THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT

24 MARCH 2019

          Saint John tells us that Jesus enters a Samaritan village and sits down near the well, because he is thirsty from the journey.  From a human perspective, that makes sense.  But there is a deeper meaning about Jesus, the Incarnate Word who dwells among us.  Jesus is thirsty for much more than physical water.  He is thirsting for the faith of this Samaritan woman, who remains unnamed.  She is both a Samaritan (a radical enemy of the Jewish people) and a woman (at the bottom of the social standings).  Coming alone at noon to draw water to avoid the sharp tongues of her neighbors, she represents anyone seeking to satisfy their ultimate thirsts.

            There is a group of people in our midst who have responded to the Lord’s thirst for their faith.  Our Elect (those preparing for Baptism at the Easter Vigil) have spent many hours during this past year reflecting on the mystery of Jesus Christ.  Like the woman at the well, they have gradually seen Jesus not only as a great and compassionate human being.  They have come to understand that he is a prophet, and ultimately the Messiah, the Son of God.  At the 10:00 Mass, we will pray the first Scrutiny over them.  This Scrutiny is meant to uncover, and then heal all that is weak, defective, or sinful in their hearts.  It delivers them from the power of sin and Satan, to protect them against temptation, and to give them the strength of Jesus Christ. 

              The Lord is also thirsting for our faith.  We may have become one with him when we were baptized.  But, like the Samaritan woman, we have been trying to satisfy our thirsts with many options which ultimately fail.  Her five husbands represent the five foreign gods that the Samaritans had been worshipping, along with the sixth with whom she is living.  Our “gods” are many:  fame, wealth, sexual pleasures, food or drink, fancy cars, or big homes.  None of these things are bad in themselves.  But they bring limited happiness and cannot satisfy the ultimate thirst that only Jesus Christ can satisfy.

            Once the Samaritan woman realizes that Jesus is a prophet who speaks the truth, she wants him to solve the biggest argument between Samaritans and Jews.  “On which mountain should we worship,” she asks, “Mount Gerizim here in Samaria, or Mount Zion in Jerusalem?”  He tells her that true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth.  That is what we are doing here.  In our worship, the Lord speaks to us as directly and with as much love as he speaks to the Samaritan woman.  He invites us to identify how we have failed to seek only him as the ultimate source of life giving water.  He feeds us with his Body and Blood, so that we can do the will of the Father.  Just as the Samaritan woman rushes back to the town to tell everyone about the encounter she has had with the Messiah, the Lord invites us to rush out of this church (after the final blessing and dismissal of course) to do the same.  The woman leaves her water jar, her most prized possession.  We leave whatever cannot ultimately satisfy to become true evangelists, true bearers of the Good News of Jesus Christ to our world.

            In their journey through the Sinai Desert on their way to the Promised Land, the Israelites ask a critical question:  “Is the Lord in our midst or not?”  Moses answers by striking the rock and giving his people water to drink.  Jesus Christ answered that question when we passed through the waters of Baptism.  Yes, he is definitely in our midst.  He is calling us to prayer and fasting to identify what cannot satisfy our deepest thirsts and to give alms as a way of moving beyond our own selfish interests and pursuits.  At the end of our journey through the desert of Lent, we will hear from this same Gospel of John the final words of Jesus dying on the cross:  “I thirst.”  He thirsts for our conversion, our turning more completely toward him.  He thirsts for the renewal of our Baptismal promises at Easter.

SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT

17 MARCH 2019

          What happens to Abram in today’s first reading seems strange to us.  But, in Abram’s culture, it was a familiar ritual.  Leaders did not sign agreements with one another.  Instead, they sealed their agreement with a ceremony.  They killed animals that were precious to them and put their split carcasses on either side of the road.  They sat together all day, swatting away the birds of prey that signify the threats to their agreement.  At the end of the day, they walked between the split carcasses as a way of saying that they would rather be split in two rather than go back on their word.  That is what happens when God passed through the split carcasses.  Even though Abram and Sarah were without children and well beyond child bearing age, Abram trusted this Covenant that God sealed with him.  God promised that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky (depicted in the 3rd covenant in our aisle).  God will never go back on his word.  Abram (“my father is exalted”) now becomes Abraham (“Father of a host of nations”).

Centuries later, Jesus of Nazareth, a descendant of Abraham, is on his way to Jerusalem.  On the way, Jesus has told his disciples very clearly that he will suffer, be crucified, and rise from the dead to seal a new covenant.  On the eighth day after informing them of his fate, they come to Mount Tabor.  He climbs the mountain, the traditional place where humans meet God, to spend time in prayer.  He takes Peter, James, and John with him.  As he is praying, his face changes in appearance.  He clearly understands that death on the cross will not be the end for him.  His realization of the Father’s promise that he will rise from the dead is not only written all over his face, but his clothing reflects that change.  Two of the greatest descendants of Abraham appear with him:  Moses, representing the Law, and Elijah, representing the prophets.

Peter, James, and John had fallen asleep.  When they wake up, they are amazed at the vision.  They may not understand what is going on, but they do not want it to end.  That is why Peter offers to build three tents.  But when the vision ends, they become frightened and enter into a mysterious cloud.  The voice that spoke at the baptism of Jesus repeats the same message:  “This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”  They will fall asleep again in the Garden of Gethsemane and enter into another cloud of confusion and grief at the passion of Jesus.  None of this will make sense until the eighth day of the week, the day of resurrection.

Like those disciples, we are walking with the Lord on the way to the new and eternal Jerusalem, to claim (as Paul says) our citizenship in heaven.  The Lord has spoken to us often about the Mystery of his death and resurrection, which we celebrate at every Mass.  But like the disciples, we sometimes do not connect his words with what is going on in our lives.  Sometimes we get a bit drowsy and miss the point.  And when we have to share in his passion and cross, we often enter into that cloud.  A medieval author called it the “Cloud of Unknowing.”  Even though the Lord is present to us, we become frightened in this cloud and lose our way.  That is why the transfiguration on Mount Tabor is so important to us.  We cannot lose sight of the promised glory that is the direct result of sharing in the passion and cross of Jesus Christ. 

            On our Lenten journey, this event encourages us to keep our Lenten disciplines.  Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving can increase our desire to grow into a closer relationship with the Lord and with each other.  The Lenten disciplines have the power to open ourselves more completely Jesus Christ, whose death and resurrection can transform our lowly bodies into his glorified body.  Lent prepares us to celebrate that Mystery in the Sacred Paschal Triduum.  The Father says the same thing to us that he said to Peter, James, and John:  “This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”  When we do that, others might see it written all over our faces also!        

FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT

10 MARCH 2019

          Saint Luke reports that when Jesus emerged from his baptism in the waters of the Jordan, the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove.  Then a voice came down from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”  Today, that same Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the desert for forty days.  Moses had led his ancestors through the desert for forty days in their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land.  He had spent forty days on Mount Sinai accepting the law.  Elijah had journeyed forty days in the desert to renew the Covenant after his people had abandoned it.  The desert is a place of death, forcing those who traveled through it to focus only on the essentials of survival.  The desert is a place of testing, where people must make a choice whether they trust God or not.

            In the desert, Satan tests Jesus.  He tempts Jesus to use his relationship as the Son of God to turn stones into bread, knowing that Jesus is famished and vulnerable after fasting in the heat for forty days.  Responding to Satan’s taunt, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy to assert that his mission is not meant for his own comfort.  Then Satan tempts Jesus to worship him in return for gaining power over all the kingdoms of the world.  Jesus responds to the second temptation by quoting Deuteronomy to assert that authentic power belongs only to his Father.  Finally, Satan quotes Psalm 91 (our responsorial psalm today) to tempt Jesus to put his own ego before everything else.  Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy for the third time, convinced that his mission is not about what he wants to do, but rather what his Father wants him to do.

            The Holy Spirit has led us into the desert of Lent, encouraging us to strip away what we do not need to focus on our relationship with God.  That stripping away happens when we are serious about embracing the Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.  In this desert, we become more aware of the ways in which Satan tempts us to move away from trusting in God alone.  Satan wants us to believe that seeking sensual pleasure is the central force of our lives.  As the father of lies, Satan knows that food and drink and sex are not bad in themselves.  But he also knows that there is no room for God when we seek those things alone to satisfy us.  Satan wants us to seek the lure of power by having as much control as possible over other people, instead of trusting in God’s power.  Satan wants us to put our ego in the center of everything, drawing attention to ourselves and our own needs, instead of putting God at the center.

            We are as vulnerable to these temptations as Jesus was in the desert.  That is why we hear these readings on the First Sunday of Lent.  Saint Luke wants us to know that the Spirit will empower us to resist temptation, as the Spirit empowered Jesus.  Jesus did not need to prove that he is the Son of God.  He opened himself completely to the Spirit’s power and resisted every temptation.  That is not true for us.  We give in time and time again, doing damage by our bad choices and affecting our relationship with God and with each other.  That is why our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are penitential.  If we can strengthen our will by fasting from small things, we allow the Spirit to empower us to resist the temptations to not trust in God.

            Saint Luke says that Satan departed from Jesus for a time.  Satan will be back to tempt him in the Garden of Gethsemani.  He will tempt him through the crowds at Calvary to come down from the cross to prove that he is the Son of God.  Jesus will resist all temptations to prove his special relationship with the Father.  He will be completely faithful to his mission as the Suffering Servant who will save us by his death and resurrection.  We pray to resist Satan’s temptations to doubt the will of God in our lives as we journey through this desert of Lent to celebrate his victory at the Sacred Paschal Triduum.

EIGHTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

3 MARCH 2019

          The Prophet Ezekiel writes to his people who are in exile in Babylon.  The Babylonians had destroyed the city of Jerusalem and torn down the Temple, the dwelling place of God.  Ezekiel has told his people that this disaster had been their fault.  They had walked away from God and had abandoned the Covenant.  However, Ezekiel is clear that God has not abandoned them.  God remains with them in exile and will be with them when they will return home.  He shares the vision he has received of a new and restored Temple.  We hear the end of that vision in the first reading when he describes the glory of God returning to the Temple and filling it with his presence.  God will not abandon his people.

            Two years ago, this temple was filled for the first time with parishioners who had sacrificed to make the building possible.  With dozens of priests concelebrating, Bishop Rhoades consecrated this new house of God.  After the assembly asked for the intercession of the Saints, he prayed the prayer of consecration, making it clear that this building would be used for nothing but worship.  He anointed the Altar with Sacred Chrism, along with the walls at the 12 crosses.  Clouds of incense filled the church, and the Bishop led us in the celebration of the Eucharist for the first time.  The Lord remains truly present in the Blessed Sacrament reserved in the Tabernacle.  In addition to the public worship offered here daily, people can pray in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament at any time during the day or night.

            In celebrating this second anniversary, we give thanks for our beautiful church.  But in doing so, we are conscious of the words of the First Letter of Saint Peter.  We are the living stones, built on the cornerstone of Jesus Christ.  Through Baptism, we have become a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own.  In celebrating this anniversary, we renew our trust that the Lord is continuing to build us into a beautiful spiritual house.  We know that we are not perfect, and that we do not always live our baptismal promises.  That is why we enter into the Season of Lent on Wednesday.  We commit ourselves to prayer, fasting, and almsgiving to admit our sins and to trust in God’s mercy.

            Our confidence rests on the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel.  Simon Peter does not make a wild guess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.  His correct answer is revealed to him by the Father.  Jesus does not make Simon Peter the rock foundation of his Church because of any accomplishment or particular holiness on Simon Peter’s part.  His denial of knowing Jesus is plainly seen on our Triumphal Arch, with the cock crowing.  Jesus makes him the rock foundation because of his profession of faith.  We see the image of Peter on the left wall of the Triumphal Arch, pictured with the keys that symbolize the authority given to him and his successors (including our patron, Pope Saint Pius X, on the right wall).

            At this time in the history of the Church, we are painfully mindful of the failures of too many priests, bishops, and even cardinals.  We have seen the damage done to so many innocent victims.  We witness the terrible effects of these sins on the Church.  That is why it is so important to remember the promise of Jesus to Peter that the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.  In the ancient world, the gates to the netherworld were seen as separating our world from theirs.  When Jesus calls Peter the “Rock,” he is not only saying that the Church will prevail against the netherworld.  He is the Rock that is thrown against that barrier and breaks down sin, evil, and all that is the work of the evil one.  As we celebrate the Sacramental life of the Church in this church, we are drawn more closely into that mystery, especially as the Church is being purified.  Jesus will keep his promise and has opened for us the gates of eternal life.