This Vigil is a night of Easter joy. The Easter candle needs to be lit in the deep recesses of our hearts.

EASTER VIGIL 2018

We began this solemn Easter Vigil with the lighting of the Easter Fire in the landscaped area at the front entrance of the Church.  From the Easter fire, we lit the Easter candle, the Christ candle – the light of the Risen Christ that overcomes the darknesses of our lives.  After lighting the Christ Candle, we enter the Church in darkness.  It is the darkness of the closed up tomb where Jesus’ body lay on Holy Saturday.  The stone has been rolled in front of it.  No light enters.  It is utterly dark.

It is the darkness of the loss of someone dear to us, whose absence we fear we will never be able to deal with. The darkness of a terrifying diagnosis. The darkness of not knowing where a child of ours is. The darkness of a shattering reality that we had no idea was coming our way.

The darkness of the Church at the beginning of our liturgy speaks most directly to the daily reality of our lives. After the shock of death or words that bring despair--words like cancer, divorce, terminal, downsizing--we find ourselves living with the "what next" of life--and we enter the dark void of unknowing.

This is where many of us live, from time to time. Yes, there are times when we live between death and resurrection. It is the valley of grief and unknowing--for us as well as for the first disciples. On Holy Saturday we, and they, don't know what the future will bring. Whether the cancer will be cured, or we will love again, or find a job that fulfills our calling. It is a time of dark uncertainty.

From the first Scripture reading, the creation account from the Book of Genesis,  "In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep..." In the beginning, all was a dark void. And in this empty tomb where Jesus was buried, we find the same reality--it is a dark void.  How many times will we find ourselves in that dark place? A place where any ray of hope is extinguished in the vacuum of fear, of not knowing, of total emptiness.

But in that place, somehow through the grace of God, we must be patient. We must wait for the wind of the Spirit, the "wind from God that sweeps over the face of the waters" to fan the dim embers of our faith.

"Then God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light.... God called the light Day and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day."

You see, both darkness and light are part of the first day. Darkness and light are halves of every day ever since that first day. Darkness and light are essential parts of our lives. And when we find ourselves in that dark lonely place, we must remind ourselves of this truth. There will always ultimately be light in the midst of the darkness.

Darkness is shorthand for anything that scares me--either because I am sure that I do not have the resources to survive it or because I do not want to find out.

In the second Scripture reading from the Book of Exodus, as God leads Moses and the Israelites out of Egypt at night, the Israelites cry out to God in fear and uncertainty as they see the massive army of Pharaoh in pursuit behind them, while in front of them is the sea--they are trapped in the darkness of fear and faithlessness. "It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness!" they cry out. But Moses tells them, "Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish for you today.... The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still."

It is so hard to keep still in the fearful dark, isn't it? It is so hard to trust that the wind of God's spirit will, finally, blow on the dim embers of our cooling faith.

Thanks be to God, the angel of God who was going before the Israelite army moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and took its place behind them."  The divine presence, the angel of God, glowing within the cloud in the darkness, blocks the oncoming threat of the Egyptian army. You see, there will always be light in the midst of darkness. God will show up at night. We have only to keep still.

Darkness is part of every day. But there will be light. What would our lives with God look like if we trusted this rhythm of darkness and light instead of fighting it?

The Exsultet,  the beautiful hymn of praise that Jacob sang so powerfully, proclaims this rhythm of dark and light, of night and dawn, of death and resurrection: "This is the night...when you brought our ancestors, the children of Israel, out of bondage in Egypt....

"This is the night...when all who believe in Christ are delivered from the gloom of sin, and are restored to grace and holiness of life....

"This is the night...when Christ broke the bonds of death and hell, and rose victorious from the grave....

"How holy is this night, when wickedness is put to flight, and sin is washed away. It restores innocence to the fallen, and joy to those who mourn.....

"How blessed is this night, when earth and heaven are joined and we are reconciled to God.

Liturgically we light the Easter Candle because we believe in the light that comes from the Risen Lord.  Indeed, in the light that comes from the Risen Lord, the darkness of fear and the darkness of sin is no more.  This Easter candle needs to be lit in the deep recesses of our hearts.

This night is a night of Easter Joy.  Alleluia, Alleluia.  We now welcome in the Sacraments of Initiation Allan Bernhardt, Scott Gallmeyer, and Kristen Margraf into discipleship of our Risen Lord.  Then the whole community will be invited to renew your baptismal vows and share in the mystery of the Eucharist in which we are fed and nourished at the Table of the Lord.

May we share in the joy and hope of the Risen Lord.

As we venerate the cross during our liturgy today, think about the love that God has for you and thank Him.

Good Friday 2018

In our prayer today, may we stand at the foot of the cross with Mary renewing our pledge to God:  “May it be done to me according to your Word.”

During this liturgy we stand with Mary.  At her side is the beloved disciple.  Jesus first says to Mary, “Woman, behold your Son.”  Then to the disciple John, Jesus says:  “Behold your mother.”

For Mary this must have been a deeply emotional moment.  Perhaps she recalled the first instance when she received Jesus into her womb -- the moment she said to the angel, I am the handmaid of the Lord.  May it be done to me according to your Word.”  She could not have guessed it would come to this as she stood before her tortured Son.

The Good Friday liturgy calls to mind what happened historically to Jesus so long ago.  May the Good Friday liturgy also help us to call to mind the ways Jesus still suffers in the hearts of so many refugees, so many people who are hungry for food for their bodies and the food of love for their spirits.  

Today’s celebration must help us realize that Christ continues to suffer in many of our brothers and sisters. There are too many people that suffer hunger, cold, solitude and discriminations. Perhaps, we do not take note of them. So, our Good Friday liturgy must help us see them.

Also, Christ is suffering and dying in each of us because we are still tied to many things that imprison us. We continue to be slaves of our sins, habits and weaknesses.  This Good Friday, Christ calls us from the cross to a total change, and to be generous with our lives as he was with his for the sake of our salvation.

Like Mary, when we say yes to God’s plan, we do not know where it will lead us.  Personally speaking, the Good Friday liturgy reminds me of my ordination as a priest.  The ordination rite begins with the priesthood candidate lying prostrate in the Cathedral sanctuary as the choir sings the Litany of the Saints.  In a similar way, the Good Friday liturgy begins with the priest lying prostrate in the sanctuary. My prayer for myself on the day of my ordination is the same prayer I have on this day.  May it be the prayer of each one of us as we pray the prayer of Mary:  “I am the servant of the Lord.  Be it done to me according to your Word.”

As those of you who have entered the Sacrament of Marriage, there is no way of fully preparing you for the dimensions of the commitment to love that you pledge yourself on your wedding day.  The cross becomes more a part of our life at some point that we bargained for.

Good Friday enables to reflect on the meaning of the passion and death of Christ Jesus.  In our Good Friday prayer, we ask for the grace even to embrace the cross as we experience how we are called to be the followers of the crucified Christ.  How can we deal with the crosses and the sufferings of life?

We find meaning in the crosses of our life when we know in the depths of our hearts that the cross of Jesus is a symbol of love and a symbol of hope.   The cross brings to mind the sacrificial love of the one who hangs there. It is a clear proof of His love, that He laid down his life for us, and challenges us to do the same for our brothers and sisters

Is it not true that because of love, people do extraordinary things for others.  I was visiting a patient in the Wilmot Cancer Center on Wednesday.  He was there with his wife and two sons.  The family was keeping vigil with deep love as their husband and dad was dealing with a life-threatening cancer.  As we prayed together, our healing God was with us in the ways that the love of this family was being lived out in a fearful situation. Think of  the ways you love and are loved.  Think of the beautiful ways that you have expressed your love for another.  What sacrifices out of love have you made for your children?  Is this not what gives meaning and purpose to your life? 

These memories give us a glimpse, a small glimpse, at the kind of love that God has for us. God the Father sent his dearly loved Son into dangerous territory. He allowed his Son to be treated cruelly. He stood by and watched his innocent Son be nailed to a cross and to hang there in agony. He could have rescued him and cursed those who were treating him so brutally and maliciously.  When Jesus cried out, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" we sense something of the terror of bearing the weight of the sin of all humanity.

God did all this for us. He did all this because of his love for us.  Paul writes, "God has shown us how much he loves us—it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us! … We were God's enemies, but he made us his friends through the death of his Son.” That’s how much God loves us – Jesus died for us even though we don’t deserve it. His death has made us God's friends.

Jesus' announcement from the cross, "It is finished" is clear and simple. Jesus has completed his task. The reason why he came as a human has been fulfilled. He came so that you and I can have forgiveness and salvation. He came to give us the victory. He came to ensure that we would enter his kingdom and live forever.

As we venerate the cross during our liturgy today, pray and ponder about what Jesus has done for you through his death on the cross.  Think about the love that God has for you, and thank him.

Holy Thursday: His disciples are to change the world by getting down on their knees and washing the feet of God's poor.

HOLY THURSDAY 2018

With this solemn liturgy of the Lord’s Supper, we enter the heart and soul of the entire liturgical year.  We celebrate the paschal mystery – the dying and rising of Christ Jesus.  As the disciples of Jesus, we gather during the Triduum to celebrate the mystery of the ways we encounter the Lord.

In today’s Gospel account, Jesus wraps a towel around his waist, takes a pitcher of water and, on the night before he dies, begins washing the feet of his disciples.  The disciples are stunned.  The washing of feet was usually done by a slave.   It was Jesus who was washing their feet.  Jesus is certainly acknowledging in gratitude the courage of his disciples in having walked with him for three years to this dark night.  He is surely proclaiming that in such walking, despite all that will happen on the next day, they have arrived nonetheless at the threshold of new life.  But most of all, Jesus is teaching them that this new life is gained not in presiding over multitudes from royal thrones;  it is gained, however, in walking with the humble and in humbly serving this world’s walkers.  When he tells his disciples to do as he has done in washing their feet, he is commissioning them to walk as he has walked and to heal as he has healed.

His disciples are to change the world by getting down on their knees and washing the feet of God’s poor.

This is the authentic mark of the follower of Jesus Christ:  that he and she wash the feet of the beggar, the leper, the miserable sinner rejected by everyone else.

Jesus the teacher demonstrated his life-giving message:  foot washing.  He did not ask his friends to die for one another, but to live for one another.  Holy Thursday is a celebration of life, and life together as a people of God.

In the Gospel account we find that Peter was uncomfortable with having Jesus wash his feet.  Peter, who was somewhat of an activist, would have preferred to see himself doing the washing, washing the feet of Jesus, and even of the other disciples.  Sometimes it is harder to remain passive and allow someone else to bathe us than it is to bathe someone else. 

But having our feet washed and washing the feet of others are two necessary components of Christian discipleship.

Peter’s image of God was more of a king rather than a humble servant.  He was imprisoned by his image of who God is.  Jesus was giving Peter a different image of God and saying the only way to stay close to Jesus was to let him wash you.

  

The first and most essential part is to let the Lord wash us.  As Jesus said to Peter, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.  First, the Lord washes us clean so that we belong to the Lord.  Only then are we qualified and empowered to wash the feet of our sisters and brothers. When this truth dawned on Peter, he overcame his reluctance and cried out “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head.”  For this to happen all that the Lord needs from us is simply to be there, to present ourselves to him and to let him wash us.

The other side of the coin, which is equally important, is that after our feet have been washed by the Lord, we must go and wash the feet of others.  After Jesus washed his disciples’ feet, he said to them: “Do you know what I have done for you?  You call me Teacher and Lord – and rightly so, for that is what I am.  So if I, your Lord and Master, wash your feet, you are to wash the feet of one another.  I have given you an example, what I have done, you are to do likewise.

On this holy night, we pledge once again to use our hands and feet for the work of forgiveness, for the work of loving each other.  We pledge to wash each other’s feet, to hand over our lives for each other, for the sake of the world.  We pledge ourselves to do Eucharist, to do this in memory of the One who gave his life for us.

Isn’t it odd what we experience this evening in this liturgy of the Lord’s Supper?  The meaning of salvation focuses on the voice of God speaking to us through Jesus with a towel around his waist asking us to find the towel with our name on it:  “As I have done for you, so you also must do.”

Service rooted in love is the example Jesus gives to his disciples.  It is a radical form of service because it is based on a radical form of love.

So, the question I leave with you as we ritually wash the feet of parishioners is:  Where is your towel with your name on it?

We will never perceive the Reality beneath the bread and wine unless we first understand the point of the basin and feet;  we never see Christ in the Eucharist we kneel to adore, if we do not first see Christ in those before whom we kneel to serve.

Have a blessed day.

When Jesus returns, will He recognize in His Church the policies that he established so long ago? Will Christ still find members of His body still willing to turn the other cheek, walk the extra mile, and forgive 70 times seven times?

During the two Gospels that make the Palm Sunday liturgy, we go from the joy of a good parade on Palm Sunday to a parade that ends with the suffering and death of Jesus on Good Friday.  The incredible contrast in moods between the two Gospels proclaimed in this Sunday’s liturgy capture well the broad dynamic of the Paschal Mystery.  The opening Gospel proclaimed in the blessing of the palms is the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem with the disciples shouting Hosanna and placing palm branches along the route

The second Gospel proclaimed is the Passion Account of the suffering and death of Jesus.  Before this week is ended, the palm branches of Palm Sunday will be replaced by the thorns and nails of the Friday we call “Good.”  Shouts of “Alleluia” and “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” will be drowned out by the mocking sneers and cries of “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” 

The contrasts in moods that are part of the drama of Holy Week point to a case of frustrated expectations.  They crowds cheered Jesus as the Son of David, and when he failed to act like a conquering king, they turned their backs on him and looked for another.  This kind of behavior is not difficult to understand, because unfortunately we too give up on people when they do not meet our expectations.

Traditionally during Holy Week we focus on the sufferings of Jesus.  But it is not suffering, not even the sufferings of Jesus,  that makes this week holy.  Rather it is holy because of love -- the reconciling love of God who has come to live among us in the person of Jesus Christ.  God’s love is the only thing that stands between utter chaos and an attempt to stand whole and complete in the middle of crisis.  God’s love is the only thing that makes sense out of suffering, conflict and tragedy. God’s love does not do away with suffering; the very fact of the cross should teach us that.  God’s love makes it possible to hear it, to remember it, to share in it, and, yes, even to celebrate it.  God’s love brings meaning to this week of dueling emotions; God’s love is the essence of the story of salvation.

This week is holy because of love, but it is love misunderstood.  Jesus is a hero, but not in the traditional pattern of heroism.  He actually looks more like a victim.  He is not triumphant as we understand triumph.  Instead he appears to be a failure.  Judging by one set of standards, Jesus has not met our expectations.  But according to another standard – the standard of unconditional love –he has far surpassed our expectations.   At once regal and lowly, he brought healing and holiness to others through his own pain and brokenness.  He would claim victory by being defeated; he would establish his reign by serving and by dying.  His crown would be a weave of thorns.

Palm Sunday is not about ancient history.  It is about NOW.  Jesus still refuses to save the world by what we recognize as power.  He still does not use divine power to wipe out disease, poverty, crime, oppression, injustice or error.  He still tries to convert instead of control.  He still chooses to love rather than punish.  He still chooses meekness over might, simplicity over plenty, service over sovereignty and suffering over strong-arm tactics.

When our servant king returns, will he recognize in his Church the policies that he established so long ago?  Will those in authority be servants of all?  Will the poor be welcomed as honored guests at the banquet tables of the rich or will they still be the hired help who are relegated to the leftovers in the kitchen?  Will the sick and the elderly experience healing through the compassion and caring of others or will they languish alone and unattended?  Will Christ still find members of his body still willing to turn the other cheek, walk the extra mile and forgive seventy times seven times?  Will the followers of Jesus evoke from their contemporaries a comment like that was paid to their ancestors in faith, “See how they love one another.”?

Have a Blessed Holy Week.

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God's new covenant: Instead of giving us rules to follow, God wants to infuse our hearts with the fire of divine love.

From today’s First Scripture reading from the prophet Jeremiah we read:  “The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah…I will place my law within then and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

Jeremiah’s mission was to reshape the people of Israel into something beautiful for God.  What would it like if we were ever to think that our mission as a faith community was to shape the Town of Penfield into something beautiful for God.  Is that a crazy thought?  What would it be like if that was the focus of our March Madness?  What some of us in our parish community are presently engaged in is ChristLife.  This is our spiritual renewal initiative to encounter Christ more personally in our life.  But it is so important to focus on our goal.   ChristLife is not merely an effort t to make us feel good in an individual way; rather we seek to discover Christ in our lives so that we can be Christ for others.

Going back to Jeremiah, there is so much beautiful humanness that can be found in the faith journey of   Jeremiah.  I recommend that we can find our own faith journey in the story of Jeremiah.  In the first chapter of the book we learn that God shaped Jeremiah in his mother’s womb for this important work.   The prophet’s first reaction was fear and said that he was not qualified.  He was much too young.  We might say “we are too old.  It’s someone else’s turn.”  But God was able to break through the resistance of Jeremiah.  With the simple yet powerful faith assurance that “I will be with you,” God was able to break through the resistance of Jeremiah, and he opened himself up to the mission that God had for him.  I wonder what would happen if all of us opened ourselves up to the plan that God has for us.  My hunch is that the whole community we live in would experience the love, the service, the friendship that would radiate out from us.  We would value the dignity of each and every person.

Jeremiah used the awesome image of clay in the hands of the potter as a way of describing God’s desire to shape and form us into a community that has a spiritual center of trusting in God’s plan for us and how we are called to be for one another as brothers and sisters.  God’s plan is to fashion us into a people who trust and care for one another.  But like clay unresponsive in the hands of the potter, the people of Israel remained unresponsive to the Word of God.

To call the Israelites back to their original mission as a people of God, Jeremiah uses the expression “new covenant.”   The Scripture says the “Days are coming when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel.”  What makes this covenant new is not its content because God still speaks of my law, but the newness of the covenant refers to the place where it can be found.  The old covenant was associated with commandments written in stone.  The people had to match to standards that were outside of them.  But this proclamation from Jeremiah says the covenant is written in their hearts.  Instead of giving them rules to follow, God wants to infuse their hearts with the fire of divine love.  When the covenant is scripted in their hearts, they will share the very passion of God.

The Israelites are to experience the presence and the forgiveness of God written in their hearts.  They would be a people no longer commanded by external standards, but God’s love and God’s law is to found with them.  By faithfulness to God’s covenant that is within, we become our best selves, the people we are called to be.

As we reflect on this Jeremiah reading, this leaves us with one question.  Are we willing to risk the cost of having God’s law written on our hearts?    Our spirituality is part of our DNA.  Yes, we all have demons that can throw us off-center, which can derail us from being our best selves:  our self-centeredness, our greed, our lust, our need for power and control.

If our covenant is written in our hearts, it is not enough to set aside an hour a week to give thanks to God at Mass, or even to tithe 10% of our time, talent, and treasure;  it is not enough to be a part-time disciple of Jesus.  We need to be all in. Everything we say and do is part of our spirituality and our covenant with God.  God is present to us 24/7.

The Letter to the Hebrews, the second Scripture reading, then points us to the new covenant.  The new covenant is the mystery of Jesus that is written in our hearts.  The spirit of Jesus is within us, the community of the baptized.

This Letter to the Hebrews points to the mystery of Jesus within us and also the shocking truth that “Jesus learned obedience through suffering.”  Jesus had to struggle to live his vocation.  As a man Jesus become conscious of fulfilling his Father’s will through suffering, the cross, and the crucifixion.  Jesus had already gone to the heart of the human struggle for meaning, and by his suffering he learned obedience.  In the mystery of the Incarnation, Jesus was fully man and experienced the suffering of humanity.

In the Gospel, Jesus describes his own paschal mystery with the imagery:   ”Amen, Amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.”  The grains of wheat need to die to be reborn.  Jesus died out of love for us and rose again in His risen life so that we might share in the Lord’s eternal life.  Thanks be to God.

Jesus explains in the Gospel that his moment of glory is about to arrive and does not hesitate to say that he knows what it will cost.  He then teaches his disciples what it means to hate the life this world offers.  This is not an easy message to grasp.  I bet we all agree to that.  We are left with the question can we abandon the love of this world for the sake of life in God?  Can Pope Francis, Mother Theresa, and the martyred Archbishop Oscar Romero be mentors for us to teach that the covenant of God’s love that is written in our hearts is our pearl of great price.

The world we live in has embraced the notion of personal perfection through education, exercise, diet, travel, and aesthetic beauty.  This gives us the lifestyle that passes for a full, satisfying life.  What else is there?

Jesus shocks us with the paradox he is about to embrace:  death on a cross.  Jesus reveals God as the One who empties his heart into the world even as the world rejects the divine offer of reconciliation.  God’s unconditional love transforms enemies into friends, cleanses the heart of selfishness and restores the center of balance to a world disjointed and disoriented by human self-centeredness.

In our daily parish email blast, we ask you the question:  Will you encounter Christ today?  The Bible is asking us what part of ourselves and our way of life are we willing to die to so that we can encounter Christ more fully today?

Have a Blessed Day.

we rejoice today because God loves each and every one of us so much that He gave His only Son.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

This is a Gospel within the Gospel….the famous John 3/16.  The core of the Gospel’s Good News is that God so loved the world that he gave his only Son to this real and very imperfect world…so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.  God’s plan for us is not eternal death but eternal life.  It is time to unleash the power of the Good News that is contained in this simple passage and allow it change people’s lives.  The image of God that today’s Scripture reveal is a God who is relentless in reaching out to lost humanity.  God never gives up on us.

On this Laetare Sunday, halfway through the Lenten season, the Church invites us to reflect on God’s love for the world, and to be joyful because of it.  The Church invites us in the middle of this penitential season to rejoice?  Why?  Because God loves each and every one so much that he gave his only Son.

Even though all of us know the weakness of sin in our lives, God’s love for us is without end.  People sin and God tries in every possible way to save them.

Today in the first Scripture reading we see the effects of the weakness of sin very dramatically with the Israelites.  The situation depicted is one of the darkest chapter in the history of God’s chosen people.  The Jews fell away from their attachment to the Temple worship and practices, the nation suffered; the Temple was destroyed and many were exiled into Babylon as servants and slaves in what is called the Babylonian Exile.

How could lax religious practices lead to the fall of a mighty nation?  Simply put, without meaningful prayer the Jews lost a sense of who they were.  In their behavior they compromised their way toward defeat and destruction by letting themselves believe that their spirituality did not matter.

Thankfully, thankfully God did not give up on the Israelites.  At the end of the sacred book of the Chronicles, we hear God calling His people to put their Temple back as central to their lives.\

Through the Old Testament Book of the Chronicles we can visit our own faith history and thus are challenged to examine our own “Temple practices,” our own attachment to the center of our Faith  --  The Table of the Lord.  The Altar is the Christian Temple.

We are challenged in this Lenten season to ask ourselves if we have been faithful to discipleship of the Lord Jesus or if we have fallen into a malaise of half-hearted spiritual practices?  Have we polluted our Temple – our Church – by having forgotten reverence?  Do we remember who we are, or do our spiritual practices suggest we have forgotten?

At this halfway point of the Lenten season, may we do a spiritual inventory of our Lenten spiritual disciplines.  We do this inventory in the light of God’s unending love for us.  Yes, the Lenten season invites to reflect on who we are as the disciples of Jesus and the priority we place on who God is in our lives.  Pope Francis calls us out of a life of spiritual indifference and seeks to immerse ourselves in the joy of the Gospel.  Why?  God so loved the world that He sent His only-begotten Son for our salvation.

What is going to catch our attention? What is going to shake us out of the busyness of life that keeps us from focusing on our relationship with God?  I can easily lament about the problems that exist across the globe, but what keeps me from experiencing the Spirit of Christ that lives in the spirit of each one of us?

I can be very successful in my career, in my business, but have I lost touch with my soul in the process?  My family may have accomplished much in the way of achievements, but do we have time as a family to pray together, simply to be with one another.  The psalmist tells us:  “Be still and know that I am God.”  Are we too busy for any stillness in our lives?

As St. Paul tells us in his Letter to the Ephesians, “God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ -- by grace you have been saved….For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.”

St Paul was vividly aware of grace in his own life.  He was in touch with his own conversion story.  He wanted the Ephesians to also know in the depths of their hearts that they were God’s handiwork.

In one way or another, we all need to have the conversion experience of the apostle Paul.  Our experience probably won’t be as dramatic as Paul’s, but we need to experience the love of God in our hearts.

As always, Jesus, in the Gospel offers both comfort and challenge.  Jesus said to Nicodemus:  “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”  The lifting up signified not only crucifixion but also exaltation, more precisely, the exaltation of us all to eternal life through Jesus’ death by crucifixion.  Jesus transforms a sign of condemnation for sin into an instrument of healing.  The cross is both a symbol of the suffering that is part of our spiritual journey, but it is also the symbol of the love of Jesus that brings us eternal life.

What is the cross but the revelation of a God loving enough to suffer death without revenge, powerful enough to overcome death.

                                                                                                                                                      

Jesus has come into the world to reveal our sins so that they may be forgiven.  As we live in the light of Christ Jesus, we become more aware of what is not of God.  In the light of God’s love, we all humbly, as we do in the penitential rite and as we did in being marked with ashes at the beginning of Lent, acknowledge that we are all sinners.  There is no place for pride or arrogance or judgmentalism in the spiritual life – we are all sinners.   

On this Laetare Sunday, we make bold to rejoice that we are loved and forgiven sinners.  We go forth from this Eucharistic banquet, this feast of forgiveness, courageous and cheerful.  We all are loving and joyous ambassadors of God’s unconditional love, starting, of course, with the least likely person for me to reach out to.

Have a blessed day.

Who or what are the money changers in your Temple? During Lent, Jesus wishes to purify the temples of our hearts.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus throws the money changers out of the Temple.  Jesus literally upsets the temple customs of his day and then invites the people around Him to change their idea of where God’s true dwelling is soon to be found.  Rather than a holy place of prayerful encounter with God, the temple precincts had begun to resemble a marketplace, and Jesus’ actions registered loudly and clearly as a prophetic protest against the exploitation of the temple and the people of Israel.  Jesus is clear about “His Father’s house” being a place of prayer and covenant, a place where God dwells.

Today’s reading remind of that most basic truth that God is the center of our lives.

As this Gospel is proclaimed in our hearing, we are prompted to wonder what the returning Jesus may find needs cleansing or replacing in our personal spirituality and in our celebration of Sunday Eucharist.  What attitudes, preoccupations, or desires do you bring to your prayer and life that Christ would “drive out” if you would let him?

In other words, what needs to be driven out of your inner temple for you to have zeal for God?  From what do you need to repent in this Lenten season?  As we pray over the Gospel, can we listen to the echo of the confrontation of Jesus that addresses the temples of our present day lives?   Who or what are the moneychangers in your Temple?  Is it greed, an excessive preoccupation with our possessions, is it the way we deal with the setbacks in our life, can we let go of an anger we feel toward a particular person, or is it our inability to focus on what is really important in our life?  Jesus purified the Temple.  During Lent He invites us to purify the temples of our hearts.

Lord, there are so many temples that people are turning into market places today:

n  Children are a sacred trust, but at times we compromise their safety and do not nourish their growth and faith as disciples of Jesus.  We think of violent school killings.  May we also think of all the ways we teach our children to be competitioners, rather than teaching them the lessons of the heart.

n  Instead of reverence for the temple of mother earth, we see it as a source of easy profit.

n  Sometimes we use the temple of the sacredness of the human body for our own sexual pleasure.

n  Even a church community becomes a place for prestige and power.

Lord, forgive us that we ae no longer indignant when sacred places are being violated.  We thank you for the times you sent Jesus into those temples; he made a whip out of some cord and drove us out, scattering our coins and knocking tables over.

What kind of cleansing does Jesus wish in do in the celebration of our Sunday Eucharist?

Perhaps Jesus would suggest there is room for improvement in having more lector training, would he suggest that the homilists are a bit long winded at times, or the choir music could be reviewed and improved?

Or would Jesus be convinced that there are more important realities in evaluating of our liturgies?

Would he point out the discrepancies between the prayers we say and the way we live our life?   Do we walk our talk in witnessing to the love of the compassionate Jesus?  He might ask if we come together to be entertained or to be edified.  “Father I don’t get anything out of Mass.”  Do we gather at Sunday Eucharist to get or to give?  Should our focus be on our desire to give praise and thanks to our God?   Would Jesus see a direct connection between God’s predilection for the poor and our own?  Would he see us translating this concern for the poor into generous giving and authentic service toward God’s least ones?   These need to be the defining characteristic of ourselves as a Eucharistic community.

If God is not alive all week in us, God will not be alive on Sunday.  If he is not alive in our hearts – well, maybe that‘s sometimes why religion can be so boring.  For religion can be very boring if  our hearts are not touched.

But the dramatic action of Jesus – driving out the merchants and moneychangers – is not the most shocking feature of this Sunday’s Gospel.  Not only does Jesus cleanse the Temple, he declares that he himself replaces it.  The place of God’s presence among His people is not a building but ‘the temple of his body.’  In Jesus we encounter the living God.  The real priority of our lives is our covenant relationship with God.  Our relationship with God is measured by how well we pattern our lives after Jesus in dying to ourselves for the good of others so that we might rise with him.  As believers and followers of Jesus our own bodies are also temples of the Holy Spirit.  God dwells not primarily in this building, but rather in us who are the living Temples of the Spirit of Jesus.  May we always reverence the presence of Christ that we experience in our sharing with one another.

At the Eucharist, we remember what God has done for us in the person of Christ.  Through his perfect gift of self, we are given the grace to turn our hearts and minds back to the God of love and life,  For our worship to be genuine, it not only means participation at the altar, but also a sincere reorienting of our lives to reflect the example set by Jesus.  When we say Amen we are agreeing to the power of such transformation and recommitting ourselves to living it out.

Have a Blessed Day.