Second Sunday of Lent

First Reading:  Genesis 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18

Responsorial: Psalms 116:10, 15, 16-17, 18-19

Second Reading: Romans 8:31b-34

Gospel: Mark 9:2-10

"No Cross, No Crown"

We Catholics seem to love suffering, or so my Protestant friend is fond of saying.  I very often retort "No cross, no crown", which brings a raised eyebrow and suggestion to change the topic.  But, I must admit that it as easy for Catholics to mistakenly evolve a spirituality of suffering for suffering's sake as it is for Protestants to evolve a "gospel of prosperity" where financial gain and material wealth are the goals of being a Christian.  Both views are distortions of Jesus' mission.
     In the first reading is Abraham's almost-sacrifice of Isaac.  Of this parable, early Judaism focused on the element of God testing Abraham, but with time, shifted focus to see the sacrifice in light of Isaac's willingness to submit to the will of his father and offer himself as a type of sacrificial lamb, a theme later picked up by the early Church's understanding of Jesus' Christhood.  The Pascal Lamb, as you recall, was the sacrifice for the deliverance of the Jews in captivity from  Egyptian oppression where the blood of the lamb was sprinkled across the lentil of the door as a sign for the Angel of Death to pass over and spare the household.  What began as an understanding of Isaac's sacrifice simply as an act of blind compliance evolved into a deeper, more mature meaning of giving of oneself for the sake of others.
     This notion was picked up in Isaiah's Suffering Servant, and is the character Jesus most closely aligned himself and his ministry around.  This understanding of Christ's mission as servant who suffers for humanity is the foundation of Mark's gospel, which sought to counter the tendency of the early Gnostic-Christian communities' focus on Jesus' divinity revealed in the Transfiguration as the pinnacle revelation of God to humanity, not the suffering on the cross and resurrection; for the Gnostics, Jesus' divinity eclipsed his humanity and made the cross a distraction on the way to the crown.  That is why in Mark's gospel, Jesus continually cautions his believers not to reveal his Christhood, because it is only in light of his suffering and resurrection that his mission has significance; he is the Suffering Servant messiah, not the Warrior King messiah also portrayed in Isaiah.

"But he was wounded for our transgressions, 
he was bruised for our iniquities; 
upon him was the chastisement that made us whole,
and with his stripes we are healed."

The suffering of Christ was a suffering in the service of reconciling us to God, of bringing everyone into communion.  Jesus didn't seek this suffering out though; he prayed "Let this cup pass from me" while his disciples slept in the Garden of Gethsemane.  But Jesus also added to his prayer "nevertheless, not my will but yours be done."  Suffering, to some extent, is always a mystery; however, some suffering is completely beyond our comprehension.  If we suffer and cannot discern its origin, or it is out of our hands, we should pray for the trial to pass and include our willingness to submit to God's will.  We must, however, also not shy away from suffering in the pursuit of justice and love.  In the face of injustice, ours is not a retreat into Quietism, into a passive acceptance of the suffering of ourselves and our neighbor, but to face the suffering that will come when we face the oppressor, and the rejection that will come when we give our hearts away to the love of our enemies.  The Crown only has ultimate significance in light of the love from the Cross.

First Sunday of Lent

First Reading:  Genesis 9:8-15

Responsporial:  Psalms25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9.

Second Reading: 1 Peter 3:18-22

Gospel: Mark 1:12-15

Journying Into the Desert for Lent: Fasting

Traditionally, Lent has incorporated three disciplines: fasting, prayer and almsgiving. The early Church practiced stational fasting (nothing to do with abstaining from a particular T.V. station). The word “stational” is rendered from the Latin phrase soluta iam statione ieiunnii which suggests fasting on a particular day which included Wednesday and Friday. In this context, the fasting was an abstaining from food and drink until the “9th hour” or roughly 3PM. In modern practice, Catholics who fast take only one meal for the day. Also associated with fasting is the concept of abstinence. Traditionally, for Catholics, abstinence means refraining from meat. During Lent, Friday is considered a day of fasting and abstinence, whereas all of Lent is considered a period of abstinence for Catholics between 18 and 59. With that said, fasting, like the other Lenten disciplines is not an end in itself. The end is drawing closer to Christ’s life in the Spirit. Fasting is a way to discipline our appetite which, in the United States, often dictates our actions. We thwart the appetite to enter into the suffering of Christ in those around the world where appetite is continually frustrated by a lack of food, sufficient wealth or both. If our stomachs rumble for a time, we take a very small part in the perpetual hunger of millions for whom the hunger never ends. In this sense, fasting can lead us to almsgiving to alleviate the hunger of others, and a deeper connection with God who suffers though the suffering of humanity in the poor. Most importantly, fasting should help us repent by altering our appetite-driven direction to one of a compassionate-driven direction.

Ash Wednesday

Pray in Secret


The gospel admonition to seek out a type of secret piety rather than a public one isn't a rejection of public worship for an eremitical life; it is the cautionary tale of one who looks for the wrong thing in their worship.   Jesus notes that those who make a grand show of their piety receive what it is they are longing for public adoration and acceptance.  I suppose there is nothing inherently wrong with public adoration and acceptance if this is one's goal, but it is not the goal of true worship.  True worship makes God the focus.  The concept of the word "worship" in English suggests ascribing worth due someone or something.  In a sense, our worship should express what we believe God is entitled to.  What is God entitled to, if not the entirety of our being? 

If we seek approval from others in our worship, Jesus says this is what we gain.  God can only be honored in true worship in the secret of our hearts.

Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

First Reading:  Isiah 43:18-19, 21-22, 24b-25

Responsorial:  Psalms 41:2-3, 4-5, 13-14

Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 1:18-22

Gospel: Mark 2:1-12


Doing Something New, Again

In our reading from Isaiah, the tone God sets with His people is remarkable.  Most people associate the Old Testament with a God of vengeance and fury, of a God who, in His majestic power, rains down His righteousness in the form of devastating punishments.  We get none of that in today’s reading.  Instead, we hear a vulnerable God trying to reclaim his people’s affection by offering a “new and improved” relationship.  God remarks that “It is I, I, who wipe out, for my sake, your offenses….”.  For God’s sake?  This is  one of the most powerful statements of God’s broken-hearted statements of honesty in the Old Testament.  Think about it.  Why would God forgive offenses for His sake; isn’t the one who receives the forgiveness the one who receives the greatest blessing?  God is indicating this might not be so.  His great love is that wounded love where one accommodates the beloved because love is sacrifice and, at times, unreasonable.  God complains that the people he created has abandoned Him, has grown weary of Him and continues to sin.  Instead of threatening to destroy them or send them again into exile, God blesses them with making the desert bloom and providing a way through the desert, a metaphor for making the return enticing rather than burdensome.  God wills a forgetful forgiveness.  This incredible vulnerability is a foreshadowing of the vulnerable God who comes among His creation as Jesus, the Christ.

God coming among us is once again in response to deepening our relationship at His expense; God is doing “something new” again.  Who ever heard of a god bowing to gain the love of his creation?  Jesus, in today’s Gospel, offers forgiveness to the paralytic with what appears to be the typical association between sin and disease common in Jesus’ time.  Jesus perceives the hearts of some of the scribes, how easy it would be to discern that the paralytic considered God was angry with him for some unknown sin.  Jesus’ response is often related to what he perceived in one’s heart where we are most vulnerable.  Jesus’ question as to which is easier to say is answered as both are equally easy to say; which, though is most difficult to do?  This question is left for us, along with the scribes, to ponder until we see the paralytic get up, take his mat,  and walk at Jesus’ command.  The paralytic didn’t do this in response to Jesus offering forgiveness, but did this in obedience to Jesus’ command.  Jesus’ words of forgiveness worked in combination with his command to get up and walk.  The healing power of forgiveness is always yoked with the command to live our healing.  For one who believes his paralysis is a product of sin, walking is the response to forgiveness.  What better image for sin than that of paralysis.  It is precisely what sin does; it freezes our relationship with God and those whom we have offended. Jesus as God renews our frozen legs and makes the desert of our sin bloom with promise.  The forgiveness we receive though is for the journey, it is to get us “walk” our salvation, to carry this forgiveness with us to complete this in forgiving others.  What better way to begin Lent this Wednesday than considering the phrase we say in the Lord’s Prayer to God: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”.  We are asking God to forgive us to the extent we forgive one another. Have we ever seen anything like this?

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

                                            
                                                         

First Reading:  Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46

Responsorial:  Psalm 32:1-2, 5, 11

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1

Gospel: Mark 1:40-45


Sacrament, Not Magic

We continue this week with the healing ministry of Jesus, but with Mark’s focus on Jesus not as a wonder worker, but on Jesus the preacher of the Good News.  These last few Sunday’s we have seen the miraculous healing power of Jesus as the Christ as an extension of himself as the Word of God, spoken to humanity and proclaiming the Kingdom. We have also seen Jesus admonish those he has healed to keep the secret that he is the long awaited Messiah; so how do today’s readings complement and further our understanding of Jesus’ ministry and mission?

The passage from Leviticus provides a background for Jesus sending the leper to the Chief Priest to attest to being healed, and declared ritually pure and fit for worship.

What is fascinating is how blatantly Jesus’ command to tell no one is disobeyed. Mark’s emphasis on the element of secrecy suggests that there is a time when the conditions would make this revelation understandable. Healing may be a sign of the Kingdom, but the one, final act of healing of Jesus’ victory over death that heals the entire world has yet to take place, so there is a concern that people will not fully grasp that their healing is more than a personal triumph over disease, by a skilled physician/wonder worker, it is a preview of the eternal healing of God’s sacrifice of Himself. 

 This universal act of salvation is what we partake of through the sacraments.  The sacraments that have a healing dimension are the Anointing of the Sick, Eucharist, and Reconciliation.  Our healing, like the lepers, is God’s reaction to a suffering world.  Jesus wasn’t a messenger, Jesus is God among us in history as a man in a particular place and a particular time; but God is also forever Spirit sent by Christ to continue animating the People of God in the Church.  The sacraments, then, become the special places of contact where this grace is bestowed upon us.  Sacraments are not magic; they are animated by the Church's faith of which we are a part.  That is why people who have not been baptized do not receive the sacraments, not because they are being rejected from God's grace, but because the sacraments work off of a faith they have yet to experience.  A desire for a sacrament, in an of itself, always points first towards baptism.  In extreme cases, baptism followed by the Sacrament of the Sick is a great grace and the person's faith is strengthened by the faith of the Church to which they now belong. 

 If the sacrament was really a magical incantation, no faith would be required.  The Body of Christ, the Church, into which we are baptised, becomes our great source of strength when our individual faith waxes and wanes as it does in the course of our spiritual journey.  We can approach God and the sacraments that the faith of the Church, and the Spirit which animates our community will always provide the supplement to my faith when it is weak. 

The leper in today’s story approaches Jesus with the worlds “If you wish, you can make me clean”.  Christ’s will is exemplified in the ways God touches us and offers healing as part of the Body of Christ in the sacraments.  Today’s Anointing of the Sick becomes our response to our need of healing in body and soul, and the power of God’s love through the community of the Church announces “It is my will.  Be healed".