5th Sunday in Lent, Cycle C - April 6, 2025

 5^th Sunday of Lent- C

April 6, 2025             5pm  

Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton

 

Inmate Firefighters

Three months ago, a friend of mine texted me that her daughter and son-in-law with their two small children lost their home in the wildfires near Los Angelos – a devastating loss for this young family.    

 

We’ve all seen the heartbreaking pictures of the communities in California destroyed by wildfires. And maybe we’ve also been inspired by the courage and commitment of those firefighters.

 

There’s one part of the story we may not be aware of, and I was not aware of until very recently. Of the 14,000 men and women fighting the California fires, almost one thousand of them are prison inmates. 

 

They’ve become a critical part of the workforce in this very dangerous profession. One of these inmate-firefighters – named Eddie Herrera – has  told his story.

 

One Inmate Firefighter

 

Eddie Herrera was a firefighter during the last two years of his 18-year prison sentence. 

 

Herrera served as a municipal firefighter outside of Sacramento, responding to residential fires, CPR emergencies and rescue calls. He says that this work changed his life.

 

Herrera says that his transformation began with his first CPR emergency in 2019. The patient was a veteran police officer. 

 

The police officer didn’t survive but Eddie recalls that the experience “made me realize that firefighting was something that I wanted to do and could do. When the police officer’s wife came to pick up her husband’s body, and we loaded him into the back of the van, I remember my captain directing us to put an American flag over his body and to take off our helmets and salute him. 

 

“I remember the brothers of the police officer shaking my hand and saying thank you. I had never experienced something like that. 

 

“I felt a sense of pride, because I knew that I was not being defined by my circumstances. That I could help and make a change. 

 

“Because, being incarcerated, it’s this sense of feeling like you’re nothing. You’re basically lost! 

 

“But in those moments serving as a firefighter, I didn’t feel any of that. I felt like I was human again.”

 

Eddie Herrera has completed his prison sentence and is now a professional firefighter. He has been working in southern California where the recent wildfires happened. 

 

Eddie says that the most important quality he’s learned is empathy — empathy both for his incarcerated coworkers and for the people whose homes he works to save. He says this.

 

“I know what it’s like to feel helpless . . . I [now] feel empathy and a sense of wanting to help people who are living through this. 

 

“We’re all equal in the sense that we’re humans. And we all make mistakes, and we all have the capacity to change.”

 

Some Observations 

 

That’s one of those really good stories, and now I want to conclude with just a few observations.

 

Eddie Herrera and the incarcerated firefighters had been defined by their crimes. It is much like the woman in today’s Gospel who was defined by her sin. 

 

But to respond to the words of Jesus today, we are to drop our stones of condemnation. Notice that Jesus does not ignore the sin and he tells the woman not to sin anymore. 

 

But equally or maybe more important, he doesn’t condemn her. Instead, he heals and restores her. 

 

He tells her to look to the future with pure intentions and be freed of the past and the labels associated with that. And by the way, this is what our Catholic Sacrament of Reconciliation is about or should be about. 

 

It is about empathy and healing, restoring to life and dignity, focusing more on the future and not the past. The story of Eddie Herrera and today’s gospel tell us that this is possible with Jesus and through our following his way. 

3rd Sunday in Lent, Cycle C - March 23, 2025

 3^rd Sunday of Lent- C

March 23, 2025       11am  

Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton

 

Greater Sinners? 

 

Approximately 1.2 million people in our country have died from Covid.

 

Would we say that they died from this because they were greater sinners – greater than us? I think we would not and should not say this.

 

Or, how about the people who died in the collapse of that condo building near Miami several years ago.   

 

Would we say that they died because they were greater sinners – greater than others? Again, I think we would not and should not say this. 

 

Jesus’ Answer 

 

In today’s gospel, Jesus uses two similar examples.

 

He refers to some people who were put to death by the cruel tyrant Herod. And then he refers to some people who were killed when a building collapsed and fell on them.

 

And Jesus asks: do you think that these people were greater sinners than others? And he answers his own question: “By no means! [Absolutely not!]

 

Jesus’ point is that we are not to look at others and try to gauge their degree of sinfulness. Instead, we are to look at ourselves.

 

The Season of Lent is intended to get us to do just that. Jesus wants us to be aware of our shortcomings, our wrongdoings, our sinfulness, our need for growth or fuller conversion.

   

Threefold Conversion 

 

One of our Catholic theologians, Father Ronald Rolheiser, has commented on this gospel passage. 

 

Father Rolheiser is a religious order priest, an Oblate of Mary Immaculate, and is on the faculty of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio. He recognizes that all of us who are here have an initial commitment to God or Jesus.

 

But Father Rolheiser also sees three movements for our coming to a fuller conversion or faith commitment. 

 

First, we need to move from being bystander to participant. 

 

So, instead of just lamenting the darkness in our world, we point out persons or situations of light. Instead of just seeing the need of some people for clothing and food, we give what we can afford to help them. 

 

Instead of just talking about prayer, we actually pray. So, we need to move from being bystander to participant.

 

And second, we need to move from judging to repenting.

 

We can judge ourselves as better and others as less in subtle ways. For example, we might think or even say, “I am less rigid and more understanding than she is.”

 

Or “He is much more impatient with the children than I am.” So, we need to move from judging to repenting and that means that we focus on our own sinfulness.

 

And third, we need to move from thinking that we are unloved to knowing that we are loved.

 

This means that we move away from an image of God as conditioning his love on our earning it. Instead, we really accept the fundamental statement of the Scripture that “God is love” and Jesus’ words “I call you my friends.”

 

This will lead us away from just obeying commandments because we are afraid of God and move us toward responding as fully as possible to the gospel as our part of this wonderful relationship. So, we need to move from thinking we are unloved to knowing that we are loved by God. 

 

Conclusion  

 

Okay! A fuller commitment to the Lord – that’s what this gospel and Lent are about.

 

Moving from being bystander to participant, from judging to repenting, from thinking ourselves unloved to knowing we are loved. And that last movement really explains the last part of today’s gospel.

 

In this particular parable, Jesus is not the owner but the manager of the orchard. The owner was only interested in what the fig tree could produce.

 

The manager was interested in the tree itself. He cared for the tree and believed that his care for it would end up with good results.

 

That’s how Jesus or God relates with us: patient, caring, forgiving, loving. That’s the God to whom we respond in this Lenten season.

 

  

 

2nd Sunday in Lent, Cycle C - March 16, 2025

 2^nd Sunday of Lent- C

March 16, 2025       5pm 

Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton

 

Rothschild Mansion

 

There is a story that back in the 1800s, 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 such a wealthy family.

 

Lord Rothschild explained that he was an orthodox Jew. 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

 

Today’s first reading and gospel lead us to this same understanding.

 

The message is that we are all on a journey. About fifteen years ago, I read a book entitled The Gifts of the Jews by Thomas Cahill.

 

Cahill states that up until the time of Abraham, about thirty-five hundred years ago, 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. It was not so much our free will, but heavenly powers that determined what would continually happen.

 

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 it.  

 

Now, as I said, that was the ancient view of life. But one of the gifts of the Jews, as Thomas Cahill says, is that Abraham changed this way of thinking.

 

Life as Journey

 

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

 

He set 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 and this being determined by some heavenly power.

 

Now there is the possibility of a different future, and we are responsible 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 of 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 more and more like God. And 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.

 

The caution is that we have to resist the temptation to pitch our tents, to stay put. In today’s gospel, Jesus will not let Peter pitch tents up on the mountain because he knows that there is still a lot of journey ahead.

 

Today, like Peter, we might be tempted to pitch our tents. 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 when it comes to our understanding of ourselves. Maybe we just turn off any comment that calls us to examine our attitudes or outlooks. 

 

We can also pitch our tents when it comes to our faith. Maybe we resist understanding God as loving us and in turn feel loved by God, and instead we still look upon God as primarily a judge or punisher and in turn feel afraid of God. 

 

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 calls us to do – to stay on the journey of life, to keep growing personally and spiritually.

Ash Wednesday, Cycle C - March 5, 2025

 Ash Wednesday – C 

March 5, 2025         8:30am

Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton

 

“…Searching for the Soul”

 

A Jewish rabbi named Naomi Levy has written a book called Einstein and the Rabbi: Searching for the Soul. 

 

In one part of this book, Rabbi Levy shares an insight that may be helpful for us as we begin Lent. It is about looking back on our lives, either to the far past or the near past.    

 

Rabbi Levy says that we may experience the nagging feeling that we have messed up part of our life. Or that we have been missed part of our life and been asleep at the wheel. 

 

Rabbi Levy says that when we take the time to look back on our lives, we may find ourselves regretting two types of sins. And here is where her insight is especially pertinent for us today.   

 

Things Done and Things Not Done

 

First, there are the sins we committed, the things we actually did. I lied or I was impatient or I looked at unwholesome Internet sites.

 

I cheated on my work time with my employer, or I treated an employee unfairly. These are things we have done and wish we had not done. 

 

Then Rabbi Levy says that the second type of sins may be tougher to deal with. These are the things we haven’t done.  

 

There is the apology we never made or the forgiveness we didn’t offer, and the person is now deceased. There are the thoughtful words we never spoke and the helpful things we never did and could have done. 

 

So, we look back and we see that we have messed up some things and missed other things in our lives. We feel regret and the question is: is there something we can still do to repair what we have done or not done? 

 

Lent

 

Well, I suggest that the nagging voice that we may hear about all of this is God’s Spirit within us.

 

It is God calling us to the Lenten desert, moving us to repair our lives. It is God wanting is to confront the things we have done and now regret and the things we haven’t done that have left us feeling incomplete.  

 

So, let’s make this Lent a time to go into the desert of our hearts. Let’s put ourselves in the quiet of God’s presence.

 

Let’s try to find a way to resolve the things in our lives we have done badly and the things we have not done and wish we had done. Let’s allow our practices of prayer or fasting or charity lead us into this desert and through that to a springtime, which is the meaning of the word Lent, a springtime of fuller life with myself and with God.     

 

 

8th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C - March 2, 2025

 8^th Sunday of Ordinary Time – C 

March 2, 2025         8:30am

Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton 

 

Splinters 

 

So, a parent confronts his or her teenage son about not studying for a test or skipping a homework assignment.

 

A manager calls a young sales rep into his office for messing up the order of one of the company’s oldest and best customers.

 

A friend works up the nerve to tell her friend that what she did hurt and embarrassed her.

 

A neighbor expresses his discomfort to the man who lives next door about some negative ethnic stereotyping. 

 

No one likes these encounters. But the parent, the manager, the friend, and the neighbor remain calm.

 

They are firm and focused, but they are also calm and compassionate. They call their son, their employee, their friend, their neighbor to be aware of their actions.

 

They help them to become aware of what they have done as a way to do better or be better. What could be an ugly and divisive confrontation becomes something positive.   

 

Wooden Beams 

 

Why? 

 

How can these encounters turn out positively? I think there is only one way this happens. 

 

Because Mom and Dad remember what it was like to be young themselves. Because the manager remembers messing up more than one order when he was starting out.

 

Because the hurt friend remembers times when she unwittingly hurt someone who was close to her. Because the neighbor remembers that he was also brought up with some negative ethnic stereotypes. 

 

To use Jesus’ image today, these persons had worked to remove the wooden beams from their own eyes first. Only then are they able to help others to pull the splinters out of their eyes. 

 

Jesus’ Lesson 

 

So, in today’s gospel, Jesus is not saying that we should ignore the faults of others.

 

He is not saying that we should quietly accept the bad behavior of others because we’re no better than they are. He is saying that challenging the hurtful behavior of another begins with the humility of seeing the wooden beams in our own eyes first.

 

It begins with understanding how those wooden beams distort our own vision and behavior. To put it another way, we will not effectively deal with another person’s brokenness until we admit our own brokenness.

 

We cannot heal another person until we have known our own need for healing. This is what Jesus means when he cautions us to deal with the wooden beam in our own eye first before we try to take out the splinter in the eye of another.        

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C - February 16, 2025

 6th Sunday of Ordinary Time – C 

February 16, 2025  8:30am

Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton 

 

“Blessed” or “Woe”

 

I drive a Hyundai SUV and I have an HD TV. I have an iPhone and an Apple Mac laptop.

 

Jesus says: “Blessed are you who are poor,” and “Woe to you who are rich.” So, am I on the blessed side or the woe side?

 

I enjoy crab cakes and an occasional prime rib. I like all kinds of pasta and pizza.

 

Jesus says: “Blessed are you who are hungry,” and “Woe to you who are filled now.” So again, am I on the blessed side or the woe side?

 

I enjoy joking around with others. I sometimes watch comedies on Netflix.

 

Jesus says: “Blessed are you who are weeping,” and “Woe to you who laugh now.” So, am I on the blessed side or the woe side?

 

And finally, I like to be liked. I like being well thought of and appreciated.

 

Jesus says: “Blessed are you when people hate you,” and “Woe to you when all speak well of you.” So again, am I on the blessed side or the woe side? 

 

The Key: The Poor 

 

Well, I have done some reading and dug into this gospel a bit, and here is my take on it. 

 

The key to all that Jesus says is the very first statement: “Blessed are you who are poor.” On one level, Jesus is standing with those who are financially poor.

 

But on another level, he is really speaking to those who know that they are personally or spiritually poor. He is speaking to anyone who knows that there is a personal or spiritual emptiness within them.

 

Jesus knows that those who are materially poor are often more quickly aware of their personal poverty. Because of that, they may more readily turn to God.

 

So, Jesus is calling all of us – regardless of how much we own – to become aware of our inner emptiness or poverty. And he is saying that if we are aware of this, we are much more likely to be centered on God and relying on God. 

 

The Rest Follows

 

The rest of Jesus’ statements about who is blessed or happy in God’s eyes flow from what I have just said.

 

So, if we know that we are spiritually poor, we will be hungry for God. We will make room for God in our lives.

 

We will make time for Mass and for some personal prayer and maybe some enriching reading or podcasts. This will satisfy at least some of the hunger in our spirit. 

 

If we know that we are spiritually poor, we will also weep. We will notice the parts of our culture and of ourselves where God is not present. 

 

We will care for those who literally are hungry or are subjected to any kind of prejudice or oppression. We will weep for these situations and for our own personal deficiencies.

 

And, if we know that we are spiritually poor, we will be less concerned with what others think of us. We will be more concerned about being at peace with God.

 

We will be more alert to being truthful and honest. Integrity and authenticity will be our dominant concerns. 

 

“Blessed” or “Woe”?

 

So, am I or are we more on the blessed side or the woe side?

 

Maybe this is not easy to answer. Maybe it is more of an ongoing process.

 

Maybe each day we need to own up to being poor – that there is a personal or spiritual poverty in us. And when we can own up to that, we can then be hungry for God, weeping for where God is not present in the world and in me, and concerned about how God sees me and not how others see me.   

 

Let’s allow the Eucharist each week to help us with this. Let’s allow Jesus in this sacrament to transform us little by little into the kind of person he calls blessed. 

Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, Cycle C - February 2, 2025

 Feast of the Presentation of the Lord – C 

February 2, 2025     

Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton       11:00am 

 

Traditions 

 

I want to leave you with one sentence, one idea this morning, and it is this.

 

Tradition expresses who we are and makes us who we are. Traditions fulfill a lot of purposes for us and for society in general.

 

But I am focusing today on this one idea. Tradition expresses who we are and makes us who we are. 

 

Some of Our Traditions 

 

For example, families and even friends celebrate birthdays. Among other things, my mother always baked us our favorite cake – mine was a coconut or a dark chocolate cake.

 

A birthday tradition like this expresses who we are as special and loved. It also makes us who we are by strengthening our sense of self.  

 

Another good tradition is the singing of the National Anthem before baseball and other sports games and other events. 

 

This expresses who we are as Americans. It also makes us who we are by strengthening our sense of belonging to this country. 

 

One more example of a good tradition is Thanksgiving. 

 

This expresses who we are as persons grateful for all that we have. It also makes us who we are by strengthening our awareness of what God has given us. 

 

Tradition in the Gospel 

 

In today’s gospel, we also see a tradition. 

 

Mary and Joseph bring Jesus to the temple. The tradition is to present a child to the Lord forty days after his birth.

 

This expresses who they are as persons of faith who see themselves and their child as God’s sons and daughters. It also makes them who they are by strengthening their relationship with God.

 

What also happens in this passage is that this old man Simeon helps to enhance the tradition. He calls Jesus “a light of revelation.”

 

This expresses who Jesus already is. And it makes Jesus who he is by proclaiming it publicly.  

 

Our Baptism Tradition 

 

This presentation of Jesus in the temple is a prelude to our bringing children here to church for baptism.

 

Our baptism tradition expresses who a child is as a beloved son or daughter of God. And it also makes them who they are by strengthening their identity as persons united with Jesus Christ. 

 

And in our baptismal tradition, we also celebrate the light that Simeon talks about today. This light is symbolized by the candle that is handed to parents or godparents.

 

This is why, again in our tradition, we have the blessing of candles on the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. This expresses who we are as a people already enlightened by Christ and makes us who we are by strengthening this light for our guidance.    

 

Conclusion

 

So, there we are: Tradition expresses who we are and makes us who we are. It is very valuable.