FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT

17 MARCH 2024

 

            Saint Paul writes to the Romans to tell them that they are no longer in the flesh.  Those in the flesh cannot please God.  Those in the spirit are joined to the Body of Christ when they are baptized.  In contrasting flesh with spirit, Saint Paul is not saying that our bodies are bad and our souls are good.  Those in the flesh cannot recognize any reality beyond what they experience with their five senses.  Those in the spirit, on the other hand, have come to believe in what is beyond their senses:  God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit inviting them to put their trust in much more than they could ever experience with their senses.  Those in the spirit accept the Paschal Mystery and are confident that they too can share in the greatest Mystery:  the resurrection from the dead of Jesus Christ.

            Today, Jesus works his seventh and greatest miracle in the Gospel of John.  Even though he loves his friend, Lazarus, he waits two more days before going to Bethany.  When he arrives, Martha, the sister of Lazarus, chides him for not being there.  Good friends can yell at another.  Her sister, Mary, joins her with the same rebuke.  When Jesus asks her, Martha says that she believes that Jesus is the resurrection and the life.  After grieving over the death of his friend, Jesus prays to the Father and calls Lazarus from the tomb.  Not too much later, Jesus will enter that same death.  Unlike Lazarus, who must die again, Jesus will have his trust in the Father rewarded by being raised from the dead, never to die again.

            At the 10:00 Mass today, we celebrate the third and last Scrutiny with our Elect.  We will lay hands on them and pray that they will be protected from the temptations of the devil. In their year-long formation, they have been preparing to die to the flesh when they enter into the watery tomb of baptism.  As they emerge, they will share fully in the person of Jesus Christ.  One with Christ through his Spirit given in Confirmation, they will share his promise of resurrection. 

            It is important for the rest of us to hear today’s readings and deepen our faith as we prepare to renew our baptismal promises at Easter. Saint Paul says that even though the promise of the resurrection is given to us in baptism, the effects of the promise are not guaranteed.  We can turn our backs on that promise and return to living in the flesh.  That is why we embrace the disciplines of Lent to turn our faith more completely to the One who was raised from the dead.

            When we pray the Nicene Creed, we reaffirm our faith in the promise of our bodily resurrection.  Father Alexander Schmemann helps us to clarify what Saint Paul is talking about and how to understand the importance of our bodies as we grow in faith.  “In the long and difficult effort of spiritual recovery, the Church does not separate the soul from the body.  The whole person has fallen away from God; the whole person is to be restored, the whole person is to return.  The catastrophe of sin lies precisely in the victory of the ‘flesh’ – the animal, irrational, the lust in us – over the spiritual and the divine.  But the body is glorious, the body is holy, so holy that God himself ‘became flesh.’  Salvation and repentance then are not contempt for the body or neglect of it, but restoration of the body to its real function as the expression and the life of the spirit, as the temple of the priceless human soul.”

            As members of the Body of Christ, we use our Lenten disciplines of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving to draw us away from the animal, irrational, and lust in us to embrace more fully the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Two weeks ago, the woman at the well taught us that Jesus Christ is the Way.  Last week, the man born blind showed us Christ as the Truth.  Today, Lazarus reveals Christ as the Life.  Jesus promises resurrection.  We must remain open to that promise.

 FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT

10 MARCH 2024

 

            In his Letter to the Ephesians, Saint Paul reminds them that they were once darkness.  Once they were baptized, their identity was fundamentally changed.  As members of Christ’s Body, they are now light in the Lord.  That light does not come from within them.  It comes from their union with Jesus Christ, the light of the world.  It shines through them when they keep their baptismal promises.  He warns them to live their identity and avoid slipping back into darkness.

           We do not know the name of the man born blind from birth in today’s Gospel.  However, he has spent his entire life in darkness.  Just as God had formed Adam from the clay of the earth, Jesus makes clay out of his life-giving saliva and rubs it on the man’s eyes.  After being sent to wash in the Pool of Siloam, he comes back able to see. 

            When the disciples ask why the man was born blind, Jesus tells them that it does not matter.  What matters is that Jesus has made him see.  But then the man gets hassled.  He tells his neighbors that he had been blind, but that Jesus healed him.  They take him to the Pharisees, who argue with each other whether Jesus is from God or not.  Next, the Pharisees interrogate his parents, who do not answer their questions for fear of being kicked out of the synagogue.  Next, he faces the harsh interrogation of the Pharisees, who throw him out, because he insists that Jesus must be from God.  Finally, he sees Jesus with his physical eyes.  Jesus reveals himself to this man who is no longer blind.  His identity is fundamentally changed.  He worships Jesus and becomes a person who is able to see the truth about Jesus Christ.

            At the 10:00 Mass, we celebrate the Second Scrutiny with our Elect, as they prepare to receive the Sacraments of Initiation at the Easter Vigil.  To use Saint Paul’s analogy, they had been darkness.  They may have been able to see with their physical eyes.  But their eyes of faith have been gradually opened during their yearlong formation to see the truth about Jesus Christ.  Once they are baptized, their identity will be fundamentally changed.  They will become one with Christ to allow his light to shine through them.  In the Scrutiny, they are not harshly interrogated in the way that the Pharisees grilled the man born blind.  The celebrant  calls them forward with their sponsors.  He prays over them and lays his hands on their heads.  The Scrutinies are celebrated in order to deliver the elect from the power of sin and Satan, to protect them from temptations, and give them strength in Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life.  They are intended to continue their conversion and deepen their resolve to hold fast to Christ the light and to carry out their decision to love God above all as children of the light.

            As the Elect prepare for the Sacraments of Initiation, we the baptized need to hear these readings.  Even though we became light when we were baptized, we sometimes slip back into darkness.  In our sins, we lose the ability to see as God sees.  We become like Jesse, who makes judgments based only on physical stature.  We make our own judgments instead of trusting in God’s judgment.  The Church does not celebrate the Scrutinies with us.  Instead, she gives us the  Sacrament of Reconciliation to heal our spiritual blindness so we can see more clearly with eyes of faith.  Restored to the fundamental way we have been changed at Baptism, the light of Christ can shine more clearly through us as we prepare to renew our Baptismal promises at Easter.

            Last week, the woman at the well taught us that Jesus is the Way.  Today, we learn that Jesus is the Truth.  Next Sunday, Lazarus will help us understand that Jesus is the Life.  The Season of Lent helps the Elect to fully embrace the Lord as the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  Lent invites the rest of us to examine our consciences and admit the ways we do not see in faith.  Come to the Lenten Penance Service on Tuesday to be conformed more fully into being light.      

 

THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT

3 MARCH 2024

 

          In his letter to the Romans, Saint Paul speaks of God’s incredible love poured out into our hearts.  This love has been given to us through the Holy Spirit.  We have not earned this love.  We do not deserve this love.  In fact, the most remarkable manifestation of this love is expressed in the willingness of Jesus Christ to die for us, even though we are sinners.

            In the Gospel, Saint John uses the story of the woman at the well to present this incredible gift of God’s love being poured out for us.  Jesus approaches an unnamed woman, a hated Samaritan who comes to the well at noon to avoid the other women.  He treats her with respect, even though Jewish men would never converse with Samaritan women.  After asking her for a drink from the well, Jesus speaks of the life-giving water that he will give.  As they talk, she is amazed that Jesus does not condemn her for her previous six husbands.  He is the seventh bridegroom who truly loves her and who will satisfy her deepest thirsts.  She gradually comes to believe that he is the long-promised Messiah.  She leaves her jar, her most valuable possession, to bring the good news to the rest of the town.

            This is what has been happening to our Elect.  They have been meeting for months to explore the possibility that Jesus Christ is inviting them to have his life-giving love poured out to them in Baptism.  They have received catechesis.  They have learned that God has always poured out his love.  That is the point of the first reading from the Book of Genesis.  When the Israelites are complaining because they have no water, Moses strikes the rock to provide water.  Instead of throwing rocks at Moses, the pouring out of water tells them that God has not abandoned them and continues to pour out his love for them.  The Elect have prayed together and with us at Mass.  They have been formed into the traditions of the Church.  Bishop Rhoades elected (or chose) them to spend this Lenten Season as a time of Purification and Enlightenment to prepare for the Sacraments of Initiation at the Easter Vigil.

            At the 10:00 Mass, we celebrate the First Scrutiny.  Of all the Rites of the Church, the Scrutinies are the most misunderstood.  In English, we tend to think of “scrutiny” as a form of harsh interrogation.  That is not what happens.  The priest calls the Elect forward with their sponsors.  He prays over them and lays his hands on their heads.  The Scrutinies are celebrated in order to deliver the elect from the power of sin and Satan, to protect them from temptations, and give them strength in Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life.  The Scrutinies are intended to complete the conversion of the Elect and deepen their resolve to hold fast to Christ and to carry out their decision to love God above all.    

            The Scripture Readings for these three Sundays have been used for centuries to purify and enlighten the Elect during Lent.  That is why we switch to the A Cycle readings, because we are a parish preparing these good people for the Sacraments of Initiation.  Even though we celebrate the Scrutinies only at the 10:00 Mass, all of us baptized people hear these readings as a way of reflecting on our own preparations to renew out Baptismal promises at Easter.  The love of Jesus Christ may have been poured out in our hearts at Baptism.  But, we have not always lived our baptismal promises.  We have tried to satisfy our thirst with lots of other stuff.  We embrace the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving to empty ourselves of those ways that do not ultimately satisfy.  We join the woman at the well and our Elect in renewing our desire to be reconciled to Jesus Christ, who is the Way.  Next Sunday, we join the man born blind to see Jesus as the truth.  On the Fifth Sunday of Lent, Lazarus teaches us to see Jesus as the life.  Jesus is the way, the truth, and the light.  Lent invites us to embrace him more completely.

 

SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT

25 FEBRUARY 2024

 

          Abraham is our father in faith.  God had called him to leave his native land of Ur, which is in modern day Iraq.  He trusted God’s promise that he would be given he would be given a land and children of his own.  When he occupied that land, he continued to trust God’s promise that he would be the father of a great nation.  As his wife, Sarah, and he grew older and beyond child bearing age, they began to wonder whether God would keep this second promise.  But in their old age, they conceived a son and named him Isaac. 

            But now God tells him to sacrifice his only son.  No matter what ancient circumstances may have contributed to this request, God’s command frightens us.  A very talented lector read this passage as the second reading at the Easter Vigil. She was able to express the horror of a loving father taking his only son to Mount Moriah to sacrifice him.  But God prevents Abraham from sacrificing his only son and sends a ram to take his place.  This is not an account of a father willing to kill his son.  It is the account of a man who places his entire life in the hands of an all-knowing, all loving, and ever-present God.  On Mount Moriah, Abraham realizes that God will keep his promise.  That covenant in our center aisle depicts his descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sands on the shore of the sea.           

In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus continues to maintain his trust in his Father, who is all-knowing, all loving, and ever present in his life.  In his early ministry in Galilee, the religious leaders disgraced Jesus and accused him of being a fraud.  When he reaches Mount Tabor, he takes Peter, James, and John up the mountain by themselves.  There, his Father reveals the truth about him.  He is the fulfillment of all the promises made through Moses and Elijah.  Just as they had suffered for being authentic prophets speaking for the Lord, he too would suffer.  But he is greater than they were, because he is the only beloved Son of the Father.  It is on Mount Tabor that Jesus knows that he can trust his Father’s love and promise, even in his death on the cross.

As much as Peter wants to build three tents and remain in this transfigured state, Jesus leads them down the mountain to continue their journey to another mountain.  On Mount Calvary, the Father will allow him to be sacrificed out of total and complete gift of himself to everyone, even those who rejected him.  The Father commands the disciples to listen to his Son, who trusts his father’s promise that he would raise him from the dead.  Jesus tells them that they should not tell anyone about what happens on Mount Tabor.  It will only make sense after his own sacrifice and his transformation in the resurrection.

Saint Paul echoes this faith when he writes to the Romans.  He says that God is for us and asks, “Who can be against?”  God has shown his incredible love by not sparing his own Son.  There are plenty of people and life situations that can be against us.  Saint Paul knows that and invites us to maintain the same faith of Abraham and Jesus Christ himself. 

We hear the account of the Transfiguration on this Second Sunday of Lent each year.  The Lord invites us to renew our trust that we can walk with him on the road to Calvary, trusting that we can share in his resurrection.  Authentic faith always involves some kind of sacrifice.  We sacrifice our wants, our desire to take care of ourselves, and our conception of who God is out of trust that God can give us more than we can ever imagine.  We fast in order to open ourselves to increase our hunger for God alone.  We pray to express our gratitude for all God has given us, especially for being called disciples.  We give alms to connect with those who are hungry.  In whatever crosses or sacrifices we may encounter, God keeps his promises.          

 

 

FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT

18 FEBRUARY 2024

 

          The Season of Lent has been used for centuries to prepare Catechumens for Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist.  Our Catechumens have been meeting every week for months with their sponsors, support people, and formation teams.  Their time of formation has included catechesis, prayer, retreats, and different methods of helping them to understand what their relationship with Jesus Christ will look like once they are baptized.

            They were marked with ashes on Ash Wednesday.  Next Sunday, we will send them to Bishop Rhoades at Saint Matthew Cathedral for the Rite of Election.  He will elect (or choose) them to spend these forty days as a time of Purification and Enlightenment.  Their motives for seeking Baptism are being purified.  They may have begun the process to please a loved one.  Now, they are beginning to understand that the Lord is calling them to the Sacraments. 

            Our Scripture readings in Lent help to enlighten them about Baptism.  The First Letter of Peter uses the story of the flood to help them understand.  The first two chapters of Genesis use very simple stories written to tell a profound truth.  Everything that God created is very good.  God created humans in his own image to be in absolute union with him.  But our first parents shattered that union with their disobedience and pride.  In the following chapters, people’s sins devastated the beauty of God’s creation.  In the flood, God destroys the wicked and washes away the corrupted world.  But, God saves eight people in the ark and gives the rainbow as a sign of his Covenant with them (the third covenant in the center aisle of our church).

            Like the flood, the waters of baptism wash away the sins of those who are baptized.  When the newly baptized people emerge from the watery tomb, they are one with Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead on the eighth day.  They are incorporated into a new ark: The Church, often known as the Barque of Peter.  They will continue to grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ in this boat built on the foundation of Peter’s Profession of Faith, even though it is often tossed abound by the storms of life. 

            Our Scripture readings do not speak to our Catechumens alone.  They speak to all of us, who need to hear the message.  We who are baptized have had our sins washed away, whether they were original sin or actual sins.  We were incorporated into the person of Jesus Christ and joined the rest of the baptized in the Church, this Barque of Peter.  But we have not always been faithful to our baptismal promises.  Like Peter himself, we too often have chosen to become stumbling blocks rather than growing more in union with Christ, the rock of our salvation.

            Saint Mark’s account of the temptation of Jesus in the dessert helps us to understand that Lent is also about our baptism.  The Spirit drives Jesus into the desert immediately after his baptism in the Jordan.  He enters the desert not because he needs to repent.  He enters that place of testing because he shares completely in our human nature.  In the desert, the ruler of the present age (Satan) encounters the Spirit-filled Son for the first time.  Unlike his ancestors who failed their forty-year testing in the desert, Jesus resists all temptations and continues his battle with Satan until his final victory on the cross.

            The Spirit has led us into this forty-day Season of Lent.  We may be sincere about embracing the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.  We are off to a good start.  But we will be tested.  We may fail to be faithful to the disciplines.  Even if we fail, we can grow in an awareness of our own vulnerability and become more convinced that we need a savior.  We cannot save ourselves.  Throughout these forty days, the Lord’s mercy will prevail, and we can renew our Baptismal promises with the newly baptized at Easter.

 

SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

SOLEMNITY OF THE DEDICATION OF THE CHURCH

11 FEBRUARY 2024

 

          Physical buildings have long been important to the descendants of Abraham.  King Solomon built the first temple after the death of his father, David.  Our first reading describes the dedication of that temple.  As part of the ceremony, Solomon placed the ark of the covenant in the Holy of Holies.  The ark contained the two tablets of the Law given to Moses at Mount Sinai.  So many sheep and oxen were sacrificed that they could not be counted.  In the newly built temple, animal sacrifices would occur on the altar in front of the Holy of Holies.  People would bring animals valuable to them to be slaughtered and burned on the altar.  As the smoke of the holocaust went into the sky, believers would ask God to accept the animal sacrifice as a sign of their desire to be in union with God.

            When Bishop Rhoades dedicated our new church seven years ago, no one brought oxen or sheep to be sacrificed.  That would have been a mess!  Instead, those who gathered for the dedication brought their individual sacrifices.  They had sacrificed a first and generous portion of their treasure for the building of this beautiful structure.  When Solomon dedicated his temple, the clouds of incense were so intense that he knew that the Lord was present.  The Lord remains present in our church in the Tabernacle and in the Sacramental life of the Church.  Whenever we celebrate the Eucharist in this church, the Lord’s sacrificial death on the cross out of love for us is made present in our liturgical remembering. 

            Today’s Gospel takes place in another space sacred to pagans.  Jesus and his disciples are standing in front of a shrine dedicated to the pagan god, Pan.  The shrine is cut into a massive rock face.  It is here that Simon Peter answers Jesus’s question about his identity.  Peter does not make a good guess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.  He has received divine inspiration.  In response, Jesus changes Simon’s name to Peter, which means “rock.”  It will be on the rock of Saint Peter’s profession of faith that Jesus will build his Church.  No matter how often Peter and his successors or other members of his Church may fail and become stumbling blocks, Jesus promises that his Church will endure.

            We are the Church gathered to celebrate the anniversary of dedication of our physical church today.  Saint Paul reminds us that we are God’s building.  We are that spiritual temple, not built from physical stones.  We were incorporated into God’s living temple when we were baptized.  We not only give thanks to God for our beautiful physical church.  We give thanks to God for forming us on the foundation of Jesus Christ and breathing his Spirit within us.

            But we also know that we have not always lived our lives as a temple of the Holy Spirit.  Like so many of Peter’s successors, we have failed to conform ourselves completely to Christ.  In our actions and in how we have failed to act, we have not behaved as the temple of the Holy Spirit.  That is why this Season of Lent is so important.  On Wednesday, we will be marked with the ashes that remind us that we will return to dust.  In the light of the reality of our death, we commit ourselves to fasting, prayer, and almsgiving as a way of admitting our sins and allowing the mercy of God to build us up again.  For our Catechumens, these forty days will be a time of Purification and Enlightenment, a time for their final preparation for the Sacraments of Initiation.

            Please read the information in the bulletin and online about taking advantage of the Season of Lent.  As God’s living temple in this physical temple, we will allow the Lord to continue to form us into his Body, the Temple that replaced the temples of ancient Israel.

 

 

FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

4 FEBRUARY 2024

 

          Today, Saint Mark gives us a snapshot into the daily mission of Jesus in Galilee.  He preaches the Good News and proclaims the coming of the Kingdom of God.  He grasps the hand of Simon’s mother-in-law and heals her.  In gratitude, she becomes a humble servant.  After sunset, Jesus drives out demons, demonstrating his power to bring people out of darkness into the bright light of the Kingdom of God.  Instead of looking for praise, he goes off by himself to spend time in prayer.  Responding to Simon’s invitation, he moves to the nearby villages to continue his preaching and driving out demons.

            This snapshot gives us an insight into how disciples can embrace stewardship as a way of life.  In response to the gift of the Kingdom of God, we commit ourselves to be humble servants, as Simon’s mother-in-law does.  We will renew our commitment to stewardship of service during the Easter Season.  We take time to enter into the stewardship of prayer, which we renewed at Advent.  Today, all of us are invited to renew our stewardship of sacrificial giving.  Saint Paul makes a sacrificial gift of preaching the Gospel to the Corinthians free of charge.  We are invited to take a close look at the financial blessings we have received from God and commit ourselves to giving a first and generous portion back to God.

            Please read the materials in your stewardship of sacrificial giving packet.  Pray over your decision to make a commitment for one year.  Please listen to Tim Will, who will talk about his commitment to sacrificial giving as a way of expressing his family’s profound gratitude to God.

 

My wife Lindsay and I moved to Granger and joined the Saint Pius X community in March of 2014 when our oldest son James was 10 months old. On Monday we closed on our house. On Wednesday, we bought a new car. And on Friday, we found out we were expecting our second child, June. 

 

I like to joke that it was the most exciting (and expensive) week of our lives. 

 

Over the last 10 years our family has grown to include four more children (Jonathan, JT, Jack, and Josie) and each year we have been called—just like every other member of Saint Pius—to embrace Stewardship as a way of life by committing ourselves to prayer, service, and sacrificial giving.

 

Every night when we sit down for dinner, we make an effort to go around and play “High-Low-Buffalo” where everyone talks about our “High” (best part of the day), “Low” (a not-so-good part of the day), and our “Buffalo” (a surprising part of the day).

 

I can’t help but notice so many of the conversations that flow from this one simple prompt revolve around this place—Saint Pius—and so many of the wonderful ways the Parish community has wrapped its proverbial arms around our family.

 

From our 5-year old JT telling us that the best part of his day at the Little Lions preschool was going to Atrium for religion class, or 7-year old Jonathan saying the high point of his Sunday was helping to set up the placemats for the Knights of Columbus Pancake Breakfast, or Lindsay sharing about how she met a new mom friend at Kids of the Kingdom—it’s so evident to me how Saint Pius has blessed and impacted our family in so many positive ways.

 

Thinking about that—even right now—fills me with an immense sense of gratitude for this place, and all of the good our Parish community is trying to accomplish through our different initiatives, ministries, and outreach programs.

 

When we approach Sacrificial Giving from this sense of gratitude, rather than one of sheer responsibility or duty, it transforms our commitment from something that we feel like we “have to” do every year into something that we “get to” do to sustain our mission so that multitudes of other people— such as those in our local community, our sister parish of St. Adalbert’s, and the families of Fr. Larry’s parish in Uganda—can experience that same sense of Christian community that we are blessed to have here at Saint Pius.

 

And so I’d just like to offer this in closing. Before you pick up your Stewardship of Sacrificial Giving Commitment Form this year, take a moment to do a brief mental inventory of all the people, events, and graces that have filled your life—both directly and indirectly—because of Saint Pius.

 

Then, with gratitude at the forefront of your mind and a fresh realization that all of those good things come from God, complete your commitment for this year.

 

I’m confident it will transform your experience. It certainly has for our family.

 

Thank you for your time today, and for your continued generosity toward our Saint Pius community.