2nd Sunday of Lent

The Transfiguration was a turning point in the life of Jesus.  Imagine what it must have been like for Jesus to hear the voice of the Father say, “This is my beloved Son.”  He already knew that He was God’s son, but just as when someone who loves us actually says, “I love you,” it must have been wonderful for Jesus to hear the Father speak from the cloud. 

In the same way, being transfigured into glory must have given Jesus strength, determination, and joy as He drew close to the time of His Passion and Cross.  How good God the Father was to Jesus to allow Him to experience ahead of time the glory that would be His after His death.

Scripture remind us that suffering has to come first and after that comes glory.  It was true for Jesus, and it will be true for us.  When we take up our cross, we suffer as Jesus did.  But if we are faithful in following Jesus all of our life, we will share in His glory as well. 

The first reading from Genesis 22 tells us how Abraham was asked to sacrifice his only son, Isaac.  The story teaches us that we need to be willing to surrender everything to God.  God did not actually want Abraham to sacrifice his son.  It was a test.  And Abraham passed.  Abraham trusted God completely and was obedient, even when asked for the unthinkable, and so God blessed him.  Abraham had total faith and trust in God and we need to have the same.

In the second reading from Romans 8, St. Paul tells us that if God is for us, who can be against us?  God was willing to hand over His only Son for us, so how can God not give us everything else as well? We need to believe and know deep down in our heart that God loves us more than we can imagine.  God has paid the price for us by offering up Jesus, His only Son.  We forget how amazing and life-changing God’s love can be for us.

Here is a prayer to say during these days of Lent:

Lord, help us to trust in Your love, especially when we are suffering, so that we might share in Your glory.  Amen.

1st Sunday of Lent

Mark’s gospel today offers only a few details, but it is everything we need to know.  His account of Jesus’ time in the desert mirrors our lives and shows us what Lent is.  As short as Mark’s story is, a careful look brings us some often forgotten reminders.

First, and most importantly, the Holy Spirit is always with each one of us and has been since our baptism.  As the Holy Spirit drove Jesus into the desert, so too the Spirit wants to lead us, perhaps even drive us, as well.  Do we listen to the Holy Spirit?  Do we follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit?  Jesus followed the Holy Spirit, even though the Holy Spirit led Him to a difficult place.  We may be asked to go somewhere we would rather not go as well.

Secondly, Satan tempted Jesus for 40 days in the desert.  We too are tempted.  Are we aware of the temptations in our lives?  Do we fight them or do we give in?  Do we know what do to when we are tempted?  Jesus battled with Satan.  Do we realize that Satan wants to rough us up spiritually also? Or has the evil one remained hidden so we aren’t even aware of what is going on when we struggle?

Thirdly, angels and wild beasts were with Jesus in the desert and surround us in our lives as well.  In Psalm 91, God promises angels to minister to us.  Do we believe that?  Do we ask the angels, especially our Guardian Angel, for help?  Angels will come to our aid, but we need to ask them.  The wild beasts symbolize all those things in life that may harm us.  Do we trust the Lord for help and strength to overcome them? God will do that for us, but again, we need to ask for help.

Lent is our time in the desert where we fight the spiritual battle.  We fight to become holy.  Our Lenten practices of penance, almsgiving, and prayer are the weapons we use.  Taking up our cross and following Jesus is the way forward for us.  We won’t win every fight, but perseverance to the end will guarantee us a share in Christ’s victory. 

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday  - 14 February 2018                                                                       

Yap Catholic High School

Praying over today’s Gospel got me thinking about three places here on Yap: the Dump, the Hospital, and the Post Office

We three Jesuits of Yap have house jobs. My job is to go to the Dump.  Once a week, I take our garbage, put it in the car, and drive to the dump.  The Dump fascinates me. It’s so big, and filthy, and smelly.  There are piles, almost mountains of garbage.  There are flies buzzing all over, and the worst looking dogs you’ve ever seen, and occasionally even a person or two down at the bottom of the pit, going through everything, looking for something to save. 

So what does the Dump have to do with Lent?  Good question.  Each one of us here, if we are honest, knows that we have some garbage inside of us that we really should get rid of.  Our garbage is not good for us.  It’s all the nasty stuff that we try to ignore or stuff down, or pretend it’s not there.  If we don’t get rid of it, we run the risk of becoming rotten, or at least smelly, or someone no one wants to be around.

Like the garbage at the Dump, our garbage comes in different forms.  Some of it is our sins – cheating, lying, hurting or taking advantage of others, not giving our best, being jealous, not being grateful to God.  I could go on, but you know what I’m talking about. 

Some of it is our personal weakness (laziness, haughtiness, selfishness, disobedience, self-pity).  Some of it is our false beliefs, especially about ourselves – “I’m better than she is.”  “God doesn’t love me.”  “I can do whatever I want.”  “Everyone hates me.”

Lent is a time to get rid of all that garbage.  Clean it out.  We can do that with the Sacrament of Confession. Nothing is better than feeling brand new after making a good confession.  We can get rid of our garbage by deciding to live differently.  We can do it by believing that we are loved. We can do it by putting more discipline in our lives.  The Church calls all of that penance and it is one of the three traditional practices of Lent.  Penance is anything extra we do, or something that we do without, and it helps to make us stronger and more open to God.

The second place I thought of is the Hospital.  I have been there as a patient and as a priest to visit and pray with people.  Whenever I am at the hospital, I see sick people, of course, but I also see all kinds of other people who are taking care of the sick.  Nurses, and doctors, but family and friends of the sick also, just sitting with them, or giving them some food, or doing whatever they can.  All those people – whether it is the medical personnel, or friends and family – are focused on the people who are sick.  They aren’t looking out for themselves; they are giving of themselves to those in need.  Giving to others is what the Church traditionally calls almsgiving, and like penance, it is one of the three main practices of Lent.  From what we have, we give to those who don’t have.

The third place I thought of is the Post Office.  When one moves thousands of miles away from home, the Post Office becomes a very important place.  If people write you a letter, or send you a package, it comes to you through the Post Office.  No visits to the Post Office, no letter.  No visits to the Post Office, no package.  And, unfortunately, sometimes when you go to the Post Office, there is no letter and no package waiting for you.  But that’s no reason to stop going.  Maybe next time, right? You have to keep going back.

The Post Office for me is a reminder to pray, to take time to speak to God, and more importantly, to take time to quiet down enough to hear what God has to say.  If I don’t do that, I’m not going to be connected to God.  I won’t be able to tell the Lord what I need to tell Him, and He won’t be able to tell me anything either.  Prayer is the third traditional practice of Lent.  We need to take some time during the 40 days of Lent to pray more.  I believe that God has something to say to everyone here, but that requires that we take time to pray, to go to the Post Office, if you will.

So, today and for the next six weeks, in your imagination – go to the Dump, go to the Hospital, and go to the Post Office.  Go to the Dump to get rid of the garbage that is keeping you away from God.  Go to the Hospital to look for someone who needs you, and be there for that person, and go to the Post Office and expect a letter or maybe even a package from God.  Then put it all into action in your life.

Have a good Lent.  Expect God to bless you, but be sure to do your part.  

God is counting on you.

6th Sunday of Ordinary Time

The first reading from Leviticus reminds us of the difficult life lepers had due to their disease.  Once the priest had seen the leprosy, life was not the same.  No doubt the hardest part was the hopelessness of being without family and friends.  Having to warn others of one’s presence in what one wore and having to call oneself unclean must have been painful. 

Yet, at the end of the first chapter of Mark’s gospel, we see a leper who has hope because of his belief in Jesus.  He goes before the One he knows has the ability to make him clean and he humbles himself in both posture and language.  And he is not disappointed, for Jesus has pity on him, reaches out and touches him, and makes him clean.  Sent off to see the priest to make his new life official, he tells everyone about what has happened to him.  Even without his words, it would have been evident that life was now good and there was reason to be joyful and at peace.

The Jewish priest was the one who saw the leprosy and called it what it was and explained what it meant.  And at the other end, he was the one who, after examining the person, declared that he was free of the disease.  The priest would explain the necessary sacrifices to be made before rejoining the community in prayer and its daily life.

In a few days we enter into Lent when we again look within ourselves for all that needs cleansing.  Like the leper in today’s gospel, at some point during the holy season,we will approach Jesus in humility and hope and trust in order to be healed and made whole in the Sacrament of Confession.  Just as the Jewish priest had two functions, so too the Catholic priest both hears the sins cause spiritual decay and eventually death, if left untreated, and then, taking the place of Jesus, the he mediates the healing touch of Christ with the prayer of absolution.  We sinners are made whole, offer a sacrifice of some penance and once again rejoin the community and the life of the faithful as free as we were on the day of our baptism.

In an unrelated, yet relevant way, Paul in the second reading offers a second Lenten practice that is simple but powerful.  We ought to rededicate ourselves to imitate the Lord in our lives.  We know Him through the Scriptures, but we know Jesus in others ways as well.  One of the best is the one Paul offered to the Corinthian Christians, namely, imitating others who are imitating the Lord.  Jesus shines forth in others, especially when they are being patient and kind, courageous and faithful.  None of us needs to look far to see people worthy of imitation.  Reading the lives and writings of the saints is also a way to learn how to imitate others who imitated Christ.

Like the leper we will seek out Jesus this Lent and humble ourselves before Him.  We need healing and can find that in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  That will help us grow in holiness, as will imitating the holy ones who are in our lives and in the history of the Church.  The Holy Spirit will lead us into the ways of holiness.  Let us quiet ourselves and listen for the Spirit’s gentle words, and then step out in faith, as the leper did.

5th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Today’s Scriptures offer many people to ponder: Job bemoaning his life, Paul excited about his call to preach, and Jesus busy reaching out helping others, and then trying to get some time in prayer alone.

One whose story can help us is Simon Peter’s mother-in-law, sick with a fever.  Mark tells us that others immediately tell Jesus about her.  In response, Mark says Jesus “approached, grasped her hand and helped her up.  Then the fever left her and she waited on them.”

What a beautiful, simple description that promises so much to us.  We desire to know Jesus better.  We yearn to have Jesus to heal us.  We want to be of service to the Lord in some significant way.

Jesus is aware of what lays us low at times.  He no longer needs anyone to tell Him. He wants to be with us as He was with Simon’s mother-in-law. The Lord will always offers us a hand.  All we need do is reach out and let him grasp us.  He will help us up.  The word Mark uses is the same word used for what the Father did for Jesus at the resurrection.  Jesus will help us up by giving us new life.

Like Jesus, take some time to pray today.  Imagine Jesus seeing you, reaching out to you, grasping your hand, helping you up.  Look carefully at His face.  See the love and total acceptance there, along with the joy that He has for you.  Feel the warmth of His smile and the strength of His grasp as He lifts you up.  Listen then as He tells you how you can best serve Him today.  Rest with Him a while and then go and greet Him in others.