FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT B 2009
First Reading: Jeremiah 31:31–34
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 51:3–4, 12–13, 14–15
Second Reading: Hebrews 5:7–9
Gospel: John 12:20–33
USA Today had a news article this week about a 12-year-old boy who drowned in Henan province, China. People drown every day, but the saddest part of his death was that 10 people stood watching. The onlookers did nothing until the boy's father offered enough money to make a rescue. The father got someone to agree to save his son for about $1,100, but by that time the boy had drowned.
Last week we reflected on how well we are connected to Jesus through his cross. This weekend we begin a period of time called ''Passiontide,'' the two weeks prior to Easter. During this time the Church calls us to reflect intensely on the meaning of the death of Jesus and how it affects our lives. As he often does Jesus uses a grain of wheat as a example as to how are to live or how must let ourselves die. Jesus said, "unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit."
Most of you have seen a stalks of wheat. In fact, many of you may have even harvested them. The head of the stalk of wheat is made up of many tiny grains of wheat. Each little grain of wheat has a hard outer shell which protects it. Deep inside the grain of wheat, there is the plant that is waiting to grow.
Unless the grain of wheat is put into the earth, covered with soil, and permitted to die, it remains just a grain of wheat. But, if it is placed into the earth, and if it dies, its hard outer shell splits open, and the tiny plant within begins to grow. Given the right conditions, the one grain of wheat can produce another stalk with many more grains of wheat. From the death of one grain of wheat comes the life of many grains of wheat, and of course of all that comes from wheat.
Each of us could be compared to grains of wheat. We have a hard outer shell that we have built around ourselves to protect us. We have developed ideas and notions which we are afraid to let go. Some of these might be the way we practice our faith--unwilling to change even when we are clearly convinced that we should; the fear of death; trusting no one; unable to apologize to any one; unable to ever admit that we might be wrong. All of these and many more are ways we have of viewing and controlling our world. They are outer shells that lock us in, protect us and make us comfortable. But sadly, we will never grow spiritually this way. For although death is the enemy, it is also the means to everlasting life.
In the Gospel today Jesus tells us that we must die in order to live. It is only through death that we can grow. We come to realize that we are never truly alive until we learn how to die. Jesus tells us that the grain of wheat must fall to the ground and die in order to produce a new stalk with many more grains of wheat. Jesus is not telling us that we are no good unless we died this minute. Jesus is calling us to CONVERSION. This process of conversion puts us in touch with those things that bind us and hide our better selves. Once we do this, then our true self comes out. Conversion is an agreement that God has made with us, written not on stone tablets like the 10 commandments, but on our hearts where it makes a difference in the way that we live.
Spiritual conversion, however, includes our desire to follow and to die for a cause or a person. For the past many years television coverage of the war in Iraq or Afghanistan or other places has offered us the opportunity to see in real time images of what war is really like. The embedded reporters provide us with the destruction of war. They show us soldiers who are willing to give their life for a cause which our political leaders say is right. Many of you have served in the armed forces, or in law enforcement of whatever kind have responded to the call to serve for a cause greater than yourselves.
In a sense Jesus is asking each of us the same dedication. He asks us: ARE YOU WILLING TO GIVE YOUR LIFE FOR YOUR FAITH? The history of our church gives us thousands of examples of those who died rather than to deny their faith. We often call these persons martyrs. They were doing what Jesus did.
Jesus is telling us that we need discipline in those parts of our life that seem to have taken control over us. This discipline includes every aspect of our lives: in our thoughts, in our words and in our deeds. Discipline means that we do not always give ourselves what we want when we want it. Discipline means that we ask ourselves if we really need something.
Our first reading refers to discipline. We hear the prophet Jeremiah telling us that God would plant his law within us so that we would learn how to die and to grow. We are given the most consoling of promises by God: I WILL PLACE MY LAW WITHIN YOU, AND WRITE IT UPON YOU HEART; I WILL BE YOUR GOD AND YOU SHALL BE MY PEOPLE, FOR I WILL FORGIVE YOUR EVIL DOING AND REMEMBER YOUR SIN NO MORE. Could anyone have given us more consoling words?
All too often we think of spiritual discipline as simply vacuuming up the dirty spots on the carpet of the soul. Discipline or conversion really has less to do about vacuum cleaners and the soul's dirty carpets, and more to do with being in harmony with our thoughts, words and deeds. If some of these thoughts, words and deeds are not in harmony with our conscience then it destroys the harmony and peace which for which we yearn. And then, to relieve our stress, we try to find the harmony and peace in what are known as addictive behaviors.
Sin is all about violating the natural harmony of the soul. It deliberately skews the God-given interrelationships between God, self and neighbor. It slams the door of our heart in God's face. Sin builds walls to hide behind and constructs bridges that lead us away from love of ourselves, care for others, and love of God.
We need to allow our faith to be with us each day of the week, not just for the time we are in church. We need to re-examine what love means to us. If we open ourselves up to the possibility of love, we may discover the riches of other people and rise to new life. No matter where we are we are always destined to become something more than we are. On this last weekend before we launch into the holiest week of the year, God calls us break though our outer shell and remember that if we love our life too much the way it is, we may lose it. Our prayers together becomes a means to new life. Jesus gives us two options: Put him first, where he belongs, or put yourself first.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Homily for the Week of March 22, 2009
Homily: Fourth Sunday of Lent, 2009
First Reading: 2 Chronicles 36:14–16, 19–23
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 137:1–2, 3, 4–5, 6
Second Reading: Ephesians 2:4–10
Gospel: John 3:14–21
A news release told the story of a hospital in a city in Kansas where officials had discovered that its fire-fighting equipment had never been connected to the city's water main. For 35 years the patients and medical staff had felt safe at the sight of those brightly polished brass valves and outlets placed throughout the hospital. Yet the security of all this expert fire-fighting technology was an illusion, All of it was connected to an underground pipe that extended only four feet from the hospital before it stopped.
Most Catholics feel the same security at the sight of a cross – never questioning its effectiveness. The cross is the most common symbol of our Christian religion. Most of you have a cross that you can see placed somewhere in your home. Many of you, both men and women, wear a cross on a chain around your neck. Some of you may even have a tattoo of a cross somewhere on your body. There is always a cross hanging at the end of Rosary beads. You probably often begin your prayers by making the sign of the cross.
Every Catholic church has at least one cross usually in front of you. If you were to get a picture from an air plane of most older Catholic Churches you would find that they are constructed in the shape of a cross. Every Catholic church has what are known as the 14 Stations of the Cross on the walls around the church. We begin every Mass and end every Mass by making the sign of the cross. We begin the Gospel reading by signing our foreheads, our lips and our hearts with the sign of the cross. Your wedding rings on your wedding day were blessed with the sign of the cross. These are just a few examples of how the cross is so much a part of our life.
The issue for us isn't whether images of the cross are connected to the source, but rather how we are connected to the cross. Are we linked to the cross only remotely, as a symbol that no longer speaks to us, or are we intimately united with it? During Lent, churches frequently put up large, rugged wooden crosses draped with purple cloths. The Roman cross, which was once a shockingly hideous image, can easily become impotent today, unable to move those who see it to greater zeal, heroism, or prayer. Perhaps our Lenten cross would be radically enlivened if, rather than using a long purple cloth, we draped it instead with a snake.
In today's gospel, Jesus is compared to such a snake intertwined on the cross. This shocking image comes from the time when the Israelites were complaining about their difficulties in the desert after their exodus from Egypt and were punished with a plague of venomous serpents.
They pleaded to Moses for help and God instructed him to make a serpent out of bronze and to place it on a pole. Any who were bitten and looked upon it were healed. The author of John’s gospel compares the healing salvation brought by Jesus being lifted up on the cross to the bronze serpent of Moses and his people in the desert.
The cross was not always a symbol of Christianity. In fact if you were living up to 400 years after Jesus died you would never see a cross or crucifix anywhere. Jesus' crucifixion was a stumbling block to Jews and gentiles. What kind of God let himself be killed in such an excruciating manner, in disgrace, causing such pain for his mother and friends? Only in the fourth-century when Christianity became legalized, and crucifixion as a form of capital punishment among the Romans was stopped did Christians begin to feel free to use the cross in their art.
Early Christians preferred to use the sign of the fish to describe their fellowship, and the lamb for their founder. For three centuries they professed their faith in the crucified and risen Lord but could not bring themselves to portray artistically Jesus' execution like a common criminal.
We no longer find Jesus' crucifixion such a stumbling block because we stress the other part of the story: his resurrection, triumph, vindication, exaltation, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven, on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Let us propose that in Jesus God saved us from despair. Jesus gives us hope when we are tempted to give up. Jesus was human in every way we are, except in doing wrong. Like a brother he immersed himself in human life. Jesus experienced the hopelessness a person might feel when they can’t find a job, or there is sickness in the family. He sympathized with those who were suffering. If there had been nursing homes or hospitals at the time of Jesus I am sure you would have found him in them very often. He understood the trauma of death.
Jesus taught us that there is nothing we ever experience which can be hopeless. The seemingly hopeless times are not exactly what they appear to be. These times of despair are really the times when Jesus comes to us in love. John tells us: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. Jesus never condemned anyone but gave life to all who were willing to seek it and accept it.
The cross of Jesus is a boundless source of healing if you are connected to it. Have you ever had a personal experience of being liberated or healed from some paralyzing illness or addiction and then realized that your healing was connected with the cross in your room or home? Consider the practice of consciously uniting your suffering, whether it stems for the crippling pain of arthritis or a throbbing migraine headache, to the source of healing – the cross. One simple ritual would be to touch your fingers to your cross and pray that united your pains with those of Christ will be a redemptive Holy Communion.
If Jesus were here today he would repeat those words to each of us. He would say: Love each other in your actions, your speech, your decisions and your inner thoughts. The cross was his expression of that love for each of us.
The sign of that salvation is the cross. Today and this week, half way through Lent, let us first again renew our decisions to fast, to be loving, and to pray more. And, when you look upon the cross in your home say a prayer of thanksgiving that someone loves you that much.
Don’t only look at the cross but be sure you are connected to it.
First Reading: 2 Chronicles 36:14–16, 19–23
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 137:1–2, 3, 4–5, 6
Second Reading: Ephesians 2:4–10
Gospel: John 3:14–21
A news release told the story of a hospital in a city in Kansas where officials had discovered that its fire-fighting equipment had never been connected to the city's water main. For 35 years the patients and medical staff had felt safe at the sight of those brightly polished brass valves and outlets placed throughout the hospital. Yet the security of all this expert fire-fighting technology was an illusion, All of it was connected to an underground pipe that extended only four feet from the hospital before it stopped.
Most Catholics feel the same security at the sight of a cross – never questioning its effectiveness. The cross is the most common symbol of our Christian religion. Most of you have a cross that you can see placed somewhere in your home. Many of you, both men and women, wear a cross on a chain around your neck. Some of you may even have a tattoo of a cross somewhere on your body. There is always a cross hanging at the end of Rosary beads. You probably often begin your prayers by making the sign of the cross.
Every Catholic church has at least one cross usually in front of you. If you were to get a picture from an air plane of most older Catholic Churches you would find that they are constructed in the shape of a cross. Every Catholic church has what are known as the 14 Stations of the Cross on the walls around the church. We begin every Mass and end every Mass by making the sign of the cross. We begin the Gospel reading by signing our foreheads, our lips and our hearts with the sign of the cross. Your wedding rings on your wedding day were blessed with the sign of the cross. These are just a few examples of how the cross is so much a part of our life.
The issue for us isn't whether images of the cross are connected to the source, but rather how we are connected to the cross. Are we linked to the cross only remotely, as a symbol that no longer speaks to us, or are we intimately united with it? During Lent, churches frequently put up large, rugged wooden crosses draped with purple cloths. The Roman cross, which was once a shockingly hideous image, can easily become impotent today, unable to move those who see it to greater zeal, heroism, or prayer. Perhaps our Lenten cross would be radically enlivened if, rather than using a long purple cloth, we draped it instead with a snake.
In today's gospel, Jesus is compared to such a snake intertwined on the cross. This shocking image comes from the time when the Israelites were complaining about their difficulties in the desert after their exodus from Egypt and were punished with a plague of venomous serpents.
They pleaded to Moses for help and God instructed him to make a serpent out of bronze and to place it on a pole. Any who were bitten and looked upon it were healed. The author of John’s gospel compares the healing salvation brought by Jesus being lifted up on the cross to the bronze serpent of Moses and his people in the desert.
The cross was not always a symbol of Christianity. In fact if you were living up to 400 years after Jesus died you would never see a cross or crucifix anywhere. Jesus' crucifixion was a stumbling block to Jews and gentiles. What kind of God let himself be killed in such an excruciating manner, in disgrace, causing such pain for his mother and friends? Only in the fourth-century when Christianity became legalized, and crucifixion as a form of capital punishment among the Romans was stopped did Christians begin to feel free to use the cross in their art.
Early Christians preferred to use the sign of the fish to describe their fellowship, and the lamb for their founder. For three centuries they professed their faith in the crucified and risen Lord but could not bring themselves to portray artistically Jesus' execution like a common criminal.
We no longer find Jesus' crucifixion such a stumbling block because we stress the other part of the story: his resurrection, triumph, vindication, exaltation, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven, on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Let us propose that in Jesus God saved us from despair. Jesus gives us hope when we are tempted to give up. Jesus was human in every way we are, except in doing wrong. Like a brother he immersed himself in human life. Jesus experienced the hopelessness a person might feel when they can’t find a job, or there is sickness in the family. He sympathized with those who were suffering. If there had been nursing homes or hospitals at the time of Jesus I am sure you would have found him in them very often. He understood the trauma of death.
Jesus taught us that there is nothing we ever experience which can be hopeless. The seemingly hopeless times are not exactly what they appear to be. These times of despair are really the times when Jesus comes to us in love. John tells us: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. Jesus never condemned anyone but gave life to all who were willing to seek it and accept it.
The cross of Jesus is a boundless source of healing if you are connected to it. Have you ever had a personal experience of being liberated or healed from some paralyzing illness or addiction and then realized that your healing was connected with the cross in your room or home? Consider the practice of consciously uniting your suffering, whether it stems for the crippling pain of arthritis or a throbbing migraine headache, to the source of healing – the cross. One simple ritual would be to touch your fingers to your cross and pray that united your pains with those of Christ will be a redemptive Holy Communion.
If Jesus were here today he would repeat those words to each of us. He would say: Love each other in your actions, your speech, your decisions and your inner thoughts. The cross was his expression of that love for each of us.
The sign of that salvation is the cross. Today and this week, half way through Lent, let us first again renew our decisions to fast, to be loving, and to pray more. And, when you look upon the cross in your home say a prayer of thanksgiving that someone loves you that much.
Don’t only look at the cross but be sure you are connected to it.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Homily for the Week of March 15, 2009
HOMILY 3rd Sunday of Lent, Year B, 2009
First Reading: Exodus 20:1-17 [1-3, 7-8, 12-17]
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 19:8, 9, 10, 11
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:22-25
Gospel: John 2:13-25
Have you every wondered what we would do if we did not have signs? Signs are everywhere. Some are scary, like those doctors look for when they probe with X-rays and MRI’s. Some are spooky, like those who look for the signs of the zodiac; some are sentimental like the wedding ring or the picture which you carry around in your wallet or purse, some help to win high school trophies, or Grammies or Oscars. Then there are signs that make the day more fun, like the one I saw on a boys shirt at a store this week; Life is uncertain, order desert first, or one on an old rusty truck I saw on the Hardscrabble road: I’ve had seven wrecks and ain’t lost one. And then we have road and street signs that help us get where we want to go.
If we can be creative with our signs, then so too can God. His signs are often in the beauty of a sunset, the cry of a newborn baby, the flight of a hawk, or the crows, the running of maple trees, the sprouting of lilac bushes, or the the sting of our conscience.
God uses signs to explain his intentions for us. And these are the signs which Jews, Christians and Catholics know as the ten commandments just read for us from the book of Exodus. These signs were given to us on Mount Sinai. Jesus gave us another set of signs known as the Beatitudes. These commandments offer us the roadmap of our Christian life and a summary of our responsibilities to God and to one another. Together with the Beatitudes they mark the path of the following of Christ and the royal road to spiritual maturity and freedom.
The Ten Commandments of Sinai may seem negative: You will have no false gods before me; . . . do not kill; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness ... But in fact they are supremely positive. Moving beyond the evil they name, they point the way to the law of love. Jesus summarize these 10 into the commandment of love: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. . . Love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus teaches that the way of love is to follow the commandments.
So often, however, we are aware of another voice within us and all around us. It is a contradictory voice. It is a voice which says, BIessed are the proud and violent, blessed are those who make war not peace, blessed are those who get even with the one who hurt them, blessed are those who use the Internet to search for pornography. And these voices seem to make sense in a world where violence often triumphs and the crooked seem to succeed. Which voice do we choose to follow?
We have a tendency to think of Jesus as a NICE GUY. In today’s gospel Jesus refuses to conform to that image. He decides to do some spring cleaning in the church. He makes a whip, he spills coins and overturns tables. He says strange things that even his closest friends cannot understand. Jesus shows himself to be very real. The actions of Jesus are shocking, even violent. But it is the righteous violence of love, the zealous passion of the Son for his Father's house. Such love cannot give sin free rein or allow impurity to go unchallenged. Casting out the money changers was the action of one choosing to suffer everything for the order of the house.
Why did Jesus get so disturbed? Because those buying and selling in the temple lost sight of why they were there. They did not have the right attitude of mind and heart. Jesus had to challenge their viewpoint.
God also uses signs to show that he wants to clean house. And here it is not so much that God was concerned that his house was being abused, but that those who worked, shopped and lived in it did not pay enough attention to God through prayer. In other words he wants to cleanse us. And that is what Lent is all about. Lent is a time when we are invited to pay more attention to the signs which God gives us each day, and to his guidelines for life.
God wants us to serve him with undivided heart and minds. Lent is a time when we can recover this perspective in our own lives. Too easily we can get lost in the rituals of faith: going to Mass, saying our morning and evening prayers, helping those in need, visiting the sick.
Lent is about spending some time by ourselves in order to face ourselves and our temptations. It is a time when we confront ourselves by looking at what we have done and what we might have done and what we have not yet done. It means coming eye to eye with God in prayer and in confession. But most of us are still afraid to be with God alone and to reveal who we are. The ten commandments can be a check list for us.
During this third week of Lent let each of us look into our hearts and minds to see the signs of how we have or have not followed the commandments. Make the commandments the checklist for goodness in your life. Try not to see them as negatives, but as the positive road to spiritual perfection. Let us pray to God and Jesus that we might renew our zeal for Jesus, our zeal for our faith, and our zeal for true love of one another.
Jesus went into the temple today, turned over the tables, and spilled the coins of the money changers because they did not respect church as the house of God the Father. For first-century Jews, the Temple in Jerusalem was God's dwelling place on earth, the house of the Creator. But during the time of Christ it was also the home of a lucrative system of money changing and the selling of animals to pilgrims who came to offer sacrifices during Passover and other feasts. There were fees for changing currency and for having the to-be-sacrificed animals inspected and confirmed as pure and unblemished according to the Law. Price gouging was common. The house of God had become a supermarket and a den of robbers. If Jesus were here today he would also say to each of us: make your church your Father’s house.
First Reading: Exodus 20:1-17 [1-3, 7-8, 12-17]
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 19:8, 9, 10, 11
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:22-25
Gospel: John 2:13-25
Have you every wondered what we would do if we did not have signs? Signs are everywhere. Some are scary, like those doctors look for when they probe with X-rays and MRI’s. Some are spooky, like those who look for the signs of the zodiac; some are sentimental like the wedding ring or the picture which you carry around in your wallet or purse, some help to win high school trophies, or Grammies or Oscars. Then there are signs that make the day more fun, like the one I saw on a boys shirt at a store this week; Life is uncertain, order desert first, or one on an old rusty truck I saw on the Hardscrabble road: I’ve had seven wrecks and ain’t lost one. And then we have road and street signs that help us get where we want to go.
If we can be creative with our signs, then so too can God. His signs are often in the beauty of a sunset, the cry of a newborn baby, the flight of a hawk, or the crows, the running of maple trees, the sprouting of lilac bushes, or the the sting of our conscience.
God uses signs to explain his intentions for us. And these are the signs which Jews, Christians and Catholics know as the ten commandments just read for us from the book of Exodus. These signs were given to us on Mount Sinai. Jesus gave us another set of signs known as the Beatitudes. These commandments offer us the roadmap of our Christian life and a summary of our responsibilities to God and to one another. Together with the Beatitudes they mark the path of the following of Christ and the royal road to spiritual maturity and freedom.
The Ten Commandments of Sinai may seem negative: You will have no false gods before me; . . . do not kill; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness ... But in fact they are supremely positive. Moving beyond the evil they name, they point the way to the law of love. Jesus summarize these 10 into the commandment of love: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. . . Love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus teaches that the way of love is to follow the commandments.
So often, however, we are aware of another voice within us and all around us. It is a contradictory voice. It is a voice which says, BIessed are the proud and violent, blessed are those who make war not peace, blessed are those who get even with the one who hurt them, blessed are those who use the Internet to search for pornography. And these voices seem to make sense in a world where violence often triumphs and the crooked seem to succeed. Which voice do we choose to follow?
We have a tendency to think of Jesus as a NICE GUY. In today’s gospel Jesus refuses to conform to that image. He decides to do some spring cleaning in the church. He makes a whip, he spills coins and overturns tables. He says strange things that even his closest friends cannot understand. Jesus shows himself to be very real. The actions of Jesus are shocking, even violent. But it is the righteous violence of love, the zealous passion of the Son for his Father's house. Such love cannot give sin free rein or allow impurity to go unchallenged. Casting out the money changers was the action of one choosing to suffer everything for the order of the house.
Why did Jesus get so disturbed? Because those buying and selling in the temple lost sight of why they were there. They did not have the right attitude of mind and heart. Jesus had to challenge their viewpoint.
God also uses signs to show that he wants to clean house. And here it is not so much that God was concerned that his house was being abused, but that those who worked, shopped and lived in it did not pay enough attention to God through prayer. In other words he wants to cleanse us. And that is what Lent is all about. Lent is a time when we are invited to pay more attention to the signs which God gives us each day, and to his guidelines for life.
God wants us to serve him with undivided heart and minds. Lent is a time when we can recover this perspective in our own lives. Too easily we can get lost in the rituals of faith: going to Mass, saying our morning and evening prayers, helping those in need, visiting the sick.
Lent is about spending some time by ourselves in order to face ourselves and our temptations. It is a time when we confront ourselves by looking at what we have done and what we might have done and what we have not yet done. It means coming eye to eye with God in prayer and in confession. But most of us are still afraid to be with God alone and to reveal who we are. The ten commandments can be a check list for us.
During this third week of Lent let each of us look into our hearts and minds to see the signs of how we have or have not followed the commandments. Make the commandments the checklist for goodness in your life. Try not to see them as negatives, but as the positive road to spiritual perfection. Let us pray to God and Jesus that we might renew our zeal for Jesus, our zeal for our faith, and our zeal for true love of one another.
Jesus went into the temple today, turned over the tables, and spilled the coins of the money changers because they did not respect church as the house of God the Father. For first-century Jews, the Temple in Jerusalem was God's dwelling place on earth, the house of the Creator. But during the time of Christ it was also the home of a lucrative system of money changing and the selling of animals to pilgrims who came to offer sacrifices during Passover and other feasts. There were fees for changing currency and for having the to-be-sacrificed animals inspected and confirmed as pure and unblemished according to the Law. Price gouging was common. The house of God had become a supermarket and a den of robbers. If Jesus were here today he would also say to each of us: make your church your Father’s house.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Homily for the Week of March 8, 2009
Second Sunday of Lent, 2009
Genesis 11: 1-18 PS 116: 10-18
Romans 8:31-34 Mk 9:2-10
Mk 9:2-10
As a general rule in the Bible dramatic things happen on mountaintops. There are about 500 references in the Bible to mountains and hills. Sometimes mountains are described as places of hiding and refuge; sometimes they are presented as desolate and barren, hostile to the living. They are depicted as places of false pagan worship; they are also celebrated as sites of authentic worship of the true God.
And in some of the most significant events presented in Bible, mountains are where people encounter God in transforming, stunning fashion. In such instances, their faith is tested. God gave Moses the 10 commandments on Mount Sinai. Our readings today give us two mountaintop experiences: one of Abraham and another of Jesus and his close friends.
Today's Old Testament reading is one of those incredible mountaintop encounters. It is also one of the most perplexing and baffling stories in the Old Testament. Thousands of years ago people thought that they did lived on after death only through their children. To die childless meant that at death a person simply ceased all existence. Abraham and Sarah had only one child which they named Isaac. Isaac was God's gift to Abraham and Sarah -- their guarantee of living on after death. One day God talks to Abraham and asked him to kill his son Isaac. God is not only asking Abraham for his only child, but He also is asking Abraham for his very existence. How could a good and loving God ask Abraham to sacrifice his own son? The point of this story is that Abraham had his faith in God tested in a way that almost no one else is ever tested. Abraham passed the test. He was willing to be so loyal to God that not only would he willingly offer God his only son, he was also willing to offer God his very existence. Was Abraham perfect? By no means, but God knew the depth of Abraham's loyalty.
This brings us to today's Gospel. This weekend we hear of an event in the life of Jesus unlike any other human event, and yet this event has been the center of our faith in Jesus Christ. It is called the Transfiguration of Jesus or the changing in the appearance of Jesus Christ. Thousands of artists have painted this event, the most famous of which is the one done by the artist Raphael. Thousands of Catholic and Protestant churches have been named in honor of the Transfiguration. So what is this event and what does it mean to us here today?
Three of the four Gospel writers tell us that this event in the life of Jesus took place on a high mountain, most likely Mount Tabor. Just a week before Jesus had been up front with his followers and told them about his passion and death. Jesus had told them that He would soon suffer terribly and be killed by the religious authorities of the day.
But the apostles did not understand what Jesus was talking about. Jesus felt that his closest friends were confused. They had spent several miserable days worrying about what might happen. They felt dejected. After all, the person for whom they had given up everything told them that he was about to leave them. They seemed to doubt that Jesus was really savior and redeemer. Jesus was having a hard time trying to get his friends to understand what he had been saying and doing during the past three years. Seeing their doubts, Jesus decided to go to the mountain to pray and to show them his true glory. He wanted to relieve them of their sadness and worry, and prepare them for what would happen in just a week in the Garden of Gethsame. Jesus decides to take only three of them.
When they got to the top of the mountain they suddenly saw the face of Jesus highlighted brilliantly and his clothes appeared to be dazzlingly white. For a short time the old testament prophet Elijah and the patriarch Moses appeared with him. And afterwards, they only saw Jesus. Jesus allowed them to see this so that they could enjoy, for a short time, the happiness that is reserved in heaven for those who love him. In a sense Jesus wanted to help his friends believe that he was truly the Son of God, and that his terrible sufferings and death by crucifixion would be followed by happiness in heaven. Death was not the end to his life.
Saint Paul, in the Second Reading, asks us to be joyful and confident. He tells us that if God is with us we can do anything, that when we have problems, when the difficulties of life seem to overcome us, we should think of the glory that awaits those who carry their cross patiently, as Our Lord carried his Cross for us.
Like Peter, James and John sometimes we also have problems understanding the whys and wherefore of daily life. We don’t know how we are going to resolve the problems that confront us on a daily basis. At times like this, the Lord asks us to have faith in him.
Lent is the perfect time to show our faith in Christ, to show him that we are ready and willing to listen to him and to follow him. During these days of Lent, we, in this community, should prepare ourselves, through penance and fasting, for the celebration of the glorious Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday. The Lord reminds us about what he told the apostles, that before we experience the glory, we have to go through the Calvary of daily life.
When you and I were baptized the priest said: The Lord Jesus made the deaf hear and those who could not speak, speak. May he soon touch your ears to receive his word, and your mouth to proclaim his faith, to the praise and glory of God the Father. At the same time he touched our and our mouth.
Jesus himself has shown us that life and love are often tested through our pains, disappointments and sufferings. If we let Jesus hold our hands or even carry us, we will always find a new life transfigured or changed by love. The glorious image of God resides in each one of us, but very often we can't see it because e keep our goodness hidden. Like dull, old silver, the image has lost its luster. It has been tarnished by neglect, by sns and human failings. Prayer polishes us and then we can see our inner beauty. We too can be transfigured. Begin today to simply think, to speak and to act as Jesus did.
Genesis 11: 1-18 PS 116: 10-18
Romans 8:31-34 Mk 9:2-10
Mk 9:2-10
As a general rule in the Bible dramatic things happen on mountaintops. There are about 500 references in the Bible to mountains and hills. Sometimes mountains are described as places of hiding and refuge; sometimes they are presented as desolate and barren, hostile to the living. They are depicted as places of false pagan worship; they are also celebrated as sites of authentic worship of the true God.
And in some of the most significant events presented in Bible, mountains are where people encounter God in transforming, stunning fashion. In such instances, their faith is tested. God gave Moses the 10 commandments on Mount Sinai. Our readings today give us two mountaintop experiences: one of Abraham and another of Jesus and his close friends.
Today's Old Testament reading is one of those incredible mountaintop encounters. It is also one of the most perplexing and baffling stories in the Old Testament. Thousands of years ago people thought that they did lived on after death only through their children. To die childless meant that at death a person simply ceased all existence. Abraham and Sarah had only one child which they named Isaac. Isaac was God's gift to Abraham and Sarah -- their guarantee of living on after death. One day God talks to Abraham and asked him to kill his son Isaac. God is not only asking Abraham for his only child, but He also is asking Abraham for his very existence. How could a good and loving God ask Abraham to sacrifice his own son? The point of this story is that Abraham had his faith in God tested in a way that almost no one else is ever tested. Abraham passed the test. He was willing to be so loyal to God that not only would he willingly offer God his only son, he was also willing to offer God his very existence. Was Abraham perfect? By no means, but God knew the depth of Abraham's loyalty.
This brings us to today's Gospel. This weekend we hear of an event in the life of Jesus unlike any other human event, and yet this event has been the center of our faith in Jesus Christ. It is called the Transfiguration of Jesus or the changing in the appearance of Jesus Christ. Thousands of artists have painted this event, the most famous of which is the one done by the artist Raphael. Thousands of Catholic and Protestant churches have been named in honor of the Transfiguration. So what is this event and what does it mean to us here today?
Three of the four Gospel writers tell us that this event in the life of Jesus took place on a high mountain, most likely Mount Tabor. Just a week before Jesus had been up front with his followers and told them about his passion and death. Jesus had told them that He would soon suffer terribly and be killed by the religious authorities of the day.
But the apostles did not understand what Jesus was talking about. Jesus felt that his closest friends were confused. They had spent several miserable days worrying about what might happen. They felt dejected. After all, the person for whom they had given up everything told them that he was about to leave them. They seemed to doubt that Jesus was really savior and redeemer. Jesus was having a hard time trying to get his friends to understand what he had been saying and doing during the past three years. Seeing their doubts, Jesus decided to go to the mountain to pray and to show them his true glory. He wanted to relieve them of their sadness and worry, and prepare them for what would happen in just a week in the Garden of Gethsame. Jesus decides to take only three of them.
When they got to the top of the mountain they suddenly saw the face of Jesus highlighted brilliantly and his clothes appeared to be dazzlingly white. For a short time the old testament prophet Elijah and the patriarch Moses appeared with him. And afterwards, they only saw Jesus. Jesus allowed them to see this so that they could enjoy, for a short time, the happiness that is reserved in heaven for those who love him. In a sense Jesus wanted to help his friends believe that he was truly the Son of God, and that his terrible sufferings and death by crucifixion would be followed by happiness in heaven. Death was not the end to his life.
Saint Paul, in the Second Reading, asks us to be joyful and confident. He tells us that if God is with us we can do anything, that when we have problems, when the difficulties of life seem to overcome us, we should think of the glory that awaits those who carry their cross patiently, as Our Lord carried his Cross for us.
Like Peter, James and John sometimes we also have problems understanding the whys and wherefore of daily life. We don’t know how we are going to resolve the problems that confront us on a daily basis. At times like this, the Lord asks us to have faith in him.
Lent is the perfect time to show our faith in Christ, to show him that we are ready and willing to listen to him and to follow him. During these days of Lent, we, in this community, should prepare ourselves, through penance and fasting, for the celebration of the glorious Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday. The Lord reminds us about what he told the apostles, that before we experience the glory, we have to go through the Calvary of daily life.
When you and I were baptized the priest said: The Lord Jesus made the deaf hear and those who could not speak, speak. May he soon touch your ears to receive his word, and your mouth to proclaim his faith, to the praise and glory of God the Father. At the same time he touched our and our mouth.
Jesus himself has shown us that life and love are often tested through our pains, disappointments and sufferings. If we let Jesus hold our hands or even carry us, we will always find a new life transfigured or changed by love. The glorious image of God resides in each one of us, but very often we can't see it because e keep our goodness hidden. Like dull, old silver, the image has lost its luster. It has been tarnished by neglect, by sns and human failings. Prayer polishes us and then we can see our inner beauty. We too can be transfigured. Begin today to simply think, to speak and to act as Jesus did.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Homily for the Week March 1, 2009
FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT, 2009
First Reading: Genesis 9:8–15
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 25:4–5, 6–7, 8–9
Second Reading: 1 Peter 3:18–22
Gospel: Mark 1:12–15
''Change we can believe in!'' This was the rallying cry of President Obama's campaign. A Christian's campaign slogan might be a little bit different: Believe so we can change!
Those preparing to enter the Catholic Church as adults go through a process of instruction and change. I have been privileged to help many persons prepared themselves to become Catholics. For most, the process of preparing for acceptance into the Church through baptism is definitely a life-changing experience and, in spiritual language, a ''transforming experience.'' They not only learn about the what it means to believe, but more importantly how believing changes them. Receiving what are called the sacraments of initiation of Baptism, Confirmation and First Communion makes them one with the believing community gathered here in church every weekend.
The movie Tender Mercies is about Mac Sledge, an alcoholic country music composer and singer. At the beginning of the story we see that alcoholism has left Mac a down-and-out has-been. After a night of drinking, Mac wakes up somewhere in Texas at a run-down, roadside hotel and gas station. The owner of the hotel is a young widow named Rosa Lee whose husband had been killed in Viet Nam, leaving her a widow at 18 with an infant son. She informs Mac that his companion has left him. Mac asks Rosa Lee if he can stay and work off the debt for his room. Rosa Lee agrees. Mac later asks Rosa Lee if he can stay on and continue working for her for room and board. She agrees, as long as he doesn't drink while he's working. Slowly the two fall in love, and the widow's love for Mac does what love can: it transforms him.
Eventually, Mac and the widow's young son are baptized. On the way home from the church, the boy Sonny is happy in his baptism. He asks if Mac can see any change in him. Mac replies simply, ''Not yet.'' Sonny then asks if Mac feels any different. Mac replies simply, ''Not yet.'' Then he sings the old song Wings of a Dove.
Life-giving water is for us a symbol of many good things such as cleansing and refreshment. But these are not the first thoughts about water by the people in the Bible. For them, water was chaos and death. God created dry land, a sign of His control over the chaos -- water -- that covered the earth. Later, the Egyptians chasing the Israelites were killed by water.
Our first reading today recalls more destruction by water which is known as the Great Flood. This destruction spoke of a change and a new beginning. God was not pleased with how human beings had developed and thus decided to transform it. He began with one man, Noah, and his family, then destroyed everything not on the ark. God's plan and hope was that this one faithful family would be able to transform creation into what He had intended at the beginning.
God was so hopeful that He made an agreement between himself and Noah and Noah's descendants -- an agreement that would last forever. God vowed never again to destroy the earth by water. Noah sent a dove which came back with an olive branch. This meant that the flood had stopped and plants were now growing. And also Noah saw a rainbow in the sky.
But the symbol of God's promise is not exactly a rainbow. God set an archer’s bow in the sky, not a hunting bow made for war. To ''set'' a bow meant to hang it up. By hanging up His bow, God intended never to use it again. God did not hang the bow in the sky to remind us of this agreement with us. He put the bow in the sky to remind himself! God knew that we would not keep our agreement with him. His promise was that He would remember His part of the agreement.
The Second Vatican Council said, ''Baptism establishes a sacramental bond of unity which links all who have been reborn by it, but of itself baptism is only a beginning....'' Indeed, with Noah came a new beginning. Those who are baptized enjoy a new beginning. On this first Sunday of Lent it is good for us to remember that the word Lent means ''spring,'' and that every spring is a new beginning. We begin Lent remembering how Jesus began His mission and ministry. He went to the desert for 40 days to be ''tempted by Satan.'' Jesus wanted to prove that he could remain faithful to God his father.
During Lent each of us is called to remember our own journey through the waters of Baptism. When we were baptized we entered into an agreement with God. We did that by professing our Catholic faith in very much the same words that we will say in short time when we are inviting to renew our profession of faith.
You see, Lent is not so much about doing something extra for God, as it is about letting God do something extra for us. It is a time for turning to God for the help we need in dealing with the temptations we have to deal with every day. Whenever you throw a rope to Jesus for spiritual help be sure that you hold on tight to the rope with at least one hand. We sometimes call this process of our faith as renewal. As you begin Lent ask yourself:
What is most in need of spiritual renewal right now in your life?
Spend some time in prayer. Think of the times when you are most tempted. What have you done about them? What has worked and what has not worked?
Return to the good spiritual habits that meant a lot to you at one time and you gradually got away from them. Got back to the Lent that meant the most to you, and do the things that you may have given up.
Make your Lent 2009: Believe so that I can change.
First Reading: Genesis 9:8–15
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 25:4–5, 6–7, 8–9
Second Reading: 1 Peter 3:18–22
Gospel: Mark 1:12–15
''Change we can believe in!'' This was the rallying cry of President Obama's campaign. A Christian's campaign slogan might be a little bit different: Believe so we can change!
Those preparing to enter the Catholic Church as adults go through a process of instruction and change. I have been privileged to help many persons prepared themselves to become Catholics. For most, the process of preparing for acceptance into the Church through baptism is definitely a life-changing experience and, in spiritual language, a ''transforming experience.'' They not only learn about the what it means to believe, but more importantly how believing changes them. Receiving what are called the sacraments of initiation of Baptism, Confirmation and First Communion makes them one with the believing community gathered here in church every weekend.
The movie Tender Mercies is about Mac Sledge, an alcoholic country music composer and singer. At the beginning of the story we see that alcoholism has left Mac a down-and-out has-been. After a night of drinking, Mac wakes up somewhere in Texas at a run-down, roadside hotel and gas station. The owner of the hotel is a young widow named Rosa Lee whose husband had been killed in Viet Nam, leaving her a widow at 18 with an infant son. She informs Mac that his companion has left him. Mac asks Rosa Lee if he can stay and work off the debt for his room. Rosa Lee agrees. Mac later asks Rosa Lee if he can stay on and continue working for her for room and board. She agrees, as long as he doesn't drink while he's working. Slowly the two fall in love, and the widow's love for Mac does what love can: it transforms him.
Eventually, Mac and the widow's young son are baptized. On the way home from the church, the boy Sonny is happy in his baptism. He asks if Mac can see any change in him. Mac replies simply, ''Not yet.'' Sonny then asks if Mac feels any different. Mac replies simply, ''Not yet.'' Then he sings the old song Wings of a Dove.
Life-giving water is for us a symbol of many good things such as cleansing and refreshment. But these are not the first thoughts about water by the people in the Bible. For them, water was chaos and death. God created dry land, a sign of His control over the chaos -- water -- that covered the earth. Later, the Egyptians chasing the Israelites were killed by water.
Our first reading today recalls more destruction by water which is known as the Great Flood. This destruction spoke of a change and a new beginning. God was not pleased with how human beings had developed and thus decided to transform it. He began with one man, Noah, and his family, then destroyed everything not on the ark. God's plan and hope was that this one faithful family would be able to transform creation into what He had intended at the beginning.
God was so hopeful that He made an agreement between himself and Noah and Noah's descendants -- an agreement that would last forever. God vowed never again to destroy the earth by water. Noah sent a dove which came back with an olive branch. This meant that the flood had stopped and plants were now growing. And also Noah saw a rainbow in the sky.
But the symbol of God's promise is not exactly a rainbow. God set an archer’s bow in the sky, not a hunting bow made for war. To ''set'' a bow meant to hang it up. By hanging up His bow, God intended never to use it again. God did not hang the bow in the sky to remind us of this agreement with us. He put the bow in the sky to remind himself! God knew that we would not keep our agreement with him. His promise was that He would remember His part of the agreement.
The Second Vatican Council said, ''Baptism establishes a sacramental bond of unity which links all who have been reborn by it, but of itself baptism is only a beginning....'' Indeed, with Noah came a new beginning. Those who are baptized enjoy a new beginning. On this first Sunday of Lent it is good for us to remember that the word Lent means ''spring,'' and that every spring is a new beginning. We begin Lent remembering how Jesus began His mission and ministry. He went to the desert for 40 days to be ''tempted by Satan.'' Jesus wanted to prove that he could remain faithful to God his father.
During Lent each of us is called to remember our own journey through the waters of Baptism. When we were baptized we entered into an agreement with God. We did that by professing our Catholic faith in very much the same words that we will say in short time when we are inviting to renew our profession of faith.
You see, Lent is not so much about doing something extra for God, as it is about letting God do something extra for us. It is a time for turning to God for the help we need in dealing with the temptations we have to deal with every day. Whenever you throw a rope to Jesus for spiritual help be sure that you hold on tight to the rope with at least one hand. We sometimes call this process of our faith as renewal. As you begin Lent ask yourself:
What is most in need of spiritual renewal right now in your life?
Spend some time in prayer. Think of the times when you are most tempted. What have you done about them? What has worked and what has not worked?
Return to the good spiritual habits that meant a lot to you at one time and you gradually got away from them. Got back to the Lent that meant the most to you, and do the things that you may have given up.
Make your Lent 2009: Believe so that I can change.
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