Preparing for Sunday

This Sunday is the Fifth Sunday of Lent. The opening prayer is:
"Father, help us to be like Christ your Son, who loved the world and died for our salvation. Inspire us by his love, guide us by his example, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The First Reading is from Jeremiah 31:31-34, the Second Reading is from Hebrews 5:7-9, and the Gospel is John 12: 20-33.

The Response for the Psalm is Create a clean heart in me, O God."

I am going to comment on the first reading from Jeremiah today as it was a passage I spent time with in my month of prayer last summer. "The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers the day I took them by the hand to lead them forth from the land of Egypt; for they broke my covenant, and I had to show myself their master, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people... It ends with the Lord telling us that "I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.'

The Lord has done everything to call us back to Him. He gave us a new covenant that places his desire for us within us; it is written upon our hearts. He is our God and we belong to Him! And God is a forgiving God who loves us!

Feast of the Annunciation

December 25 was the date to celebrate the birth of Christ by the fourth century; then a feast was celebrated for the conception of Jesus on March 25. It is a feast that is worth meditating on over and over again. According to Luke, "The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary." What a wealth of information is contained in that one sentence even before we know why God sent Gabriel to this little town of Nazareth.

When the angel greets Mary, she "was greatly troubled" and pondered what sort of greeting this might be for the angel had said to her, "Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you." We greet Mary with these same words ever time we say the "Hail Mary"; it is a prayer that pleases her now. I think being greeted by an angel would upset anyone. Gabriel hastens to tell her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God." I think we hear those same words often in our own hearts as Jesus is always coming to tell us not to fear for we are loved by God. However, the rest of the message was a startling one that has become one of the great and joyful mysteries of our faith. "Behold you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."

Mary, after asking how this can be possible, accepts and the course of the world is changed. God becomes man! May we feel awe, gratitude, love and joy as we contemplate this great mystery. May we also learn to trust God and his mysterious ways.

"Come to the waters..."

The entrance antiphon is "Come to the waters, all who thirst; though you have no money, come and drink with joy." (Isaiah 55:1)

The first reading from Ezechiel 47 is where he sees water flowing from the temple towards the East. The water continues to rise until it is a river. Then the angel tells Ezechiel that "Wherever the river flows, every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live, and there shall be abundant fish, for wherever this water comes the sea shall be made fresh....Along both banks of the river, fruit trees of every kind shall grow; their leaves shall not fade, nor their fruit fail. Every month they shall bear fresh fruit, for they shall be watered by the flow from the sanctuary. Their fruit shall serve for food, and their leaves for medicine."

I love the image of the river with fruit trees that bear fresh fruit every month. I guess we are like those trees as we are rooted in the living waters that flow from the Heart of Christ. Maybe a monthly retreat would help us to see the fresh fruit of each month!

The Gospel is about the healing pool of Bethesda where Jesus saw the man that had been there waiting for the healing waters thirty-eight years. Jesus asked him, "Do you want to be well?" Then, when the man had replied that he had no one to help him into the water, Jesus told him, "Take up your mat and walk." He did, but it was the sabbath so Jesus is again in trouble with the Pharisees for doing good on the sabbath. Later he finds the man and tells him, "do not sin any more, so that nothing worse may happen to you." The man told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well and they "began to persecute Jesus because he did this on a sabbath."

I had the thought that Sunday would be a good day to try to make reparation for all the times Jesus must have been hurt by the attitude of the Pharisees every time he cures someone on the sabbath. He tried hard to show them that the sabbath was made for man, for us to care for one another and do good. Sundays in Lent help us to return to a healthy observance of the sabbath.

St. Toribio

I must confess that I knew nothing about this holy man who was born in Spain, was a law professor in Salamanca and chief judge in the Inquisition of Granada. None of which sounded especially holy to me. Then he was appointed as a layman to be Archbishop of Lima, Peru in 1580. He protested this irregularity, but Pope Pius V dispensed him from the usual process and he was ordained and consecrated bishop. He was very good for Peru; he condemned abuses, founded schools, hospitals, and churches, and the first seminary in Latin America. He learned the native languages and was a much-loved teacher and preacher. He was canonized in 1726. He is now the patron saint of the Latin American bishops as well as a patron saint of Peru.

In the Gospel (John 4:43-54) Jesus goes to Galilee and returned to Cana. A royal official, whose son was still in Capernaum, went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son who was near death. Jesus said to him, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe." The royal official said to him, "Sir, come down before my child dies." Jesus said to him, "You may go; your son will live."

While I was typing this, I began to think about how Jesus felt. He was responding to a father and telling him that his son will live. Yet, he knows that he is going to die and die on a cross like a common criminal. I think there was a great deal of emotion in the heart of Jesus that we sometimes miss as we read the Gospel.

"By grace you have been saved."

In the sign of the cross we see into the heart of God: mercy and compassion, not condemnation. Anyone who but looks with the eyes of faith to God will be saved." The above is a quote from Michael Traher from a reflection he wrote for this Fourth Sunday of Lent.

Paul tells us in Ephesians that "God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ--by grace you have been saved--..." Then Paul says 'For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast."

How often do I thank for the gift of salvation, the gift of faith? I cannot save myself! Thank God that he is always saving us.
(See Thursdays reflections where the Sunday readings are given ahead of time so we may prepare them and reflect on God's word.)

"Lord, be merciful to me a sinner!"

I love this image and it says much to me about the wonder of children and what it means for us to be childlike. I am away for a few days to visit a friend but am scheduling these posts up to the Feast of the Annunciation of Our Lady so there will be something to reflect upon each day.

Today's Gospel (Luke 18:9-14) has the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Both went up to the temple to pray; but how different the prayer of each was! Jesus tells us the the Pharisee "Took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, 'O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity--greedy, dishonest, adulterous--or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.' But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayer, 'O God be merciful to me a sinner.'"

When I was a young Religious just after my first vows, I had a visit from a very holy Jesuit cousin. His angel must have been in communication with mine for I always knew when he had come to visit me even before someone came to call me; I even sensed when a letter from him was arriving -- this is the only person that I have had this kind of telepathy with but it was extraordinary! Anyway, he told me that day that his prayer had been for a long time only "Lord, be merciful to me a sinner." This same Jesuit was one of the most apostolic persons I have ever known, and he was also a man of prayer.
Sometimes now my prayer, too, is Lord, be merciful to me a sinner."

Halfway to Easter - Let us pray with Jesus

"I am the Lord your God: hear my voice." This is the response today for the Psalm verses from Psalm 81. "If only my people would hear me, and Israel walk in my ways.." The Lord is always asking us to hear his voice. Do we want to? Or am I afraid of what God may be saying to me?

In today's Gospel (Mark 12:28-34) Jesus replies to the scribe who asked him which is the greatest of all the commandments by quoting from Deuteronomy. It is part of the prayer called the Shema that is said by the Jewish people even today. Jesus would have learned this prayer as a child and speaks these words from the depths of his heart. "Hear, O Israel. The Lord our God is Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength."
Want to pray a prayer Jesus said every day? Pray this one.

Then Jesus adds that the second greatest commandment is "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Today is the halfway mark between Ash Wednesday and Easter. Let us hurry to make this Lent a special time with the Lord.

Feast of St. Joseph

Joseph was a just man and he could not understand how Mary was with child when they had not yet come together. He did not know what to do. He thought that the best thing would be to divorce Mary quietly. After he had discerned that this was the best solution, God spoke to him in a dream through the voice of an angel who told him: "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her."

That must have taken faith to believe in the dream. However, Joseph believed and took Mary and then his life was really changed. The Little Black Book speaks of the messiness of it all, but out of this mess was going to come the beautiful story of the Savior's birth.

Joseph is a silent man. We do not have even one word of his. This is something to think about, too. He was silent and obedient.

Now to prepare a bit for the 4th Sunday of Lent, the Readings are: 2 Chronicles 36: 14-16, 19-23; Ephesians, 2:4-10; and John 3:14-21.

In the Gospel, Jesus says to Nicodemus: "Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish, but might have eternal life."

Lord, help us to always believe; increase our faith. We call out "Lord, I do believe; help my unbelief." St. Joseph was a silent man, but a man of faith.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem

Cyril was ordained in Jerusalem in 345. He was well-educated and a biblical scholar. Within five years of his ordination, he was made Bishop of Jerusalem. This was a troubled time with political and doctrinal controversies following the Nicene Council. Cyril defended the Nicene Creed against the Arians. He is best known for his twenty-three Lenten homilies of instruction for those to be baptized during the Easter vigil; in his homilies we find a summary of the beliefs and theological traditions of the Jerusalem community. St. Cyril was named a doctor of the Church.

The opening prayer today is "Lord, during this Lenten season nourish us with your word of life and make us one in love and prayer.

In the Gospel (Matthew 5:17-19 Jesus tells us that he has not come to abolish the law or the prophets. "I have come not to abolish but to fulfill." He then warns his disciples about breaking the least of the commandments. As always, there is a positive note for Jesus says, "But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven."

Feast of St. Patrick

Patrick was kidnapped at age sixteen by pirates who took him to Ireland as a slave. He was a shepherd in the mountains but escaped after six years. He returned to Britain and became a priest. Pope Celestine then sent him back to Ireland as a missionary. He was made a bishop and managed to establish a native clergy; before his death in 461, Christianity had spread throughout Ireland. Later the Irish would spread the faith in other countries.

I grew up in St. Louis where Cardinal Glennon always gave permission to eat meat on St. Patrick's feast and not fast. I am three-fourths Irish; my maternal grandmother was a Lightholder and there are still Lightholders in Ireland living on the original farm that has had Lightholders there on Lightholder lane since the 18th century; my maternal grandfather was a McLaughlin and my mother always said the family was Scotch-Irish. My Dad's mother was a Murphy and really Irish to the core, although she married a Rosenthal. My grandfather McLaughlin could sing all the Irish ballads and usually just needed a couple of beers to hold forth on the feast of St. Patrick! It is a day to celebrate all the Irish!

The response for the Psalm is "Remember your mercies, O Lord."
From Psalm 25: "Your ways, O Lord, make known to me; teach me your paths.
Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior.

Remember that your compassion, O Lord, and your kindness are from of old.
In your kindness remember me, because of your goodness, O Lord.

Good and upright is the Lord; thus he shows sinners the way.
He guides the humble to justice, he teaches the humble his way.

The Gospel has Jesus telling Peter that he must forgive "not seven time but seventy-seven times."

Mercy must be measureless. We are to be merciful as our Father in heaven is merciful; that means an infinite amount of mercy!

No prophet is accepted in his own town

The opening prayer for today's liturgy is: "God of mercy free your church from sin and protect it from evil. Guide us, for we cannot be saved without you."

In the Gospel (Luke 4:24-30), Jesus reminds those in the synagogue in his own home town, Nazareth, that "no prophet is accepted in his own native place." He gives them the example of the widow in the land of Sidon who was helped by Elijah, although there were many widows in Israel; and then the example of the many lepers in Israel, but Elisha only took care of curing the Syrian, Naaman. When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. They rose up, drove him out of town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong. "But he passed through the midst of them and went away."

Imagine how Jesus feels; his people, those of his own hometown, want to kill him. He who had lived among them helping and befriending them is now driven out of town. This was his home and they want to cast him off, hurl him over a cliff. They turned against him. "But Jesus passed through their midst and went away."

Psalm 42 is one I love: "As the deer longs for the running waters, so my soul longs for you, O God." The response is "Athrist is my soul for the living God. When shall I go and behold the face of God?" It would make a good prayer to repeat as we go about today.

There are Ten Commandments

The first reading from Exodus tells us to remember God's commandments:
1. You shall not have other gods beside me.
2. You shalt not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain.
3. Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.
4. Honor your father and your mother.
5. Thou shalt not kill.
6. You shalt not commit adultery.
7. You shalt not steal.
8. You shalt not bear false witness.
9. You shalt not covet your neighbor's house.
10. You shalt not covet your neighbor's wife or anything that belongs to him.

The first three are about God and it seems to me that we pay less attention to them. For instance, how often do we examen outselves about how we keep holy the sabbath? Or what about the first commandment and the idols I find in my life? These first three might be more important in God's eyes than we realize. We tend to sort of pass over them quickly to look at our sins against the other seven.

There is plenty to reflect upon as we keep holy the sabbath!