Following Jesus Christ in Lent

The lenten scripture readings  call us to  follow Jesus  from his baptism by John in the Jordan River to his resurrection in Jerusalem after he died on the cross. On the 1st Sunday of Lent we go to the Jordan River where Jesus is led into a deserted place by the Spirit and tempted for 40 days after his baptism. Our journey with Jesus begins  in a desert.

The weekday gospels for the first three weeks of lent bring us to Galilee where Jesus begins his ministry. They’re mostly from Matthew, the early church’s favorite gospel for teaching about him.  Peter’s confession at Caesaria Phillipi is the highpoint of this gospel. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” Peter says to Jesus. “You have the words of everlasting life.”

Lent invites us to make that same confession.

The readings from Matthew take us to the Mount of the Beatitudes where Jesus speaks “the words of everlasting life.”  Be  faithful to prayer, the Lord says , for you gain wisdom there. ( Tuesday and Thursday, 1st week of Lent)  Love your neighbor, even your enemies and “the least,” whom we can tend to overlook. ( Monday, Friday, Saturday, 1st week of Lent)

But can we  possibly love that way? we ask. The love Jesus asks for on the mountain is so lofty and challenging.  There’s no watering down the challenge, however.  Far from making us comfortable, Lent sets our sights on loving more. It calls for our best; the bar is higher than we like.

Yet, look at the reading for the Saturday after Ash Wednesday; who does Jesus call to be his disciples?  Matthew the tax collector and people like him–not very good keepers of the law. Are we outsiders and sinners like them?  Welcome to the lenten season where the Lord calls us as he called them.

Matthew’s gospel leads us from the Mount of the Beatitudes to Jerusalem, to the Mount of Calvary. Like most sacred writers, Matthew likes mountains. You see the distance more clearly from them. On the 2nd Sunday of Lent, we go up to the Mount of the Transfiguration to glimpse the  glory found ahead. By the 4th week of Lent,  we arrive  in the Holy City, Jerusalem,  and then most of the weekday lenten gospels will be from John. I’ll say something about them when we get there.

You can follow the lenten readings online here.

Jesus in Jerusalem

John’s gospel has Jesus coming to Jerusalem three times, while the synoptics present him on one journey to the Holy City. Beginning with the 4th week of lent, John’s accounts of Jesus activity in the city are read in church in the weeks before Easter; they feature his extensive dialogue with “the Jews,” in which he claims to be God’s Son. That claim is strongly rejected and leads to his death.

Most of these dialogues take place in the Jerusalem temple. Where in the temple? It seems in the Court of the Gentiles, which according to scholarly reconstructions was the largest area in the imposing structure Herod the Great built.

Besides his claim to be God’s Son, Jesus also claims to be sent to realize the prophecies that all nations are to come to this place where an area has already been assigned to them. Now, however, Jesus claims he is the new temple. All peoples will come to him.

I told the people at Mass this morning, about 60 were there, to look at the empty space in their beautiful church. It was there for people to fill and they have a mission to call them. Many in this neighborhood once were here; they need to be invited to come again. Others were never here; they need to be called too.

I mentioned the pope’s recent suggestion that every church have a “court of the gentiles” a place that welcomes the world. That may be a physical space or, more likely, a symbolic space. But more importantly, our churches should welcome outsiders. They belong here.

Love on a Friday

Mk 12:28-34

One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him,
“Which is the first of all the commandments?”
Jesus replied, “The first is this:
Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these.”
The scribe said to him, “Well said, teacher.
You are right in saying,
He is One and there is no other than he.
And to love him with all your heart,
with all your understanding,
with all your strength,
and to love your neighbor as yourself
is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding,
he said to him,
“You are not far from the Kingdom of God.”
And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

We  should expect to hear about love on a lenten friday. Believers, of course, recall the passion of Jesus on all the fridays of the year, but the lenten fridays are special days to prepare for the Friday called Good. That was a day of love.

On that day the great commandment Jesus preached was fulfilled in a striking way. Historians, scholars, artists approach the mystery of his passion and death from so many perspectives. The gospels and Christian tradition dwell on it in great detail. It is a fascinating conclusion to a fascinating life.

But the question Why did Jesus suffer such a death? can only be answered by  recognizing it as his response to the command of love. Jesus accepted the cross with love for his heavenly Father and love for us, who were there when he was crucified.

The cross was not something Jesus endured, he embraced  it with his whole heart, his whole mind and all his strength. At his cross, we stand before Love.