Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Solemnity of Saint Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The roles of husband and father are not easy ones. Not that I have personal experience, but living side by side with my husband, the father of our children, and sharing similar roles as spouse and parent I know that while many blessings are shared, there are trials and challenges as well. Today the church celebrates and remembers St. Joseph, especially as husband of Mary, Jesus’ mother. The same St. Joseph, but as Worker, is celebrated on May 1. So, today we focus on Joseph’s role as spouse, and subsequently also foster-father to Jesus.
Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Images of being called from darkness into light abound. For the parishes celebrating Baptism at Easter Vigil, we read the Cycle A readings on the third, fourth and fifth Sunday. The readings all speak of conversion. Today we fall directly between the fourth Sunday in which the man born blind, in darkness, comes to see the light. This light is both physical and spiritual. The raising of Lazarus, the gospel for the coming Sunday, literally raises a man from the darkness of a tomb into the light.
Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
At this point in the season of Lent, I often find myself wishing for a little bit of encouragement. I find myself asking, why am I going through this? What purpose is it serving? How much longer is it going to be before life can return to ‘normal’? The scriptures for today, especially the gospel reading, provide some of this needed encouragement.
Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Have you ever noticed a difference between your experiences of hearing the ‘Word’ and reading the ‘Word’? The reason I pose this question is that these are distinctly different ways encountering the Word of God. Different senses are used for reading than those we rely upon when actually hearing the Word proclaimed. In my own experience, even though I most often read the daily Scriptures in advance, when I hear the proclaimed during the Eucharist it touches me in a completely different way. There seems to be a powerful component in the act of hearing the Word that is not engaged when I am reading the Word.
Fourth Sunday of Lent - Year A Scrutinies
The scripture readings on the third, fourth and fifth Sunday of Lent (especially if we are following the Year A readings) are intentionally chosen to lead those preparing for baptism (at Easter) to come the fullness of faith. The gospel readings on these three Sundays are from John. John’s entire gospel revolves around the theme “coming to believe in Jesus.” Thus, last Sunday we heard about the Samaritan woman who by the end of the story came to believe in Jesus as the Messiah. Next Sunday we will hear about Martha and Mary who even before the raising of Lazarus will confess Jesus as the Resurrection and Life. Similarly toward the end of today’s gospel reading when Jesus says to the blind man that he is indeed the Son of Man, the blind man confesses, “I do believe Lord.” And then he worshipped Jesus. Like in the other stories, there is a huge difference in the faith of the blind man from the beginning of the story and the end of the story. At the beginning of the story he was blind but now he sees. At the beginning of the story he did not know Jesus but by the end he worships him. At the beginning of story he was just another sinner considered blind for either his or his ancestor’s sin. By the end of the story he is liberated and saved by his faith. This is true of the Samaritan woman, and Mary and Martha. In fact, this is true of the entire gospel of John.
Saturday of the Third Week of Lent
Scripture has a way of throwing in clever quips that go over our heads sometimes because of familiarity. Fr. James Martin talks about this in his book, Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor, and Laughter Are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life. He mentions that many of the parables and sayings of Jesus were likely humorous to their first audience. That doesn’t cheapen Christ’s words. For as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Joyce, and even Eminem tell us, “Many a true word is spoken in jest.” So what 2000 year old joke are we missing today? I think if we look to our two figures in the Gospel we will find it.
Friday of the Third Week of Lent
Thursday of the Third Week of Lent
The first reading ends with Jeremiah speaking of the Israelites and saying, “This is the nation that does not listen to the voice of the LORD, its God, or take correction. Faithfulness has disappeared; the word itself is banished from their speech.” When I hear these words I can’t help but think of our own nation. We may say one nation under God as part of our pledge, but do we, as a nation live it?
Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent
What are things we remember from childhood? For some of us it is a favorite toy, a place, or a setting like a family dinner. As a child one of the things that seem clear in my mind is my father giving his children rules to live by. These rules must have seemed devastating at times. Yet, as a parent now the boundaries that both of my parents gave me helped become the person I am today. Much of the wisdom I have passed on to my own children. In the readings today we are reminded of the gift of the law and how our observation of the rules offers us a spiritual freedom.
Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent
We’re now in the very middle of Lent. We find ourselves in the middle of the desert, where it is not possible to turn back but reaching the end seems so far away. For those of us who gave something up, perhaps it’s getting really hard now: We crave the food we gave up or the TV show we let go for a time. But one of the beautiful things about Scripture, especially in the Old Testament, is the way in which it present honest human emotions. My students, many of whom were raised in Catholic schools, are often surprised to read passages in Scripture that show raw human emotions. They expect the Bible to contain only stilted and precious language. But so much of it is about the human response to both God and the troubles of the world. Today’s readings are meant to sustain us in the middle of our Lenten journeys.
Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Our parish is participating in Operation Rice Bowl for Lent this year. This is a program where each of us is encouraged to walk in solidarity with people across the world who are in need. A calendar that is included with the Rice Bowl provides daily suggestions on how we can be mindful of people from Africa, Nicaragua and other developing nations. We are called to pray, fast and give alms as part of our Lenten observance. This last week we were encouraged to fast from all beverages except for water. After just the first day or so, I realized that this was going to be a challenge for me, since I was longing for my beverages that I had become so accustomed to enjoying. When I read today’s readings, I was struck by the line “Athirst is my soul for the living God.” I live in a country where most of us never really know what it means to be truly thirsty, since we have multiple water supplies around us. This week’s fasting from beverages other than water gave me many opportunities to reflect on water, on thirsting, and what it might mean to really “thirst for God.”
Third Sunday of Lent - (Year A Readings)
We have just heard the incredible story of the Samaritan woman. I am hoping to reflect on the story from three perspectives: the personal, the social and the ecclesial (church). This story is more than the Samaritan woman’s personal salvation story. Woven within it are powerful social and ecclesial themes that are very relevant to us.
Saturday of the Second Week of Lent
There are three main characters in the Parable of the prodigal son. They are the father, the younger son and the elder son. Usually as I read this parable I find myself asking if I’m like the younger or the elder Son right now. Am I returning to the father with my tail between my legs or am I indignantly refusing to celebrate another’s return to the Lord? Today, though, I was drawn to a different character; the father.
Friday of the Second Week of Lent
People surprise me everyday - not least the ones I went to high school with. I find out from Facebook on a regular basis things like: the class clown is now CEO of a Fortune 500; the outcast runs a successful solar energy company; the person voted "most likely to succeed" was arrested as a member of the Mafia.Crazy stuff! And it makes a person realize how much we grow, change, regress, over the course of our lives. But usually, we don't think about the course of our lives, or the big picture. Our days are filled with thinking mostly about the present - getting through this day, worrying about these things.
Thursday of the Second Week of Lent
You’ve probably heard the saying something like, “people see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear.” I think there’s some truth to that, at least when we are in a closed or resistant frame of mind, or maybe in denial about something. Our perceptions can be influenced by what we believe to be true (or not true). Unfortunately, this can result in “blind spots” or a sort of selective hearing. This can be true in our spiritual lives as well. Today’s gospel reading (Luke 16:19-31), the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, provides us with a good example of just this sort of thing on two different levels.
Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent
The Lenten readings open our minds not merely to the need for conversion, but also to the need for God in general. Today’s readings prayerfully call on God for protection and for extraordinary help. We are reminded of our own requests for shelter from the storms of life and for blessings beyond what we deserve. In the first reading the people of Judah are plotting against the prophet Jeremiah. They conspire to destroy Jeremiah with his own tongue; “let us carefully note his every word.” The prophet, sensing the hatefulness growing around him, prays for protection. And in what seems a great irony, Jeremiah is being plotted against by the very people for whom he has advocated protection from God’s wrath. The plot twist is not lost on us, in that many of us know of or have experienced how a good deed can be repaid with unkindness and sometimes outright evil. We, like Jeremiah, might be dumbfounded at these unforeseen consequences of our actions.
Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent
I have been thinking lately about what it means for me as a Christian to go through the season of Lent and about the possibility for spiritual renewal that Lent provides. It seems to me that Lent gives us Christians the possibility of a new starting point in our journey towards God. At times I’ve felt closer to God and at other times I’ve felt farther away. Yet it is often at those times when I feel the farthest from God that I realize that God is there with me and present in the situation. It seems to me that God uses these tough times to show me that he is there with me, and that he will never desert me.
Monday of the Second Week in Lent
One of my favorite authors is Father William Barry. He is a Jesuit priest and psychologist who has been a spiritual director for many years and formed many spiritual directors as well. Today’s Scripture readings reminded me of something he wrote about encounters with God. He refers to these experiences as ‘touchstone experiences’ and ‘divining rods’. Fr. Barry encourages us to pay close attention to these moments, whether we recognize them in the present moment or recall them from the past. Fr. Barry writes, “I suspect that many, perhaps most, people have touchstone experiences of God.” What may be just as important, Fr. Barry writes, is “I suspect that most of us who do have such experiences do not give them enough credit.” And I agree with him.
Second Sunday of Lent
Do you know where most young Americans get their national and international news? Late night talk shows on Comedy Central. The likes of Steven Colbert, Jon Stewart, are not just great comedians; they are also brilliant news anchors who combine incredible humor to their news analysis. However, the downside of this genre is that serious global events, like wars, begin to be perceived rather lightly, because they are dealt within the genre of comedy. Sitcoms do the same things. Serious issues like marriage and family are treated so casually that we do not know whether sitcoms reflect life or life tries to imitate sitcoms. On the latest episode of Modern Family, I saw God being ridiculed for giving an old man a son and then demanding that he be stabbed to death (referring to the story of Abraham in today’s first reading). If talk shows and sticoms run the risk of striping global events their seriousness, do you think we too can strip faith and religion of its power? I think this often happens with Lent.