Lent IV C

4^th Sunday of Lent C

Readings: Joshua 5:9, 10‑12   2 Corinthians 5:17‑21   

Luke 15:1‑3,  11‑32

            "Taste and see the goodness of the Lord."  This Sunday's responsorial psalm (Ps 34) invites us to rejoice in the bounty of God's goodness.  In the midst of our Lenten penance we joyfully remember the goal of our life's journey: the heavenly banquet with God and his children. Today's gospel parable of the father and his two sons issues a twofold invitation.  If we have squandered our Father's gifts, we are called to return home to his loving embrace.  If we resent the Father’s forgiving love for others, we are invited to rejoice in the return of our prodigal brethren.

            The reading from Joshua recalls Israel's first celebration of Passover in the land of promise when our Jewish ancestors ate "the produce of the land in the form of unleavened cakes and parched grain," which replaced the manna that sustained them in their forty year wilderness sojourn.  By their repeated sins in doubting the Lord's sustaining power in the wilderness journey (see Numbers 11‑21), the Exodus generation forfeited the privilege of entering the land of Canaan.  After forty years of wandering, a new generation has been born, and they have crossed over the Jordan and entered the land of Canaan under Joshua's leadership.  Their joyous celebration of Passover reminds us Christians of the Easter celebration which is the goal of our Lenten journey.

           In the 2 Corinthians reading, Paul is both celebrating the reconciliation between God and humanity through Christ's death and also appealing to a divided community to "be reconciled to God."  Paul's language in this section is apocalyptic.  Christ's death and resurrection have accomplished a "new creation" for those who are "in Christ" through faith.  At the apocalypse, the judgment of sinners was expected to take place.  But God, in Christ, has now reconciled the world to himself by "making him who did not know sin (Christ) to be sin, so that in him we might become the very holiness of God."  Paul and the other apostles are “ambassadors” for Christ, and so he implores the Corinthians in Christ's name: "be reconciled to God."

            Luke's parable of the father and his two sons both celebrates a resurrection victory over sin and offers an appeal to reconciliation.  Jesus speaks this parable, as well as the  Lost Sheep and Lost Coin (see Lk 15:4‑10), to defend his joyful table fellowship with "tax collectors and sinners," who have  turned from sin, and also to appeal to the self righteous  Pharisees and scribes who are murmuring, “This man welcomes  sinners and eats with them.” 

            The prodigal younger son, like the tax collectors and sinners, once left his father's home for a far country and squandered his share of the estate “on dissolute living.”  But, after a famine has driven him to slave on a pig farm and reduced him to hunger, he comes to his senses and decides to return to his father's house.  "How many hired hands at my father's place have more than enough to eat, while here I am starving."   Although he only expects to be treated as a hired hand, his loving father greets him with "the finest robe . . . a ring for his finger and shoes for his feet."   He then throws the most extravagant of parties with "the fatted calf," dancing, and music, because, as he says, "this son of mine was dead and has come back to life.  He was lost and is found."

            The elder son, like the Pharisees and scribes, has dutifully served his father and never disobeyed his orders.  But now the father invites him to rejoice in the return of his younger brother to life. His complaint to the father expresses the self righteous resentment in many of us over God's mercy to others. ‘For years now I have slaved for you.  I never disobeyed one of your orders, yet you never gave me so much as a kid goat to celebrate with my friends.  Then, when this son of yours returns after having gone through your property with loose women, you kill the fatted calf for him.’

            The parable ends with the father's assurance of his love for the elder son and a justification of the celebration for the younger brother. ‘My son, you are with me always, and everything I have is yours.  But we had to celebrate and rejoice! This brother of yours was dead, and has come back to life.  He was lost, and is found.’ Jesus leaves the parable open ended.  We are not told if the elder son chose to join the festivities.  We have to hear the parable's call and complete it for ourselves.  Perhaps the greatest challenge Jesus offers us is the invitation to rejoice in God's forgiving love for others.

LENT IIIA

3^rd Sunday of Lent A (for the RCIA scrunities)

Readings: Exodus 17:1-7   Romans 5:1-14   John 4:5-42

“Is the Lord in our midst or not?”  This question tested the Exodus generation in the wilderness and the Samaritan woman and her kinsfolk, and it continues to challenge the Christian community as it moves toward the renewal of its baptismal commitment at the Easter Vigil.  We Christians thirst for the life-giving water of Jesus’ revelation while we live in the time between his saving death and resurrection and the completion of God’s kingdom.

The story of the water from the rock in Exodus 17 has been chosen for its relation to the Gospel selection from John in which Jesus proclaims to the Samaritan woman that he is “a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”  The Israelites’ journey from Egypt through the wilderness is a time of danger and testing.  They encounter numerous obstacles as they move from one camping place to another: bitter water, lack of food and water, and an attack from the fierce Amalekites.  In most cases they are fearful and complaining, unprepared for the challenge of faith and nostalgically longing for a return to the security of Egypt.  In this Sunday’s reading, they grumble against Moses and say, “Why did you ever make us leave Egypt?  Was it just to have us die here of thirst with our children and our livestock?”  Their whole demeanor can be summed up in the words spoken at Massah and Meribah as they quarreled and tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord in our midst or not?”  Yet the Lord consistently meets their grumbling with his provident care.  In our selection, he gives instructions for Moses to use his staff to bring forth water from the rock “for the people to drink.”

In the reading from Romans, Paul exhorts the Roman Christians to joyfully live out the consequences of Christ’s saving death and resurrection.  He uses several metaphors to express what Christ has done for them by dying and rising from the dead.  He has “justified (them) by faith,” made them “at peace with God,” given them “access to grace.”  But, although in one sense salvation has been achieved in Christ, Paul is also aware that it is not complete.  Christ’s death has made salvation accessible, but the Christian community must endure in faith and hope until Christ’s return.  The source of Christian hope in this time of suffering and testing is what God has already done for humanity through the death of Christ.  “But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (5:8).

In the unforgettable dialogue between Jesus and the Samaritan woman, John presents Jesus as the gift of God who offers “a spring of water welling up to eternal life” to a woman who is a sinner and outcast by the standards of contemporary Judaism.  By the end of this long, but intricately interconnected episode, the woman has become an apostle whose testimony brings many Samaritans to belief in Jesus.

The dialogue uses John’s typical instruction pattern of irony and misunderstanding.  Jesus is tired from his journey through Samaritan territory and sits down in the heat of the midday sun at Jacob’s well in Shechem.  When he asks the Samaritan woman for a drink, she apparently refuses and points out the well-known antipathy between Jews and Samaritans.  Jesus then challenges her to request the “living water” which he can give as God’s gift (salvation).  Ironically, she thinks Jesus is referring to running spring water and points out that he has no bucket to draw water from the deep well and that he is surely not greater than the Samaritans’ ancestor, Jacob, who founded this well.  Jesus then replies that the water he gives will overcome thirst and become “a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The Christian reader understands this as a beautiful description of baptism, but when the woman still interprets his language on a natural level, Jesus offers her a sign of his supernatural knowledge of her sinful past: she has had five husbands and the man she is now living with is not her husband.  This moves the woman to recognize Jesus as a prophet, and she proceeds to question him about whether the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim or the Jewish temple in Jerusalem is the proper locale for worship.  Jesus responds by proclaiming that an hour is coming when authentic worship of the Father will not depend upon place, but will be done “in Spirit and truth” (a reference to the gift of God’s love through the Son).  With this revelation, the woman realizes that God’s Messiah may be standing before her, and, with Jesus’ proclamation that “I am he” ringing in her ears, she leaves her now useless water jar and goes to invite the townspeople to see the man “who told me everything I have done.”  By the end of the episode the Samaritan woman has become a full believer and witness to Christ.  In fact, as the other Samaritans come to believe in Jesus on the basis of his own word, the Samaritan woman, like John the Baptist (3:22-30), rejoices greatly as she decreases and Jesus increases.  Let us, like the Samaritan woman, take the challenge of today’s psalm response and turn to the life-giving water that is Christ: “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts” (Ps 95). 

LENT IIIC

3^rd Sunday of Lent C

Readings: Exodus 3:1‑15  1 Corinthians 10:1‑12  Luke 13:1‑9

            Midway through our Lenten journey, we are challenged by God's call to struggle against oppression and to reform our own lives.  As we listen to this Sunday's warnings to repent, let us sing with courageous confidence the refrain of the psalm: "The Lord is kind and merciful" (Ps 103).

            To understand the terrifying challenge of Moses' call we must recall the bleak situation of both Israel and Moses at the beginning of the book of Exodus.  A powerful and paranoid Pharaoh has cruelly imposes slave labor upon the Israelites and plans to kill all their male children (Exodus 1).   Moses himself narrowly escapes death through the heroic actions of his mother, sister, and the Pharaoh's daughter (2:1‑10).  And, when he attempts to help his people by slaying an  Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew and then tries to stop two  Hebrew slaves from fighting, his efforts are rejected with the retort, “Who made you a prince and judge over us?  Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” (Ex 2:14).  Realizing that the murder was known to the Pharaoh, Moses flees to Midian where he marries the daughter of the priest of Midian and begins to tend his father‑in‑law's flocks.  His son's name, Gershom, meaning "I am a stranger in a foreign land," reflects his present status as an exile from his suffering people (Ex 2:22).     

            If Moses is to save his people, he must be called and equipped by God, and that is the point of today's burning bush story.  His call begins with an experience of the awful holiness of God.  When Moses turns aside to see the burning bush, God tells him, “Come no nearer!  Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.”  After God has identified himself as the God of the fathers, he announces: "I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry of complaint against their slave drivers, so I know well what they are suffering. Therefore I have come down to rescue them from the hands of the Egyptians and lead them out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey."

            Understandably, Moses doubts that his own people will believe that he speaks for God, and therefore he asks, “When I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ if they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what am I to tell them?”  The old name, “God of the fathers,” is inadequate for this new stage of God's action.  God answers by saying, “I am who I am.”  Moses is to tell the Israelites that “I am” sent him and that the sacred name, “Yahweh,” is to be his title for all generations.  Yahweh is the transposed third person form of "I am who I am."  The sacred name connotes God's freedom and unrestricted power to save his people.  Equipped with this new revelation and numerous miraculous signs (Exodus 4), Moses will eventually obey the Lord’s call and undertake the task of freeing his people.

            The Epistle warns us that even those called by God can fall.   Paul reminds the Corinthians, who were tempted to take part in pagan worship services (see 1 Corinthians 8‑10), that even the Exodus generation, led by Moses, fell into the sin of idolatry.  Despite having God's cloud for guidance, passing through the sea, and being given manna and water from the rock (see Exodus 13‑17), many of the fathers "were struck down in the desert" for their sin in making the golden calf (Exodus 32).  Their example is a warning:  "Let anyone who thinks he is standing upright watch out lest he fall!"

            In today's Gospel Jesus uses two recent tragedies and a parable to warn the crowds of the dire consequences of failure to repent.  Both the Galileans cruelly killed by Pilate and the eighteen crushed by the tower of Siloam were not necessarily terrible sinners, but their sudden deaths should alert the crowd to the seriousness of Jesus' call to reform.  Twice Jesus repeats the warning: “But I tell you, you will all come to the same end unless you begin to reform” (Lk 13:3,5).  Jesus' fig tree parable stresses that the time for repentance is running out.  Only the vinedresser's intercession keeps the exasperated vineyard owner from cutting down the tree which has failed to bear fruit for three years.  The crowds, like the fig tree, have only one more chance for repentance.  The vinedresser's words should remind us that during this Lent we too have only this opportunity for repentance from our sins. `Sir leave it another year while I hoe around it and manure it; then perhaps it will bear fruit.  If not, it shall be cut down.'

Lent II C

2^nd Sunday of Lent C

Readings: Genesis 15:5‑12,17‑18                                           Philippians 3:17‑4:1      Luke 9:28‑36

            On the Second Sunday of Lent the Church's liturgy always presents us with the story of Jesus' Transfiguration.  In the midst of the journey to the cross in Jerusalem, we-- through the eyes of Peter, John, and James-- are given a glimpse of Jesus' ultimate glory as God's Son and admonished to “listen” to his teaching.  As we continue our Lenten journey, let us pray with faith the refrain of this Sunday's responsorial psalm: "The Lord is my light and my salvation" (Ps 27).

            The Old Testament readings for this Lent recount the central stories of the history of salvation which lead up to the promise of the New Covenant.  Last Sunday we heard the retelling of the exodus from Egypt, and this week we recall the covenant with Abram/Abraham (Genesis 15).

            This story highlights Abram's faith in God's promises of offspring and land, despite apparently insurmountable obstacles to their fulfillment.  The first is the barrenness of Sarai/Sarah, his wife (see Gen 11:30).  In the lines immediately before our reading, Abram complains, “See you have given me no offspring, and so one my servants will be my heir” (Gen 15:3).  But the Lord promises Abram that his own issue will be his heir (15:4) and then says: “Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can.  Just so shall your descendants be” (15:5).  Without further complaint, "Abram put his faith in the Lord, who credited it to him as an act of righteousness" (15:6).  A second obstacle is that the Canaanites are occupying the land promised to Abram (see Gen 12:1‑9). And so he asks, “O Lord God how am I to know that I shall possess it?” (15:7‑8).  This time the Lord gives instructions for the sealing of a solemn covenant which Abram dutifully performs.  In ancient covenant ceremonies contracting  parties "cut a covenant" by splitting animals in two and passing  between the halved parts to indicate that they were willing to be  dismembered, if they should fail to keep the covenant.  In this case, the Lord, under the form of "a smoking brazier and a flaming torch," passes between the parted animals and binds himself with the oath: “To your descendants I give this land from the Wadi of Egypt to the Great River.’”

            The Epistle reading from Philippians continues the theme of faithful trust in the future fulfillment of God's promises and also expresses Paul’s faith in the transfiguration of the body of believers beyond death through the power of Jesus’ resurrection.   While in prison and facing the prospect of death, Paul asks the Philippians, who are tempted to put their trust in the bodily observances of Judaism, especially circumcision and dietary laws, to imitate him by trusting in the cross of Christ and the second "coming of our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ."  He reminds them that they have their "citizenship in heaven” and are living in faith for the future when Christ "will give a new form to this lowly body of ours and remake it according to the pattern of his glorified body, by his power to subject everything to himself." 

            Luke's account of the Transfiguration is closely tied to the beginnings of Jesus' fateful journey to Jerusalem (see 9:22‑62), and therefore emphasizes his coming passion and resurrection.  When Moses and Elijah, representing the Law and the Prophets, appear in glory with Jesus, they speak "of his exodus which he was about to fulfill in Jerusalem."  In Luke, Jesus, like the suffering prophets before him, has a destiny to go to Jerusalem to die, then be raised up and pour out the Spirit on his disciples (see Lk 13:31‑35; Acts 1-2; Deuteronomy 34; 2 Kings 2). At this point Jesus' disciples can neither understand this mission, nor its implications for their lives.  They will be instructed in the way of discipleship on the long journey to Jerusalem (9:55‑19:27), but only with Jesus' resurrection will they begin to understand that according to the Law and the prophets "it was necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory" (see Lk 24:25‑27, 44‑49).  Therefore Peter, upon seeing the glory of Jesus, Moses and Elijah, wants to build “three booths” to honor them.  We are informed, "He did not really know what he was saying."   When Jesus, Moses, and Elijah enter the cloud, God's voice speaks: “This is my Son, my Chosen One.  Listen to him.”  As they leave the mount of Transfiguration to begin the journey to Jerusalem, the disciples see only Jesus, but they have been told what to do.  They are to listen to the Son and Chosen One as he teaches them about a life of service on the way to his cross, resurrection and gift of the Spirit.

LENT I C

1^st Sunday of Lent C

Readings: Deuteronomy 26:4‑10  Romans 10:8‑13  Luke 4:1‑13

            The Gospel for the First Sunday of Lent always recounts the devil's temptation of Jesus in the desert before the beginning of his public ministry.  This year's readings contrast Jesus' trusting faith in his Father with the worldly illusions of the devil.  In this penitential season of Lent, let each of us trust in the Lord by praying: "Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble" (Ps 91).

            A spirit of trusting gratitude marks Moses' instruction for the confession of faith in offering the first fruits of the harvest to the Lord in the Book of Deuteronomy.  Israel is to acknowledge that her very existence as a people is a gift from the Lord.  When the Israelite farmer presents the basket of first fruits to the priest, he is to recite his people's story by praising the Lord for his “terrifying power” in delivering the ancestors from oppression in Egypt and leading them into the “land flowing with milk and honey.” After presenting the first fruits and bowing down in the Lord's presence, the farmer's whole family is to “make merry over all the good things which the Lord, your God, has given you.”

            Paul's reflections in Romans also celebrate faith in God's saving action.  In this section of Romans, Paul is struggling with the fact that many of his Jewish brethren have clung to salvation through the Law and have not accepted faith in Christ (see Romans 9‑11).  Paul is convinced that in Christ's death and resurrection the way of justification and salvation has been opened for both Jews and Greeks (Gentiles). In our passage Paul is doing a midrash, or a "running commentary," on Old Testament texts to convince his Jewish readers that Christ is the goal or end of the Law.  He applies a text from Deuteronomy to Christ.  “The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart” (Deut 30:14).  This leads to the exhortation to “confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. . .”  Paul then continues with a text from the Book of Isaiah: “No one who believes in him will be put to shame” (Isa 28:16).  On the basis of this text, Paul argues that both Jew and Greek (Gentile) can find in Christ “the same Lord, rich in mercy toward all who call upon him.”  Finally, he concludes his reflections on the salvation available to all in Christ with a joyful quotation from Joel: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Joel 3:5).

            Luke's story of the devil's temptation of Jesus in the desert continues today's theme of trusting faith in God.  In the background for Jesus’ trial is the text from Deuteronomy 8:2 in which Moses recalls the testing of the Israelites in the wilderness:  “Remember how the Lord your God led you for forty years in the wilderness, to humble you, to test you and know your inmost heart‑‑ whether you would keep his commandments or not.” Unlike Israel of old, Jesus, “full of the Holy Spirit” as God's loyal Son and Servant, will pass the devil's tests by being faithful to God.

            The temptations are insidious because they appeal to Jesus’ power as “Son of God” and recall the heavenly voice at his baptism where Jesus heard: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (see 4:3,9 and 3:22).  Each of the devil's temptations offers an alluring worldly prize, but Jesus repeatedly responds with quotations from Deuteronomy which affirm his faithful trust in God.  After his forty day fast Jesus is hungry, and the devil proposes: “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to turn into bread.”  Jesus rejects the devil's appeal to squander his power on his own mere physical sustenance by pointing to the spiritual food that comes from being obedient to God's word: “Scripture has it, ‘Not on bread alone shall man live’” (Deut 8:3).  When the devil offers him the kingdoms of the world in return for his homage, Jesus repeats the first and greatest commandment of his Jewish faith: “Scripture has it, ‘You shall do homage to the Lord your God; him alone shall you adore’” (Deut 6:13). Finally, the devil leads Jesus to Jerusalem and challenges him to put his Father to the test by throwing himself from the parapet  of the temple and demanding that as the Scripture says “He will  bid his angels watch over you . . .” (Ps 91:11‑12).  But Jesus rejects the devil's presumptuous challenge to God with the simple statement of trust drawn from the lessons of his people's wilderness traditions: “It also says, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” As we begin our Lenten journey of fasting and penance, let the faithful and trusting Jesus be our guide.