they journeyed to the Promised Land.  Pictured in the next mosaic, there is a crown over that ark, signifying God’s promise to bring from the House of King David a messiah.  The final mosaic is the New Covenant, sealed by David’s promised Messiah, who more than likely worked with wood alongside his stepfather.

            It is no coincidence that God has worked out our salvation through something as ordinary as wood.  God can and does use any part of his creation as means to save us.  Through the wood of the cross, God can even take the worst ways in which we pervert his creation for our own sinful uses and continue the work of salvation.  That is why we will come forward to venerate the cross after the solemn General Intercessions.  We venerate the cross to show our deep gratitude for the way in which Jesus Christ embraced that terrible wood of his cross to defeat the powers of sin and death.  We venerate the cross to reinforce our faith that whatever crosses we may be carrying will not ultimately destroy us, because the cross of Christ did not destroy him.  We venerate the cross to express our confidence that God can continue to use us, his ordinary but flawed creatures, to bring hope to a fallen world deeply in distress.  That is why we call this particular Friday “Good.”  “Behold the wood of the cross, on which hung the salvation of the world.”  

PALM SUNDAY OF THE LORD’S PASSION

9 APRIL 2017

          We have been hearing from the Gospel of Saint Matthew for many Sundays.  Repeatedly, Jesus has spoken words of forgiveness for sinners, and he has been accused of associating with sinners.  Today, Jesus himself ventures into the terrifying land of sin and death. 

Sin is on display at every turn in the Passion of Saint Matthew.  Judas has decided to sell his soul and betray his mentor and teacher and friend for thirty pieces of silver.  After the meal, Jesus asks three of his closest disciples to watch and pray with him.  He enters a garden to beg his Father to find some other way to save the human race rather than dying a humiliating and painful death.  In his agonizing prayer, he does what Adam and Eve had refused to do in another garden.  He trusts his Father’s plan.  As he does that, his closest disciples fall asleep.  They commit the sin of sloth, or spiritual laziness. 

Those who come to arrest Jesus do so in a violent way.  One of his disciples responds with violence, cutting off the ear of the high priest.  When we turn to violence to solve problems, we cannot hear any other perspective.  Despite their vows that they would stay with Jesus, most run away out of cowardice.  During his trial before the Sanhedrin, the witnesses are willing to tell lies to get their own way.  Meanwhile Peter denies knowing Jesus when he is encircled by a crowd of people from a different part of the country.  Pilate knows that Jesus is innocent.  But he gives in to the demands of the hostile crowd to protect his own interests.  The soldiers treat Jesus brutally and humiliate him by stripping him of his clothing.  Those passing by mock the Lamb of God who is dying for their sakes. 

Lent ends on Thursday evening when we enter into the Mass of the Lord’s Supper and begin the celebration of the Sacred Paschal Triduum.  In those three days, we will walk with Jesus Christ as he confronts sin and death.  In doing so, we can face our own sins and the prospect of our own death.  In becoming painfully aware of the terrible effects of our sins, we have a choice.  Both Judas and Peter bitterly regretted what they had done.  We can choose to be like Judas and despair of being freed from our sins.  Or, we can be like Peter and trust in the incredible mercy of Jesus Christ.  In squarely facing sin and death, Jesus is victorious.  In walking with him during the Triduum and facing our own sins, we can share in his victory.

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT

2 APRIL 2017

          Saint Paul makes a distinction between those who are in the flesh and those who are in the spirit.  Those who are in the flesh have not turned toward Christ.  Those who are in the spirit are enlivened by the indwelling presence or “spirit” of the risen Christ.  If we understand Paul correctly, he is not telling us that our bodies are bad.  He is saying that belief in Jesus Christ reveals that there is much more to life than what we can perceive with our senses.  Living in the flesh brings death.  Living in the spirit brings life.

            For over a year now, the Elect have been turning toward Christ.  Participating in the Rite of Christian Initiation, some are children, others teens, and others adults.  As Catechumens, they have joined us for the Liturgy of the Word at Mass.  We have dismissed them to enter more deeply into the Mystery of God’s Word.  We have taught them the Mysteries of the faith.  We have prayed with them, shared with them, and welcomed them into our community.  Today at the 10:00 Mass, we prayed the third and final Scrutiny over them.  We prayed that they be freed of whatever might be dead in them, anything keeping them from turning more fully to Jesus Christ.  The priest laid hands on them as a gesture of support as they move to the Easter Vigil and emerge from the waters of baptism with all their sins forgiven.

            As we celebrate the third Scrutiny with them, today’s Scriptures challenge us to examine the quality of our own faith.  When we were baptized, the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwelled in us.  We began living in the spirit.  This Season of Lent has been calling us to evaluate the quality of that life in the spirit.  When we accepted ashes on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday, we admitted that we have sometimes slipped back into living in the flesh.  We were called to repent, to turn more fully to Jesus Christ, who dwells in our midst.

            We are constantly being tempted to live in the flesh.  When we live in the flesh, we turn inwardly toward ourselves and our own needs and ignore the needs of everyone else.  The story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead gives us insight into our current spiritual state.  We might be like Martha and Mary, who begin to trust that Jesus will eventually work things out.  We might be like Thomas, loyal to Jesus Christ and proclaiming faith in him, without having any idea what that means.  Or we might even be like Lazarus, so immersed in our own self-interests that we are in fact dead to the reality of Jesus Christ in our lives.

            When we find ourselves living in the flesh, we can do nothing on our own to emerge from the tombs we have created for ourselves.  Only Jesus Christ can call us out of being absorbed with ourselves and live again in his light.  The Sacrament of Reconciliation is an excellent tool for allowing Jesus to do just that.  Come and check out our new Reconciliation Rooms and allow Jesus Christ to call us from darkness into light.  There will be plenty of opportunities during Holy Week and into the Sacred Paschal Triduum.

            Jesus does not tell Martha and Mary that he will be the resurrection and the life some distant day in the future.  He says that he IS the resurrection and the life.  Like Lazarus, all of us must die.  The strongest faith in the world will not save us from physical death.  But Jesus hates death.  He hates the death of his friend Lazarus, he hates the terrifying prospect of his own death, and he hates our death.  That is why he invites us to live in the spirit, to embrace our role as faithful disciples.  Living in the spirit not only gives us a share in Christ and his life now.  Living in the spirit involves sharing in an abundant life forever.

FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT

26 MARCH 2017

          The great irony of today’s Gospel is that the man born into darkness comes to see the Light of Jesus Christ shining in the darkness.  The Pharisees are the religious leaders of the people.  They can see perfectly well.  But, as the man born blind comes to see (in John’s Gospel, to see is to believe), the Pharisees become more blind and choose to dwell in darkness.

            At the 10:00 Mass today, we celebrate the Second Scrutiny with the Elect.  Like the man born blind, they have opened their eyes to recognize Christ as the Light of the world.  We pray for them as they prepare to receive the light of Christ when they emerge from the waters of Baptism.  But, in praying for them, we need to be honest about the ways we fail to see (believe). I had a rude reminder of this a couple of weeks ago.  Completely fed up with all the confusion surrounding our “exile” in the gyms, I was complaining that people do not read, listen, or pay attention to instructions.  One day I went to Costco, because they sell pretty good coffee at a discount.  When I got to the checkout, I presented my Costco American Express card.  The young man told me that they no longer accept American Express cards.  He pointed to the sign which had been there for six months explaining the change.  Stricken, I slinked away wondering how my blindness to the light of Christ affects my life and the lives of so many people!

            It is my hope that our new church will support us in seeing the Light of Christ in our world.  The iconography was designed to do just that.  Let me explain the images:

1. The Good Shepherd at the top of the triumphal arch, with sheep coming to him from Bethlehem and Jerusalem.
2. His charge to Saint Peter to tend the flock, with the large image of Saint Peter on the left.
3. Above him are saints who have a connection to our parish interceding for us.
4. His charge to Saint Pius X to continue to tend the flock as a successor of Saint Peter, with the large image of Saint Pius on the right.
5. Above him are more saints with a connection to our parish interceding for us.
6. In the crossing are the evangelists, two of whom are apostles.  There are also 4 trees, reminding us that all our roads around here are named after trees.
7. In the nave are the other ten apostles.
8. Above the Altar is the cross, with the Beloved Apostle and the Mother of God standing on an anchor.  The anchor is the emblem for the Congregation of Holy Cross who founded this parish, and it is also part of the coat of arms of Saint Pius X.

As we continue our Lenten journey, we pray that the Lord will open our eyes to see him more clearly.

SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT

12 MARCH 2017

          Last Sunday, we heard from the third chapter of Genesis.  We heard that Adam and Eve were not content to be creatures.  They listened to the serpent’s lie that God was withholding something from them.  In eating the forbidden fruit, they took for themselves what belongs to God alone – the prerogative to determine what is right or wrong, what is good or bad.  In listening to the serpent, they realized how vulnerable they were and how badly they could mess things up when they tried to be gods themselves.  In the next chapters, things get worse.  Cain listened to his inner voice of jealousy and murdered Abel.  As people continued to listen to the serpent’s lies, the alienating effects of their sins disintegrated life so much that God regretted his creation.  He flooded the earth and started over again with Noah and his family.  But people continued to ignore the voice of God.  Instead of listening to God’s voice, they listened to their inner voices telling them to do whatever they wanted to do.  Chapter 11 ends with the Tower of Babel, symbolizing a complete breakdown of communication among tribes and nations. 

            Today, we hear from the twelfth chapter of Genesis.  We meet Abram, who lives in the land of the Chaldees (modern day Iraq).  When God speaks, Abram listens.  God tells him to leave his homeland and all his ties with his family and to trust that God will settle him into a new land and make him a father of a great nation.  The old man knows that this move is very difficult.  He will be tested many times over in trusting God’s promise.  In listening to God, Abram will be transformed into Abraham.  Like all of us, our father in faith was not perfect.  He had his flaws and weaknesses.  But over the next 1500 years, his listening to God will establish a pattern of listening.  Moses will listen to God and lead his people to freedom.  David will listen to God and establish a house that will endure.  The prophets will listen to God and speak God’s word to people who continue to make the mistake of assuming for themselves what belongs to God – the right to distinguish between good or bad, right or wrong.

            This listening culminates when the Eternal Word of God takes flesh and dwells in our midst.  Jesus listens to his Father.  In the desert, he resists the serpent’s temptations and remains faithful to the Father’s will.  He continues to teach his disciples that the promised Messiah will bring life and salvation through suffering and death.  But his disciples have trouble listening.  Today, this son of Abraham is transfigured in the presence of three of his disciples:  Peter, James, and John.  They receive a vision, a gift from God confirming that Jesus is the true Messiah, that he has fulfilled everything in the Law and the Prophets.  The vision opens their eyes to see and their ears to hear what is impossible for humans to see or hear on our own.  Pain and sorrow, suffering and death are not the end.  The journey will end with the resurrection.   The voice that had spoken from the heavens when Jesus was baptized repeats the same message:  “This is my Beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

            That same voice speaks to us today.  Like our first parents, we listen to the lies of the serpent telling us that we are the ultimate determiners of what is right or wrong.  Too often, we have believed that lie and made sinful choices that have caused alienation for ourselves and for others.  But we are also disciples of Jesus Christ.  As we continue our forty day journey, our Lenten disciplines can open our ears to listen more carefully to him.  We can get discouraged when life is unfair and beats us up.  Carrying the cross and trusting that God will take care of us often tests our faith.  Our journey will not end on Good Friday.  It will end on Easter Sunday.  We may not have seen the same vision on the Mountain of the Transfiguration.  But, we have been given the vision of faith: God’s gift of being able to see what is impossible for human sight.   

FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT

5 MARCH 2017

          Our Scripture readings begin in a garden.  Genesis tells us that God scooped up clay, breathed into it, and created us in his image.  As creatures, we were meant to be in perfect unity with God and each other, and we were meant to enjoy all the fruits of his creation.  God did not forbid Adam and Eve from eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because he was an authoritarian nitpicker who wanted them to watch what they ate.  He wanted them to know the difference between being a creator and being a creature.  That tree symbolizes equality with God.  The serpent told Eve that God was withholding something from them.  Both of our first parents listened to that lie and ate the fruit.  In other words, they were not satisfied with being creatures.  Instead of trusting that God is the final arbiter of what is good and what is evil, they wanted to assume that divine prerogative for themselves.  Once they realized their pride and arrogance, they became ashamed.  In their shame, they realized that were naked and vulnerable, and the intended unity was destroyed. That is what happens when we try to pretend that we are God, instead of being satisfied with being created in God’s image.

            Our Scripture readings end in a desert.  Jesus has just been baptized in the Jordan River.  The voice from heaven declared that he is God’s Beloved Son.  Even though Jesus is the Son of God, he shares in the clay of the earth in his humanity.  When the Spirit drives him into the desert, the prince of lies tries the same tactic that had worked with Adam and Eve in the garden.  He tries to get Jesus to assume for himself the prerogatives that belong to his Father alone.  If he is the Son of God, he can turn stones into bread to satisfy his hunger after fasting for forty days.  If he is the Son of God, he can throw himself off the parapet of the temple to prove his Father’s real love for him.  If he would bow down and worship the devil, he could have all the power in the world and not have to go through the humiliation of his passion and death.  In resisting those temptations in the desert, Jesus makes up his mind to trust in the will of the Father and fulfill his mission as the Suffering Servant.  He does not make the same mistake as our first parents.

            The Spirit has led us into this forty day Season of Lent to test us.  We resemble the people of Israel more than we resemble the Son of God.  They failed the testing of the evil one over and over again during their forty year journey from slavery to freedom in the desert.  When they were hungry, they could not trust in God and demanded food.  We too look for immediate fixes from God when life gets difficult.  When they did not get immediate results, they tested God and demanded signs from Moses.  When we are afflicted with sickness or death or failure, we tend to say the same thing.  “I will believe in you, Lord, if you take away my spouse’s cancer.”  “I will get involved in one of the parish ministries if I can get my own way.”  We may not fashion a golden calf, but we certainly give much more attention to the power of wealth or personal gain or popularity than we give to surrendering ourselves to the will of God.

            Through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we are reminded that we are made in the image of God and that we are creatures, not the creator.  We learn that God is the ultimate decider of good and evil.  We learn that we make ourselves naked and vulnerable when we attribute to ourselves the prerogatives of deciding what is right and wrong.  We learn the truth that Saint Paul proclaims to the Corinthians – that sin and death entered the world through one man, Adam.  Through Jesus Christ, the new Adam, we have been reconciled and given eternal life.  Finally, we learn that what began in the garden will end in another garden.  On Easter Sunday, the Gospel will tell us that the risen Christ reveals himself to Mary Magdalene in a garden and sends her to tell the good news of the resurrection to his disciples.