FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT

6 APRIL 2025

 

          The prophet Isaiah gives hope to his people in captivity in Babylon.  He reminds them of God’s saving acts in the past.  God had led their ancestors in their journey from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land through the Red Sea in.  The mighty army of Pharaoh’s horsemen was drowned in their pursuit.  However, he tells his people not to remember the events of the past.  God will do something new.  God is present to his people in captivity, and God will lead them in a new journey through another desert to their homeland.  God will give them water, just as God had done for their ancestors. 

            Saint Paul is also on a journey when he writes to the Philippians.  Writing from his prison cell, he has lost everything.  He has lost his ministry to the Gentiles and the freedom of traveling wherever the Lord led him.  He had also lost the sinful parts of his life, especially his original hatred for the disciples of Jesus Christ and for his active persecution of the Church.  He accepts the loss of all those things, because he has found gain in Jesus Christ.  Because of that gain, he can let go of what is behind him and strains forward to what lies ahead.  He can continue his pursuit toward the goal of achieving the prize of God’s upward calling in Jesus Christ.  He is confident in his journey to share in the fullness of the resurrection.

            As we continue our journey through the desert of Lent, the story of the woman caught in adultery provides some direction.  The scribes and Pharisees bring a woman caught in the act of adultery.  As Pope John Paul II asked, where is the man?  Instead of bringing both people, they bring the more vulnerable of the two.  They could care less about this woman.  They use her to set a trap for Jesus.  They ask him if they should follow the law of Moses and have the woman stoned.  If Jesus agrees, they will question his teaching about mercy.  If he responds that the woman should be shown mercy, they will accuse him of ignoring the law of Moses.  Instead of falling into their trap, he bends down and writes on the ground with his finger.  We have no idea what he is writing.  Then he dares the one among them without sin to be the first to throw a stone at her.  After they all go away one by one, he addresses the woman.

            Instead of using her as an object, as the scribes and Pharisees has done, he speaks to her with love.  Just as no one had been able to condemn her, he does not condemn her either.  He does not minimize her sin of adultery.  Instead, he tells her to leave that sin in the past and not sin again.  He invites her to cast off the misery of her past sins to live without sin with him.  The loss of her misery can be replaced by his mercy.

            We have no idea what that woman chose to do.  Did she go back to her lover, or did she agree to allow Jesus Christ to journey with her?  Because this is the living Word of God, the Lord invites us to deepen our trust in his presence and to journey with him.  In our journey, we can recall the many ways the Lord has been with us in the past and give thanks.  We might be tempted to recall the ways we have refused to journey with Jesus Christ and have turned against him.  Like the ancient Israelites, like Saint Paul, and like the woman caught in adultery, we can count all of those times as loss.  Our common gain is our relationship with Jesus Christ.  It is that gain which is being revealed in our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

            In these last two weeks of our journey through the desert of Lent, we can face a wilderness of uncertainty, because God is before us preparing the way.  He is doing a “new thing," which we can embrace with hope as we walk with him through his passion, death, and ultimately to his resurrection.

 

FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT

30 MARCH 2025

 

          In the first reading, Joshua reminds his people that God has formed them into a new creation by leading them through the desert to the Promised Land.  Saint Paul builds on the words of Joshua in his letter to the Corinthians and applies them to Christ.  Jesus Christ has formed us into a new creation by reconciling us to the Father through his death on the cross.  As members of this new creation, we are ambassadors for Christ, extending the reconciliation we have received with others.

            This most famous parable of Jesus helps us to understand God’s reconciling love.  We call it the “Parable of the Prodigal Son.”  The word “prodigal” means “recklessly extravagant.”  The younger son is definitely “prodigal.”  He makes a recklessly extravagant demand on his father.  He demands half of his inheritance.  In the ancient world, the inheritance would be given only after death.  He recklessly considers his father dead.  The older son is also reckless, because his job would have been to negotiate the terms of the inheritance with his brother and to talk sense into him.  But he stands by and does nothing.  He seems to be waiting for his father to die to get the rest of the inheritance, with his younger brother out of the way.  However, the most recklessly extravagant person is the father.  He recklessly gives his younger son what he demands.  He risks looking like an old fool to his neighbors.

            The younger son leaves and squanders his wealth on a life of dissipation, recklessly and extravagantly wasting his wealth on himself.  But when the famine strikes and he is stuck caring for pigs (a horrible job for a Jewish boy), he comes to his senses and regrets his actions.  He intends to return to his father as a slave, supporting himself apart from his father’s house.  But the father is filled with compassion.  He rushes out to welcome him back as his son.  Again, he looks like an old fool to the neighbors.  Not only does he embrace him, but he gives his son the symbols of his reckless extravagance – the finest robe, the ring, sandals on his feet, and an extravagant feast.  At this point, the son recognizes the incredible gift of his father’s mercy and accepts the gift of his original sonship.

            As members of the new creation, the Father offers us the recklessly extravagant gift of reconciliation.  Through the Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, the Lord invites us to examine our consciences to see how we may have imitated the example of the younger son.  Have we been estranged and rebellious while being absent from the presence of the Lord?  If so, we can honestly confess our sin.  When we repent and make up our minds to change our course, we open ourselves to receive the Lord’s grace of extravagant mercy.  We can share the joy of that gift and be restored to the status of sons or daughters given to us when we were baptized.  Then, we can become ambassadors of Christ, extending that same gift to others.

Or, are we more like the older son, estranged and rebellious in our hearts while remaining in the presence of the Lord?  The father rushes out to meet his older son to answer his angry questions about his brother.  The father does so publicly, again looking like a fool to his neighbors.  He has been estranged and rebellious in his heart while remaining in his father’s presence.  In his arrogance, he refuses his father’s gift of extravagant mercy. 

This parable answers the objection of the Pharisees and scribes: “this man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”  They clearly resemble the older brother.  The Lord has thrown a feast for us in this Eucharist.  He eats with us sinners, whether we are the older or the younger son and invites us to repentance.  Then he sends us out of this Mass to be ambassadors of his reckless mercy to others.

 

THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT

23 MARCH 2025

 

          By this time in the Gospel of Saint Luke, people recognize that Jesus is an authentic teacher.  So, they ask a pressing question.  They want to know why those Galileans had been murdered by Pilate.  The common answer was that this disaster is a result of their sin.  Jesus refutes that answer and adds another example.  He mentions the eighteen people who had been killed by a falling tower at Siloam.  No, he says, they have no more guilt than everyone else in Jerusalem.  Jesus refutes the common solution that disasters, either human or natural, are not punishments from God for sin.

            We can identify with these questions, because disasters are still a part of our lives today.  When a disaster happens, we realize how vulnerable we are.  Any of us could have been on that plane that crashed into the helicopter earlier this year in Washington DC.  We could have been in the paths of the tornadoes ripping through the south last week.  We empathize with the victims and their grieving families.  We become more aware that these disasters can happen at any time to any of us.  That is why we were marked with ashes at the beginning of Lent.  More aware of our immortality, we use the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving to turn away from sin and become more closely aligned with Jesus Christ.  The ashes are not intended to frighten or make us paranoid, but to move us to repentance.

            The parable of the fig tree helps us to understand the dynamics of the Lord working in our lives.  Even though the fig tree had been growing for three years, it is not bearing fruit.  When the owner of the orchard wants to cut it down, the gardener asks for more time.  The gardener promises to cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it.  He argues that these actions will cause the fig tree to produce fruit.  The gardener is Jesus Christ, and he is working through this Season of Lent to cultivate the ground around us and provide fertilizer so we can produce good fruit.  He gives the tools of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving to cultivate that ground.  He the Sacrament of Reconciliation for fertilizer.  Lent invites us to be honest about whether or not we are producing good fruit.  Are the Lenten disciplines enabling us to be more patient, especially those who drive us crazy?  Are we responding to the needs of other people, especially the poor and the vulnerable?  Are we working to overcome chronic behaviors that tear us down?  Can others see a difference in the way we act?  Are we beginning to let go of the anger, resentment, and desire for revenge that tend to consume us?  God is looking for us to produce good fruit.

            In the first reading, Moses does not look for God.  Instead, God seeks him out and reveals his presence as a fire burning in a bush without consuming it.  Moses throws himself on the ground and hears God speak to him.  God uses seven verbs to describe God’s activities on his behalf.  God has observed the misery of his people.  God has heard their cries.  God knows their sufferings.  God has come down to deliver them.  God will bring them to a land.  God has seen the oppression.  Finally, God will send Moses.

            These seven verbs describe God’s actions through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit in our lives, especially during the Season of Lent.  In their journey in the desert, the Israelites did not always trust these verbs.  They often grumbled against God and Moses.  We are also tempted, especially on our journey through the desert of Lent, to complain and grumble.  But the Divine Gardener keeps working with us.  The Lord continues to seek us out and journey with us.  There is a wideness in God’s mercy, and we must open our eyes, our ears, and our hearts to allow him to continue to work with us, so that we can bear good fruit.

 

 

SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT

16 MARCH 2025

 

          Abram had responded to God’s call to journey from his home in Ur of the Chaldeans.  God had promised Abram both a land of his own and many descendants.  However, in the land promised by God, he and his wife had not been able to conceive in their old age.  In the first reading, God enters into a covenant with Abram.  The making of this covenant sounds strange to us.  But it was the way Abram and his contemporaries entered into agreements with one another.  Each participant would bring an assortment of animals, kill them, and cut them in two, placing each half on the opposite side of the road.  They would sit there all day, and then pass through the halved animals.  In sealing the deal, each party was committed to keep the covenant or be split in half like the animals.

            Abram sits by the side of the road all day, as he wards off the birds of prey, representing future threats to the covenant.  At sundown, Abram emerges from a trance to see a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch pass between the pieces, symbolizing the presence of God.  God enters into a covenant with Abram, promising descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the land.  Abram puts his faith in God’s promise to fulfill this covenant agreement with him. 

            Jesus is also on a journey.  He has already passed the tests of the devil in the desert, and he has set his sights on Jerusalem.  He stops to pray at a mountain in Galilee, taking with him Peter, James, and John.  Especially in the Gospel of Saint Luke, Jesus spends time in prayer seeking direction from his Father at crucial times in his ministry.  As he prays, his face changes in appearance.  The answer to his prayer is written all over his face, and he is determined to continue his journey to Jerusalem.  His clothing becomes dazzling white, and he is joined by the two great figures of the faith.  They are discussing his exodus.  Moses had led his people in an exodus from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the promised land.  In the land promised by God, Elijah called his people to continue their journey to the Lord in the spirit of Moses.

            Emerging from sleep, Peter and James and John see this vision of glory.  Peter wants to pitch three tents and remain in this glorious state.  Instead, they hear the voice from the cloud, the symbol of the Father’s presence, say the same thing he said at the baptism of Jesus: “This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”

            As the three disciples continue to journey with Jesus to Jerusalem, they struggle to listen to this voice.  Once they reach Jerusalem, they will fall asleep as Jesus agonizes over what being faithful to the Father’s will involves.  It will involve hanging in agony on another mountain, Mt. Calvary.  His face will not be changed, and there will be no clothing.  He will be surrounded not by two figures from the past, but by two thieves. On that horribly dark day, he will be buried in a borrowed tomb.  But three days later, he will be raised from the dead, fulfilling the vision that Peter and James and John had glimpsed on Mount Tabor.  In his exodus to Jerusalem, he did much more than Moses or Elijah could have even done.  They had been heralds of the Messianic Age.  Through the Paschal Mystery, he will initiate the Messianic Age for all of us.

            As we continue our journey through these forty days of Lent, we pause at this Mass and in our daily lives to take time to pray.  Like the first disciples, we are walking with Jesus on our journey to the new and eternal Jerusalem.  We open our hearts and ears to listen carefully to his words.  We must face obstacles and difficulties and problems.  We too will have to face the agony of the Garden of Gethsemane and eventually embrace our crosses and the cross of death.  But, through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we can discipline ourselves to listen to God’s chosen Son and walk with the same faith and trust that Abraham did.            

 

FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT

9 MARCH 2025

 

          In the reading from Deuteronomy, Moses addresses his people who are about to arrive in the promised land.  He tells them that they have become a nation:  great, strong, and numerous.  They have been formed into this great nation by God who had saved them slavery in Egypt and led them through the desert to freedom.  Mindful of God’s role, he commands them to give God the firstfruits of the products of the soil in gratitude.  Moses knew that they would quickly forget God’s role and try to find satisfaction in other things.  He knew that they would repeat their many failures to trust God in their forty years in the desert. 

            Today, Jesus is led by the Holy Spirit into the desert to be tested, as his ancestors had been tested.  He has just been baptized and heard his Father’s voice from the heavens identifying him as his beloved son, in whom he is well pleased.  After fasting for forty days, Jesus is hungry.  The devil sneers at him to test him.  If he is God’s son, he can change stone into bread.  Jesus resists the temptation and quotes Deuteronomy to insist that one does not live on bread alone.  Next, the devil tempts him to skip his mission of dying on a cross to have all power and glory now.  Again, Jesus resists the temptation and quotes Deuteronomy to say that he must worship God alone.  Finally, the devil tempts Jesus to throw himself from the parapet of the temple to see if God would save him.  The devil knows Scripture and quotes Psalm 91 to predict that angels will catch him.  Jesus quotes Deuteronomy again to insist that he cannot put his Father to the test.

            In our forty-day journey through Lent, we face the same temptations that tested Jesus and his ancestors.  Like his ancestors, we can easily forget that God is the source of all that we have and are.  The devil tests us with the same three temptations.  Instead of putting all our trust in God, we are tempted to put our trust in sensual gratification.  We fall into gluttony and lust trying to fill our deepest hungers.  The devil wants us to rely on power and riches instead of trusting in God’s care and providence.  He lies to convince us to yearn for an ostentatious display of pride and vainglory, instead of being humble enough to admit God’s power.

            The Holy Spirit has led us into this desert of Lent to help us resist the lies of the devil.  The Lord has given us the tools of fasting, almsgiving, and prayer as remedies to each temptation.  To combat the temptation to see sensual gratification as the ultimate way to fill our longings, the discipline of fasting can help us embrace the remedy of self-control.  To fight the temptations for power and riches, the discipline of almsgiving helps us practice detachment from material things.  Almsgiving helps us to avoid creating fake needs for ourselves and consider the authentic needs of others.  To fight the temptation to be prideful and full of ourselves, the Lord has given us the remedy of prayer.  We can use Scripture, not as the devil used it, but as Jesus himself used it, to humble ourselves before God and rely on his grace.          

            At Easter, we will renew the promises made at our baptism to reaffirm our conviction that Jesus Christ is at the center of our lives, and that we will orient our lives with that conviction.  As a fully human person, Jesus resisted the temptations of the devil and emerged from the desert determined to do the will of his Father.  As the eternal Son of God, he won our salvation by dying on the cross and trusting his Father’s promise that death would not prevail.  The Holy Spirit gives us the strength to recognize the lies of the devil, to embrace the remedies given through the Lenten disciplines, and to emerge from this desert of Lent at Easter renewed in our faith and determined to live as beloved sons and daughters of the Father.

 

 

EIGHTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

2 MARCH 2025

 

            When I was pastor of Saint Jude Church in Fort Wayne, a retired priest lived with us.  Father Traub lived to be 100 years old.  While most people eat so that they can live, Father Traub lived so he could eat.  He loved to eat and was very messy about enjoying his food.  He would attach a bib under his chin and chow away.  One day, a parishioner took us to our favorite rib joint.  As you probably know, eating ribs is always messy, especially if the sauce is good.  The waiter wrapped a big bib around each of us, and Father Traub dove into his ribs and sauce.  By the middle of the meal, he had sauce everywhere – on his hands, all over his face, and even dripping from one of his ears.  He looked across the table and said to our host, pointing to the corner of his own mouth: “Mary, you have a little sauce right here!”  It was hilarious.

            I always think of that dinner when reading today’s Gospel.  Jesus reminds us to remove the wooden beam from our own eye before pointing out the splinter in the eye of our brother or sister.  It is always easier to see the faults of others.  Jesus is telling us, his disciples, that we must look to ourselves before seeing the imperfection of others.

            The Season of Lent gives us a perfect opportunity to do that.  On Wednesday, the ashes on our foreheads mark us as disciples committed to spend forty days doing some kind of penance for our sins.  Church law requires very little of us during Lent.  We must fast and abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and to abstain from meat on all the Fridays of Lent.  Those simple expectations allow us to design our own Lenten observance, adapting the ancient disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving to our own individual lives.

            Lent provides an excellent opportunity to spend more time in prayer.  Be sure to take one of the Little Black Books in the back of church.  Each book contains a daily reflection to help with your prayer.  Please consider going to Mass a couple of times during the week, or praying the rosary, or reading the daily Scripture readings for Mass.  You can find them easily on line.  Maybe you can spend ten minutes in meditation every morning.  You might also take advantage of the Sacrament of Reconciliation sometime before Easter. 

            There are many forms of fasting.  Most people fast from their favorite food or drink, or from eating between meals or enjoying a favorite snack.  Several years ago, I decided to fast from coffee.  After Lent was over, my Associate Pastor advised me never to do that again!  We can fast from television or social media.  Fasting from hours wasted on our phones can become a wonderful way of giving ourselves more time to be involved in more intimate communion with the Lord and with others in person. 

            Finally, almsgiving provides an opportunity to remember those less fortunate than we are.  Especially in today’s political environment, Catholic Relief Services desperately needs our help in feeding the hungry of our world.  Our soup kitchen and Saint Vincent de Paul Society provide needed services to the local poor.  We can donate time or funding to either of these efforts.  We might go through our closets to look at articles of clothing that we have not used in the last year.  As Saint John Chrysostom insists, the clothing we do not use actually belongs to the poor.

            Lent is all about baptism.  During Lent, we make our final preparations for Catechumens to receive the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist at the Easter Vigil.  Along with them, Lent gives us a chance to reflect on the ways we fail to live our baptismal promises.  Through these Sacraments, we become brothers and sisters in Christ.  We are responsible for one another.  But that responsibility begins with removing the wooden beams from our own eyes before helping others to see the splinters in theirs.

 

SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

23 FEBRUARY 2025

 

          David’s victory over the Philistine Goliath made him very popular.  However, King Saul resented David and became convinced that David was trying to replace him as king.  Even though his son Jonathan told him that it was not true, Saul was blinded by jealousy and paranoia. Saul pursued David with the intent to kill him.  In today’s first reading, David has a chance for revenge.  Finding Saul in a kind of sleep deliberately induced by God, David can end the king’s unfair treatment of him.  But, instead, he takes the king’s spear that is thrust in the ground at his head and waves it from a nearby hill.  Even if the law would have allowed his justifiable taking of an eye for an eye, David does not kill the king.  He recognizes the king as the Lord’s anointed, and he will not harm him. 

            Many centuries later, David becomes an example of how a disciple of Jesus Christ should act.  He is compassionate, forgiving, and humbly respectful of God’s dominion.  As the son of David, Jesus teaches his disciples to follow his ancestor’s example.  He teaches them to do what he will do at the end of his life.  From his agony on the cross, he will forgive his enemies who have treated him unjustly.  He will sacrifice his life for sinners, who do not deserve such a gift of love and who cannot repay him for his total gift of self.  After being raised from the dead, he will expect his disciples to do the same thing.  Today, he outlines the pattern of behavior for all who call themselves his disciples.

            He tells us that we must love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, bless those who curse us, and pray for those who mistreat us.  Although this teaching seems impossible, disciples like Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela have shown us that it is possible to love in this manner.  Along with martyrs through history, they have known that loving enemies does not involve warm feelings toward those who hate them.  Rather, authentic love involves wanting the best for a person, leaving what is best for that person to God’s justice.

            Mercy and forgiveness are part of the love of the Father of Jesus and made visible by his death on the cross.  All of us have been hurt, and some more deeply than others.  Forgiving someone who has hurt us deeply does not mean that the offending person did no wrong.  Instead, true forgiveness means that we are willing to move beyond our feelings of revenge and anger and rage to accept the peace that only God can give.

            Years ago, another priest hurt me very deeply.  Knowing the demands of today’s Gospel, I decided to forgive him and let it go.  But, it was much more difficult than expected.  Just when I thought that I had truly forgiven him, I would see him at a priests’ meeting and wanted to put my hands around his neck and strangle him!  It took a long time to let go, and I often brought my desire to forgive to the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  As I brought that desire to the Sacrament, I began to understand that the Lord’s forgiveness of my own sins gave me the grace to extend that mercy to the one who had betrayed me.  It took time, but it finally happened.

            If you have been deeply hurt, don’t be afraid to bring your pain to the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  If you have suffered abuse in any way, please be humble enough to seek the help of a professional therapist.  What Jesus did on the cross in an instant can take a long time for us to heal.  But, we need to realize that the anger and resentment that builds up in us has no effect on an enemy who has offended us.  Instead, we become angry and resentful people in a world already infected by so many negative and poisonous emotions.  We are disciples of Jesus Christ, who trust that he will be with us as we try to love our enemies.  We can make imitate his sacrifice of love by extending to others the gift the Lord has given to us.

 

SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

16 FEBRUARY 2025

 

          When we hear of the Beatitudes, we usually think of the Beatitudes in the Gospel of Saint Matthew.  Because Matthew writes his Gospel for Jewish Christians, he places Jesus on a mountain, seated in the position of a teacher.  He is the new Moses, who gave the old law from a mountain.  In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus gives eight different beatitudes, repeating that last one for effect.  Because the Greek word “blessed” means fortunate, or happy, those eight beatitudes describe the interior attitudes needed for true happiness for his disciples.

            Today, we hear the Beatitudes from Saint Luke’s Gospel.  In writing to Gentile converts.  he places Jesus standing on a stretch of level ground.  He teaches a great crowd of his disciples.  But he does so in the presence of a large group of people, including Jews from all Judea and Jerusalem, along with pagans from the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon.  He speaks in the ordinary plane of everyday existence.  Luke also implies that he speaks as a seated, respected teacher, because he raises his eyes directly toward his disciples.  Instead of eight beatitudes, Jesus gives four positive blessings and four negative woes.  Matthew’s first beatitude is more nuanced, with Jesus speaking of the “poor in spirit” being blessed.  In Luke’s version, Jesus directly calls “blessed” those who are poor.  He tells them that they are part of the kingdom of God.  In belonging to the kingdom, they are not part of a place or territory.  Rather, they are part of a movement that will last beyond the end of the world.

            In Saint Luke’s Gospel, Jesus has already called people to be his disciples.  Last Sunday, we heard of four of them:  Simon and Andrew, James and John.  Along with the other disciples, these four must be taking comfort from his words.  They have already left everything to follow Jesus.  They have chosen to trust completely in Jesus, without any possessions of their own.  In time, Jesus will teach them how to hunger for him alone.  After they had wept because of his death on the cross, they will laugh and rejoice in his resurrection.  Especially in Saint Luke’s second volume, the Acts of the Apostles, they will know the hatred of those will oppose them. 

            They are learning that true happiness is not found in riches, gratification, entertainment, or fame.  In fact, Jesus says that those who put all of their trust in these values will not be truly happy.  That is why he says that the rich, the well fed and satisfied, those who laugh now, and those whom everyone speaks well of that they will experience woes.  They are pursuing values that cannot last and cannot completely satisfy, especially into eternity.

            Jesus speaks to us and tells us how to be fully happy as his disciples.  We were already incorporated into the kingdom of God when we were baptized.  He is not telling us that true happiness occurs only if we live in abject poverty.  As disciples, we need to be grateful when we enjoy financial security.  We can enjoy nourishing food, as long as we know that food in itself will not fulfill our deepest hungers.  He does not want us going about with sad faces and dejected spirits.  And there is nothing wrong with a good reputation and good relations with others. 

            But, we cannot count on these things as the ultimate source of happiness.  If we do, then we can expect the woes.  Woes are not punishments from God for not living lives of discipleship.  Rather they are results of making bad choices.  Both Jeremiah and today’s Psalm warn us.  We are like the tree planted near life giving waters if we have rooted our lives in Jesus Christ as the center of everything.  Rooted in Christ, we can share our blessings with the poor.  We can feed the hungry.  We can console those who grieve.  We can speak the truth when it is not popular and defend those persecuted for speaking the truth.  We are blessed now when we live the beatitudes and will know the fullness of true happiness in the kingdom of heaven.

 

FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

9 FEBRUARY 2025

 

          Our Scripture readings today provide valuable insights into how God calls people and how they respond.  All three characters are going through the routine of their daily lives.  Isaiah is performing his duties as a priest in the temple.  Suddenly, he is given an extraordinary glimpse of the Lord’s glory.  In the light of that vision, Isaiah realizes that he lacks the absolute holiness of God.  One of the seraphim takes a burning coal and purifies his lips.  Even though Isaiah remains a human far removed from the perfection of divinity, he accepts the Lord’s mercy and proclaims the immensity of God’s power over all of creation as one of the greatest prophets.

            Saul is busy with his mission.  A faithful Pharisee, he is traveling to Damascus to arrest a small group of fellow Jews who claim that their crucified leader is the promised Messiah and has been raised from the dead.  On his way, the risen Christ appears to him and asks why he is persecuting him.  Blinded by this vision, Saul is led into Damascus, where he realizes the depth of his spiritual blindness and sin.  Baptized into the Church he had been persecuting, Saint Paul remains grateful for the Lord’s mercy and becomes the greatest promoter of that Church.

            Simon is busy about his profession:  fishing in the Sea of Galilee.  Simon has already encountered Jesus of Nazareth.  He had been fascinated with this man and invited him to his home.  He had witnessed Jesus healing his mother-in-law of a dangerous fever.  Now he has completed a frustrating night of fishing and is cleaning his nets.  When Jesus asks him to use his boat as a pulpit, he accepts.  As a child, I had realized the benefit of people hearing human speech from a boat.  My brother and sister and I were in our grandparent’s fishing boat complaining about our Dad.  Our mother heard it and punished us.

            After teaching, Jesus tells Simon to put out his boat into deep water and lower his nets for a catch.  Simon, the professional fisherman, refers to Jesus as “master” and sees this request as ridiculous.  But, out of respect for Jesus, he does it and catches so many fish that both boats are in danger of sinking.  Simon falls to the knees of Jesus and calls him “Lord.”  Aware of the truth about Jesus, he acknowledges that he is a sinner who did not fully trust him.  Moved by this miracle, he accepts the invitation of Jesus to become the leader of his Church.  In time he will be successful in catching people to be disciples of Jesus Christ.

            As disciples of Jesus Christ, we must be open to the Lord calling us to deeper faith in the ordinary events of our lives.  Through our baptism, each of us has a mission.  You parents are called to cultivate the faith lives of your children.  Teachers have the mission of directing students to the person of Jesus Christ.  Any of us who engage in management or business are called to make decisions for the common good instead of our own selfish interests.  Like the three characters in today’s Scripture readings, we are all flawed individuals who make bad choices.  But, like Simon Peter, we become more aware of the Lord’s mercy when we acknowledge our sins and receive the grace to start over.

            Like those three characters, we live in a dangerous, divided, and dark world.  In each of our vocations, we need to do what we can to promote Gospel values and try to make necessary changes in our world.  But, we need to be watchful.  Especially when we do not succeed, we need to work with the Lord’s grace to make changes in ourselves.  Instead of nursing anger and resentment, we can be honest about our own failings and be open to the Lord’s mercy in our lives.  When we have the courage to surrender to the Lord’s power, we can avoid putting those with whom we disagree on a list of enemies. We can learn to disagree with respect.  We can pray for them and trust in the inner peace and compassion that only God can give.

 

THE PRESENTATION OF THE LORD

2 FEBRUARY 2025

 

          Howard Thurman wrote:  When the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their flocks, the work of Christmas begins.”  Epiphany is the dramatic reenactment of that Christmas work.  Magi from the east find the infant Jesus in an ordinary house in Bethlehem.  A dove descends at a river anointing service.  The wine runs out at a wedding.  Everyone has an important part to play in seeing and revealing God’s presence.  Today, we turn to another example of ordinary people, two elderly adults, who happen to be at the right time and place for Joseph and Mary to present the child Jesus in the temple.  This moment invites us to find our place our place in the work of Christmas.

            Jewish law requires that mothers of boys remain way from the temple and not touch anything unclean for at least thirty-two days.  So, after forty days, Joseph and Mary follow this law and bring their infant son to be presented in the temple, just like every other Jewish family would be required to do.

            In this ordinary routine, something surprising happens.  An old man named Simeon runs into them.  He is not a Levite, a temple insider.  But he is a faithful believer who is convinced that he will not die before encountering the Christ, the promised savior of the world.  The Holy Spirit moves him twice, first to enter the temple.  Then, in the temple, the Spirit moves him to take Jesus into his arms.  Holding the child, he gives a blessing that his parents need to hear, but maybe not what they expected.  “This child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed, so that the thoughts of many will be revealed, and you yourself a sword shall pierce, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.”
            Before Joseph and Mary have a chance to reflect on these words, they meet another elderly person.  We do not know what Anna said.  But we know that she has lived seven years with her husband after her marriage and then as a widow until she is eighty-four years old.  Anna is an insider, because Jewish law dictates that widows who do not remarry should be cared for in the temple.  That law has a special role for women like Anna.  They spend their entire time in prayer and fasting.  Like so many faithful women before her, Anna assumes the role of a widowed prophetess.  She gives thanks to God for this child and speaks about the child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem.

            Each one of us has a role in the work of Christmas.  Like all the characters in the Christmas drama, we must have open hearts to receive what the Lord reveals to us in our daily lives.  The heart is the seat of memories and emotions.  Both Simeon and Anna have opened their hearts for years.  Both have had their hearts broken.  Simeon mentions the work of broken hearts not only for Joseph and Mary and Jesus, but also for all who open our hearts to them.  Anna knows the pain of a broken heart in her many years as a widow with the loss of her husband.

            With open hearts, we can better see Jesus Chris present in the ordinary events of our lives.  But we all know that our open hearts will be broken by life’s difficulties and tragedies. At Christmas, we reflected on the fire of God’s love that warms and illumines our lives.  Today’s feast focuses on the fire of God’s love that purifies broken hearts and painful situations.  If we can allow the fire of God’s when our hearts are broken, we can allow God to make us a part of the drama of revealing his presence with our compassion and love.  To borrow from Howard Thurman, let the work of epiphany begin: “To find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to teach the nations, to bring Christ to all, to make music in the heart.”

 

THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD

12 JANUARY 2025

 

          Our popular culture speaks of Christmas in the past tense.  We ask one another, “How was your Christmas?  Where did you spend Christmas?  Did your annoying uncle come to cause trouble with his heavy drinking and political arguments?”  The stores no longer carry anything associated with Christmas, because they are obsessed with telling us to buy all kinds of stuff for Valentine’s Day.

            But for us, who are disciples of Jesus Christ and members of the Catholic Church, Christmas is not over.  Beginning on the evening of December 24, we reflected on the events surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ for eight days, an Octave.  Last Sunday, we meditated on the manifestation (Epiphany) of Jesus Christ to the entire world through Saint Matthew’s account of the journey of the magi.  On this last day of the Christmas Season, we reflect on Saint Luke’s account of the manifestation of Jesus Christ at his baptism in the waters of the River Jordan.  As an adult thirty years after his birth, Jesus knows who he is.  Angels had announced his identity when they proclaimed his birth to shepherds in the hills around Bethlehem.  The magi identified him by the gifts they brought:  gold for a king, frankincense for God, and myrrh to anoint his body after he had died on the cross for our salvation. 

            That is why the Baptism of Jesus is so important.  In being baptized in the River Jordan, the true nature of Jesus is manifested. John baptizes people as an invitation to repent of their sins.  Even though John the Baptist is a very popular and engaging character, he points away from himself and invites people to trust his cousin.  He identifies Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah for whom people had been waiting for centuries.  Saint Luke does not describe the actual event of the baptism of Jesus.  Instead, he tells us that after the baptism, Jesus is praying.  Heaven is opened, and the Holy Spirit descends on him in bodily form like a dove.  The voice comes from heaven and announces that Jesus is his beloved Son, with whom he is well pleased.

            With this manifestation, Jesus begins his public ministry.  As the beloved Son of God, he will proclaim that the kingdom of God is at hand.  He will teach how to become be part of this kingdom.  He will work miracles as signs pointing to the presence of this kingdom.  In fact, we will hear from the Gospel of Saint John next Sunday that Jesus will manifest himself in one of his most important miracles.  He will change water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana. 

            When we were baptized, you and I became brothers and sisters as members of the Body of Christ.  When he is manifested in the waters of the River Jordan, Jesus is clearly not alone.  The Holy Spirit has descended on him, and the Father refers to him as his beloved Son in whom he is well pleased.   As he continues his public ministry, the Father and the Holy Spirit will be with him, even as he hangs in agony on the cross.  In being immersed in the waters of the River Jordan, he is demonstrating that unity of the Trinity.  He becomes aware that he is not alone.

            You and I are not alone either.  We walk our pilgrimage of life together as brothers and sisters.  When we spend time in prayer, we become more aware that we have been immersed in the life of the Trinity when we were baptized.  When we are fed by the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ at this Altar, we express our faith that the Lord can transform the water of our ordinary lives into the wine of God’s love.  No matter what happens in this New Year, we can have the same confidence as Saint Peter, who speaks in the Acts of the Apostles after baptizing Cornelius and his family.  God is with us at every step of our lives and will not abandon us.

 

 

THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD

5 JANUARY 2025

 

            Saint Paul tells the Ephesians that he has been given the stewardship of God’s grace.  That gift was given to him on the road to Damascus, when the Risen Lord appeared to him to initiate a most dramatic conversion.  As a responsible steward, Saint Paul spent the rest of his life sharing that gift with people, especially non-Jewish Gentiles.

            Saint Matthew explains the gift of God’s grace today.  The magi are probably astrologers who respond not by a direct revelation by God, but by a star, part of God’s creation.  They follow the star, much like the Israelites followed a pillar of fire when leaving Egypt.  Expecting that a king would be born in a capital city, they arrive in Jerusalem.  There, the acting king seeks the advice of the chief priests and the scribes.  They quote the Prophet Micah that the child would be born in Bethlehem.  He sends them there, not to do homage, but to eliminate a potential rival.       

            Directed by the star, they arrive in Bethlehem.  Entering the house, they encounter what appears to be an ordinary baby.  But, guided by the revelation of the Prophet Micah, they perceive much more.  They prostrate themselves to do him homage, acknowledging by their gifts the true identity of this child.  The gold identifies him as the king they had traveled to visit.  The frankincense declares that he is God, and not just an ordinary king in the line of King David.  The myrrh reflects his mission.  Obeying the will of his Father, he will sacrifice his entire life on the cross for the salvation of all.  Having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they depart by another way to their country.

            The irony is striking.  Those who know better should have recognized this gift of God’s grace.  But they ignore it.  Those who have had no understanding or interest in the gift get it.  Their encounter with this gift changed them, indicated by their decision to return home by another way.  The poet T.S. Eliot expresses this conversion in his poem, “Journey of the Magi.”  Eliot speaks from the perspective of one of the magi in his old age.  He describes the difficulties he and his fellow travelers had encountered on their way to Bethlehem.  After painting a word picture of the Mystery that they had encountered, he ends the poem by saying: “We returned to our places, these Kingdoms, but no longer at ease there, in the old dispensation, with an alien people clutching their gods.”  No longer aliens, they now share the gift of God’s grace that Saint Paul describes in the second reading.

            In the first reading, the prophet Isaiah tells Jerusalem to rise in splendor and be so radiant that the world will see the Lord’s light reflected through her inhabitants.  Ironically, he speaks to exiles recently returned to Jerusalem after their fifty-year exile in Babylon.  There is no splendor or radiance in this destroyed city.  But Isaiah promises that God will prevail and overcome their darkness and hard work of rebuilding their city.  Saint Matthew sees this prophecy fulfilled in today’s Gospel.  The magi encounter the splendor and radiance of the infant, who is king, God, and suffering servant.

            No matter how dark and discouraging we may find our world today, we too have been baptized as stewards of God’s grace.  At this Mass, we hear ordinary words and see gifts of bread and wine.  Like the magi, we hear the Lord speaking to us in the Word.  We look beyond the appearance of bread and wine.  We prostrate ourselves during the Eucharistic Prayer in homage and encounter the Lord’s presence as his Body and Precious Blood.  Instead of bringing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, we bring the gifts of our hearts in praise and thanksgiving.  Then, transformed by these gifts, we are sent out to be stewards of God’s grace to those we encounter in this New Year.