3rd Sunday after Easter

John 21, 1-18

I think I know where this gospel took place. It’s called Tabgha, a quiet, wooded area on the Lake of Galilee just south of the ancient town of Capernaum. It’s easy walking distance from the town that was the center of Jesus’ ministry.

The name Tabgha comes from the seven springs of water flowing into the lake there. When I visited some years ago, flocks of birds were singing in the trees and drinking from the streams of water.

For centuries fishermen must have pulled in here to get fresh water from the springs, and perhaps fry some fish over a fire on the beach. It’s a likely place where Jesus would come to pray. Tradition, witnessed by two centuries-old churches on the site, says he met his disciples here in this beautiful place after his resurrection.

According to John’s gospel, Peter and other disciples of Jesus came to Galilee after the Lord’s death and resurrection and went fishing. Through the night they caught nothing, but at dawn they heard a call from the shore to cast their nets out again.
“… Jesus was standing on the shore; but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.” They caught of large catch of 153 fish. Jesus then called from the shore to come eat some fish at a fire he had started and he gave them bread and some fish to eat and revealed himself to them.

Peter has a leading role in this story. He jumped into the water to get to the shore after he’s told Jesus was there. Then after they have eaten, Jesus takes him aside and three times asks the disciple who denied him three times, “Do you love me?”

Three times the apostle who cursed and swore in the courtyard of the High Priest that he did not even know Jesus answers “Yes, I do. I love you.” And Jesus tells him “Feed my lambs. Feed my sheep.”

A great example of forgiveness is found here. No scolding words or recriminations. No “I told you so.” No warning, “You do that again and …” No demotion, no putting on parole. Rather, Jesus gives Peter new responsibility. “Feed my lambs” as I do. A beautiful picture of what God’s mercy is.

Instead of punishing him, God calls Peter to new things. The mercy of God always calls us to something new, some new life.

Tabgha, along the Lake of Galilee where Jesus met his disciples, is a wonderful place to visit. My guess is that this spot was where Jesus often prayed during his days in Capernaum and where he often called his disciples to rest awhile. Here he communed with God his Father and showed his love for others; here he prayed and forgave. His memory lingers at this lovely place besides the Sea of Galilee.

We learn here that prayer and forgiveness go together, as Jesus taught. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Today’s gospel urges us to pray and learn to forgive as Jesus did. Maybe there’s someone who has hurt us, maybe we have an unforgiving attitude towards some situation we’re facing now. A job we don’t like, a home situation we’re angry about, something in society that upsets us.

Pray and forgive.

The Tax-Collector’s Prayer

In Luke’s gospel Jesus often sides with those who are so let down by life that they hardly dream of anything better– tax collectors, widows, sinners like the prodigal son. He was criticized frequently by others for associating with people like that, so he must have done it often enough.
The tax collector in the parable we read today, who’s praying in the back of the temple, is an example. Luke recalls earlier in his gospel that Jesus sat down at table with Matthew and some of his tax collector friends in Capernaum. Was he telling their story in this parable?
Staying at a distance, eyes down, the tax collector says only a few words:“O God, be merciful to me a sinner.”
The Pharisee’s prayer is so different, so full of himself; he seems to ask only for applause and approval. The tax collector asks only for mercy.
His prayer is heard so shouldn’t we make it our own? Tax-collectors,  widows and sinners stand closest to where all humanity stands. We all need God’s mercy. We come to God empty-handed.
“O God come to my assistance. O Lord make haste to help me.”

“O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

The “Real Reason” the Pope’s Resigning

If we see the pope’s resignation only through the eyes of CNN or The New York Times we’ll miss so much. The pope himself chose to explain his action to the crowd in St. Peter’s square today in the context of the gospel story of the Transfiguration of Jesus and his  journey to Jerusalem.

He saw his own decision as a choice to ascend the mountain of prayer, which is not a way of escaping life, but of understanding it. He wants to serve the church, not  leave it, and so he embraces a life of prayer.

“We can draw a very important lesson from meditating on this passage of the Gospel. First, the primacy of prayer, without which all the work of the apostolate and of charity is reduced to activism. In Lent we learn to give proper time to prayer, both personal and communal, which gives breath to our spiritual life. In addition, to pray is not to isolate oneself from the world and its contradictions, as Peter wanted on Tabor, instead prayer leads us back to the path, to action. “The Christian life – I wrote in my Message for Lent – consists in continuously scaling the mountain to meet God and then coming back down, bearing the love and strength drawn from him, so as to serve our brothers and sisters with God’s own love “(n. 3).

Luke’s account of the Transfiguration sees this mystery pointing to the primacy of prayer in the life of Jesus and his disciples. Why not take the pope at his word? He intends to pray.

“Dear brothers and sisters, I feel that this Word of God is particularly directed at me, at this point in my life. The Lord is calling me to “climb the mountain”, to devote myself even more to prayer and meditation. But this does not mean abandoning the Church, indeed, if God is asking me to do this it is so that I can continue to serve the Church with the same dedication and the same love with which I have done thus far, but in a way that is better suited to my age and my strength. Let us invoke the intercession of the Virgin Mary: may she always help us all to follow the Lord Jesus in prayer and works of charity.”

The Weather of God’s Blessings

The first reading from today’s Lenten Mass describes God’s blessings in terms of the weather.

“Just as from the heavens

the rain and snow come down, and do not return there

till they have watered the earth,

making it fertile and fruitful,

Giving seed to the one who sows

and bread to the one who eats,

So shall my word be

that goes forth from my mouth;

It shall not return to me void,

but shall do my will,

achieving the end for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55,10)

Can this reading help us understand how God blesses us?  Like rain or snow God’s blessings come, making our lives fruitful. Yes, they will surely come, but how about the times we have to wait, when no rain or snow comes at all?

God’s blessings are like the weather.

Or think of God’s blessings through the Sign of the Cross. We say “we bless ourselves” when we make this sign. Sometimes God’s blessing comes through the cross of glory and we receive blessings never imagined through his tender mercy.

Sometimes his blessings takes another form of his cross; disappointment, suffering, failure, sickness, death. There God’s blessings are mostly hidden and hard to see.

In Matthew’s gospel today Jesus offers us a way of praying. Does this blessing also follow the weather. Prayer is a gift, but it’s a gift like the rain and snow. It’s one of God’s greatest gifts to us, yet sometimes we find it hard to pray while at other times it wells up within us.

The blessings of God are like the weather.

What am I going to do for Lent?

Lent begins  Ash Wednesday. What am I going to do for Lent? The supper table is a good place to ask myself the question, because Lent is about renewing ourselves as we are and where we live. The supper table is where we usually look at  life here and now.

We usually  face those closest to us there. Doing something for Lent must mean doing something for them, first of all, the people across the table–or maybe those who have left our table. A scripture reading early on in Lent says: “Don’t turn your back on your own.”   Renewing our relationship with those closest  to us is one of the ways we renew ourselves.

Besides the supper table, I guess we should also ask that question “What am I going to do?” in the place where I work, or where I go to school. Don’t turn your back on them either.

Lent is for renewing ourselves as we are, in real life and real time. It’s not about changing us into different people or changing the world we live in or going to Mars.

The Ash Wednesday scriptures tell us to pray, to fast and give alms. What am I going to do for Lent? How about praying everyday? How about fasting from my own hard opinions of others? How about thinking about others and not just myself?

What am I going to do for Lent? I hope I can get closer to God, and that means for me to get closer to Jesus Christ. Where should I begin? Let me look in the scriptures, especially the scriptures we read during Lent.

One thing we shouldn’t forget when we ask that question  is  another question: “What’s God going to do for us during Lent?” That’s even more important. Lent is a time of God’s grace, more than we can hope for, beyond what we could possibly earn. The great sign of God’s limitless giving is the Passion of his Son, a wondrous gift beyond all others.

Father Theodore Foley, CP

Today’s gospel from Mark speaks about the return of Jesus to his home in Nazareth. It reminded me of the great spiritual figures I’ve lived with, one of whom is Father Theodore Foley, CP, whom I appreciate more and more. Here’s a summary of his life.

He was born in 1919 in Springfield, Massachusetts into a devout Catholic family.  He went to Catholic schools and experienced a vibrant Catholic life in Sacred Heart parish in the north end of Springfield.

As a young boy of 14 he was attracted to the missionary spirit and spirituality of the Passionist community. Entering the Passionists, he was ordained a priest in 1940 and became one of its best spiritual guides and teachers of theology.

In 1958 Father Theodore went to Rome to be a general consultor for the worldwide Passionist community. In 1964 he became its superior general. He led his community through the turbulent decades of the 1960s and 70s when social unrest, political confrontations, assassinations, anti-establishment and anti-war demonstrations began shaking the western world and the Catholic Church.

As traditional values came into question and church membership (including membership in his own community) began to decline, he was a rock of hope to those shaken by the times.

A participant in the Second Vatican Council, Father Theodore took up its challenge and worked tirelessly to bring the message of Jesus Christ to the world. Seeking new opportunities to do God’s will, he traveled to Asia and Africa to extend the missionary outreach of his community. He also promoted the study of the Passion of Jesus as a remedy for a world in danger of forgetting God.

For him a perilous time like ours was not a reason to do nothing. It’s a time for “God’s purification in our lives and we have to accept it and do our best for the future of the congregation and our church.”

While furthering new ventures in Africa, he contracted a deadly virus which on his return to Rome caused his death on October 9, 1974.

A gentle man, faithful to prayer and unfailingly kind to others, Father Theodore believed that God is always at work in our world, even in bad times. The mystery of the passion of Jesus, which he kept constantly before his eyes, nourished in him a steady hope that God leads us on, no matter how dark life seems to be.

A hope like his is a hope to pray for today. Father Theodore is a candidate for canonization, and here’s a prayer that his cause succeeds:

Prayer for the Beatification of Fr. Theodore Foley, CP

 

Lord Jesus Christ,

You called Theodore Foley to follow you to Calvary’s heights as a Passionist priest and through your Immaculate and Sorrowful Mother taught him to fulfill your Father’s will by loving God and neighbor.

Let his life inspire us to a life of deeper virtue.

We humbly ask you to glorify your servant Father Theodore according to the designs of your holy will and through his intercession, grant the request I now present to you. (here mention  your request). Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

 

Listening to Prayers

I hear people listening to the Eucharistic Prayers these last few weeks. Maybe I’m imagining it, but there’s a stillness in church during Mass that seems to indicate it, and that’s encouraging, because listening is an important way we pray at Mass. It’s vital to listen to the scriptures that are read and the homily that’s preached, but we also need to listen to the prayers we say as well. This is especially true of the Eucharistic prayer.

I recorded an audio file of the 2^nd Eucharistic Prayer for Various Needs and you can listen to it at the end of this blog, if you wish. Listen and reflect on the words. The Eucharistic prayers help us understand the mystery we celebrate.

Think about the words of the prayer and ask yourself what they mean. For example, take the dialogue that opens every Eucharistic prayer:

“The Lord be with you.

And with your spirit.

Lift us your hearts.

We have lifted them up to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord, our God.

It is right and just.”

The Lord is with you and me as we pray and and gives us the grace to lift up our hearts together and  enter God’s presence. It’s a presence that expands our vision of life and broadens our awareness of who we are.

What do we thank God for? Certainly for the personal blessings we encounter in our life at hand, but we don’t stop there. In God’s presence we become aware of  the blessings of creation and redemption given to us by God, our Father, through Jesus Christ.

The Eucharist calls us into a large world, infinitely larger than our own time and place. If fact, it brings us into the context of eternity. We’re in touch with the beginnings of our universe and reach out to the end of time, when God’s kingdom will come. We belong to this great world as children of God. We have been blessed with a promise far beyond our imagination.

We receive this promise through Jesus Christ whose love we recall in the gifts of bread and wine. He is present and tells us to remember him.

Here’s an audio of a Eucharistic Prayer

Praying at Mass

Recently, I’ve noticed a decline in the number of people at Mass in the parish where I go.  People are busy, of course. Some say they don’t get much out of it. Whatever the reasons, US Catholics aren’t going to Mass as they did before.

We have new texts for Mass, will they turn things around?  I doubt it. Better preaching? That would help. But there’s more. We need to look at the way we pray at Mass and prayerfully participate in it.  The Mass is the central act of our faith, and we need to bring everything we have– our minds, our memories, ourselves– to it.

We’re there to pray, from the moment we enter the church to the moment we leave. Only by praying at Mass will we appreciate it.

The way we pray at Mass is simple. It begins as we enter church and make the Sign of the Cross. It’s a key to a world of faith. Taking  holy water  we bless ourselves “In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” We are reminding ourselves  that we’re blessed by God with the gift of life and everything it means through Jesus Christ. Water is a sign of that life. The bread we take is another. They stand for the totality of blessings we receive and we acknowledge our blessings and give thanks through them.

Jesus said “If anyone is thirsty come to me.” He also said “I am the bread of life.” As we make the Sign of the Cross,  we’re reminded we’re at the source of life now and of life everlasting, Jesus Christ. We’re blessed by his life, death and resurrection. We trace his sign on ourselves, on our foreheads, our hearts and our shoulders. We’re blessed in mind and heart and all our being.

So, as Mass begins, the priest leads us into this great  act of blessing and thanksgiving by inviting us to make the Sign of the Cross.

Notice we bless ourselves  a number of times at Mass besides its beginning.  We bless ourselves as the gospel is proclaimed, asking that our minds and hearts be blessed to hear God’s Word. We bless ourselves as we leave the church at the end of the Mass, because we carry God’s blessings to our world.

Besides the Sign of the Cross,  simple acclamations at Mass  draw us into this blessed mystery. So,  as the priest concludes a prayer or action, we often say “Amen” an ancient Hebrew word, which means “Yes” we agree. The “Amen” at Mass calls us into the blessing of God. Simple word like “Amen”  draw us to the prayer of the church.

“The Lord be with you.” “Lift up your hearts.” “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.”

Listen carefully to those words and the readings, the songs and the music at Mass. Say them and mean them. Sing them when they’re sung, for“Someone who sings well prays twice.” So we join our voices in song. At Mass we pray together.

We pray with our eyes, too, as we see the actions and signs of Mass. Walking, kneeling, standing are prayers. Simple actions, like bowing and offering our hand to receive the Host are prayers. At Mass we pray with our whole being. Our walking, seeing, listening, speaking become acts of prayer that bring us into the presence of God.

Of course, we often come to Mass with a lot of things on our mind that distract us from this great mystery. So often we’re on overload. Our faith may not be the strongest. We have our doubts. We get sunk in the everydayness of our own lives.

But God’s grace is here in this great mystery and God will draw us–weak as we are–into this great mystery.  God will give us– all of us– the gift to pray and find blessings here. God draws us here to bless us.

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

We celebrate a Week of Prayer for Christian Unity every year from the 18^th to the 25^th of January. Pope Benedict recently said that one of the gravest sins “that disfigure the Church’s face” is the sin “against her visible unity”, and, in particular, “the historical divisions which separated Christians and which have not yet been surmounted”.

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is “an event much appreciated by believers and communities which reawakens in all the desire for and spiritual commitment to full communion,” the pope added.

The pope mentioned in this regard a prayer vigil in St. Peter’s Square on December 19^th in which thousands of young people from all over the world gathered with the ecumenical community of Taize to pray. He called it “a moment of grace in which we experienced the beauty of unity  in Christ.”

“The restoration of unity among all Christians is one of the principal concerns of the Second Vatican Council.” (Decree on Ecumenism n.1). Cardinal Kurt Koch, head of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity said recently that ecumenical efforts affect the mission of the church, because the division of Christians prevents the preaching of the gospel and “deprives many people of access to the faith” (Ad Gentes, n. 6). Divisions among Christian cause a confusion that hinders people from accepting the gospel today. He added that we are in a “profoundly changed ecumenical situation.”

Passionist Father Ignatius Spencer, an early pioneer in ecumenical activity, strongly urged more prayer together. Might be a good idea to consider . How can we do it?

Prayers for Thanksgiving Day

“Sing and make music to the Lord in your hearts, always thanking God the Father for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Ephesians 5, 19-20.

In the collect for Thanksgiving Day in the New Roman Missal we pray to God whose “gifts of love are countless…with gratitude for your kindness.”  But gratitude leads us to ask   God to “open our hearts to have concern for every man, woman and child, so that we may share your gifts in loving service.”   Receiving leads to giving.

In the preface of the Mass  we thank God for the “great gift  of freedom, a gift that calls forth responsibility and commitment to the truth that all have a fundamental dignity before you.”  So freedom leads to service of others. “ Help us, we pray, to reach out in love to all your people, so that we may share with them the good things of time and eternity.” (Prayer after Communion)

If we look at thanksgiving that way, I suppose that’s what Meister Eckhart  meant when he said “If the only prayer that you said in your entire life is Thank You, that would suffice.”

O God, your gifts of love are countless

and we thank you for them all.

May our hearts be concerned  like yours for every man, woman and child,

that we might share your gifts with them,

gifts of time and eternity.

Bless the gifts of food and drink we share at this table.

Bless those who prepared them for us,

Bless those we’re called to serve, O Lord, through Jesus Christ.

We give you thanks. Amen.