Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent
What strength Jesus has! His life is on the line – some of the Jews are plotting to kill him and now they are accusing him of being possessed or insane, yet he remains strong in the truth and his understanding of his divinity. The Jews in today’s gospel (John 8: 51-59) do not understand that Jesus is speaking the truth. What they hear is someone speaking nonsense and lies. When Jesus responds with “before Abraham came to be, I AM”, one of Jesus’ most emphatic affirmations of his divine nature, they react out of the belief that he is blasphemous and they intend to stone him.
Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent
"If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples,
and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:31b-32a)
The Book of Daniel from which today’s first reading and responsorial psalm come is a book written about a great hero named Daniel who gave strength and hope through the persecutions during the Babylonian Exile. The story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego is one of courage and inspiration. These three Jews violate the law of King Nebuchadnezzar and are about to be punished for their insolence. The King offers them one last chance to worship the pagan god or they will be killed. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego witness to Nebuchadnezzar about the God they serve. “If our God, whom we serve, can save us from the white-hot furnace and from your hands, O king, may he save us! But even if he will not, know, O king, that we will not serve your god.”
Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent
I continue to be concerned and disturbed by many things that are going on in the world today. The economy continues to improve, but many people remain unemployed. Wars continue to rage and innocent people get caught in the crossfire. It is beginning to feel as though the only news is bad news. At times like these I find myself tempted to despair about the world. What good can possibly come to people in a world like this? Yet I realize that this is wrong. There is still hope for the world. And I believe that this hope is the very work of God in our midst.
Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent
When we go to new places and meet new people, one of the first things people will often ask is “Where are you from?” In today’s gospel reading, Jesus explains to the Pharisees that He knows where He came from. Although the Pharisees think that Jesus is talking about Nazareth, Jesus is in fact trying to explain to them that He came from His Father, and will be returning to His Father as well. Just like Jesus, we have our beginnings with God, and He is where our journey ends. What would our lives be like if we lived our life truly resting in the belief that God has sent us just as He sent Jesus to do His will and be His light for the world?
Fifth Sunday of Lent
Last Tuesday, Bob Trangenstein, my American dad passed away. I call him my American dad, because his home is where I spent my first Thanksgiving and Christmas in the United States. Since then, I have spent every holiday there. Bob’s death came very quickly. It was barely six months back that he was diagnosed with colon cancer. Bob’s funeral is the closest I have come to burying my own parents. Weeks before he died, he had gotten very frail and I had to the opportunity to take him for a small walk. During that walk, he made told me that something has been bothering him and offered to make his confession. I really thought very highly of Bob, but it is then that I really got to know how good of a person he was. He had let the smallest misdeeds get to him. At the end of the walk and before we went into the house, standing on the sidewalk, I gave him absolution. I also reminded him that our God is a good, kind and loving God. I could see the immediate relief on his face. Later, he told numerous family members about the peace that had come over him since the reconciliation. He told me that he was ready to die.
Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent
“There is no place like home.” There is a lot of truth to this famous phrase from Dorothy as she escapes from OZ. For many of us, there really is no place like home. Home is relaxing and rejuvenating. We are secure and welcome at home. That is what home is supposed to be. This is why sins against the home are so damaging and terrible. When a home becomes a place of fear, isolation, and exhaustion it violates everything it is supposed to be. It was the mentioning of the home that drew my attention in today’s Gospel. After the debate among the Pharisees, it says, “Then each went to his own house.” Why does John give us this detail? Was it a good or bad thing?
Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent
I hope no one else is finding this the case, but for myself, I am finding it difficult to be Catholic these days. This is not because I am thinking about leaving - but friends of mine - friends who are smart and loving and helpful and generous and usually kind but who do not share my faith, keep asking: "Why are you still Catholic?" Opposition to Catholicism comes from various all quarters: left and right, East and West. For some, it is Pope Francis' understanding of the Church and for others it is the church's teachings on homosexuality that lead them to ask these questions; for others, it is the church's stand of climate change and for others it is the church's stand on abortion. For still others, it is the apparent contradiction between a God who loves us and has a personal encounter with us with the empirical evidence of science that lead them to ask these questions. And for others, it is the sinfulness of a church hierarchy that has, in the past (hopefully now, always in the past) condoned sexual abuse through its silence.
Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent
It seems to be a part of the fallen human condition that we constantly seek other things or people to take the place of God. This is manifested in the first reading from Exodus in such an explicit way: the people make an idol and worship it as the God of Israel. It is no wonder that God is described as angry… after rescuing his people from Egypt, these same people return the favor by worshiping an idol! Moses’ petition on their behalf saves them.
Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
One of the toughest tasks I was ever given in my life began with, “It’s thirty six hours you will not die of hunger or thirst.” Then they marched us to a place on the side of a mountain gave us a space to occupy a quart of water, a notebook and pen a short rope and a tarp. They left telling us they would be back the next day to get us. The staff at this camp had done this exercise before. We had everything we needed all we really needed to do was to trust what counselors had said. Instead I saw this ten foot square area as a prison. And it became a prison of my own making in that I failed to believe what I had been promised.
Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
When I got sick growing up, my mom (a nurse) would let me drink juice or Sprite or Gatorade – things that I wasn’t allowed to have on a regular day. Not only would she let me have delicious drinks, she would insist on it. When you are sick, she would say, you need fluids to get better.
Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Do you really and truly believe what you read in Scripture? Do you believe it when God says that God will rescue you, that God will change your mourning into dancing, and that God will eliminate all weeping and crying? This takes a lot of faith! We are not able to see or touch this God that we profess to believe in. We are not able to talk to God like we talk to human beings. How is it we can claim such faith? One thing is certain—to make such a claim requires a life lived in such a way that demonstrates always going to God first and not just as our last resort.
Fourth Sunday of Lent – Year A Scrutinies
Yesterday, I facilitated an all day retreat at St. Mary’s parish in Arnheim, OH. The theme for the retreat was “The Seven Last Words of Jesus: A Journey Toward Easter.” Jesus uttered some very powerful, radical, and life-altering words from the cross. Just the words, “Father, forgive them…” changes the way we conduct human affairs. Each of the seven last words of has the power to alter human history. I have conducted this retreat before. But yesterday, a new insight came to me. These last words of Jesus are not merely about what Jesus said from the cross. These last words reveal who Jesus really was as a person - divine and human. If it is true that crisis reveals character, then, the cross revealed his true self. The retreat also led me to understand today’s gospel story of the healing of the blind man a little differently . Jesus had said to the blind man: “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
My homily today is about Jesus the light. In my three points I want to talk about the light as a person, the light as a way of life and the light as a choice.
Saturday of the Third Week of Lent
Every year at Christmas, my family and my wife’s family watches It’s a Wonderful Life (rumor has it that my father-in-law might be George Bailey). If you have never seen the film don’t stop reading, but do yourself a favor and watch it. Sorry if I spoil a thing or two, but even upon seeing the movie for the 28th time, it’s still good.
Friday of the Third Week of Lent
Usually by this time, the end of the third week of Lent, I’ve started to waver a bit in my resolve to abstain from certain foods, to pray for certain things, to give money generously. Particularly I have difficulty with my decision to abstain from certain foods. As with New Years’ Resolutions, I start thinking that eating just a nibble of something or other won’t really hurt, and before you know it, I’m way off the track. Or, even if I have by some chance made it this far without succumbing to temptation, I find myself tired and annoyed with Lent, saying, “Okay, I get the point now. Can we get to Easter already?” But it turns out instead that there are another three long weeks ahead.
Thursday of the Third Week of Lent
If I had to break down today’s readings into three important quotes, this is what I would choose: “Listen to my voice,” “Harden not your hearts”, and “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”
Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent
What is the first rule you can remember bring taught? For many of us it was our parent telling us that we had to eat our vegetables. An early rule I was be sure to look both ways before crossing the road. Consider the reasons for your parents teaching you the rules. Was it your parent’s intention to make your life difficult? We are given such rules because they love us and desire the best for us. Thus our families tried their best to raise us within the rules of the faith and moral life.
Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent
Sometimes when I am ‘down and out,’ it’s completely unfair- someone else did something wrong, and I have to pay the price. Today’s readings are for those times when the opposite is true: when I dug a hole and fell into it.
When is the last time you were been in the hole because of your own actions, feeling helpless and foolish? Has it been a while? Or are you ‘in deep’ right now?
Monday of the Third Week of Lent
My grandson is at a fun age where his language is exploding, and he comes up with funny phrases or ideas every day. Currently, if we ask him where something or someone is, he tells us that it is “in his pocket.” As I was reading recently, I came across the idea of how sometimes we may try to put God in our pocket. We might claim to think we know God and can hold onto Him, even though He is more expansive in His love, mercy and compassion than we could begin to imagine. We will never know God completely, so we need to remain open to His revelation with a deep faith. When we see beyond our narrow viewpoint, we find that God is alive and active in the world around us- in places and in people that we could not even imagine. When we have open eyes and heart, we can see God’s surprises in our everyday lives. God invites us to take Him out of our pocket and allow Him to reveal the fullness of His love to us. Knowing this great love should fill us with joy and send us forth to share this wonderful God with others.
Third Sunday of Lent – Year A Scrutinies
I got a T-shirt as a gift for my 50th birthday! It said, “I Make 50 Look Good.” The T- shirt inspired another thought in me: “Jesus makes sinners look good.” Is that not what Paul means when he says in today’s second reading, “But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
The story of the Samaritan woman is one of the most fascinating stories in all of scripture. From the time I first read it as a child and until today, the Samaritan woman comes across as a very likable person. At the end of the story, she comes out looking good. In reality, her five husbands, her sixth live-in, her brash mannerism, and her callous bravado, should make her look dubious. However, that is not how history remembers her. She comes out looking good. This is true of many characters in the Jesus story - Zacchaeus the unjust tax-collector, the woman who washed Jesus feet with her tears, the adulterous woman, Peter who betrayed Jesus, and even the centurial who crucified him. In the end they all come out look good! Sinners, when they encounter Jesus, come out looking good.
Saturday of the Second Week of Lent
As I sit down to read reflections like this, somewhere in the back of my mind, I ask, however briefly, “What am I going to get out of it?” Do you do the same thing? We, by our society and by our sin, are so quick to ask, “What’s in it for me?” I think today’s gospel passage challenges that question.