Scripture Musings
In his book Rediscover Catholicism, Matthew Kelly talks about journaling at Mass. He recommends that you take a notebook with you to Mass and jot down what God speaks to you during the course of the service. He believes that God will speak at least One Thing to you that will be the key lesson that He desires to teach you today. What follows are my thoughts about the One Thing God is showing me this day.
Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings: Exodus 19:2-6a; Psalm 100; Romans 5:6-11; Matthew 9:36-10:8
“While we were still sinners Christ died for us.”
God knows our hearts. He knows how wretched and sinful we are. Yet He chose to send His Son Jesus to us to reconcile us to Himself “through the death of His Son.” Do we deserve it? Did we earn it? No. That is the wonder of our salvation. God knew us in all our sinfulness and yet He still sent His Son to die for us so that we could be reconciled to Him!
The Scriptures today all clearly point to the love God has for His people. In the Gospel, it tells us that “Jesus’ heart was moved with pity” for the crowds, so He chose 12 men from His disciples and gave them special authority “to drive…out [unclean spirits] and to cure every disease.” He sends them forth with the message, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (In another Gospel, we hear these same words: “The kingdom of God is at hand.” (Mark 1:15) The Scripture there continues with Christ also saying, “Repent and believe in the gospel.”
God has chosen us to go and bear fruit, another Scripture tells us. Just as He chose the Jewish people in the first reading to be “my special possession,” He has also chosen us and made a covenant with us so that we should also become “a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.”
How we should marvel at this calling! He has taken us from the darkness of our sinfulness not only into the light, but also into His commission to be light for others! We should be able, like the psalmist to, “sing joyfully to the Lord,” knowing that “he made us, his we are.”
Let us rejoice in that revelation. Let us rejoice to know that we belong to Him, but let us also remember that we must keep His covenant, we must repent and believe the Good News. Let us know that what we have received without cost, “without cost you are to give.”
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
Readings: Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14b-16a; Psalm 147; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17; John 6:51-58
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven…”
Today we celebrate one of the great feast days of the Church which was formerly known as Corpus Christi. As our priest said at Mass this weekend, it is one of the great mysteries of our Catholic faith how simple bread and wine become the actual body and blood of our Savior.
In the Vatican II documents, the Eucharist is called the Source and Summit of our faith. From our acceptance of the truth of the Eucharist stems all our beliefs, and at the same time, this is the height, the most sublime, truth of our faith: Jesus is truly present—body, blood, soul and divinity—in the bread and wine that we receive in the Eucharist.
I was most struck by the first reading, from the book of Deuteronomy. “For forty years now the Lord, your God, has directed all your journeying in the desert…” This life we live now is our “desert.” We are seeking the Promised Land of heaven and our journeying to that land is our desert experience, where there are “serpents and scorpions” and “parched and waterless ground.”
We recognize the “serpents and scorpions” as temptations to sin, as the evil that confronts us every day where we must learn to choose the good based on God’s laws over the evil we see. The “parched and waterless ground” is sometimes the way our prayer life feels. We seek God, we seek holiness, but sometimes it appears we are walking in the dark and have no direction or guidance to take us where we want to go. Our prayer feels like it evaporates into the air rather than reaching the throne room of God.
The Scriptures tell us that God wants to “test you by affliction and find out whether or not it was your intention to keep his commandments.” He brings the test, but He also brings the solution. “He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you with manna, a food unknown to you and your fathers…” His testing is to show us that only He can provide all that we need in order to make this journey through the desert of our life.
Jesus tells us in the Gospel that He has made provision for us to always have all that we need to survive this life. “Unlike your ancestors who ate (the manna) and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.” What is the bread He is referring to? “I am the living bread…” He says earlier in this passage from John. He is our food. He is our strength. It is He who provides all that we need in this desert to reach our Promised Land of heaven.
As the priest said at Mass, the mystery of the Eucharist can never be fully understood in its entirety. Our knowledge can only deepen as we study it more, but it will never reach a finality. We understand that Christ becomes our food, to strengthen us on the journey, but this is only one part of our understanding of the significance of the Eucharist, the source and summit of our faith. St. Paul alludes to something more in his first letter to the Corinthians when he says, “because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we partake of the one loaf.”
The mystery of the Eucharist is also in its ability to draw us into unity, into oneness. As we partake of the Eucharist, we become one body, the body of Christ, another great mystery of our faith.
Looking at one of the choices for the Preface for today’s Mass, it contains this phrase: “As we eat his flesh that was sacrificed for us, we are made strong, and, as we drink his Blood that was poured out for us, we are washed clean.” Here is another mystery of the Eucharist that our priest touched upon in his sermon: reception of the Eucharist can cleanse us of sin! I have long felt when I pray the prayer before communion, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed,” that the word Jesus is speaking to me is, “Come.” Come, receive and be made whole. Come and experience the fullness of My life within you. Come and be made new again.
As we received communion at this Mass, the organist played a song that really touched me. It’s called “Lord, I Need You” by Chris Tomlin. “Lord, I need You, oh, I need You. Every hour I need You. My one defense, my righteousness, oh God, how I need you.” One of the verses says, “Where sin runs deep, Your grace is more. Where grace is found is where You are.”
In the Eucharist, we find Christ. We find all that we need. We find food for the journey, we find grace to take away our sin, we find oneness and unity in Him and in our brothers and sisters, we find peace, we find joy.
Come to Jesus. Receive Him now. Know that He loves you beyond anything that you can imagine. He is waiting for you to say yes to Him. Come. Receive, and find life forever more!
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
Readings: Exodus 34:4b-6, 8-9; Daniel 3; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; John 3:16-18
“Whoever believes in him will not be condemned…”
One of the most famous Bible verses is John 3:16, “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.” Today, I want to look at the verses that follow. “Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name…”
What does it mean to believe? A famous quote from Benedict XVI says that “being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a new direction.”
If you remember, the third chapter of John tells the story of the encounter of Nicodemus with Jesus, who tells him that he must be “born again.” Benedict captures the essence of what that means in his quote. To believe is more than just mental assent: I acknowledge that this is true. In the book of James, it says, “even the demons believe…and tremble.” Mental assent is not enough to save one. That’s why Benedict goes on to describe the “encounter” with the person who will completely change the trajectory of our lives.
How do we encounter this person, who is Jesus Himself? St. Paul gives us a small hint in his second letter to the Corinthians: “Mend your ways, encourage one another, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.”
In the Baltimore Catechism, we were taught the seven corporal works of mercy and the seven spiritual works of mercy. I believe that prayerfully practicing these “works” can be a powerful way to encounter Christ, especially in your service to others. If the works are undertaken simply to do good works, this will not lead you down the path to holiness. In fact, it could easily lead to pride and Pharisaism, but, if practiced prayerfully, with the Lord ever before our eyes, these can be a great means to grow in our faith and deepen our relationship with Christ.
In the book of Matthew, Jesus is asked which is the greatest commandment. In His response, He ties together the love of God with the love of neighbor. These two are linked in such a way that they are inseparable. There are those who say they love God, but do not love and serve others, and conversely, there are those who say they love their neighbor, but have no place for God in their lives. While both of these approaches may have some good in them, neither will cause you to grow deeper in your faith, and may very well set you in a direction that leads you far from God.
We are “indeed a stiff-necked people,” as Moses tells God in the reading from the book of Exodus, and, at every opportunity, we will try to find shortcuts in our faith, because being a Christian is a full-time job. It requires vigilance and constant prayer and daily surrender, but as we do our part, God is faithful to meet us and give us the grace we need to do the work He has called us to do. He gives us the grace to become His children. He builds that relationship with us that draws us deeper into communion with Him through the power of the Spirit working in us.
In the Collect for today’s Mass, we pray, “God, our Father, who by sending into the world the Word of truth and the Spirit of sanctification made known to the human race your wondrous mystery…” God has given us all we need to encounter Him and then to live out His calling on our lives.
Reach out now to the Lord. Ask in prayer to have that encounter with Him that will change your life. Repent of your sins and turn away from your old life. Make a firm resolve to live anew for Christ. Practice the works of mercy while daily praying to build your relationship with Christ. Finally, as it says in the letter to the Philippians, He will give you “the peace…that surpasses all understanding” to “guard your hearts and minds.”
I found online a great resource that includes the entire Baltimore Catechism, Revised Edition from 1941: www.catholicity.com/baltimore-catechism/. The part about the works of mercy can be found in “Part Two: The Commandments,” Section 15. “The Two Great Commandments.”
Pentecost Sunday
Readings: Acts of the Apostles 2:1-11; Psalm 104; 1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13; John 20:19-23
“Receive the Holy Spirit.”
When I hear the following words in the reading from the Acts of the Apostles: “Suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong, driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were,” for some reason I am reminded of the scene from the book of First Kings, Chapter 19, where Elijah is hiding in a cave and the Lord tells him to “Go out, and stand…before the Lord.” A strong wind comes through, and an earthquake, and then a fire. But the Lord is in none of these. It is only in the “still small voice” that Elijah recognizes the Lord and then comes forth.
God moves in mysterious ways. Perhaps these strong, violent things were the precursor of the Lord’s coming? In the reading from the Acts of the Apostles, the noise of the wind is followed by “tongues, as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them.” This was the Spirit, who filled each of them so that “they began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.”
What were they proclaiming? Later in the reading, the onlookers declare that they can “hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God.”
This is also reminiscent of another time that God appeared amidst thunder and the shaking of the earth. In the vigil Mass for Pentecost we have the opportunity to read from Exodus Chapter 19 where Moses speaks to God on the holy mountain and then gives the Law to his people. The Jewish people celebrate this event even today as the Feast of Tabernacles, or Pentecost.
From the Gospel for the vigil Mass, Jesus speaks to the crowds “on the last and greatest day of the feast” of Tabernacles, and tells them, “‘Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink. As Scripture says: Rivers of living water will flow from within him who believes in me.’ He said this in reference to the Spirit that those who came to believe in him were to receive.”
In the reading from First Corinthians, Paul declares, “no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” Then he goes on to talk about the gifts the Holy Spirit bestows, concluding by saying “to each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.”
Immediately after this, Paul goes on to talk about the Body of Christ as if it were one human body, and makes it very clear that once “we were all given to drink of one Spirit” we become one. Through the Spirit, we are now part of each other. We are not just brothers and sisters in the family of Christ; we are even much closer than that, and it is the Spirit that brings us together.
In the Gospel, Jesus breathed on the Apostles and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Now we have come full circle back to that still small voice of Jesus. I ask today that you allow Jesus to come to you and breathe on you so that you may receive the Holy Spirit in His fullness, that you can declare the mighty works of God, that you can proclaim that Jesus is Lord, that you can be fully a part of the Body of Christ, manifesting your gifts for the benefit of the entire Body.
Maybe you won’t hear a mighty wind. Maybe you won’t see flames as of fire appear over you, but I pray you will hear that still small voice, knowing that Jesus is whispering to you that the Spirit is your free gift from Him. Receive the Spirit now and let your life be changed forever.
Seventh Sunday of Easter
Readings: Acts of the Apostles 1:12-14; Psalm 27; 1 Peter 4:13-16; John 17:1-11a
“Hear our supplications, O Lord, so that we…may experience…his abiding presence among us.” This excerpt from the Collect at today’s Mass really stood out to me, and I wondered, do we experience His abiding presence in our lives today? I looked up the word “abide” in the dictionary and it means “to remain with, to have one’s dwelling with…”
Does Christ dwell with us today? Is He ever-present to us, dwelling with us in our homes and our hearts? I know I forget that fact way too often.
In the reading from the Acts of the Apostles, after Jesus ascended to heaven, we see the Apostles returning to the Upper Room, where they “devoted themselves with one accord to prayer…” It strikes me how different their attitudes were compared to only weeks ago when they were in this same room where “the doors were locked…for fear of the Jews.” What was the difference, with what appears to me now to be a sense of peace and purpose as they prayed, waiting for the coming of the Comforter, the Advocate? Perhaps, even just a little, they believed Jesus when He said that He would be with them “always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)
Did they perhaps pray Psalm 27: “Hear, O Lord, the sound of my call; have pity on me, and answer me.” “One thing I ask of the Lord; this I seek: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life…”
The peace that He had breathed on them on Easter Sunday still lingered in that room as they waited prayerfully for the coming of the Spirit. They knew the future would not be easy. St. Peter tells us, “Whoever is made to suffer as a Christian should…glorify God…” He further says, “Blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.”
They were ready to receive the Spirit, so that as Jesus had glorified God “on earth by accomplishing the works you gave me to do…” they also would be prepared to glorify God by doing the works Jesus had called them to do.
In our station in life, are we still behind the locked doors of fear in our hearts, or do we go now into the Upper Room of our hearts and pray for the fullness of the Spirit so that we would know the abiding presence of Jesus in us? It is only then we will be able to accomplish the works that God has called us to do. It is then we will glorify God in our lives.
God does not promise us that it will be an easy road, but He does promise us that He will be with us, abiding with us, to give us the strength we need to accomplish all that He has called us to do. “I will not leave you orphans…I will come back to you, and yours hearts will rejoice.”
Let us now rejoice in the abiding presence of God in our lives through the Holy Spirit, and then go do the works that He has called us to do.
Sixth Sunday of Easter
Readings: Acts of the Apostles 8:5-8, 14-17; Psalm 66; 1 Peter 3:15-18; John 14:15-21
“They laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.”
The giving of the Spirit seems to be a central theme of the readings today, to prepare us for the full coming of the Spirit at Pentecost.
In Acts, Peter and John lay hands on the Samaritans and they receive the Holy Spirit. In First Peter, he tells us that Jesus was put to death in the flesh but brought to life in the Spirit. Finally, in John’s Gospel, Jesus tells His disciples He will ask the Father and the Father “will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth.”
How do we receive the Spirit? In the reading from Peter, he begins by saying, “Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.” Sanctify means to free from sin, to make holy. Christ obviously does not need us to do this for Him, but we need to do it for us in order that Christ can live in our hearts. Jesus tells us in the Gospel, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” He repeats this at the end of the reading as well. Between those two declarations, Jesus makes it clear that it is through obedience to His commandments that we will receive the Spirit.
Obedience to the commandments is more than just a duty we must perform. It is the very gateway to becoming children of the Father, so that we would no longer be orphans. It is the way to receive the Spirit who will lead us to all truth. It is the key to full relationship with God. It is our hope.
“If you love me, you will obey my commandments.” Then Jesus concludes by declaring, “Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him...”
We are loved! With the psalmist, we can “shout joyfully to God…sing praise to the glory of his name...” while we “declare what he has done for me.” As we “put to death” our flesh through obedience to the commandments, He will bring us “to life in the Spirit.”
Come, Holy Spirit!
Fifth Sunday of Easter
Readings: Acts of the Apostles 6:1-7; Psalm 33; 1 Peter 2:4-9; John 14:1-12
“Like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God…”
What is that spiritual house where a holy priesthood offers sacrifices? It is the temple. We are being built into a house where worship takes place, where sacrifice is offered to God! We are being built into the very temple of God, with Jesus Christ as the cornerstone.
Later, in the same reading, Peter says, “You are ‘a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises’ of him who called you…”
We are both the temple and the priesthood within the temple where we are to offer sacrifice and announce the praises of God!
Jesus talks in the Gospel about the fact that “in my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.” That house is again referring to His temple in heaven. In Jerusalem, the Temple had many rooms where people could gather to worship in small groups. Jesus continues, “I am going to prepare a place for you…and take you to myself.” He will take us to Himself in the heavenly temple.
In the book of Revelation it talks about the fact that the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb (Jesus) are the temple in the city of God. When we will some day enter the presence of God in heaven, we will be entering into the heavenly temple and become part of the ongoing worship there.
In the Gospel, Thomas says, “we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” Jesus replies that He is the way, but He is also the destination! Our journey in this life is to prepare us to be the priesthood that offers worship in the heavenly temple, who is Jesus!
As Christians, we live in Him now. Are we living our call to be priests and offer praise and sacrifice to our Lord? What is the sacrifice? It is our very lives! What else do we have to give that would be pleasing to God, that would be acceptable in the throne room/temple of heaven? Our prayers rise like incense. Let the offerings of ourselves as living sacrifices be acceptable to God.
We walk in newness of life because of Easter. We have been “called out of darkness into his wonderful light.” Let us live the life He has called us to here on earth so that we will be prepared to one day stand before the throne and offer continual praise to the Father and the Lamb as His holy priesthood for eternity.
Fourth Sunday of Easter
Readings: Acts of the Apostles 2:14a, 36-41; Psalm 23; 1 Peter 2:20b-25; John 10:1-10
“The Lord is my shepherd …”
This Sunday is also called Good Shepherd Sunday and all of the readings center around that theme. Our Psalm response today is from Psalm 23, one of the most recognized and loved of the Scriptures in the Old Testament. A few things in that reading stood out to me that I had not really thought about before.
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” “He gives me repose.” “He refreshes my soul.”
In the Gospel reading, Jesus talks about leading His sheep out of the sheepfold. Where does He lead us? To places of repose and refreshment. Do we recognize those in our daily lives? The times when we have a quiet place to rest in Him, to restore our souls? When we have a quiet moment when we can sit with the Scriptures on our porch swing, enjoying a warm evening breeze, or when we stop into an empty church and kneel before the tabernacle. These are the moments He gives us to refresh us, to restore us.
“He guides me in right paths.” “Even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil for you are at my side.”
If we are attuned to the Spirit, He will guide us in right paths. In another place in Scripture, it says, “We had all gone astray like sheep.” We keep getting that metaphor comparing us to sheep. Sheep are stupid. They follow the crowd, no matter where it goes, even when the destination is not good.
When I used to watch the news at night, sometimes I saw how easy it was to compare us to sheep. We too readily follow the crowd and end up in some pretty stupid places. Even there, God promises to be with us. “You are at my side.” Even in that dark valley where I have journeyed in my stupidity or where circumstances beyond my control have taken me, You are there with me.
I read once that if a sheep kept wandering off, the shepherd would sometimes break its leg and then carry it. While this apparently is an “urban legend,” it still illustrates the point of how Christ sometimes works in our lives. Usually, it is our own sin that damages us and takes us to dark places. The lessons we learn in those dark valleys are hard, but Jesus is still there with us, even more intimately than we ever realized. He wants to take us through to the other side, but sometimes the only way we’re going to make it is if we desperately cling to Him.
“You spread the table before me in the sight of my foes.” Even when God provides abundantly for us, the wolf is sometimes right at our door. Will we focus on the invader who waits outside, or do we focus on our provider Who joins us at table?
“Only goodness and kindness follow me all the days of my life.” With God at my side, I should not fear. His kindness leads me to repentance. His goodness overwhelms me with the knowledge that I am loved by Him. Jesus tells us, “I came that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”
Let us today walk with our shepherd into the abundance He has for us: mercy and grace and peace and joy, even in the midst of dark valleys, but also in those places of repose.
Good Shepherd, lead us.
Third Sunday of Easter
Readings: Acts of the Apostles 2:14, 22-33; Psalm 16; 1 Peter 1:17-21; Luke 24:13-35
“May your people exult forever, O God, in renewed youthfulness of spirit…”
Thus begins the Collect, the opening prayer for today’s Liturgy. Our “youthfulness of spirit” is renewed by our celebration of the mysteries of Easter! We are made new again!
I am continually amazed at the concept: that Christ renews us by this celebration of His passion, death, and resurrection. Day to day, I forget that I am renewed in Christ. I need to be reminded by the psalmist that I should “set the Lord ever before me; with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.”
We live in some disturbing times right now. It is so easy to look at the world and begin to fear. Fear is not of God. Fear is the weapon of the enemy. With God on my side, “I shall not be disturbed.”
The psalmist goes on to say, “Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices, my body, too, abides in confidence; because you will not abandon my soul…” In the conclusion of today’s reading from the psalm, the Psalmist declares, “You will show me the path of life, abounding joy in your presence…”
I wonder if I had been one of those two disciples on the road to Emmaus, would I, too, have been overwhelmed at the thoughts of all that was happening in their world, and would I have begun to lose hope in what I thought was the answer? Jesus, when he appears to them, tells them, “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe…”
Even as He spoke and continued to reveal God’s plan to them, I can imagine that what began to well up inside them was hope. “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?”
Can we turn to Him now and ask Him to accompany us on the way and open the Scriptures to us so that we would once again walk in the hope He gives? St Peter tells us, “if you invoke as Father him who judges impartially…conduct yourselves with reverence during this time of your sojourning, realizing that your were ransomed from your futile conduct… [with] the precious blood of Christ.” The apostle goes on to say that Christ was revealed to us “so that your faith and hope are in God.”
Let us continue to call on God our Father to reveal the truth of His Son to us, so that as we walk on our Emmaus rode of life, our eyes would be opened to the truth of Who Christ is for us and how He desires to give us hope even in the darkest of times. He is our hope. We shall not be disturbed.
Second Sunday of Easter (Sunday of Divine Mercy)
Readings: Acts of the Apostles 2:42-47; Psalm 118; 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31
“Awe came upon everyone…”
This was the life of the early church, shortly after Peter’s preaching to the crowds on Pentecost Sunday. They were filled with awe.
Is this our Easter experience? Are we filled with awe at the mystery of what Jesus has done for us? Do we even understand what it is that Jesus has done?
In John’s Gospel, he tells us, “these (things) are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.”
Are we too much like Thomas and have to have everything spelled out in black and white for us to truly believe, or can the word of the testimony of the Apostles move us to belief?
St. Peter tells us that, “our Lord Jesus Christ…in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
“In His great mercy…” Today, we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday, and we especially recognize that it is in God’s great mercy that He reaches out to us and offers us this new life.
We live that new life now. We live it in faith, but it is a reality, not just a wish for the future. We must walk in that truth, although, as St. Peter goes on to tell us, “for a little while you may have to suffer through various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith…” may be tested and strengthened, and we believe that Christ will bring us through to the end.
St. Peter continues, “Although you have not seen him you love him; even though you do not see him now yet believe in him, you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, as you attain the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
Rejoice with “indescribable and glorious joy,” for you have been redeemed! You have been bought with the price of the precious blood of Jesus, who died for you, and rose again that you may have life! Believe that Christ stands before you now and breathes on you and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
Live in the resurrection as if you truly believe He has won the victory for you. Your sins are forgiven. The Spirit dwells in you. Your life is new. Go in peace.
Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord
Readings: Acts 10:34a, 37-43; Psalm 118; Colossians 3:1-4 or 1 Corinthians 5:6b-8; John 20:1-9
He is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia!
This is the Easter proclamation, the culmination of the entire liturgical year and the height of our faith. We are Easter people. Christ’s resurrection is our hope that we can live with God for eternity.
In the reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Peter proclaims that he and his companions have been “commissioned to preach to the people and testify that he [Jesus] is the one appointed by God as judge,” and that “everyone who believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins through his name.”
We were not witnesses to the resurrection, but we have the testimony of those who were witnesses of what happened. How Christ, now raised from the dead, offers us forgiveness for our sins. He has paid the blood price. We need not dwell any more under the weight of our sins. His death and resurrection have set us free! We can now walk as His children in the light.
In the reading from Colossians, Paul tells us, “you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” And then, “if you were raised with Christ…when Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.”
When we look at those first witnesses, we see that they did not immediately believe. According to the Gospel of John, when “Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb…she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, ‘They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.’”
Mary Magdalene did not yet understand the resurrection. And when Peter and John arrive at the tomb, they enter and see the burial cloths but no body. It then says, “For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.”
It is only over the course of the next 40 days that they will all come to understand what has happened this day. Some will learn sooner, as Mary, weeping in the garden that day, would encounter the Lord. That evening, as we will read in next week’s Gospel, Jesus will appear to the Apostles, and still they will not fully understand.
How difficult it is for us to take all of this in. We only have the word of those witnesses to lead us to the truth, but we also have the Holy Spirit to guide us, to help us see the truth. Christ is risen! We no longer need to fear. Our life is new! We can walk away from the past and begin anew as the children of God. Rejoice, little ones. Rejoice! Today is the day of salvation. Alleluia!
Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord
Readings: Matthew 21:1-11; Isaiah 50:4-7; Psalm 22; Philippians 2:6-11; Matthew 26:14-27:66
“And when He entered Jerusalem the whole city was shaken and asked, ‘Who is this?’”
I had never before noticed this line in the Gospel that is proclaimed at the beginning of the Palm Sunday celebration. There were still so many people at that time that were not aware of Jesus or His ministry. Those who had heard Him speak had come out, proclaiming Him the Messiah by throwing down their cloaks, then waving branches as He passed by to enter the city.
I always thought it was an odd contrast that on this occasion so many would cry out that Jesus was the Messiah and yet only days later, they would be in the crowd in front of Pilate demanding that Jesus be crucified. Maybe, more realistically, it was the many who did not know Him that cried for his death, while those who had followed Him were lost in the noise of the crowd that Friday in front of Pilate.
I know we humans are fickle. One minute, we honor God; the next minute, we are in open rebellion against Him because His will does not fit our plans. Perhaps it’s worse to be a follower of Jesus and then, when the crowd around us completely rejects Him, we fear to stand up for Him and let our voices be heard, acclaiming His kingship in our lives.
We are called daily to take up our crosses. It is only through the cross that we can find resurrection and new life. We can’t bypass the cross. Jesus “emptied himself, taking the form of a slave,” says the reading from St. Paul to the Philippians. Then it continues, He “humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross.”
Are we daily emptying ourselves of our own plans and desires and even our own ego, and joining with Christ in carrying His cross so that we can reach our resurrection? Will we stand for Christ when all those around us reject Him? Will we walk that road to Calvary with Him?
Even Peter, in his bravado, said, “Though all may have their faith in you shaken, mine will never be.” I can imagine the look of love that Jesus must have given Peter at that moment, knowing how fickle even his heart could be, this one whom Jesus had called to lead His church. “Oh, Peter, if you only knew the truth of your heart,” I can imagine Jesus thinking, “you would not be so ready to speak.”
In the Gospel, Jesus tells His disciples, “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” How true that is at times for us too. Let us pray today that God will strengthen our mortal bodies to be able to heed the call of the Spirit, knowing what St. Paul told us last Sunday in his letter to the Romans, that the Spirit will “give life to our mortal bodies” so that we do not have to shrink before our adversaries in the world, but we can stand tall and proclaim that our redemption is at hand.
Fifth Sunday of Lent
Readings: Ezekiel 37:12-14; Psalm 130; Romans 8:8-11; John 11:1-45
“Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and have you rise from them, O my people! I will put my spirit in you that you may live…”
When I read that Scripture from Ezekiel today, it occurred to me that the writer was not talking about physical death, but spiritual death. We who live in this world are often found dead in our sin, but God has promised to raise us up.
In St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, he explains this more clearly: “But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness.” Then he continues: “…the One who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also.”
God, our Father, Christ, His Son, and the Holy Spirit desire to give us life, even when we are dead in our sins! Now, what must we do to receive that life?
Jesus tells us in the Gospel what we must do when he addresses Martha’s concern about the seemingly impossible: “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?” Belief here is more than just mental assent. It is accepting wholeheartedly the truth and living in that truth. It is not just our minds that must believe, but our bodies must show that belief in the actions that we perform. Will we leave behind sin and darkness and the death that it produces, and will we repent and turn to God and His righteousness? It is then we shall see the glory of God!
Turn now to Jesus and ask Him to bring you to life. Repent of your sins and confess to Him that you will not return to them again. Walk into the new life that He has promised you. It is only a prayer away.
Fourth Sunday of Lent
Readings: 1 Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a; Psalm 23; Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9:1-41
“The spirit of the Lord rushed upon David.”
When I read the story of Samuel’s anointing of David, I find myself imagining what must have been going through Samuel’s mind. God had spoken to him and told him that he would find the next ruler of Israel among the sons of Jesse, but God did not initially reveal to him which one. When Samuel arrived at Jesse’s house, he must have been relieved to see Eliab, who, in his opinion, looked regal enough.
But he heard the voice of God telling him this was not the one. As Jesse presented each of his sons to Samuel, I’m sure Samuel was becoming more uncomfortable as God showed him that each of these was not the one he was to anoint.
When Jesse had finished with the seven sons he had who were present in the house, I’m sure Samuel was anxious. Is this it? In desperation, he asks, “Are these all the sons you have?”
God shows He is faithful. As David makes his appearance, a young lad who has been out in the fields and probably has no idea what is going on at his house, Samuel immediately hears the voice of God, telling him, “This is the one.” I’m sure it is with a great deal of relief that he brings out the oil and anoints the young man. Then we are told the most amazing thing happens: “from that day on, the spirit of the Lord rushed upon David.”
What a choice of verb! The spirit rushed! Didn’t just settle on him, but rushed on him, probably overwhelming him with the sense of His presence. How David must have reacted! I imagine David had a strong prayer life, spending his days in the field, praying and making music to the Lord, but this moment significantly changed him and deepened his faith—his relationship with the Lord.
In the psalm, we hear words spoken by a man who has a deep faith, who understands how much God loves him. “Beside restful waters he leads me; he refreshes my soul.” Then, “even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil.” Finally, “only goodness and kindness follow me all the days of my life.”
Here was a man who experienced what we hear in the later readings. “Now you are light in the Lord,” says St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians.
In the Gospel, the theme of walking in the light continues. The man born blind is given his sight, and not only does he physically see, but he also begins to see with eyes of faith. He challenges the leaders of the synagogue: “This is what is so amazing, that you do not know where he is from, yet he opened my eyes.” They have chosen darkness over light. They do not desire to see the truth. If they do, they will have to re-evaluate everything in their own lives and that is not something they want to do.
Jesus knows this man is ready to hear more truth, so He seeks him out and reveals Himself fully to him as the Messiah. For the Pharisees that overhear his conversation, He has a stern rebuke: “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains.”
How often do we find ourselves not wanting to see the truth because it is inconvenient or we think it will be too hard to change our lives; that we are comfortable where we are? If God opens our eyes to the truth, I pray that we can humbly accept it and thus receive all that God has to offer us.
Like Samuel, we must trust God, even when we are in darkness, knowing that He will reveal the light to us in His time. Like David, we must prepare out hearts so that we can move into God’s plan for our lives when the Spirit should rush on us, and like the man born blind, we must fall at the feet of Jesus and worship Him for the gift of spiritual sight that He has given us.
Third Sunday of Lent
Readings: Exodus 17:3-7; Psalm 95; Romans 5:1-2, 5-8; John 4:5-42
“Give me a drink.” So starts the conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman.
The woman is at first surprised that a stranger should speak to her, especially because she could see that He was a Jew and they did not associate with the Samaritans. As they converse, her early remarks are snide, almost making fun of him: “you do not even have a bucket…where then can you get this…water.”
Jesus patiently begins to explain to her what He means; how she can experience the salvation He offers her. He even reveals to her things about her past that maybe nobody knows but her. Still, she has animosity toward him. “Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain; but you people say…”
Finally, her heart is softened enough that, when she says she knows “that the Messiah is coming,” Jesus declares openly what we do not often hear Him say in the Scriptures: “I am He.”
I wonder sometimes why Jesus had to reveal something about her past to help open her eyes to Who He really was. Was it just to prove that He, as the Messiah, knew things that most people did not know? Or was there something more going on here?
I read something that Pope Benedict XVI wrote that implies that he believed the woman had been searching for something for a long time, something to fill what our pastor said in his sermon was “the God-shaped hole” in her life. Already having had six partners, she was “looking for love in all the wrong places,” as the old saying goes.
How many of us search for something to fill that void in our own lives? We try to fill it with wealth, or possessions, or food, or sex, or prestige, or power, but nothing satisfies. Those things that we rely on to solve our problems, like any addiction, will only make us want to have more once we have gotten a taste for them, but they will not fill that hole.
Our pastor also quoted St. Augustine in his sermon, from his famous Confessions: “Our heart is restless, until it rests in Thee.” Only God can fill that vacuum in our lives. We can try to satisfy our thirst with other things, but we will always fail until we face the fact that only Jesus can fill that void.
Too often, we harden our hearts as is described in the psalm about the Israelites in the desert. In the first reading, we hear that they grumbled and complained about Moses so much so that he was afraid they would stone him! They were focused only on a temporal resolution to their need. In the temptation in the desert that we heard in the Gospel two weeks ago, Jesus reminds us that “one does live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
We need the Word of God in our lives, and this week, Jesus wants to take us deeper. He wants us to experience the life-giving waters of the Spirit. He offers them freely to us as He did to that Samaritan woman so long ago.
In the reading from Romans, it says, “the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
If we can recognize that the thirsts we have in this life can only be quenched by God, we can turn to Him and ask Him to pour out His Holy Spirit on us now. St. Paul tells us in Romans that the Spirit is now available to us because Jesus died for us “while we were still sinners.”
Do not fear to approach God and ask Him to pour out His Spirit on you. Know that, even though you are a sinner, Jesus “thirsts” to give you the life-giving waters of the Spirit. These same waters wash away your sins and make you new. Ask Him for these waters today.
Second Sunday of Lent
Readings: Genesis 12:1-4a; Psalm 33; 2 Timothy 1:8b-10; Matthew 17:1-9
“And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.”
The familiar story of the transfiguration is our Gospel reading for this Second Sunday of Lent. When I listened to the words of the readings today, a few little things stood out to me, but the one thing that struck me the most came from the priest’s sermon. Christmas was not too long ago and we remember how Jesus came to live as a man like us, but His purpose wasn’t just to show us how to live well as humans. His transfiguration today gives us a hint to the deeper meaning of why He came. His desire is to transfigure us, to transform us to be like Him so that we would experience His divine life in our own lives today.
In the day-to-day of life, I think we forget—I know I forget—that it’s not all about us. God has called us to a life of good works, but in doing those good works, we tend to forget that everything is not dependent on us. No, everything is dependent on God, and it is His desire that we would experience His glory even now in this life so that we would be able to walk through these things in our life in the light of His glory.
In the reading from Timothy, it says, “He saved us and called us to a holy life…according to His own design.” So, we must “bear [our] share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God.”
As Abram was called to a new life in the reading from Genesis, so are we called to a new life in Christ. To leave behind all that we know and embark on a journey to a new land, a land that He has called us to.
How do we see that in our daily lives? In the Collect, we pray, “nourish us inwardly by your word, that, with spiritual sight made pure, we may rejoice to behold your glory.” Again, in the closing prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours this morning, we pray, “Open our hearts to the voice of your Word and free us from the original darkness that shadows our vision. Restore our sight that we may look upon your Son who calls us to repentance and a change of heart.”
Today is a day for us to be transfigured, to be transformed from who we were into who the Son desires us to be. To walk from darkness into His marvelous light, the light shining forth from His face that will make us new creations in Him.
That will begin for us a journey that may take us to places we never thought we would go, but if we go in the light of Christ, in His strength, we will not falter or fail. It is a daily thing; we must allow Christ to transform us each day, to make us new each morning, so that we would continue to gaze on His glory and not be turned away from it by lesser things, and so, lose our way.
Let Him transfigure you today so that you may become more like Him just as He became one like us. Fix your eyes upon Him, as it says in the psalm, so that He may deliver you and preserve your life. “Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.”