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.

The Epiphany

For the feast of the Epiphany Matthew’s gospel  tells us of the coming of the Magi, mysterious visitors from afar seeking  the new-born King of the Jews.

Years ago I studied in Rome and one course took me down into the Christian catacombs, where early Christians buried their dead in long underground corridors cut in soft stone. They usually scratched the name of the deceased on the burial place along with a little symbol or prayer expressing their hope and their faith. Sometimes they would also have a picture from the bible drawn or painted onto the wall.

In the catacombs of Priscilla one 3rd century grave belongs to a Roman woman named Severa. Her simple profile appears on her grave with an inscription that reads, “Severa, may you live with God.”

Next to the inscription are figures of the three Magi coming with their gifts to the little Child sitting on Mary’s lap. Over the Child is a star, and behind him is the figure of a man who is probably Balaam, the prophet who said that a star would announce a new king in Judea. (Numbers 24,15-19)

Severa believed that this Child brought the promise of eternal life, not only to  the Jews symbolized by the shepherds tending their sheep in the Bethlehem hills. The Child brought eternal life to her and foreigners like her. The Magi brought him gifts, but they returned to their faraway lands with a gift far beyond what they brought him.

I wonder if Severa was baptized on the feast of the Epiphany. It’s the oldest of the Christmas feasts and was a day besides Easter when people were baptized  in Rome and the western church. If she were baptized then, what was she told? Follow the light God gives you on your journey through life. Always follow the light. However small it is, however far it calls you to go, however it might seem  contradicted by what the world around you says. Sometimes it may not seem to be there at all, but it will be there again.  There’s a star guiding us through life.

The earliest representations of the Magi picture them of different ages. One old, one middle-aged, one young. Follow the light that’s given you all through your life.

The Apostles’ Creed we say at Mass was a summary of the faith Severa was taught when she was baptized. This world is God’s world, who created it and calls it to evolve to its destiny. Jesus Christ is God’s Son, born of Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. On the third day he rose from the dead.

She came to believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.

If Severa heard the story of Herod the Great, the powerful king in our gospel story, she would surely be reminded of the powerful, often paranoid emperors, who ruled in Rome then. But Severa followed Jesus Christ, more powerful than them all.

“Severa, may we live with you in God.”

Friday, First Week of Advent

  Readings:

Isaiah 29:17-24:  The deaf shall hear and the blind shall see.

Matthew 9:27-31:  Jesus gives two blind men sight.

Two blind men are among the many healed by Jesus in Matthew’s gospel. They’re healed together and they represent the blind who will see when the Messiah comes, Isaiah says.

Notice there are two of them, not one. Do the two blind men represent a collective blindness, a group blindness, perhaps a group prejudice against certain people, or a way of thinking that distorts how others are seen? Is it more than    physical blindness they share?  The cures Jesus worked touched more than the ills of body.

When John Newton, the former 18^th century captain of an African slave ship, wrote the famous hymn “Amazing grace,” he said he “was blind, but now I see.” It wasn’t physical blindness he described. The tough seaman was converted on a voyage after reading Thomas a Kempis’ “The Imitation of Christ,” and gradually came to see the horrific evil of slavery as well as other vices he had fallen into.

In 1788 after years of debate over the issue in England, Prime Minister William Pitt formed a committee to investigate the slave trade which, until then, was largely seen by the nation as good for their country’s economic welfare. One of its star witnesses was John Newton who described in detail the slave trade and the horrendous practice it was.

This advent may Jesus bring light to our world, our nation, and our church. There are many things we don’t see.

What do you think they are?

Monday: 1st Week of Advent

Readings:

Isaiah 2:1-5:  All nations stream to God’s mountain.

Matthew 8:5-11:  The Roman centurion at Capernaum.

We don’t think big these days.  Government structures, the European Union, the banks, economic systems throughout the world seem to be falling apart. Better  think small and look out for yourself

Also  watch out for strangers, like the Roman soldier portrayed in the gospel and the Assyrians in their war chariots sweeping through Palestine, even as Isaiah makes his beautiful promises. Or immigrants from the south.

Too many signs of weakness everywhere. Let’s be careful.

But maybe not.  God’s faithful to his promises. Christian hope is not human hope; it thinks big and thinks fearlessly, even in bad times.  God is with us.

Daily homily:

http://thepassionists.org/reflections/

Reflection:

“Each year, as the Church recalls this mystery, she urges us to renew the memory of the great love God has shown us. This holy season teaches us that Christ’s coming was not only for the benefit of his contemporaries; his power has still to be communicated to us all. We shall share his power, if, through holy faith and the sacraments, we willingly accept the grace Christ earned for us, and live by that grace and in obedience to Christ.

The Church asks us to understand that Christ, who came once in the flesh, is prepared to come again. When we remove all obstacles to his presence he will come, at any hour and moment, to dwell spiritually in our hearts, bringing with him the riches of his grace.

In her concern for our salvation, our loving mother the Church uses this holy season to teach us through hymns, canticles and other forms of expression, of voice or ritual, used by the Holy Spirit. She shows us how grateful we should be for so great a blessing, and how to gain its benefit: our hearts should be as much prepared for the coming of Christ as if he were still to come into this world. The same lesson is given us for our imitation by the words and example of the holy men of the Old Testament.”

St. Charles Borromeo

Parables of the Kingdom

Net cast into the Sea

The 11^th and 12^th chapters of Matthew’s gospel, which we read at Mass this last week or so, describe the growing opposition to Jesus as he preaches and performs miracles in Galilee.

Not only do the Pharisees begin to oppose him and plot to put him to death, but the towns where he’s been–Capernaum, Corazin–seem to forget him. Those chapters end with another source of opposition that may surpise us. His own family from Nazareth seems to misunderstand him. It’s a dark part of Matthew’s gospel.

Jesus answers this opposition in chapter 13 in a series of parables, which we’re reading these days at Mass. He begins with the parable of the sower sowing his seed. The seed doesn’t always fall on good ground, he reminds his disciples. Sometimes it falls on the path where it quickly dries up– like the  towns that welcome him enthusiastically and soon forget him.

The parable of the weeds and the wheat points to enemies who want to poison the power and beauty of his words and deeds because of their  own claims.  The Pharisees did that.

The kingdom of God comes in smallness. It’s like the mustard seed, not a full grown tree. You can miss it, a treasure hidden in a field that you may discover  almost accidentally. Maybe Jesus’ own extended family in Nazareth still saw him as just the little boy they knew before and could not appreciate him now. We underestimate small things and  what they can grow to be.

But the kingdom of heaven is also like a merchant in search of fine pearls. You have to keep searching for it all your life. You can’t give up that search. Keep looking, hoping searching.

Jesus concludes his teaching with the parable of the net cast into the sea that catches fish of every kind, good and bad. At the end of time, the net will be dragged to shore and the good will be separated from the bad.

His parables are about the real world, the world Jesus experienced. They also give us a good  template to look at the world we live in, which is not far from his.

Woe to Us Too!

Woe to Us Too!

We’re reading from the 23rd  Chapter of Matthew today, always a tough section to talk about.

One benefit modern scriptural studies give us– and we should be thankful for it– is a better understanding of the past. For instance, as we read from the 23rd chapter of Matthew’s gospel today, it helps to understand the times they were written. Otherwise, we can get a distorted picture of the people whom Jesus loved, the Jews, whom he seems to condemn exclusively in our gospel today.

Matthew’s gospel was written in Syria or Galilee about 40 or 50 years after Jesus had died and rose again. By then, relations between his followers and the followers of the Pharisees had soured as Pharisaic Judaism tried to pull together Jewish life after the terrible destruction of Jerusalem and its temple in 70 AD.

Relations between the two groups were not amicable, to say the least, and as we know, when tempers flare, words can become unfair.

We’re hearing some unfair words in Matthew’s gospel today. Matthew’s sharp polemic, says Rudolf Schnackenburg, a modern commentator on the gospel, “does not really do justice to the conduct of the scribes and Pharisees, not even for the time of alienation between Judaism and Christianity.“ In other words, Matthew’s exaggerating the faults and weaknesses of his opponents.

So, should we ignore these powerful “woes” Jesus speaks? Better, perhaps, to apply them to a wider audience than Matthew does. The 19th century British historian Lord Acton famously said, “Power tends to  corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” He was speaking about the temptation that affects anybody in power to use it for his or her own aims.

Matthew’s woes apply just as well to Christians and their leaders. They can be hypocritical, proud and opinionated too. Instead of hearing Jesus’ words meant only for others, then, let’s hear them meant for his followers–and ourselves as well.

Woe to us too!

Mission, Plainville, Ct. April4

Jesus, our Teacher

Catechesis: Monday evening

Our church says Jesus Christ speaks to us through the scriptures, so to begin with, get a  good bible and use it.

My suggestion is the New American Bible. A good translation, good notes and it’s the version we read in church. The bible is going to be our ordinary catechism. Let’s learn from it.

We used to have a number of Catholic book stores where you could get some help in buying Catholic resources, but many are closed today. You can easily get lost in the big chains like Barnes and Noble and the online stores like Amazon.

 

Try to read some good commentaries on the scriptures. On line, the Passionists have daily reflections on the scriptural readings at www.thepassionists.org

I already mentioned the US Bishops site http://www.usccb.org/nab/

There’s a growing list of good commentaries available online and in print.

Try to learn as much as you can about biblical times and culture. But I have to say a few words of caution about some of the biblical programs you see on television from The History Channel and National Geographic. Sometimes these programs use sensationalism to attract viewers and are not always accurate.

Meditate on the gospels. Don’t be afraid to reflect on a story and become part of it. Some of the most beautiful insights into the gospels have come from ordinary people praying from the scriptures. I think of Brigid of Sweden, whose reflections on the Passion of Jesus gave us the Pieta, the image of the dead body of Jesus cradled in his mother’s arms beneath the cross. The gospels say nothing of that, but Brigid said it had to be.

You can meditate on the scriptures using a traditional prayer like the rosary. Recently, Pope John Paul suggested we meditate on other mysteries of Jesus’ life besides the 15 traditional mysteries. Spiritual writers in the past often suggested we join Mary, who “treasured all these things and kept them in her heart,” when we reflect on Jesus and his times.

Pope Benedict’s new book. Jesus of Nazareth, is an example of someone reflecting on Jesus in the light of the scriptures.  Some may find it difficult to read– the pope is a theologian, after all,  and he thinks like a theologian– but he’s giving the church an example of someone reflecting and praying about the mystery of Jesus Christ.

 

 

 

 

Following Jesus Christ in Lent

 

Lent  takes us on the journey Jesus took from his baptism by John in the Jordan River to his resurrection after he was put to death on the cross in Jerusalem. On the 1st Sunday of Lent we go to the Jordan River where Jesus, after his baptism by John, is led into a deserted place by the Spirit and is tempted for 40 days.

In the following days of Lent, we go with Jesus to Galilee where he preaches to the people, performs many signs that testify to his mission and gathers disciples to follow him.

During the first three weeks of Lent, we read mostly from the Gospel of Matthew which was the favorite gospel of the early church for teaching about Jesus Christ  and what he taught. In this gospel, Peter’s confession at Caesaria Phillipi is the highpoint of the gospel. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” Peter says to Jesus. “You have the words of everlasting life.”

Lent calls us to say that too.

Matthew’s gospel in the first weeks of Lent takes us up the Mount of the Beatitudes where Jesus teaches us how to live and how to pray. He urges us to be faithful to prayer ( Tuesday and Thursday, 1st week of Lent) and to love our neighbor, even our enemies and “the least” whom we might tend to overlook. ( Monday, Friday, Saturday, 1st week of Lent)

The love Matthew’s gospel asks of us is not just an acceptable or normal love; it’s a Godlike love.”Can any of us love like God?” we say. Yet, there’s no watering down the challenge; Jesus’ words are addressed to us all. Lent’s not meant to make us comfortable but to set our sights on loving more, and the bar is higher than we like. Lent calls for our best.

Yet,  the gospel of Matthew, as the reading for the Saturday after Ash Wednesday reminds us, is the gospel of Matthew the tax collector. Jesus called people like Matthew and his friends–not very good keepers of the law– to be his disciples. If we consider ourselves outsiders and sinners, welcome to the lenten season.

In Matthew’s gospel, we will hear  Jesus reminding us that we are on our way to Jerusalem; we are going from the Mount of the Beatitudes to the Mount of Calvary. Matthew likes mountains, like most of the sacred writers do. From a mountain you see distant things more clearly. On the 2nd Sunday of Lent, we go up to the Mount of the Transfiguration to get a glimpse into the glory Jesus brings.

John’s gospel provides most of the lenten weekday gospels beginning with the 4th week of Lent, when we arrive in the Holy City, Jerusalem. I’ll say something about it when we get there.

 

Loving Enemies

Jesus is our Teacher in this Sunday’s gospel selection: Matthew 5,38-48.  He goes up a mountain, gathers disciples around him and teaches them.

His teaching about loving our enemies is hard to understand and hard to follow. Does he want us to like everyone we meet? Pretty hard to do that.  Does he want us to let people walk all over us? Is that what “turning the other cheek” and “going the other mile” mean?

In this, as in other things he taught, we look to Jesus’ own example for guidance, because he lived what he taught. He did not like some people’s narrowness and pride. He did not let others walk over him or stop him from fulfilling his mission. He spoke the truth and brought his blessings to others, even when powerful enemies tried to prevent him. His death on the cross witnesses his life of  fearless commitment.

Loving our enemies does not mean liking everyone or condoning their faults. It does not mean shrinking from our call to do good. It’s about ridding ourselves of  the pessimism that leads to condemning someone or some groups absolutely. It’s about a patience that’s like God’s patience. If we see no possible goodness or possible change in people, only intractable evil, then we don’t see as God sees.

This is a love we must grow into. We can’t reason our way into it, we need God’s grace to attain it. We grow to it through prayer, and so we need to rest in a loving God who loves us all this way.

We know we are growing in this kind of love when we see ourselves doing what St. Paul describes in his Letter to the Romans. Some  say  his words are the earliest commentary on the Sermon on the Mount:

“Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. Never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God. If your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12,17-21

The prayer for today’s Mass asks for this kind of love:

Father,

keep before us the wisdom and love

you revealed in your Son.

Help us to be like him in word and in deed.

Christmas: A Call to Baptism

Matthew’s gospel was the gospel most used for catechesis in the early church. It also plays an important role in the creation of our Christmas season. It gives us the Feast of the Epiphany, for example. Jesus Christ came for the gentiles as well as for the Jews.

I think Matthew’s gospel is also an important source for our upcoming Feast of the Baptism of Jesus which closes the Christmas season. Matthew sees baptism as a way of repentance. That’s how John the Baptist describes it in Matthew’s gospel: “In those days, John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming: ‘Repent, the kingdom of God is near.’” (Mt 3,1-2)

When Pharisee and Sadducees come for baptism, John calls them “a brood of vipers” because they presume they are saved as “children of Abraham.” “God is able to raise up from these stones children of Abraham, “ John says to them.

Baptism is not an entitlement. Baptism is a commitment to repentance. That’s important for us to realize too.

But repentance is a difficult path. Can we do it alone?  John continues in Matthew’s gospel with the promise that one more powerful than he is coming. “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” When we are baptized into Christ, we are given the Holy Spirit and his fire to continue on the path of repentance.

Christmas is not just for looking at the Child in a manger; it’s a call  to enter into the mystery of Jesus Christ.