Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion, Cycle C - April 14, 2019

Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion 

Cycle C

April 14, 2019

4pm at Saint Mary Parish, Pylesville

11am at Saint Matthew Parish, Baltimore          

Injustice

I imagine most of us can think of a time when we were treated unfairly.

I remember way back, when I was in the sixth grade, some tattle-tale accused a whole group of us boys of saying “bad” words on the playground.  I wasn’t an angel, but I didn’t say those “bad” words; I still got punished.

More serious than that, the employees of some of our big businesses have been unfairly treated. Some businesses have closed or gone into bankruptcy and the employees lost their pensions that they had worked hard to earn.  

Maybe we have felt unfairly treated by a friend who has turned against us for some reason. I am sure we could cite other examples of personal and societal injustice. 

Jesus himself experienced great injustice.  And this is the background for Saint Luke’s account of Jesus’ Passion. 

Jesus’ Innocence

Luke’s Gospel carefully emphasizes Jesus’ innocence.

Only in his telling of Jesus’ Passion – not in Matthew, Mark or John – only in Luke does Pilate three times declare Jesus innocent.  Only in Luke does Herod also pronounce Jesus innocent.

Only Luke carefully recalls the words of the one man being crucified with Jesus: “We have been condemned justly, but this man has done nothing wrong.”  Only Luke recalls the Roman centurion saying right after Jesus dies: “This man was innocent beyond doubt.”

So, Luke very intentionally reminds us of Jesus’ innocence. He is showing us how unfair, how unjust all of this is.

  

Jesus’ Care, Healing, and Forgiveness

And yet, Jesus responds positively.

Luke tells us that at the Last Supper, Jesus prays for Peter – even though he knows that Peter will deny him, he prays that Peter’s faith will in the long run not fail.  Only Luke’s gospel tells us that in the garden, Jesus heals the ear of the high priest’s servant.

Only Luke shows Jesus’ compassion for the women who are weeping, advising them not to be concerned for him, but for themselves and their children.  Only Luke recalls Jesus, on the cross, asking the Father to “forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

And only Luke shows Jesus assuring the one man being crucified with him: “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”  So, Luke very carefully shows that nothing – injustice, suffering, and even impending death – nothing gets in the way of Jesus’ caring, healing, and forgiving.

Communion with God

Luke, of course, wants us to realize that we are called to be the same way and he shows us how this is possible.  

Jesus remains in communion with the Father.  And he maintains this from start to finish.  

Luke’s depicts Jesus’ prayerfulness on the Mount of Olives. And this communion with the Father continues to the very end when Jesus prays, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

Luke is making the point that this inner, steady communion with the Father – this is what strengthens Jesus.  This is what empowers him to deal with such injustice and suffering.

This is what energizes him to remain caring, forgiving, and peaceful.  Luke calls us to the same inner communion with God, the same prayerfulness.

This will help us to deal with injustice and suffering in our lives.  It will help us to remain at peace rather than become violent, to heal rather than to hurt, to forgive rather than to take vengeance.  

5th Sunday of Lent, Cycle C - April 7, 2019

5th Sunday of Lent

 Cycle C

April 7, 2019       

Put It Back Together

There is a story about a surgeon and his wife who were having dinner at the home of some friends.

The surgeon was enjoying a drink in the kitchen while his host was getting ready to carve the roast beef.  The friend asked, “Would you like to do the honors, Doc?”

The surgeon politely declined.  The friend began carving the roast, and then teased, “So how’s my technique, Doc?

“I think I’d make a pretty good surgeon.  See, it’s all in the wrist.

“You know, I might take your job.”  The doctor was used to this kind of humor and just laughed. 

Soon the host finished his work and held up a tray of beautifully carved roast beef.  “So, what d’ya think, Doc?”  

The surgeon replied, “Not bad.  But now – let’s see you put it all back together.”

Jesus Puts It Back Together

Jesus does not put a roast beef back together, but he does teach the way to put us back together.

In today’s gospel, some men bring a woman to Jesus.  They accuse her of a great sin and ask Jesus if it’s okay to stone her to death.

I find Jesus’ response very instructive in two ways.

1.  Jesus Sees Sin 

First, Jesus says to the men who want to stone the woman, “Let the one without sin throw the first stone.”  

The effect of his simple, calm, one-sentence response is to get these men to look within themselves.  Jesus moves them – and us – to look at our own humanity and sinfulness.  

In doing this, he recognizes the reality of sin. The truth is that we all sin in some way.  

We can sin against ourselves by abusing alcohol or by not using well our God-given abilities.  We can sin against our relationship with God by not coming to Mass or by not making space for personal prayer.  

We can sin by being unfaithful to basic responsibilities of our vocation – as a woman and a man are accused of in this gospel story.  Or we can also sin by being self-righteous, hateful and unforgiving, as the group of men are in this story.  

Jesus, in his response here, sees the reality of sin and wants us to see that we all sin in some way.   

2. Jesus is Respectful 

The other lesson I see here is equally important, especially at this time. 

Jesus is respectful and not violent.  He does not resort to any kind of violence with these persons – verbal, emotional, spiritual, or physical.

Jesus recognizes that this woman has sinned, but he doesn’t call her a sinner.  He doesn’t label her or sum up her entire personhood with the one word – sinner.

Instead, he respects her as a person and allows her to keep her self-respect.  And he does the same thing with the group of men.

In doing this, Jesus shows how growth can best happen.  We are more inclined to grow personally and spiritually when our self-respect is left intact.

So here Jesus shows us how we are to treat one another.  And this is an important lesson for us today.

For the past twenty years or so, we here in America have been in the midst of cultural warfare.  And in our Church, some promote what they call spiritual warfare.

In these cultural and spiritual wars, people demonize and name-call and label others.  They see certain others as all bad and all darkness.  

There is little respect in these approaches and they leave others with little self-respect.  Jesus today shows a vastly different approach.  

His approach gives the opportunity for us to grow personally and for us to live and grow and sort things out together as a community.

Jesus Puts Them Back Together

So to go back to where I began, Jesus in effect does what that surgeon teases his friend to do.

He is not putting a roast beef back together, but he teaches the way for us to be put back together with and in him. 

4th Sunday of Lent, Cycle C - March 31, 2019

4th Sunday of Lent

Cycle C

March 31, 2019

Saint Mary Parish, Pylesville         4pm

Saint Matthew Parish, Baltimore  11am   

 

Sandals

So, I’m guessing that many of have or have had a pair of sandals.

I’ve got a pair of Rockports and I like wearing them in the summertime. Back in Jesus’ day, sandals were the only footwear they had.

They either wore sandals or they went barefoot and this really symbolized something. If you wore sandals, it meant that you were a free person.

If you had no sandals and went barefoot, that signified that you were a slave. Now this point about sandals is helpful in understanding today’s gospel and the three persons in this story.

The Younger Son

First, there is the younger son.

This younger son is something like children who talk back to their parents.  Or like teenagers who are rebellious and sometimes do risky, maybe even reckless things. 

Or like adults who get self-absorbed, taken up in their own pleasures and priorities. My bet is that in some way or at some point in our lives, we have all been something like the younger son. 

Now, the significant thing in the story is that the younger son comes home barefoot.  He has no sandals – physically, but also spiritually. 

He plans to say to his father, “I am not worthy to be called your son, so just treat me as one of your slaves.”  That is his understanding of his relationship with his father – as a slave and not as a son.

He realizes that he has lost that close, father-son relationship. So, he is without sandals, barefoot, both physically and spiritually. 

 

The Older Son

Then, there is the older son.

This older son is something like us when we resent any good fortune that comes to others. There’s this expression: “Zero-Sum Game.”

This expression – “Zero-Sum Game” – it means that one’s person’s gain must mean the other person’s loss. Well, this older son seems to have fallen into this trap when it comes to the love of his father. 

He seems to think that the attention the father gives to the younger son must mean a lessening of the father’s love for him. So, this older son doesn’t address his father as “father” or “dad.” 

And he resentfully refers to his younger brother as “your son.” On top of that, he talks about his work on the family farm as service and obedience. 

So, this older son, physically, is wearing sandals, but spiritually, he is also barefoot, without sandals. He also sees himself as more of a slave than as a son who would be working happily for his father. 

 

The Father

Finally, there is the father.

The father must have been hurt when his younger son asked for his inheritance. He knew that this amounted to his son saying that his father was as good as dead to him. 

But still, the father respects this son and gives him freedom. Then, when this son returns, he runs out to greet him and what does he do? 

He puts a pair of sandals on his feet. He wants him to know that he’s not a slave, but a son – welcomed back fully into the family.

In the same way, the father takes the initiative to go out and talk with the older son. He doesn’t debate that son’s feelings or put him down.

He just says, “Okay, but come on in and please be part of us.”He is placing spiritual sandals back on this son’s feet and reminding him that he is a member of the family.

Conclusion

So, in this unforgettable story, Jesus wants us to know that God is like this father.

God has put sandals on our feet. God has made us members of his family, his sons and daughters.

We may wander into wasteful and sinful ways. Or we may develop resentful and exclusionary feelings toward others.

But, God is still here with us. God continues to place sandals on our feet.

And the result is that the choice is ours. We can choose to become more and more like the father in the story – more and more like God in whose image we are made.

3rd Sunday of Lent, Cycle C - March 24, 2019

3rd Sunday of Lent

 Cycle C

Saint Mary Parish, Pylesville   4pm and 8am Masses

March 24, 2019   

Does God Punish? 

There is a way of thinking that I have heard sometimes and that makes me very uncomfortable.

Over the years, I have heard some Christians groups condemning various people or kinds of people. They have labelled them as sinners and even evil.

And then they take it a step farther. When bad things happen to those people whom they see as great sinners, these Christian groups say that it is God punishing them.

So, maybe those people have fallen on hard times financially or maybe they have contracted a serious sickness. These Christian groups say that because those people are so bad, God is punishing.

According to these groups, the bad things that are happening to those people are God’s intentional punishment. And, in turn, the punishments are proof of how bad those people are.

God Does Not Punish

Well, in today’s gospel, Jesus debunks this way of thinking.

The people around Jesus bring up a recent event. Some folks up in Galilee were put to death by the Roman official Pilate.

They were thrown into a fire that they themselves were using for their religious sacrifices. Jesus realizes that the people around him are thinking that those Galileans who were killed must have done something bad.

They must have been really bad sinners and it must have been God punishing them. And Jesus says: “No way!

“They weren’t any more sinful than any of you. You can’t say this and think that way.”

Jesus himself then raises another example. A building had collapsed and some people were killed.

And again, Jesus insists that those people weren’t any more sinful that anyone else. This was not God punishing them for being bad or sinful persons.

Not Punished forSin

So, what I see here is Jesus teaching us something about our image of God.

The point is that God is not a punisher. Yes, sometimes bad things happen to us.

But bad things don’t just happen to bad people – we all know that. They happen to good people too.

They just happen. God is not a punisher.

If we look at the thrust of the gospels, Jesus’ dominant theme is that God loves us – unconditionally and forever. And a loving God does not, ever, turn his back on us and punish us.

God is not playing a reward/punishment game with us. God just loves us and keeps loving us when we foul up and keeps trying to draw us into his way of love.

It’s something like me standing here in the sanctuary facing the tabernacle. I am facing Jesus in the Eucharist.

I can turn around and turn my back on Jesus and the tabernacle. But Jesus is still there, still looking at me and present to me and loving me. 

Punished bySin 

One of our good Catholic theologians puts it this way.

We are not punished forour sins; we are punished byour sins. We are not punished forour sins; we are punished byour sins.

This is really a key point and may be a shift in our understanding. So, yes, you and I can sin, but it is really our sins that punish us.

For example, if I keep on holding a grudge against someone, the bitterness and vengeance in my heart really eats away at me and distorts and disfigures me as a person. That behavior hurts or punishes me.

Or if I overeat or overdrink, the result is that I may get coronary problems or liver disease or lots of other possible troubles. That behavior hurts or punishes me. 

The point is that we are not punished forour sins by an all-loving God. Instead, we are punished byour sins – to the sadness and disappointment of our loving God.

Repentance 

At the end of today’s passage, Jesus gives the image of the fig tree.

Scripture scholars tell us that Jesus is not saying that he is going to cut us down as someone might cut down a tree that bears no fruit. Instead, Jesus is trying to shake us up a bit. 

It’s as if he’s grabbing us by the shoulders and saying: “Wake up! Turn back to the Father, to God!

“Identify the sin in your lives and repent of it. Because if you don’t, that sin is going to punish you right now and might end up punishing you for all eternity.

“Just turn around and look at your loving God! And live out of that love and you’ll be fine.”

2nd Sunday of Lent, Cycle C - March 17, 2019

2^nd Sunday of Lent

 Cycle C

March 17, 2019   

Rothschild Mansion

There is a story that back in the nineteenth century, some tourists were passing by the famous mansion of the Rothschild family in London.

These tourists noted that on one end of the mansion, the cornices and exterior wall were unfinished. They wondered why this was so since the Rothschilds were one of the wealthiest families in Europe.

The explanation is interesting. Lord Rothschild explained that he was an orthodox Jew and according to Orthodox tradition, the house of every Jew was to have some part left unfinished.  

Why? To bear witness that the occupant of the house is like Abraham, in a sense unfinished, a person on a journey with no lasting home on this earth.    

Life as Circle

That practice helps us to appreciate today’s Scripture readings.

It helps us to realize that we are all on a journey. Some years ago, I read a book entitled The Gifts of the Jews by Thomas Cahill.

Cahill states that up until the time of Abraham, ancient peoples viewed life as a circle. They believed that what had happened in the past would happen again in a continuous circle.

They also believed that everything was determined by heavenly powers. And so, our task was to meditate on the ceaseless, circular flow of life.

We were to do this until we came to peace with this and with our own death as part of that great circle. Now, as I said, that was the ancient view of life, but one of the gifts of the Jews was that Abraham changed this way of thinking.

Life as Journey

The background to today’s first reading is that Abraham has listened to God’s call and set out to an unknown land.

He sets out on a journey and ever since then the way to look at human life is as a journey. This change of outlook now means that there is much more to life than the past simply repeating itself.

Now there is the possibility of a different future and we have responsibility for creating it. The Old Testament also reveals that this journey is not just from one country to another, as it was for Abraham and Moses.

It is not just an outer journey, a journey outside me. Instead, it is primarily an inner journey, a journey to our inner self where we can find God.

It is a journey of becoming one with God and becoming more and more like God. In the long run, it is a journey back to God. 

A Journey with No Tents

This understanding carries right over into Christianity.

The gospels consistently show Jesus on a journey to Jerusalem. They also call us to see our lives as a journey and they add an important caution about this.

The caution is that we have to resist the temptation to pitch our tents, in other words, to stay put. In today’s gospel, Jesus will not let Peter do this because he knows that there is still a lot of the journey ahead and a lot of work to do.

The question is: how might we find ourselves pitching our tents today? We might be doing this when we say things like: “This is the way I’ve always done it.”

Or,“This is the way I learned it and have always understood it.”Statements like these might be saying that we are closing ourselves off to looking at things differently or doing things differently.  

For example, we can pitch our tents in the understanding of ourselves. Maybe we just turn off any comment that calls us to examine our attitude or way of speaking about certain persons or groups of people.

We can also pitch our tents in the understanding of our faith. Maybe we resist understanding faith as primarily a relationship with God that is to grow and deepen – a living relationship instead of just a static list of truths.

The point is that like Peter in the gospel, we need to resist the temptation of pitching our tents. This is what the Season of Lent that calls us to do – to keep growing, to keep on the journey of life.

1st Sunday of Lent, Cycle C - March 10, 2019

1st Sunday of Lent

Cycle C

March 10, 2019   

The Desert and Demons

Today’s gospel tells us that Jesus goes into the desert east of Jerusalem to face his demons.

His doing that symbolizes the need we all have to go into a desert-like place, into the silence of our own hearts.  It symbolizes the need we all have to wrestle with the dark sides of our lives.  

If Jesus finds it essential to wrestle with these dark sides, shouldn’t we also find this essential?  And beyond that, isn’t it possible that the demons or dark sides Jesus has to face are some of the basic ones we have to face?

1. Stone to Bread 

The first demon Jesus faces is the temptation to change stone to bread.

Jesus responds, “One does not live on bread alone.”  Those who first heard Jesus and observed his lifestyle realized that he was in touch with a life that went beyond the physical and the earthly.

Jesus is saying that we are to live on bread, but “not… on bread alone.”  The early Christians believed this and fed hungry spirits with the food of God’s Word and also fed hungry stomachs with real bread.

Their commitment to do this came from following Jesus’ invitation to make a 180-degree change in their value system. They were to look upon all others with a different mindset – as God’s sons and daughters.

With this different frame of mind, we are moved to take care of the immediate needs of others.  And we are also moved to examine the social structures that probably helped to create these needs in the first place.  

No question, Jesus’ plan to change mindsets will be more difficult and it will take longer, but in the long run it will produce lasting good.  So, the demon here is the temptation to reject doing this.

2. Power over All

The second demon Jesus faces is the temptation to gain power over everything.

In Jesus’ time, people expected the Savior to come with great power.  Jesus’ response again shows a different plan:“You shall worship God alone.”

It is tempting to worship power, to resort to power and force to do even good things.  The problem is that this usually leaves some death and destruction in its path – what is sometimes called “collateral damage.”  

We can see this in the relationships between nations and also in our personal relationships.  Jesus cautions about power and force and calls us to be respectful of others and seek what is good for both sides.  

Sometimes it may not be possible to do this, but Jesus calls us to this way whenever we can.  He calls us to stop playing the power games of win/lose with each other where I come out on top and the other person is diminished.

Instead we are to seek the mutual flourishing of ourselves and others whenever possible.  The demon here is the temptation to reject what Jesus calls us to do.       

3. Proving Our Greatness

The third demon Jesus faces is the temptation to jump off the roof of the temple to prove his greatness as God.

Jesus responds, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”  The issue here is that sometimes we want to make ourselves the center of focus.

Sometimes we want to impress others with how much we know or how successful we are.  Sometimes we do not really listen to others but interrupt and get things focused on ourselves again.

We need to recall that the risen Jesus did not feel the need to appear at the front door of Pilate’s home with a TV crew and say, “Look at who I really am and how stupid you were.”  Instead, he just appeared to his followers as a way to continue his work.

So, for us, we can become more and more God-like and even feel better and better about ourselves not by calling attention to ourselves, but by living responsibly and doing the best we can in everyday life.  The demon is the temptation to reject Jesus’ example here.

Conclusion

So, the demons Jesus confronts in the desert are probably the same ones we need to confront in the silence of our hearts.  

This Season of Lent invites us to go into the desert of our inner selves.  It invites us to deal with the demons we find there.

Ash Wednesday, Cycle C - March 6, 2019

Ash Wednesday

Cycle C

March 6, 2019     

Ashes 

I am always struck by how many of us come to church on Ash Wednesday.

We have almost made it a self-declared holyday of obligation! Recently, I was doing some reading and I came across an insight into why this may be so.

The idea is that Ash Wednesday speaks to realities that we usually like to avoid and not think about. But, we know it is safe to look at them here today with God and with other persons of faith. 

So, the ashes speak of our mortality. They remind us that our time on this earth is limited and that someday we will return to God.

The ashes also speak to the incompleteness or fragmentation of human life. Maybe each one of us realizes within ourselves that our lives or relationships are not exactly what we would like them to be and we are not quite sure what to do about that.

The ashes also speak to our human imperfection. We know that we have our dark sides and weaknesses and growth edges and we can bring all of that here to God.

So, the ashes speak powerfully to us and that is why we come here this morning. And then, Jesus in the gospel passage sends us forth with three spiritual practices in mind: fasting, prayer, and charitable giving.

These are to help us to live out of the awareness that the ashes create. I recommend that fasting is the pivotal practice because it leads to prayer and charity.

Fasting as the Key

The Church calls us to fast – to limit the amount of food we eat on two days:  today and on Good Friday. The Church also asks us to abstain from eating meat today and on all the Fridays of Lent.

That’s really not all that difficult, although the Church also asks us to consider adopting some form of fasting or self-denial that is personal to ourselves – maybe giving up chocolate or beer, things like that. But, if we just do the minimal fast that the Church asks, that’s fine.

Our fasting has three purposes.

First, the experience of a little bit of physical hunger helps us to experience our spiritual hunger for God. 

It is only God who can satisfy this deeper hunger within us. In this way, our fasting can lead to some prayer, to make time for reflection, to read some Scripture each day, to pray the rosary, just to speak to God from our own hearts, just to pray in a way that is good for us.

Second, our voluntary experience of a little bit of hunger helps to create a bond with those who are hungry without choosing it.

It gives us a sensitivity to those who are in need. In this way, our fasting can lead us to charity and to do what we can to assist others.

And third, fasting from food often connects us with some behavior from which we need to fast.

For example, maybe we need to fast from talking negatively about others or always putting ourselves and our own preferences first. This is what repentance means. 

So, may the ashes speak deeply to each of us today and lead us to a closer relationship with Jesus through this Lenten Season.