Friday in the Third Week of Lent - 2012

Daily Mass Readings

I am enjoying retired life again this weekend, attending a fund raising event in NYC and at the same time visiting with some of my family who live in Calvert County.  I have to go to NYC to visit with them!!!  What are we missing.

Did the encounter between Jesus and the scribe seen different than most of his "meetings" with Pharisees and scribes?  If not, may I suggest you read it again before proceeding.

While we have no way of knowing if the scribe became convinced to follow the Way of Jesus, we do know that Jesus saw in the man and his values much of what he was trying to teach.  What we also know at this time in our history is that our vocation to walk with the Lord Jesus comes about successfully when we commit ourselves to walk with Jesus through thick and thin.  Like the scribe we have to be committed to loving unconditionally every single person God has created.  Of course, as you read in these postings, once again we meet the reality that being a faithful follower of Jesus is not easy!!!  

We are on the down slope of Lent now.  Don't give up.  If you have not started, why not try now.  Do you think the scribe would have accepted the Way of Jesus if he had the opportunity to go through Lent?

Thursday in the Third Week of Lent - 2012

Daily Mass Readings for Today

The first reading today, from the Book of Jeremiah, may be centuries old.  There is a pearl of wisdom in the prophet's word that can help modern society as it seeks to find itself, to rediscover the peace of mind and soul that many say has been lost.  In the Gospel we watch Jesus as he teaches the people of his time about certain demons that have impacted an individual but his society as well.   These are Yahweh's words to Jeremiah for his people as well as God's people today.

This is what I commanded my people:
Listen to my voice;
then I will be your God and you shall be my people.

The word "demon" certainly brings to mind something mysterious, a power that attempts to do evil in a person or a society's life.  Have you ever encountered a "good demon"?  In our lifetime we have had the good fortune to experience so many inventions or to learn new insights into human existence that many of the centuries-old "demons" have been destroyed by science and human intelligence.  Consider all that science has uncovered in the last 50 years; consider all that medicine has discovered in our lifetime.  Many myths have been interred forever during our time on this earth.

Yet, the presence of demons in our societies has not totally ended.  Old demons and newer demons brought about by our marvelous discoveries continue to demand of us that we listen again to what Yahweh and Jeremiah, his voice at the time, spoke to the people.  Just take a moment to list in your mind or on paper the demons of the 21st century.  Let me suggest a few:  what is the demon or demons that so vigorously attack family life?  What is the demon that drives world leaders, people of power, to create wars, to suppress peoples, to walk over the poor?  Why has humanity not recognized that greed is a vicious demon that harms so many individuals and institutions?  How many are the families and homes leveled by greed?

Why are there so many varied demons who seem to succeed in convincing men and women that there is no need for God?

Again, turning to words from Jeremiah, we are given an answer to many of these questions.  God does not compete with the non-stop "noise" in our world today.  "Listen to my voice," were his words.  And many of our ancestors who were able to make the leap from the noise around them to the world of silence continue to tell us:  Find time for quiet; set aside time in your day to listen for the whispers that come from our God.  Perhaps the strongest demon in our time is "busyness."  So often among so many:  "I just do not have time to pray, to listen to God."  Oh, how poor have we become if this is our mantra!

  

Wednesday in the Third Week of Lent - 2012

Liturgical Readings for the Day

One of the challenging experiences that most priests confront in the course of their ministry is the person who comes to talk about one person or another who just does not live up to the expectations placed upon us by the Commandments and/or the Church.  For me this experience can be summed up in the moment when a person complained about a particular family who were not consistent in fulfilling the Sunday Mass obligation.  Of course the conversation continued to demean the family for one thing after another.

When I had listened enough, I asked the party to pull the plug.  Enough had been said.  Because I knew something of the "complainer's" background, I asked if I could ask him a personal question.  Of course!  When was the last time you frequented the Sacrament of Reconciliation?  I had heard him telling others at a party that he didn't believe in Confession any longer.  Of course there was silence for a few seconds.  Rather than allow him to swing in the breeze, I interrupted a hesitant response.  My message was quite clear:  Obsession with external observances of Church laws and the Commandments so often is the treat of individuals who really do not have a close and personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  Likewise it is sometimes interesting to watch those who have received communion and who seem to find "counting who is receiving Holy Communion" as private time with the Lord!

External observance of laws in our Church has one purpose:  to strengthen our personal relationship with God.  We must not forget what Jesus has taught in so many different ways:  the ultimate guide in our lives must be the law of love!  A truly loving act stands on its own.  When the letter of the law sucks true love from any act, the letter of the law loses its strength.

Jesus teaches us that even he would not downgrade the Law in any way.  For him the Law is an instrument to help us achieve a higher level of living the gospels.  Jesus endeavored to teach those in the Temple and others that true observance of any law must be show and/or seen in the heart and mind of the Christian who seeks to follow him.

Tuesday in the Third Week of Lent - 2012

Today's Liturgical Readings

Once again we are at a famous place in biblical history:  Peter asking Jesus if there is a specific number of times he should forgive others.  Peter, of course, let's the answer he expects to surface before Jesus could answer.  Seven times seem quite adequate for Peter.  I suspect that for most of us today, seven times is extraordinarily generous.  Jesus surprises Peter with his answer.  "Peter, multiply that number times eleven!"  Wow!  You have to be kidding me!  In essence Jesus is teach us that there really should be no limit to the number of times we should forgive another person.

Of course we know how many times God forgives us, don't we?  Every time a person comes to a priest for confession, God forgives.  Think for this moment:  what is the sin that I confess over and over again?  Okay.  Now this question:  How many times is your "over and over again"?  How would you feel if I, as a confessor, said to you after you had mention to me the same sin for the unteenth time these words:  "Sorry, friend,  you have used up all the points on your confession card.  No more forgiveness of that particular sin.  You are up the creek if you cannot control yourself now!"  What would you say?  What would you think of God and Jesus and all his sufferings and death so that you could make the effort to repent for a particular sin as well as others if there was a quota system?

We know that with God there is not quota; there is no time limit on his forgiveness.  But here is an interesting reality that recently was presented to me.  About certain things in life we sometimes will say, "It takes two to tango."  In some particular action or activity one person alone is not involved.  Forgiveness is one of those experiences where we are truly required to work hand in hand with another person.    Did you ever think about that person who had offended you?  Not only does that person have to extend his sorrow for his/her action but that same person has put you in the very difficult position of willingly giving you his/her forgiveness.  Giving forgiveness to one who is seeking pardon is not always as easy as hearing the offender say, "I am sorry.  Please forgive me."

Interesting insight isn't it?  This was presented by a law professor at Creighton University, Professor Edward Morse.  It surely is something to chew on! 

Monday in the Third Week of Lent - 2012

Today's Readings

The gospel reading for today has more than a few way anyone can use it to strengthen a personal Jesus-relationship.  Let us ask this question:  "What is the message Jesus is trying to instill in hearts after a reading of the two biblical accounts?"  More to the point what is the Holy Spirit whispering to you in your heart after you have read the two accounts?

So often we call upon God for help to cure whatever kinds of spiritual illnesses as well as physical ones that might be a cross that we are carrying.  Yet, from all practical experiences it might seem that there is not response to our petitions.  We might ask ourselves if we are acting like Naaman?  Is what God gives us as an answer something so mundane that we give it little attention.  There might not have been the flash of light that we expected to accompany a divine response.

Once again we need to recognize that God wants to help us so much yet we human beings, with our faults and blindnesses, cannot take the time to absent ourselves from the busyness of the day, from the distractions that prevent our opening our eyes to spend quiet time with the Lord, with the Holy Spirit and/or with the Father.  During the season of Lent the Holy Spirit is seeking to be with us more closely than at other times of the year.  Why?  Because the Spirit desires that we strength our own relationship with Jesus Christ who endured the pains of Holy Week for each of us.

Each day of Lent is a time when the Holy Spirit is challenging us to believe, to trust that God will be at the ready for us IF we but take the time to listen to his words that are most likely whispered in our ears or coming to us from a most unlikely event or person.

The Third Sunday In Lent - 2012

March 11, 2012

Liturgical Readings

In the liturgy for this Third Sunday of Lent we are presented with notions that relate to most believers’ Lenten practices or faith:  CLEANSING.  In the Exodus reading we read of the foundations for a cleansing of one’s life:  the Ten Commandments.  The thoughts of the evangelist, John, likewise focus our attention on the cleansing of the Temple in Jerusalem.  In essence these two readings are a presentation of the expectations God has for each of us during our time on this earth.  The very first of the Commandments sets a clear standard for the life of a Christian:  God expects that there will be no other person or thing that supplants giving God the first place in life.  Yet, truth be told and recognized, most of humanity at one time or another gives our Creator a demotion from his supreme role. 

When examined well, our readjustment of the prime order comes about through our own laziness.  Other issues, noble in themselves but far from surpassing our Creator are family, work, neighborhood involvements, civic obligations, recreational pursuits, even our Church “weasel God from being Almighty.”  Probably the most important cause for our demoting God is BUSY-NESS.  Then there will be a day when we realize how we have avoided God and some parts if not all parts of life are a mess.

Then there are “those moments” when we elect a new leader in our lives.  We surrender to our egos.  Something enters our life and we let it happen:  a Sunday picnic, a team sport (especially for one’s children -- once religious education classes are finished so often is Mass attendance).  Of course there is every intention of returning to what adults know to be our obligations.  Have you ever seen a time occupier given complete control in one’s life to easily step down for God to regain his place of preeminence?  When God has been removed from his throne, there will be the day when the question surfaces:  “How did I let myself get into such spiritually vacuous state?”

What do you think it was that Jesus confronted when he walked into the Temple as described in the second reading?  Or what confronted the Son of God ?  Easily, if we know the circumstances -- all of them -- we see that Jesus comes upon what appeared to be little more than a religious carnival where ferris wheels and throwing rings on bottle necks had not come about.  Don’t think that prayer, worship and God were the principal events in the Temple!

Actually angered by what confronted him, Jesus made a whip and drove from the sacred Temple the far-from sacred.  The sacred had become nothing but a marketplace.  As the Son of God, Jesus would not and could not stand by, allowing desecration.

The season of Lent is a time when we are called upon to examine our own temples, the temple of the Holy Spirit that each of us is.  Hopefully those who say they are practicing something for Lent realize that all of our Lenten sacrifices are taken up in order to help us use a feather duster to put cleanliness and order back into our lives.  The Ten Commandments are the code for living that our sacrifices, our prayer, our fasting, our almsgiving are meant to enhance and, where necessary, to repair.

If we are truly members of this modern society, can there be any doubt that we have not, at least to some degree, become somewhat like the merchants that met Jesus in the Temple?  Have the levels of “commerce and noise and clutter and profanity” become more powerful that prayer and praise?

Let this Lent be a time of cleansing.  For a serious adult can simply abstaining from Hershey bars or bags of popcorn before a TV set be taken as a serious effort to cleanse whatever might need removal from his/her Temple of the Holy Spirit that may no longer have the Creator God as the Supreme Being in life?

You be the judge!

Saturday in the Second Week of Lent - 2012

A thought for your reflection during this season of Lent.  Yesterday, while leading the Stations of the Cross, the phrase, "the heavy cross," seemed to grab my mind.  It appeared in the words of many of the stations.  Eventually my mind became focused on the phrase.  Why?  There is a fireplace in The Hermitage, the residence where I live.  I have always loved a fireplace.  A great place to reflect on whatever I like to allow some freedom in the hallways of my mind.  What I began to think about during the stations was the word "heavy."  I have a pile of cut logs in the garage.  Usually I carry five or six logs to the fireplace, using a flight of stairs from the basement to the living room.  I thought about the weight  of those five or six cut logs.

What an oppressive load on the beaten body of Jesus as he made his climb to Calvary!  I had never thought about that aspect of the "Way of the Cross." the weight of the cross!  Without having endure the soldiers' lashes, the piercing pain of the crown of thorns and the many times soldiers roughly pushed the man carrying the cross, imagine how painful the journey would have been.  Then add all of these tortures.

What should I think?  Should I allow sorrow to take over in my heart?  Not for me.  Rather, I felt a deep sense of gratitude.  This is the intensity of God's love for me:  the Father sending his Son to carry every ounce of my sins; the Son bearing all of my failings to the top of the hill cloaked in torture.

Every time I look at a pile of logs, every time I carry several to the fireplace, I know now what really should enter my mind:  Jesus, Son of God, you carried the weight of my sins, my failures.  Deo Gratias!