FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT

18 MARCH 2018

          When the prophet Ezekiel speaks to his people, they are in an impossible situation.  They have been languishing in exile in Babylon for years.  The Babylonians had killed their king, destroyed Jerusalem, and tore down the Temple, dashing their hopes of returning home.  He speaks to them, telling them that God can deliver them from impossible situations.  Walking through a field littered with dead bones, representing their current situation, he reminds them that God will always be faithful to the Covenants – those commitments of love enshrined in the floor of our church and featured in our Lenten Series on Tuesday nights.   God will raise up those dead bones of his people, breathe life into them as he had breathed life into clay and formed Adam, and return them to their homeland.  Ezekiel insists that God keeps his promises.  Their eventual return from exile will remind them of God’s faithfulness to his Covenants, even when they had been unfaithful to their end of the deal.

            When Jesus approaches the tomb of his friend, Lazarus is in another hopeless condition.  He has been dead for four days.  There is no chance of him being revived.  Martha and Mary yell at Jesus for not coming sooner.  (We tend to yell at people close to us!)  Jesus marches to the tomb filled with the deepest of emotions, because he hates death as much as Martha and Mary do.  He prays a prayer of thanksgiving, showing that his power comes from the Father, and orders Lazarus to come out of the tomb.  Like Lazarus, Jesus himself will die.  Like Lazarus, he will emerge from the tomb.  Unlike Lazarus, who will eventually die again, Jesus will be transformed through the power of the resurrection and never die again.  Jesus has shown his power over the most impossible condition of all:  death!

            On this Fifth Sunday of Lent, we pray the final scrutiny over the Elect at the 10:00 Mass.  At the Easter Vigil, they will renounce Satan and all his empty promises, promise to trust God’s presence in their lives, and enter into the waters of our Baptismal font, as Christ entered into the tomb.  They will emerge from those waters, sharing fully in his life.  In the Scrutiny, we ask the Lord to remove any final doubt in the power of Jesus Christ to bring them to new life.

            As we commend them to the Lord’s loving scrutiny and support them in their journey to the Sacramental life of the Church, The Lord scrutinizes us who are baptized!  We have emerged from the waters of baptism to share in the life of the risen Christ.  Every time we have failed to live our baptismal promises, every time we have failed to die to ourselves, we have denied the power of the resurrection.  In his discussion with Martha and Mary, Jesus does not promise to be the resurrection at some future time after their death.  He promises to be the resurrection and the life NOW!  We already share in his resurrection every time we die to our selfish interests, when we choose to be humble, when we let go of our pride, and when we face our fears and trust that he is present in our most impossible situations, including death.

            During these last two weeks of Lent, the best way we can prepare to celebrate the Lord’s resurrection is to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  As the Elect are freed from all sins in the waters of Baptism, we are freed from our sinful failure to live our Baptismal Promises when we bring our sins to the Confessional and trust in the Lord’s merciful forgiveness.  Come to the Penance Service this Tuesday evening.  The Service gives us a chance to reflect together on God’s Word, examine our conscience, and spend some time in silence.  There will be 21 priests available for individual confession and absolution.  Restored to our Baptismal innocence, we will make our own renunciation of sin and renew our baptismal promises at Easter, renewing our trust that Jesus Christ is with us in the most impossible situations.

FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT

11 MARCH 2018

          In writing to the Church in Ephesus, Saint Paul explains how disciples should live in a pagan culture.  He reminds the Ephesians that they were once darkness.  They were once blind to the person of Jesus Christ and the Gospel which he proclaimed.  Then he tells them that they are now light.  When they had emerged from the waters of baptism with their sins forgiven, they were united completely with Jesus Christ, the light of the world.  In the ancient Church, they were known as the “illuminati,” the illuminated ones who carried candles lit from the Easter Candle to represent their new life in Christ.

            Saint Paul’s advice to them is simple:  Don’t fall back into darkness.  Live as children of the light!  The verb which Saint Paul uses is much stronger than simply “to live.”  The word means “to walk”.  If they walk as children of the light, it is no temporary activity.  It is a way of life.  If they live their baptismal promises and walk as children of the light, the light of Christ will shine through them, illuminating a culture often mired in darkness and despair.

            Saint Paul then outlines three ways that walking as children of the light will make a difference.  First, their light will produce goodness, an intrinsic quality of the heart.  That goodness will manifest itself in works of kindness.  Second, their light will produce righteousness, sustaining a right relationship not only with Jesus Christ, but also with each other.  Third, their light will produce truth, not just words spoken, but also actions that are noticed.  Living the truth will make them constant, sincere, and free from falsehood.  Unlike the darkness of deceit and lies, the truth is trustworthy.  These three effects are direct gifts from God, graces given to those who walk as children of the light by living their baptismal promises.

            During this past year, we have been working with ten people in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults.   Like the man born blind, they have grown in their understanding of the person of Jesus Christ.  Through prayer, study, and fellowship, they have come to see him as more than a teacher, as more than a prophet who speaks the truth, and ultimately as the Christ, the Messiah whose bright light illuminates a darkened world.  They were chosen by Bishop Rhoades to spend this season of Lent as a final preparation.  We pray the second Scrutiny over these good people at the 10:00 Mass today, asking the Lord to remove any remaining darkness from them as they prepare to be illuminated through the waters of baptism, sealed with the Oil of Confirmation, and fed with the Body and Blood of Christ at the Easter Vigil.  Awakened from the waters of Baptism, they will reflect the light of Jesus Christ.

            As we pray over them, the Lord scrutinizes us!  We may have been illuminated through the waters of Baptism, but we have not always followed Saint Paul’s advice.  We have not always walked as children of the light.  As a result, we have diminished our acts of kindness, making our world even more mean spirited than it already is.  We have not always walked in right relationship with Jesus Christ and other people, causing even more polarization and divisions.  We have not always been truthful and added to an environment already confused about what is true and what is not.  As baptized members of the Body of Christ, we can be restored to our baptismal brilliance through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  We can bring our “deeds of darkness” to that Sacrament and allow the Lord to burn our sins away with the fire of his merciful love.  The Lord’s mercy will remind us that the light does not originate in us.  We can only reflect the true light, who is Christ.  Then we will join the newly baptized at Easter in renouncing Satan and all his empty promises and all his lies.  Then we can renew our baptismal promises and walk again as children of the light. 

THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT

4 MARCH 2018

          When Jesus encounters the woman at the well, he asks for a drink.  She gives him a drink, but receives much more in return from him.  As the story unfolds, it becomes obvious that he is the faithful bridegroom.  His ancestors had come to this well to woo prospective brides.  And that is what he is doing now.   In taking a drink from the woman, he defies cultural norms forbidding men to speak to women alone in public.  In taking a drink from a Samaritan, he makes himself ritually unclean.  He is reaching out to an outcast.  Her ancestors had pursued false gods, just as six different husbands had used her.  Jesus becomes the seventh, and perfect, bridegroom. 

            In talking with Jesus, the woman grows in her understanding of his identity.  At first, she recognizes him as a very kind man who treats her with respect.  Then she sees him as a prophet, someone who knows and speaks the truth about her sordid background.  Finally, she recognizes him as the Messiah, the promised Christ who has come at noon as the Light of the World to give eternal life to those who embrace him.  Then the woman does something dramatic.  She leaves her bucket at the well and becomes the first evangelist, telling everyone in the village about her encounter with the promised Messiah.

            For over a year now, we have been working in the Rite of Christian Initiation with ten young people and adults who have come to know Jesus Christ.  By joining us every Tuesday night for prayer, catechesis, faith sharing, and fellowship, they have given something very valuable:  the gift of their precious time and energy.  Now they have entered the Season of Lent as the Elect, chosen by Bishop Rhoades for the Sacraments of Initiation.  At the 10:00 Mass today, we prayed the first of the three Scrutinies over them.  We prayed that their thirst for the waters of Baptism would draw them closer to Jesus Christ, letting go of any other “water buckets” that might get in the way of a deep and abiding faith in the One who offers eternal life through the living waters of Baptism, the strengthening Chrism of Confirmation, and the abiding real presence of the Lord in the Eucharist.  Like the woman at the well, they are reaping much more than they have been sowing, because they look forward to being incorporated into the person of Jesus Christ and his Church and receiving the promise of eternal life.

            As we accompany these good people through the journey of Lent, the Lord challenges us to consider what we might be sowing.  Most of us have already renounced Satan and all his empty promises and lies.  We have already received the fullness of life through the waters of Baptism.  As the Scrutinies heal whatever keeps the Elect from growing closer to Christ, they convict us of not living our baptismal promises.  We have weakened or separated ourselves from the faithful Bridegroom by our sins.  By giving ourselves to the Lenten discipline of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we can distinguish a little more clearly those realities which can never fully satisfy our thirsts.  Those water buckets might include our thirst for pleasure or financial gain or fame any other reality which cannot last.  In leaving these water buckets behind, we can more readily associate ourselves with Jesus Christ, the source of life giving water.

            For us who are baptized, the Sacrament of Reconciliation invites us to bring our water buckets and leave them there with the Lord’s mercy.  Like the woman at the well, we can join the newly baptized at Easter and become evangelists ourselves, spreading the good news about our faithful bridegroom, Jesus Christ, who offers eternal life to all who believe.  When the Good News of Jesus Christ is spread, then the answer to the question asked in the Book of Exodus is clear.  Is the Lord in our midst or not?  Yes, he definitely is!

SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT

25 FEBRUARY 2018

          This story of Abraham about to sacrifice his son is horrifying.  The ancient author rushes through this story with sparse details.  Our modern minds cannot conceive of a situation in which a mentally stable father would think about sacrificing his only son.  (Can you imagine Abraham saying to Isaac later that year, “Isaac, let’s go on a father-son camping trip?”  No thanks, Dad, I’ll pass!)  Even worse, we wonder what kind of God would demand such a sacrifice!

            Our modern instincts miss the real point.  This passage is really about an all knowing and all loving God, and about a man who places his entire trust in God.  It is about a man who trusted that God would keep his promise to give him his own land.  It is about a man who trusted that God would make his descendants as numerous as the stars of the sky and the sands on the shore of the sea, even when he asks for the sacrifice of the son who is the link to that promise.

            Saint Paul takes this dynamic and turns it on its head.  He describes a Father who loves us so much that he has sacrificed his Son for our sakes.  The Father proves his love by allowing his beloved Son to suffer a horrible and humiliating death for us.  Saint Paul writes these words to encourage the Roman Church to put their trust in Jesus Christ, even when they are being persecuted and killed for their faith in his death and resurrection.

            Saint Mark has a similar intent in telling the story of the Transfiguration to disciples struggling with the cross.  After Jesus tells his disciples that they must share in his suffering, cross, and death, he takes them up a high mountain.  On that mountain, he is changed in appearance.  Surrounded by the two great heroes of the Old Testament, his clothes became so white that they are nearly blinded.  Peter wants to build three tents.  And then they hear a voice from the cloud affirming, “This is my beloved Son.  Listen to him.”

            The three disciples are given a mystical experience.  And that is what the Transfiguration is – an experience of spiritual things within the ordinary, using classic symbols to describe an experience that is impossible to describe in human language.  Mystical experiences place us on a mountain, where we have a clearer vision of how everything fits together.  Mystical experiences provide clarity of light – the ability to see beyond the ordinary.  Mystical experiences create a need for worship.  That is why Peter wants to build three tents.  His suggestion connects with the Jewish feast of Tabernacles – when they camped out in tents or tabernacles, like the Israelites had had camped out in tents in the desert and housed the tablets of the law in a Tabernacle.  The voice confirms that this is a very personal connection with God.

            Many of us have had mystical experiences at one time or another.  Today’s Gospel invites us to reflect on one of those times when we could not put what happened to us into words.  At the Mass when I was ordained a deacon, I had one of these experiences.  After the Archbishop of Cincinnati laid hands on me and a priest friend vested me, I was on a mountain.  Everything made sense.  I could see clearly.  After months of struggle, I had made the right decision.  Even though that feeling stayed with me for days, I could not put it into words.  God was with me!

            Be sure to reflect on a transfiguring moment in your life.  It may have allowed you to perceive the spiritual within ordinary appearances.  It may have called you to worship, to thank God.  You may have instinctively known that God loves you personally.  These mystical experiences convince us that the spiritual reality is greater and more beautiful than ordinary experiences.  We need to hold these mystical experiences in our hearts, because we too must carry the cross and die to ourselves.  As we continue our journey through Lent, these mystical experiences convince us that death is not the end.  The end is in resurrection!

FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT

18 FEBRUARY 2018

          In the passage preceding today’s Gospel, Jesus emerges from the waters of the Jordan, and a voice is heard from the heavens:  “you are my beloved Son.  On you my favor rests.”  Then, the Spirit drives Jesus out into the desert.  The desert is that barren wilderness home to wild beasts.  The desert is that place where the ancestors of Jesus had followed Moses for forty years to pass from slavery to freedom.  For them, the desert was a place of encounter with God, who formed the Covenant with them.  But the desert was also a place of testing, and they had flunked the test many times, not trusting in God and his promises.  It was through the desert that the Prophet Elijah traveled for forty days to renew the Covenant that had been abandoned. 

            Saint Mark tells us very little about the forty days Jesus spent in the desert.  He only says that Satan tempted him.  We can use our imaginations about the specific ways in which Satan tempted him.  We can be sure that he tested him to see if he really acts as God’s beloved Son, the Messiah who will conquer the power of Satan not by force or power, but by entering into death.  Because he is completely alone in the desert, no one is watching.  With no one watching, he could have taken care of his comfort with his divine powers.  But, he chose to remain faithful to his identity and to his mission by trusting the will of his Father.

            The Spirit has also driven us into the desert of Lent.  In this desert, we too are tested.  Are we faithful followers of Jesus Christ or not?  How do we behave when no one else is watching?  Do we display signs of God’s love that make the Kingdom of God a little more evident in our world?  Pope Francis lists a number of attitudes that keep us from manifesting the Kingdom more clearly:  selfishness and spiritual sloth, sterile pessimism, the temptation to self-absorption, constant warring among ourselves, and the worldly mentality that makes us concerned only for appearances, and thus lessens our missionary zeal.

            When we embrace acts of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving in this desert, we are making a commitment to free ourselves from these kinds of attitudes.  If we are serious, then we can expect a battle with Satan.  The devil, who is the father of lies and prince of darkness, wants us to be selfish and lazy.  He wants us to be pessimistic and absorbed with ourselves.  He loves it when we fight with each other and worry only about our appearance. That is why the focus of Lent is so clearly on baptism, on being incorporated into the Body of Christ.  We anoint those preparing for Baptism with the Oil of the Catechumens every week.  We will use the readings from Cycle A for the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Sundays of Lent, as we pray the Scrutinies over our Elect.  Those Rites for the Elect reveal the ways in which we have not been living our Baptismal promises and have turned away from an authentic encounter with Jesus Christ.

            In his letter, Saint Peter reminds us of the centrality of Baptism in this Season of Lent.  He reminds us that Baptism is not a removal of dirt, but a complete washing away of sin, just as the flood washed away the disintegrating effects of sin from the earth.  Those who will be baptized at the Easter Vigil will renounce Satan and all his empty promises.  They will emerge from the Baptismal Font completely one with Jesus Christ, with their sins washed away.  Then the rest of us, who have been baptized, will renew our Baptismal Promises.

            Just as no one knew what Jesus was doing in the desert, no one really knows what each of us is doing with our own Lenten exercises.  We can freely choose to use the Lenten disciplines to practice dying to our own concerns and comforts, trusting that we will share in the transforming life of Jesus Christ.  The Kingdom of God is definitely in our midst.  Lent opens our eyes to see how we have obscured that Kingdom.  Lent prepares us to renew our trust at Easter.

SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

11 FEBRUARY 2018

          The laws concerning skin diseases in the Book of Leviticus were designed to protect the community.  Because leprosy and other skin diseases were contagious, lepers were forced to rend their garments, declare that they were unclean, and stay away from contact with the community.  While these laws may have protected the community, they had terrible effects on the poor people suffering these ailments.  The leper who approaches Jesus not only suffers terrible physical pain, but he is completely alone.  Even worse, he is considered spiritually unclean.

            He breaks the Law of Moses by throwing himself at the feet of Jesus, because he trusts in the power of Jesus to heal him.  Seeing his faith and having pity on him, Jesus also breaks the Law of Moses and touches the leper.  Restored to health and intimacy with his family, the man spreads the good news of his healing to anyone he meets. 

            On this last Sunday before Lent, the Scriptures invite us to reflect on the way we have made ourselves lepers.  We become lepers when we fail to live our Baptismal Promises, when we separate ourselves from God or other people through our sins.  By embracing the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we throw ourselves at the feet of Jesus and ask for healing.  That is why Lent provides a perfect opportunity to renew our stewardship of prayer, the most important of the three dynamics of stewardship.  Please listen carefully to Stephanie Allen, as she shares the ways in which prayer has transformed her life.

Stewardship of Prayer – SPX 2018

Thank you Fr. Bill/Eric.

Good Morning/Evening. My name is Stephanie Allen and my husband Dan and I have been parishioners of St. Pius for over 6 years and we have 4 little boys, ages 6,4,3 and 10 months. 

When I was asked about speaking today about the Stewardship of Prayer, my first thought was, how am I supposed to talk about Prayer when it can be such a deeply personal and different experience for everyone?  But then, I prayed about it.  And I felt God telling me that it was going to be just what I needed.  Witnessing about one’s prayer life is a scary thing.  Do I pray correctly? Do I pray enough? I got interrupted again, did that count?  As I go through my daily life, I am constantly interrupted.  As a stay at home mom of young kids, I rarely have a quiet moment, or a moment to myself.  I have had to adapt and modify my prayer life.  Where I used to be able to say a decade or more of the Rosary easily, I now can find myself saying “Hail Mary…” and stopping there.  I modified by downloading an app on my phone that prays the mysteries of the Rosary and I can pray along while driving, doing dishes, or folding laundry.  The mundane becomes sacred because I choose to make it so.  I am choosing to create these sacred moments so that my boys see and can hear me talk to God.  My goal as a wife and mother is to get my husband and our children to heaven.  Prayer is my tool to do that.

One thing I have consciously done in our house is to display some of our favorite scriptures in art.  To be surrounded in scripture makes it extremely difficult to forget God’s words.  My favorite verse hangs in my kitchen.  1 Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to “Pray Without Ceasing.”  To see this verse reminds me that even a quick, Come Holy Spirit, or Help me Lord, that I am praying.  I am speaking to God and I know whenever and however I talk to Him, He hears me. 

            The largest change I have noticed in my prayer life in the past several years, is on days that I do NOT pray, my day is more unraveled, less structured, angry thoughts and words have an easier time creeping into my head, and I have less focus and less patience.  When I get up and focus my morning with prayer, a short Morning Offering, a scripture reading, or sometime just  ‘Good Morning God, This is your Day’, my attitude, demeanor are more positive, my spirit is uplifted and I know that is God working within me.  God wants me to have a great day, and I need only ask Him to help me.

            Two of the most impactful moment of prayer for me came from when others were praying for me and I knew of their prayers.  The night before our wedding, Dan and I received a Spiritual Bouquet from friends and family, near and far, telling us how they would be praying for us on our wedding day.  Dan and I sat in the chapel reading these prayers and intentions and we could feel the Spirit of God come around us, blessing us and our marriage through the prayers being said for us.  The second came after the birth of our third son. Nicholas was born with some significant health issues and as soon as we were able, we started telling people and trying to explain what was going to happen.  We were both so overwhelmed with 2 other little boys and now a third that was going to need a lot more than a typical newborn.  Immediately people said, We’re praying for you.  They prayed and brought food, prayed and hugged us, prayed and watched our other boys, they prayed through masses and candles, and they prayed over a quilt as they made it so that I could hold it and pray along with them as Nicholas was in surgery.  Knowing so many people were praying for our family each time brought me such peace and comfort.  Prayer is an intimate moment and praying for others shows people how much you truly care and love them when you are willing to ask God to watch over and bless them.

            My prayer life is continually changing and adapting to my current stage of life.  Prayer can sometimes be hard.  It can be hard to find and make time for it, and it can feel awkward and uncomfortable when we’ve been away from it for a while. But Prayer is our direct connection to God.  He is always there waiting for us and will help us in our prayer life we just ask Him.

FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

4 FEBRUARY 2018

          Last Sunday, we heard that the people in the synagogue at Capernaum were amazed, because they heard Jesus teaching with authority.  Unlike other Rabbis, Jesus did not base his teaching on the authority of others.  The demon expelled by Jesus knew exactly why Jesus taught in this way.  He knew that Jesus was the Son of God who had come to destroy what demons love best:  sin and death.  Today, Jesus expresses that authority again by grasping the hand of Peter’s mother-in-law. During this flu season, many of us know how a fever can turn us into ourselves.  So Jesus helps her up.  Saint Mark uses the same Greek verb to describe the Father raising Jesus from the dead.  Peter’s mother-in-law has already experienced a foretaste of the mystery of the Lord’s dying and rising in her healing.  His healing power frees her from concern for her welfare to the welfare of others.  Saint Mark will use that same word two more times to speak of the humble service embraced by followers of Jesus, who came not to be served, but to serve.   

            When the risen Christ reached out to Saul on the road to Damascus, he helped him up from his narrow focus on the Law and himself.  Completely changed by that experience, the Apostle Paul did the same thing that Peter’s mother-in-law did.  He died to himself and gave himself in humble service to proclaim the Good News to anyone who would listen.  In a culture where a majority of its citizens found themselves as slaves, Saint Paul proudly announces that he has made himself a slave to all.  He did not become a slave by having his home town invaded.  Nor did he become a slave because his parents could not pay their bills.  He freely enslaved himself to the mission of telling the Gospel to as many people as possible.  His Jewish brothers and sisters had heard stories of people speaking for God and bringing glad tidings.  His glad tidings centered on Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of glad tidings.  The Gentiles had often heard the glad tidings of a military victory won by the armies of the emperor.  Paul gives them the glad tidings that Jesus Christ has won the ultimate victory over sin and death.

            In just a couple of weeks, we will enter into Lent and spend forty days preparing to renew our faith in the Mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in a special way at the Sacred Paschal Triduum.  We celebrate that Mystery at this Mass and we are sent out to live the Mystery we have encountered in our daily lives.

            Saint Mark is one of the four Evangelists who proclaimed the glad tidings some forty years after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  But evangelizing did not stop with the writing of the Gospels.  We too are called to evangelize, to tell everyone about the glad tidings which we have received and experienced.  We do that by our example – by the way we welcome strangers, or forgive those who have hurt us, or respond to the needs of the poor, dying to ourselves out of love for those who depend on us.  We also need to talk about our faith.  That is exactly what is happening this weekend with the men who are participating in the Christ Renews His Parish Retreat.  They are learning to talk about their faith in the ways that Saint Paul talks about.  In becoming all things to all, he entered into the lives of those who listened to him.  He did not beat them over the head with the truth, but spoke boldly and kindly to anyone who would listen.  All of us need to learn how to speak boldly and kindly about our faith. 

We live in a world that knows the pain and suffering described in the first reading from the Book of Job.  Jesus Christ did not take away that pain or explain that suffering.  He entered into it and gave us hope.  That is certainly glad tidings, and we cannot keep those tidings to ourselves!