Palm Sunday, Year C
Luke 19:28-40
Isaiah 50:4-7
Philippians 2:6-11
Luke 22:14-23:56
March 24, 2013

Today we begin no ordinary week.  This week celebrates Jesus’ final days on Earth and so today we begin with his journey into Jerusalem.

He receives a royal welcome with the cloaks laid out and palms waving.  He enters riding on a colt which fulfills the prophecy foretold in Zechariah 9 and that is absolutely essential to our understanding that while terrible things will happen to Jesus in the events of this week, God is in control.

Isaiah speaks of how the Suffering Servant gives his back to those who beat him.  This is another prophecy fulfilled in Jesus.  The Suffering Servant recognizes his power comes from God and Jesus always says it is the Father who sent him.

Paul, writing to the Philippians, speaks of how Jesus emptied himself to become human for us and humbled himself.  We see this on the Cross.

All this Jesus endures with confidence because he knows that “The Lord God is my help, therefore I am not disgraced, I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame.” (quote from end of First Reading).

God is in control!

The events of this week did not happen at some random time but at the Passover when God had set the Israelites free from slavery.  Jesus’ Crucifixion sets us free from our sins.

God’s timing is perfect.

Jesus knows what is going on because God is in control.  Jesus knows Judas will betray him.

Jesus knows Peter will deny him three times.

Jesus reminds the disciples that when he sent them out without a money bag, sack, or sandals he provided, showing they can trust him.  He is telling them that even in the midst of what is about to happen, they can trust in him as he trusts the Father.

When Jesus is arrested, he does not resist because he knows God’s plan.

After his arrest, we continue to see prophecies fulfilled in the dividing of his garments.

Jesus went through his Passion knowing he could trust his Father.  We can trust that Jesus walks with us in our own sufferings.  We would love not to have to suffer.  But we do and we follow Jesus’ example in suffering, handing it over to the Father.

This week truly is Holy Week.

Sometimes, we might think that since we hear the whole story of Jesus’ Passion today and will hear of the Resurrection next Sunday that we hear the whole story so we don’t need to come during the week.  Thursday, we will focus on our call to service in the Washing of the Feet and the gift of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. On Good Friday, we again share the story of Jesus’ Passion but we will focus on what it really means for us.  At the Easter Vigil we will share the story of Salvation History and welcome new members into our church.

This is Holy Week and I invite you to come as to as many of the services as you can.  If you can’t, just remember what this week is about, our salvation!

Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and King Nebuchadnezzar – I think I will remember these names forever.  They appear in today’s first reading.

I think back to 1999, shortly after I returned to church after many years of not going.  I had the opportunity to attend Mass on Wednesdays during Lent.  I was going to be the Altar Server.  Literally, about a minute before Mass we realized the Lector had not shown up.  I quickly glanced at the readings and realized I was in trouble.  The names Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and King Nebuchadnezzar were throughout the first reading (which is today’s first reading) and I had no idea how to pronounce them.

I quickly asked the pastor how to pronounce the names but it was too late to have a chance to learn them.  I think I pronounced the names different each time.  This reading remains in my mind to this day.

It is a good reading to remember because we hear in it how absolute Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’s faith was to them.  In the reading we hear,

If our God, whom we serve, can save us from the white-hot furnace and from your hands, O king, may he save us! But even if he will not, know, O king, that we will not serve your god or worship the golden statue that you set up.

There was no way they were going to abandon their faith, even at the cost of their earthly life.

It leads us to ask ourselves ‘do we hold to our faith?’  In today’s gospel, Jesus calls all to “remain in his word”.  Do we?  Or do we hide his word?  Do we follow his word?  Do we even know his Word?  When challenged do we live and speak our faith or do we claim up to avoid confrontation or to save our lives?  Let us pray that we follow the example of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and have the courage to always follow God’s way, remaining in Jesus’ Word.

Peace,

Fr. Jeff

5^th Sunday in Lent, Year C
Isaiah 43:16-21
Philippians 3:8-14
John 8:1-11
March 17, 2013

As Jesus continues his ministry to teach the people, once again the scribes and the Pharisees come to test Jesus.  They come bringing the woman who was caught in adultery.

They really don’t care that she was caught in sin.  I see this as another sin on their part, they are using the woman, ignoring the fact that she is human just like them, to trap Jesus by trying to get Jesus to violate the law.  They didn’t care about her shame or acting in judgment.  It wasn’t fraternal correction they were seeking as stoning would result in death and there can be no correction after death.  They wanted to get rid of Jesus and were willing to take it however they can get it.

They cite the law that calls for stoning a woman caught in adultery.  They don’t care about the woman as a person and I’m not sure they care about the law for what it really is, a tool to follow Jesus.

I should clarify that.  It’s not that they reject law in general.  But they have blinders on.  They see the law only in their own terms.  They use it for their own good.

The law really did call to stone such a woman but it was more a human law that said this.  If Jesus says don’t follow the law, they have him on blasphemy.

Jesus knows what they are up to but basically ignores them.  They persist.

Jesus is not shaken.  He simply stays to them, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

No one casts the first stone.

Some of the Pharisees and scribes were probably tempted to say they didn’t have any sin.  But they don’t.  Jesus’ comment makes them think, realizing they are not perfect.

One by one they went away, all afraid that if they cast the first stone somebody would accuse them of sin.  They leave one by one until they are all gone.

When Jesus looks up, they are all gone.  He says to the woman “Where are they?  Has no one condemned you?”

She answers no.

Now, the woman was caught in the very act of adultery.  There was no denying what she had done but Jesus does not condemn her.

So does that mean she really didn’t sin after all?  Does it mean Jesus didn’t see her adultery as sin?

No, it never says that.

What does Jesus say?  “Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”

If Jesus is telling her not to sin any more, it means that she has sinned in the past.  Knowing her sin, Jesus points to future without sin.

Why do we judge?

We are called to help one another avoid sin.  Stoning would not help people avoid sin.  Once they were stoned, they would be dead without opportunity to correct their behavior.  They would be without opportunity to reconcile with God.

Judgment is bad.  What we can do is “fraternal correction.”  Here we might point out a person’s sin but not to condemn them but rather solely to help them change, to change for the future.

The past is done and we cannot change it.  We are not perfect and our lives reflect that.  As Paul writes, we can never be righteous on our own but only with God’s grace.

It takes effort and not just once.  Paul speaks of how he strives to continue his pursuit to hope.  Coming to follow Jesus in all things is a difficult task.

Sometimes we take baby steps.  Sometimes we take huge steps.  If we want to change, we cannot go around and judge everyone.

We can try to help each other change but we can’t make them.  We offer correction.  We offer support.  But we do not judge lest we be judged ourselves.

Before we cast any stones, we have our own sins to worry about.

We need to stop living in the past and look to the future, always straining forward to come closer to God who is our goal.

The past is the past.  Jesus offers us a clean slate in reconciliation.  Jesus invites us to look forward to see Heaven as our goal.

Who have you judged?  Was they sin any worse than yours?  Do you look them in their past or do you give them an opportunity to move forward?

4^th Sunday in Lent, Year C
Joshua 5:9a, 10-12
2 Corinthians 5:17-21
Luke 15:1-3, 11-32
March 10, 2013

The first reading speaks of the entrance of the Israelites into the Promised Land.  This marks a new beginning for them.  Once, they were slaves to the Egyptians and God set them free in a new beginning leading them out of Egypt in the Exodus.

However, they had to spend forty years in the desert without a home but that comes to close as they enter into the Promised Land to begin their lives anew with a land to call their own.

Writing to the Corinthians, Paul speaks of how we are a new creation in Christ, reconciled to the Father through Jesus’ Crucifixion.  Jesus’ entry into our human world marks a new beginning.  Life changes when we know Jesus and follow him.  So, it is a new beginning, entry into new life through Baptism.

I see God as a “god of new beginnings.”  I emphasis the plural because God gives us the chance to start over many times.  Read the Old Testament.  The people repeatedly sinned and each time, God gives them a chance to start over, a new beginning.

Is God reluctant to let us have a new beginning?  No way.

Our gospel today is what we commonly call the “Parable of the Prodigal Son.”  The younger son asks for his inheritance and then goes off and squanders it.  In effect, he divorces himself from his father.  We might even say he rejects his father in favor of a life of dissipation.

After his inheritance is gone, he is forced to work on a pig farm.  For the Jews, there would have been nothing worse than working with pigs that were considered unclean.  Effectively, he hits rock bottom and realizes it.

So, he goes back to the father, not expecting him to take him back in.  He just hopes to find a job in his father’s house.  He comes willingly to admit his wrongdoing.

As he returns, he finds his father eagerly waiting for him.  The father is so eager that when he sees his son approaching, he runs out to meet him.  In those days, no self-respecting father would do such a thing, especially for a son like this.  The father doesn’t care what society things he is just happen to have his youngest son back.

He celebrates the return of his lost son.

All happy?  Nope, there is an older son who has always stood by his father and he is angry that the father has taking the other son back.  When the father hears this, he goes to the older son (again something no self-respecting man would do) and seeks to have his older son be with him too.

This is the way God is with us.  God is eager to welcome us back when we stray and come back.

For those of us like myself who didn’t always go to church, we might see ourselves as the prodigal son.  Although here, I would like to say when I wasn’t going to church, I can truthfully say I never sought a life of dissipation.  I can say this because I didn’t know what dissipation actually meant until I looked it up in a dictionary this week.

There are also those among us who have always gone to church and always sought to do the right thing like the older son but something makes us angry like jealousy over the unchurched who return.

Or we might be somewhere in between, trying to follow God but stumbling along the way.

No matter how we might go astray, when we do God is eager to offer us a new beginning.  God celebrates our return.

I think back to when I first returned to church.  I had been away for sixteen years so the thought of going to confession was a bit intimidating and I hadn’t ever lived the wild life style.

When I went to confession that first time back, I did not encounter “judgment”.  I encountered “joy.”

When I began my confession by saying I hadn’t been to church for sixteen years and didn’t really know what to do in the confession, I didn’t find judgment that questioned why I hadn’t been there.  No questions like that.

Rather, the priest expressed great joy that I had returned.  In fact, so much joy that the confession took forty minutes, but not because my sins took that long.  I confessed my sins in just a few minutes.  The rest of the time, it was mostly the priest talking about how wonderful it was that I was back.

Now, if you haven’t been to confession in a long time and come, I’m not going to keep you for forty minutes but I do assure that I won’t be judgment.  I will be glad that you came and God will be dancing.

If you’re thinking you don’t know where to begin or think your confession is going to take a while, just call and make an appointment (you don’t have to give your name).  Then I can help you and we can take our time.  I can’t do forty minutes on Saturday afternoon because there are people waiting but call and make an appointment and I will make the time for you.

God will rejoice!

3^rd Sunday in Lent, Year C
Exodus 3:1-8a, 13-15
1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12
Luke 13:1-9
March 3, 2013

“Some people told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices”.  We don’t know any more than this about what happened here but the people are understandably concerned and bring that concern to Jesus.  They might have been wondering why God allowed this.  The thought in that day was that bad things happened to those who sinned.  So, since God did not save these people they must have sinned.

Jesus knows this is what they might think.  He asks them if they think these people must have been greater sinners than everyone else.  He tells them it is not so.  One might suggest their deaths were because of human conflicts.  But Jesus uses it as an opportunity to call the people to repent, telling the people that if they do not repent, they too will perish.

If we do not repent, we perish in Hell.

Then Jesus speaks of the eighteen people who died in Siloam, asking the people if they think those people must have been great sinners.  He tells them no.  For all we know it was a simple accident or a structural failure of the tower.  But again he calls them to repent.

Why is Jesus calling them to repent now?

Sometimes we seem to think we are going to live forever.  We know we haven’t been perfect, that we have sinned, but we think there is plenty of time to repent tomorrow.  When we are young, we think we are going to live a long time.

Jesus is trying to help the people realize there might not be a tomorrow.  We could die in an accident today.

So we need to repent today.

What does it mean to repent?

Sometimes, we just think we need to confess our sins and get on with life.  Repentance is more than just confessing our sins.  It means having a real desire to change our behavior.

God knows we are not perfect.  That’s why he gives us the gift of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  Think of the Act of Contrition we say after we confess our sins.  There are various versions out there but there are two points common in them.  First, that we are sorry for our sins.  And secondly, that we resolve to sin no more.

It isn’t easy to change.  Sometimes it happens instantly and sometimes it takes years.  The good news is that when it takes us years, as long as we really try, God will forgive us over and over.  Our God is a god of infinite chances.

Jesus knew the people needed to repent.  That’s why he takes the people’s question about the blood shed by Pilate and turns it into a teaching moment, an example and warning of what might happen to us.

Sometimes we think death is something that only comes to the elderly.  We might think that as long as we believe in Jesus nothing bad can happen to us.  Remember, I already mentioned that the people in Jesus’ time on Earth thought that when bad things happen it meant you must have sinned.

Well, sometimes bad things happen.  When they do, we might ask, “Why me?”

Sometimes they happen because of choices we make.  Sometimes, they happen because of choices other people make.  Sometimes they just seem to happen (like natural disasters).

When bad things happen (or as Moses wrote “affliction”), we cry out to God.  That’s what the Israelites did as slaves to Egypt.  God heard their cry.

Hearing their cry, he sent Moses to lead them out of Egypt to lead them to “a land flowing with milk and honey.”  We might say why not me?

Why aren’t my prayers being answered?

Sometimes we say we aren’t asking for the right thing.  Sometimes we say God will answer in his time.  Remember the Israelites prayers were not answered immediately.  Even when they were led out of Egypt, they spent forty years in the desert.

We don’t know why some bad things happen but we do know we have a God who is all-powerful and all-knowing.  When Moses asked God his name, he responded first “I am who I am” and then said his name is “I AM.”

It doesn’t seem like much of an answer.

I can say myself ‘I am who I am’ but it isn’t the same when God says it.  God is great.  God is more than we can imagine.  God is one who we can trust in.

Do bad things happen to us?  Yes.

Should we pray that bad things don’t happen?  Yes.

Should we ask God to rescue us from our afflictions?  Yes.  (God doesn’t want us to suffer).

Should we trust in God to provide?  Yes.  Remember the ‘land flowing with milk and honey?”

It’s called Heaven and it’s there for all who believe in Jesus.

Let us not just say we believe but live like we believe.