As I have done for you, so you also must do.

 

HOLY THURSDAY 2023

 

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 this Holy Thursday liturgy, we encounter the Lord in two significant ways.   The first way is very shocking: the voice of God speaks 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.”

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 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.

The message of Holy Thursday is that 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.  The lesson to be drawn from Jesus’ washing of the feet, I do not decide which lives have value and dignity, God does.

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.

 

Notice how we encounter the Lord in this liturgy of the Lord’s Supper

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.

 

The second way we encounter is in the mystery of the Eucharist.  It was at the Last Supper on the night before he died, that Jesus said over the Bread and Wine:  This is my Body; take and eat.  This is my blood: take and drink.  Do this in memory of me.

When we gather for Sunday Eucharist Sunday after Sunday after Sunday, we are doing what Jesus asked us to do when He said:  Do this in memory of me.

In this sacred Eucharistic meal, under the form of bread and wine, Jesus is present to us.  We are nourished with the bread of life and the cup of salvation.

We encounter the Lord in a most privileged sacramental in the Sacrament of the Eucharist that was instituted at the Last Supper on the night before he died to insure us that Jesus will be present to us all days until the end of time.

On this Holy Thursday, may we ponder over the words of Jesus: “Do this in memory of me.”  Specifically, what is “this” that Jesus wants us to in His memory.

Traditionally, we think of the Eucharist has what Jesus is calling us to do in His memory.  And so, we gather Sunday after Sunday after Sunday to celebrate the Eucharist in obedience to what the Lord as asked us to.

I invite us to expand our sense of what Jesus is asking us to do.  Do this also means to do the meaning of the ritual in real life, to do what Jesus did.  It means to live as Jesus lived.  We are to remember not only what Jesus did at the Last Supper, but we to remember the example in his whole life. Doing this is living this. 

A profound truth of our Holy Thursday liturgy is that these two ways of encountering the Lord are essentially linked together for us as Catholic Christians.  What does this mean?   We will 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.

To say it again, we will 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.  Where is the towel with your name on it?  That towel is surely found in how you are to love and serve in your family, that towel is around your waist calling you to wash the feet of the person you don’t along with, that towel is to be found for you in one of the ministries of our parish life?

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.  As we gather to celebrate the Eucharist on this Holy Night, we do this in the memory of the One who gave His life for us.

We seek by the way we live our lives to be faithful to the words of Jesus:  Do this in memory of me.

 

Have a Blessed Triduum.

 

 

 

This Palm Sunday, our palms remind us that we are sinners in need of the Lord's mercy, and we now place our lives in the hands of our loving God,

 

 

Today begins the most sacred week of the Church’s entire liturgical year.   We   will walk with Jesus through Holy Week in the pattern of his death and resurrection.  The week we call holy invites us to enter into the heart of our faith. 

 

St Paul in the second Scripture reading reveals who Jesus is: “Christ Jesus, though He was in the form of God, did not regard equality to God something to be grasped, rather he emptied himself taking the form of a slave…he humbled himself.”

 

 

On Palm Sunday the church gives us the opportunity to hear two Gospels. The first one was proclaimed at the beginning of the liturgy as the palms were blessed; the second was proclaimed at its normal time. One of the gospels depicts a triumphal march into Jerusalem. The other on a painful, humanly agonizing and struggling march leading to a death. A high and a low. But, which one is which?  Which one is which?  This is such an important question.

 

Our world would assert that the glorious entry into Jerusalem was the high point and that the death of Jesus on the cross was the low point. Our faith proclaims that just the opposite is true.

 

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!”

 

 

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 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 deal with suffering, to remember it, to share in it, and, yes, even to celebrate it.  God’s love is the essence of the story of salvation.

 

In the passion account, Jesus looks 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.

 

As we gather in prayer on this day, may we be very conscious that Palm Sunday is not just about ancient history.  It is about NOW.  As we reflect upon the Passion account, we discern how the passion account as the Living Word of God speaks to our lives today.  We see the first apostles, despite their closeness to Jesus, do not stand by Him in His suffering.  What about us? 

 

On the first Palm Sunday,  Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey with palm branches being spread on the road. When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil: “Who is this?” people asked.  In Jesus, God is the one who identifies with and enters into the experience of the people He loves.  Today God is sending a message through Jesus in this Palm Sunday celebration that states that Jesus once again accompanies us in these days.  God will embrace and transform our sufferings so that we may enter more fully into the risen life of Jesus.

 

Morning after morning in these days of Holy Week, we strive to accompany Jesus, present here and now in this community of believers and especially in those who suffer, as he continues his journey toward the heavenly Jerusalem through a world that sometimes cries Hosanna, but often, also, Crucify!  As disciples in every age, we resolve to be ready to suffer with our Master, carrying the cross in union with Him, freely laying down our lives in selfless service, trusting as did Jesus that, despite appearances to the contrary, God’s steadfast love will not abandon us but lead us safely to eternal life.

 

As we listen to the account of the passion and death of Jesus, may we be immersed in the immensity of God’s love for us.  May we also listen to the challenge that is given to us throughout the entire passion narrative:  As the master goes, so goes the disciple.

 

Take the palm branches with you today; let them be a reminder that we are entering the holiest week of the year. The week that begins with the false triumphal entry into Jerusalem and ends with the true triumph over death and the cross. These palms challenge us to remember our role in our Lord’s passion – that those great sufferings endured by our Lord were endured for each of us.

 

These palms can stay with us, calling us to not forget who we are – sinners in need of our Lord’s grace, and what we can be – sinners who have placed our lives in the hands of our loving God.

 

Have a blessed day.

 

                                                     

 

How has the experience of the death of one you have loved affected your own faith journey?

 

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT  A  2023

 

 

 

In today’s Gospel of the raising of Lazarus from the dead, the account is grounded in the human heartache of death..  Mary said to Jesus:  “Load, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he was deeply troubled, and said, “Where have you laid him?”  So they said to him, “Sir, come and see.”  And Jesus wept.

 

Confronted by the searing loss that physical death brings, Jesus himself begins to weep.  Jesus feels the cold sting of a loved one laid in a tomb.  Jesus wept because he felt our pain, shared our pain.  Yes, Jesus was God.  But Yes, Jesus was also fully human; and, as such, know the profound grief of the death of one we love.

 

This Gospel account describes love among friends -- Jesus with Martha and Mary.  The account portrays the profound grief that comes with the death of one we love.  Isn’t it true that in the mystery of life, the first kiss given to the one we love has the potential of being the source of our tears.  We mourn deeply because we love deeply.

 

In our parish community this past week, we grieved over the death of three long-time faith filled parishioners – Charity Chinelly, Elly Fermoil, and Marge Salmon.  Their deaths spoke to me of the meaning of today’s Gospel in the Raising of Lazarus.  While the raising of Lazarus is a story of human heartache, it is also an account of the divine power of the resurrection.  Death is a painful reality in our lives, but it is not the final word.  Jesus is our final word.  We are transformed in death into our sharing in the fullness of the Risen Life of Jesus.

 

The Gospel is a story of faith.  The Lazarus account illustrates the deepening of faith that comes through an experience of death.  Whether the death of a loved one or one’s own death, it is the moment where one realizes that all depends on God.

 

Jesus can and does bring Lazarus back to earthly life.  This is an incredible miracle.  But we are called to believe in something even more profound.  We are called to believe in a resurrection that transforms, a resurrection that is lasting.  Jesus is the life we are seeking.  True faith has to include a belief in Jesus as the source of unending life.

 

In the stories from the evangelist John, there is a constant double level of language.  Those who talk to Jesus speak to him on what is important to them on the physical level, while Jesus tries to lead them to a spiritual level of meaning.  By inserting these Gospel stories in the liturgy, the Church reminds us that Jesus is still struggling to get us to see deeper spiritual realities.   With the raising of Lazarus, Jesus is not simply renewing a life that ends in a grave, but offering a life whereby one does not die at all.

 

In our Lenten Gospels, the symbols of water, sight and new life are symbols closely associated with Christian baptism; and so, the stories centered on them lead us to reflect on our baptismal faith.  In the account of the Samaritan woman, Jesus wasn’t just speaking of physical water, but of the water that springs up to eternal life.  With the healing of the blind man, Jesus leads us to a spiritual sightedness.  And the Lazarus story illustrates the deepening of faith that comes through an experience of death.  Jesus tells the Lazarus story in such a way that we are led to a deeper understanding of Lazarus’ death.

 

 

 

This Gospel is both a Lenten and an Easter Gospel.  This Gospel of the raising of Lazarus anticipates the Resurrection of Jesus.  Jesus says to Martha:  I am the resurrection and the life.  It is a Gospel about the non-finality of death.  Divine love is more powerful than death.  Jesus entered into the worst of human conditions – the experience of death – and invited us to be transformed by hope.

 

This Gospel is also a Lenten Gospel.  The story of Lazarus is the story of all of us.  The word Lazarus means that God helps.  We all live in Bethany.  In its root meaning, Bethany is the house of the afflicted.  This Gospel is the story of everyone because in our pain we seek the help of God.  As with Martha and Mary and Lazarus, sometimes it is God doesn’t deal with our pain as quickly as we would like.  Jesus delays.  Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is stench because he has been dead four days.  The Lenten journey is about dealing with the stench of the human condition – our own stench.   We need to deal with the stench of our sinfulness and the sinfulness of the world.  As you recall the Ash Wednesday mantra that was given to us, we are to turn away from sin and to be faithful to the Gospel.  

 

 

 

 

In this Lenten time of spiritual renewal, from whatever tombs we dare to emerge from in our Lenten journey, may our faith community welcome us and accompany us on the road out of the darkness and into the light of the Risen Lord.

 

Now is the time and place for leaving behind whatever threatens to entomb us and to keep us from Christ. 

 

In our journey of faith, there are many challenges we face that test our trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior.  Such was the experience of the blind man in last Sunday’s Gospel.  Who of us has not faced hardships and brokenness in life that has left us feeling very vulnerable and a bit insecure?  Facing death often constitutes a unique challenge to faith.  The experience of death is perhaps the darkest of our dark valleys.  Death will never be easy.  A prayerful question for us all to reflect upon is:  How has the experience of the death of one you have loved affected your own faith journey?

 

Have a Blessed Day.

 

 

The Samaritan woman went from being an outsider to being an enthusiastic evangelizer bring people to Jesus.

 

 

THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT  A  2023

The intriguing account of the Samaritan’s woman encounter with the Lord is a most beautiful story of an outcast, an outsider, a Samaritan woman, someone who has endured the school of hard knocks, one who is even cynical and sarcastic and suspicious even when someone is trying to be kind to her.  And yet, through her encounter with Jesus at this well in Samaria, she is transformed from being an outsider to becoming an enthusiastic evangelizer inviting other people in town to come to know Jesus.

Jesus,  the Son of God, the Savior of the world, wasn’t too busy to listen patiently and dialogue with and affirm with considerable love this outcast of society.  If we are to follow the way of Jesus in our ministry, may we take the time to listen and to affirm the beauty of people in their time of need.

This is a most dramatic conversion story.

As we pray over this Gospel, may we find our story in the story of the Samaritan woman.  Imagine a situation in your life in which you felt like an outsider, an outcast – maybe you did get not the promotion you were hoping for, maybe you had to deal with the after effects of a relationship that has gone wrong in your life, maybe you are being misunderstood by someone you love, maybe the
Church you love is making you feel like an outsider, maybe the nation you are so proud of is turning upside down --  whatever it is.  My hunch is that all of us at one time or another or maybe several times,  have felt like the outsider.

May we observe closely the dialogue of Jesus with the Samaritan in three stages:

1.        In the first stage, the Samaritan woman displays her mistrust, her sarcasm, and the hurt she has felt over a long period.  She says:  “What you a Jew asking me, a Samaritan, for a drink.”  Jews have nothing to do with Samaritans; men don’t talk to strange women.  Are you trying to make a fool of me?

But in this encounter, Jesus was breaking previously drawn lines in the sand and listened to her anger and hurt with great hope in the dialogue.  Jesus saw much more beauty in the Samaritan woman than she saw in herself.  He listened to her with kindness and believing in her dignity.

The beginning of the conversion story for the Samaritan woman was that she was listened with much compassion and understanding and affirmation of her inner dignity.

I have counted a great blessing to my life when I am listened to and filled with hope when I wasn’t able to see a way forward.  The way forward was revealed through the listening heart of another.

May we know that the dialogue Jesus has with the Samaritan woman is the dialogue the Lord wishes to have with each one of us,  especially when we are feeling fragile or vulnerable.  This is the real message of the Gospel.    Because she felt affirmed in her dialogue with Jesus, when she then was confronted by Jesus in saying that indeed the person you are living with is not your husband -- Indeed you have had five previous husbands – she did not become defensive as many times I have become defensive when confronted or criticized.  Why was she able to listen with openness to Jesus?  The answer is simple in some ways.  Jesus had first listened to her and affirmed her as a person of worth and dignity.  Even when confronted, she was confronted with great love in the heart of Jesus.

When we know that we are loved and affirmed, an inner lock is released within us and we are able to listen to critique that invites our growth.  Is it not true we can listen better to others when we know that we are understood and loved.   In the spiritual life, it is a conversion in our lives when we know how much we are loved and affirmed by Jesus.

3.       Finally, Jesus reveals to the woman at the well that he is the living water, the anointed one, the Savior.  Jesus was calling her to a life that she cannot imagine for herself.  Please note that Jesus did not send her away, admonishing her to avoid further sin.  Instead Christ makes her an evangelist, sending her out to call others to him.

The woman at the well has a complicated and tragic past but becomes a wellspring of hope for her village.

How is her story our story?   It is not God’s plan for us to be trapped in the darkness of sin.  It is not God’s plan for us to be the outsider.  Rather the Lord wished to affirm us that we are loved and forgiven and we too are called to be a wellspring of hope for others.  In God’s plan, the greatest sinners are often enough those whom the Lord calls to lead others to him.

The church provides us this Gospel during the Lenten Gospel because it is only in opening ourselves to God’s plan for our lives, by our openness to embracing even the crosses of life, by opening ourselves to dialogue and pray with Jesus that we genuinely encounter the Lord in a way that transforms our lives.  Indeed this beautiful Gospel prepares us to share in the mystery of the dying and rising of Jesus, prepares us to share in the joy of the Risen Lord.

 

              Have a blessed day.

How well do we listen to the call of God in our lives?

 

Second Sunday of Lent  A 2023

In this homily, I would like you to focus on three simple words spoken by God the Father in the Gospel account:  Listen to him.

As the apostles experienced the transfigured glory of Jesus, Peter says: “Lord, it is good that we are here.”  While he was still speaking. Behold, then from a cloud came a voice that said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased, listen to him.”

To this point, the apostles have been unable to understand Jesus’ predictions about his upcoming suffering, death and resurrection. They have not listened.  In fact, there was no need to listen because they already knew what they wanted the Savior to be like – a successful, prestigious, powerful Messiah.  Now the voice of God commands them to listen.

How about ourselves:  Are we good listeners?   How well do we listen to the call of God in our lives?  Do we do more speaking than listening in our prayer life?  We certainly want God to listen to us in our prayers of petition.  Are we sometimes like the first apostles who had no need to listen because it was already clear to them what God should do?

Are we good listeners?  Do others know us as good listeners?  Are we able to listen to the voice of God when things aren’t going as we planned?

Do we hear the cry of God’s poor?  Are we responsive to the needs of people locally and around the world?

From the first Scripture reading in the Book of Genesis: “The Lord said to Abram: ‘Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father’s house to a land I will show you.  I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you.’”

What was asked of Abram sets the stage for us to reflect on our own cost of discipleship.  The detachment that was asked of Abram is this:  Abram is commanded to leave his country, his kinfolk, and finally his father’s house, that is, what we would call his entire support system, material and psychological, the whole deal, and depend on God alone.

Does this not challenge us to reflect on our cost of discipleship during this Lenten season?   Lent’s call to stark honesty compels us to ask if our discipleship of Jesus is too comfortable.  Our Lenten conversion process requires some measure of detachment from self-centeredness and attachment to values and priorities and preferences that may be countercultural.

The call of Abram who was later named Abraham was to leave home and settle in a foreign land.  God asked and so Abram went.  He had trust and hope.  How do we respond when God asks us to move beyond our comfort zone and to more fully trust in the plan of God for us?  We are all used to what we are used to.  There is the tendency in all of us to say my way or the highway.  But if our call to discipleship is any way similar to God’s call of Abram, we will need to revisit that old wisdom.  In some way, the Lord asks of you and the Lord asks of me to let go of some of my comfort zone and to trust more fully in God’s plan for us.

Jesus message is that his disciples must be willing to join Him in His passion and death.  The disciples had difficulty hearing this reality.  We too have difficulty listening to Jesus when our discipleship involves dealing with the crosses of life – the cross of sickness, the cross of the death of a loved one, the cross of coping with a relationship that has gone wrong.

It’s easier to listen to the Lord on the mountaintop when the blessings of life are very apparent.  It is more difficult to listen when we come down from the mountain and are in the midst of the valley of loneliness, of fear and of anxiety.

The apostles were given the vision of the transfigured Lord to overcome their resistance to listening to Jesus in moments of suffering.  What the apostles experienced in this beautiful Transfiguration experience was like the end of the story appearing in the middle.  Why?  The apostles needed their faith to be strengthened to have a faith and hope in accepting their Savior as one who was going to be crucified in his journey to resurrection and new life. The apostles had balked at the future Jesus was insisting upon.  The privilege of witnessing Jesus’ Transfiguration was for the purpose of confirming Jesus as someone to whom they must listen to.  They have, as of yet, not understood the mission of Jesus.  They must open themselves up to what Jesus is saying about his suffering, death, and resurrection.

The real action of discipleship is not just on the mountaintop but in the upcoming events of death and resurrection in Jerusalem.  As we pray over this Transfiguration Gospel, know that the message for us is not just the identity of Jesus in his transfigured glory but it is a story for us to reflect on what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.  In the words of the Father:  Listen to him.   As with the first disciples, we need to let go of old notions of discipleship that get in the way of listening to the message of Jesus.  We need to accept the cross in our own lives and to trust more fully in God’s plan for our lives.

Please God we all can identify with Transfiguration events that put us in touch with the glory of the Lord.  For me the glory is revealed in the sacredness of the ocean as well as on the mountaintop.  The glory of the Lord is revealed in the friendships of my life that are so life giving and I so deeply treasure and need.  The glory of the Lord is revealed in sacred moments of ministry.  Recently I vividly recall being in the hospital room at Strong and praying with patient who was about to go home to the Lord.  I was praying with his wife and son as well.  It was apparent to all that God was with us and all will be well.

We all need those treasured moments of faith to strengthen us for the times we will be vulnerable and fragile and wonder why God is asking to embrace this cross in our life.  The crosses in life we will experience as individuals, as families, as the faith community of St. Joseph’s, and as a nation.  There will be no dimension of our lives in which we get a free pass from the cross.

May our journey of faith have those beautiful Transfiguration in which we say with the apostle: “Lord, it is good we are here.” And may we be able to listen to the call of God in our journey of faith when we need to lead go of our familiar comfort zones and embrace the cross and Gethsemane in our lives.

 

Have a Blessed Day.

As with Jesus, may we be led by the Spirit of God's love to trust more fully in God's plan for our lives.

 

First Sunday of Lent  A  2023

 

A young boy was wondering about one of the great mysteries of life:  Where do babies come from.  And so, he asked his dad:  Where do babies come from?  Dad, a bit of a scientist, was looking at this question over the long haul, the process of evolution:  From humans to monkeys to gorillas.  He told his son:  “Babies come from  gorillas.”

The boy a bit mystified, than asked his mom:  Where do babies come from?  She immediately responded:  Babies come from God.  The boy then said to his mom:  Daddy says babies come from gorillas and you tell me babies come from God.  His mom explained:  We are both right.  Daddy’s side of the family comes from gorillas, and mommy’s side of the family comes from God.

  “Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.”  Jesus finding himself in the desert being tempted by the devil was not the result of bad luck or being at the wrong place at the wrong time.  Rather, this was by divine design.  Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert.

What about ourselves?  In the temptations of our lives, do we see our ourselves being led by the Spirit into the desert?  Or sometimes we can find ourselves in the desert of disappointment or failure, not led by the Spirit of God’s love but rather they are the result of bad choices we have made.  Our desire for pleasure, power, or greed can sometimes get the best of us and lead us into the wilderness. 

But with Jesus, he is being led by the Spirit of God’s love into the desert to be tempted by the devil to use his power in ways that are not in God’s plan.  The devil was tempting Jesus to become the Messiah without the cross.  The devil was tempting Jesus to take the short cut to achieve his power as the Messiah.

Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be humbled, to be tested and tempted, to struggle with the forces of evil and thereby fully trust in God’s plan for His life.  The Lenten journey of Jesus was for 40 days and 40 nights in the desert wrestling with the forces of darkness.

My question for you and for me is what desert are we now being let into by the Spirit of God’s love to be humbled, to be tested and tempted to validate our faith and trust in Jesus as the Lord and Savior of our lives?

As you have grieved the loss of someone you dearly love, as you have dealt with illness in your life and the in the life of a dear family member, as you have been hurt and your confidence has been betrayed, as you struggle with the temptation of pornography, as you have had to deal with more than your fair share of challenges, can you see these experiences as being led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil?  Can these life wrenching experiences be example of how you are being led by the Spirit into the desert?

This I know:  God’s loves you with an everlasting love.  You are precious and glorious in the sight of God.  Yet, as with Jesus himself, the cross and the desert are a part of your life and mine.

A fundamental temptation for us is forgetting the Lord and the ways He has blessed us.  All of us wrestle with the Lord a bit on our spiritual journey.  In one moment, we turn our lives over to the Lord.  In the next moment, we are tempted by food or power or recognition.  We can too easily lose our spiritual footing.

The way the tempter dealt with Jesus is how the tempter deals with us – offering us discipleship of the Lord Jesus minus the cross in our life.  The cross is part of who Jesus is, and it is an enduring sign of His unconditional love for us.  The Lenten season invites us to recognize the cross in our spiritual journey.

The Stations of the Cross describe the stages of the suffering and death of Jesus.  As we experience the stations of the cross of illness, of death, of brokenness in our own stories, may we too get the help of Simon of Cyrene and be strengthened by the love of Mary our mother.  As for Jesus, our own stations of the cross are our way of discipleship of the Lord Jesus Christ,

Lord, our faith community of St. Joseph’s also is led into the desert to be tempted by the devil.  We would like see more people in the pews each and every Sunday; we would like to have more priests to serve the needs of our diocesan parishes; we would like our youth to be more involved in our faith formation initiatives, and so forth and so forth. 

We would like simple solutions to each of these challenges – perhaps just a simple resolution of the parish council -- preferably without the cross and the accompanying struggle.  May we always remember that we are led by the Spirit into the desert.  This is true of us as individuals and as a parish community.  However, there is a method to the divine madness.  As with Jesus, we need to trust in God’s plan even when we lose a bit of control in the outcome.

You may ask why in the world do we need to choose spiritual disciplines in the Lenten season as our life circumstances provide us with enough desert experiences that are not of our choosing. 

The Lenten journey of our choosing is a quiet, humble, simple journey that was begun with ashes being placed on our foreheads. 

These Lenten disciplines help us to encounter Christ and to live our lives trusting in God’s plan for us.  Discipline and discipleship go together as surely night follows day.  May we value each of the Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. 

As disciples of Jesus, our prayer is placing ourselves in the presence of our God.  It is the gratitude we express for the blessings of life we enjoy.  May your Lenten prayer include a desert solitude – simply slowing down, being quiet, being still in God’s presence, and prayer without words.  May our Lenten prayer include the Sacrament of Reconciliation in which we return to the Lord our God.

May we embrace the discipline of fasting to simplify our lives in some way – through fasting from food or fasting from some activity – in order to more fully rely on Jesus being the nourishment that we seek and the moral compass of our lives.

May we embrace the discipline of almsgiving to share what we have been given with those in need.   Our discipleship of Jesus can never be divorced from the needs of God’s poor.

For the desert experience that we choose and for the desert experience that have been chosen for us, may we be led by the Spirit of God’s love to trust more fully in God’s plan for our lives.

Have a blessed day.

 

 

Who is my enemy that I need to love?

 

Seventh Sunday in  OT  A  2023

The fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of the Gospel of Matthew comprise the teachings of Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount – the earliest teaching of Jesus.  Today’s Gospel passage is the rhetorical highpoint of Jesus’s teaching from this sermon.  Listen again to the words of Jesus:

“Offer no resistance to one who is evil…Turn the other cheek…Hand over your cloak as well…love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Yes, to love your enemies is the greatest test of love.  These are kind and beautiful words when they are spoken in Church, but the thing is these words are hardly ever spoken outside of Church.  They are not spoken out on the street or in the relationships of our lives when we have been hurt or betrayed or lied to.

As we anticipate the holy season of Lent this coming Wednesday, may our reflection on the ministry of Jesus lead us to deepen our holy longing for God in our lives.  May we respond to the Church’s call to conversion as we put on Christ and as we express our solidarity with people in need.

Questions to ask ourselves:

How can I work toward reconciliation instead of retaliation?

Who do I need to love?

Who do I need to pray for?

Who is my enemy that needs to be loved?

 

The first Scripture reading from the Book of Leviticus tees up today’s Gospel message. “The Lord said to Moses:  “Speak to the whole Israelite community and tell them. ‘You shall not bear hatred for your brother or sister in your heart.’”

 I think of the saintly Nelson Mandela who was wrongly imprisoned and abused for 27 years.  When he was elected the President of South Africa following his imprisonment, what did he do?  He invited those who imprisoned and tortured him to first row seats for his presidential inauguration.  He declared that I would be the loser if I could not forgive those who imprisoned me.  I would suggest that Nelson Mandela could only have experienced healing and forgiveness in his heart by the grace of God.

By telling his followers to turn the other cheek, Jesus calls on them to resist tendencies toward punishment.  Implicitly, Jesus introduces the idea of reconciliation rather than retaliation.  Jesus does not want his followers to be abused and taken advantage of, as the passage might suggest.  When Jesus says, “Offer no resistance to one who is evil,”  He does not mean to do nothing in the face of injustice.  Jesus insists that his community reject and work against retaliation by focusing on love.

Jesus advocates love over hate.  Loving our enemies is the greatest test of love.  For some of us, this requires spiritual heart surgery.  The truth of our lives is we are sinners.  We profess during the penitential rite of each Eucharist that we stand in need of God’s healing grace.  There are areas in our life in which Jesus is not yet Lord.  Of course, we sin.  But thanks be to God that our God is patient.  God is loving.  God is forgiving.

But as St Paul reminds us – we are temples of God because God’s spirit dwells in us. Though our Baptism we have been made holy and are on the way to perfection.  How can this be?  God’s spirit and God’s life is within us.  We are God’s beloved.  The holiness of God and the perfection of God is within us.  We need to surrender to the love of God that is within us.

As we are about to come again to Ash Wednesday, the entry point for another 40 Day journey toward Easter.  We are signed with the ashes of repentance, of our awareness of our limitations, of our need for conversion.  We willingly embrace Lenten spiritual disciplines so that we can prepare ourselves for the grace of conversion, for the joy of Easter.

The Season of Lent isn’t just about doing without or giving up something; the real meaning of Lent is the Church’s annual call to conversion.  It involves a change of mind-set.  We seek to put on Christ and to live by the values of the Gospel.  It is to move the focus away from self-centeredness and to become God-centered in our life perspective.

As we engage in the spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting, and self-denial, we seek to develop some spiritual will power.  But to delve into the deeper meaning of our Lenten spiritual disciplines, may we pray again over the Lord’s Sermon of the Mount in today’s Gospel. 

The first requirement of discipleship of Jesus is to love  -- even to love our enemies, to strive for reconciliation rather than retaliation.

For us to love our enemies, to offer no resistance, to turn the other cheek and to share our cloak with someone in need, we seek the grace of the Word of God that is spoken as ashes on placed on our foreheads this Ash Wednesday:  “Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.”

The message is we are all one family under God.

Consider this, whenever we sin we are disconnected from God and become His “enemies” (James 4:4), but His love for us does not go extinct (Romans 5:7-10). He keeps looking out for us with his love as the father of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-31). On the cross, our Lord Jesus Christ showed love to his executioners  when he tearfully prayed for them: “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing?” Don’t you think that those enemies of yours do not know what they are doing and need your love?

Today’s message of love is a very tough one; it is at the same time the only way. To bring the message closer to us, we are encouraged to love without limits. Your enemy deserves more love and compassion from you than anyone else. To love is not a choice; it is rather a grave instruction. In the Gospel of John (13:34-35), our Lord Jesus presents a new framework for love as he says:

I give you a new commandment that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.

From the passage above, we learn that love is a normative prescription for our Christian life. Furthermore, it gives those who embrace it an identity “by this everyone will know that you are my disciples.”

In the words of the great mystic, St. John of the Cross:  “In the evening of life, we will be judged by love alone.”

Have a Blessed Day.