BIBLE STUDY # 83
PALM SUNDAY OF THE LORD’S PASSION
April 1, 2012
AT THE PROCESSION WITH PALMS
GOSPEL MARK 11:1-10
When Jesus and his disciples drew near to Jerusalem,
to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives,
he sent two of his disciples and said to them,
"Go into the village opposite you,
and immediately on entering it,
you will find a colt tethered on which no one has ever sat.
Untie it and bring it here.
If anyone should say to you,
'Why are you doing this?' reply,
'The Master has need of it
and will send it back here at once.'"
So they went off
and found a colt tethered at a gate outside on the street,
and they untied it.
Some of the bystanders said to them,
"What are you doing, untying the colt?"
They answered them just as Jesus had told them to,
and they permitted them to do it.
So they brought the colt to Jesus
and put their cloaks over it.
And he sat on it.
Many people spread their cloaks on the road,
and others spread leafy branches
that they had cut from the fields.
Those preceding him as well as those following kept crying out:
"Hosanna!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come!
Hosanna in the highest!"
The Gospel of the Lord
AT THE MASS
READING 1
ISAIAH 50:4-7
The Lord GOD has given me
a well-trained tongue,
that I might know how to speak to the weary
a word that will rouse them.
Morning after morning
he opens my ear that I may hear;
and I have not rebelled,
have not turned back.
I gave my back to those who beat me,
my cheeks to those who plucked my beard;
my face I did not shield
from buffets and spitting.
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.
The Word of the Lord
READING 2
PHILIPPIANS 2:6-11
Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name
which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
The Word of the Lord
GOSPEL
MARK 14:1-15:471
The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread
were to take place in two days' time.
So the chief priests and the scribes were seeking a way
to arrest him by treachery and put him to death.
They said, "Not during the festival,
for fear that there may be a riot among the people."
When he was in Bethany reclining at table
in the house of Simon the leper,
a woman came with an alabaster jar of perfumed oil,
costly genuine spikenard.
She broke the alabaster jar and poured it on his head.
There were some who were indignant.
"Why has there been this waste of perfumed oil?
It could have been sold for more than three hundred days' wages
and the money given to the poor."
They were infuriated with her.
Jesus said, "Let her alone.
Why do you make trouble for her?
She has done a good thing for me.
The poor you will always have with you,
and whenever you wish you can do good to them,
but you will not always have me.
She has done what she could.
She has anticipated anointing my body for burial.
Amen, I say to you,
wherever the gospel is proclaimed to the whole world,
what she has done will be told in memory of her."
Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve,
went off to the chief priests to hand him over to them.
When they heard him they were pleased and promised to pay him money.
Then he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.
On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
when they sacrificed the Passover lamb,
his disciples said to him,
"Where do you want us to go
and prepare for you to eat the Passover?"
He sent two of his disciples and said to them,
"Go into the city and a man will meet you,
carrying a jar of water.
Follow him.
Wherever he enters, say to the master of the house,
'The Teacher says, "Where is my guest room
where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?"'
Then he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready.
Make the preparations for us there."
The disciples then went off, entered the city,
and found it just as he had told them;
and they prepared the Passover.
When it was evening, he came with the Twelve.
And as they reclined at table and were eating, Jesus said,
"Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me,
one who is eating with me."
They began to be distressed and to say to him, one by one,
"Surely it is not I?"
He said to them,
"One of the Twelve, the one who dips with me into the dish.
For the Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him,
but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.
It would be better for that man if he had never been born."
While they were eating,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them, and said,
"Take it; this is my body."
Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them,
and they all drank from it.
He said to them,
"This is my blood of the covenant,
which will be shed for many.
Amen, I say to you,
I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine
until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."
Then, after singing a hymn,
they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Then Jesus said to them,
"All of you will have your faith shaken, for it is written:
I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will be dispersed.
But after I have been raised up,
I shall go before you to Galilee."
Peter said to him,
"Even though all should have their faith shaken,
mine will not be."
Then Jesus said to him,
"Amen, I say to you,
this very night before the cock crows twice
you will deny me three times."
But he vehemently replied,
"Even though I should have to die with you,
I will not deny you."
And they all spoke similarly.
Then they came to a place named Gethsemane,
and he said to his disciples,
"Sit here while I pray."
He took with him Peter, James, and John,
and began to be troubled and distressed.
Then he said to them, "My soul is sorrowful even to death.
Remain here and keep watch."
He advanced a little and fell to the ground and prayed
that if it were possible the hour might pass by him;
he said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible to you.
Take this cup away from me,
but not what I will but what you will."
When he returned he found them asleep.
He said to Peter, "Simon, are you asleep?
Could you not keep watch for one hour?
Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test.
The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak."
Withdrawing again, he prayed, saying the same thing.
Then he returned once more and found them asleep,
for they could not keep their eyes open
and did not know what to answer him.
He returned a third time and said to them,
"Are you still sleeping and taking your rest?
It is enough. The hour has come.
Behold, the Son of Man is to be handed over to sinners.
Get up, let us go.
See, my betrayer is at hand."
Then, while he was still speaking,
Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived,
accompanied by a crowd with swords and clubs
who had come from the chief priests,
the scribes, and the elders.
His betrayer had arranged a signal with them, saying,
"The man I shall kiss is the one;
arrest him and lead him away securely."
He came and immediately went over to him and said,
"Rabbi." And he kissed him.
At this they laid hands on him and arrested him.
One of the bystanders drew his sword,
struck the high priest's servant, and cut off his ear.
Jesus said to them in reply,
"Have you come out as against a robber,
with swords and clubs, to seize me?
Day after day I was with you teaching in the temple area,
yet you did not arrest me;
but that the Scriptures may be fulfilled."
And they all left him and fled.
Now a young man followed him
wearing nothing but a linen cloth about his body.
They seized him,
but he left the cloth behind and ran off naked.
They led Jesus away to the high priest,
and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes came together.
Peter followed him at a distance into the high priest's courtyard
and was seated with the guards, warming himself at the fire.
The chief priests and the entire Sanhedrin
kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus
in order to put him to death, but they found none.
Many gave false witness against him,
but their testimony did not agree.
Some took the stand and testified falsely against him,
alleging, "We heard him say,
'I will destroy this temple made with hands
and within three days I will build another
not made with hands.'"
Even so their testimony did not agree.
The high priest rose before the assembly and questioned Jesus,
saying, "Have you no answer?
What are these men testifying against you?"
But he was silent and answered nothing.
Again the high priest asked him and said to him,
"Are you the Christ, the son of the Blessed One?"
Then Jesus answered, "I am;
and 'you will see the Son of Man
seated at the right hand of the Power
and coming with the clouds of heaven.'"
At that the high priest tore his garments and said,
"hat further need have we of witnesses?
You have heard the blasphemy.
What do you think?"
They all condemned him as deserving to die.
Some began to spit on him.
They blindfolded him and struck him and said to him, "Prophesy!"
And the guards greeted him with blows.
While Peter was below in the courtyard,
one of the high priest's maids came along.
Seeing Peter warming himself,
she looked intently at him and said,
"You too were with the Nazarene, Jesus."
But he denied it saying,
"I neither know nor understand what you are talking about."
So he went out into the outer court.
Then the cock crowed.
The maid saw him and began again to say to the bystanders,
"This man is one of them."
Once again he denied it.
A little later the bystanders said to Peter once more,
"Surely you are one of them; for you too are a Galilean."
He began to curse and to swear,
"I do not know this man about whom you are talking."
And immediately a cock crowed a second time.
Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had said to him,
"Before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times."
He broke down and wept.
As soon as morning came,
the chief priests with the elders and the scribes,
that is, the whole Sanhedrin held a council.
They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate.
Pilate questioned him,
"Are you the king of the Jews?"
He said to him in reply, "You say so."
The chief priests accused him of many things.
Again Pilate questioned him,
"Have you no answer?
See how many things they accuse you of."
Jesus gave him no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.
Now on the occasion of the feast he used to release to them
one prisoner whom they requested.
A man called Barabbas was then in prison
along with the rebels who had committed murder in a rebellion.
The crowd came forward and began to ask him
to do for them as he was accustomed.
Pilate answered,
"Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?"
For he knew that it was out of envy
that the chief priests had handed him over.
But the chief priests stirred up the crowd
to have him release Barabbas for them instead.
Pilate again said to them in reply,
"Then what do you want me to do
with the man you call the king of the Jews?"
They shouted again, "Crucify him."
Pilate said to them, "Why? What evil has he done?"
They only shouted the louder, "Crucify him."
So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd,
released Barabbas to them and, after he had Jesus scourged,
handed him over to be crucified.
The soldiers led him away inside the palace,
that is, the praetorium, and assembled the whole cohort.
They clothed him in purple and,
weaving a crown of thorns, placed it on him.
They began to salute him with, AHail, King of the Jews!"
and kept striking his head with a reed and spitting upon him.
They knelt before him in homage.
And when they had mocked him,
they stripped him of the purple cloak,
dressed him in his own clothes,
and led him out to crucify him.
They pressed into service a passer-by, Simon,
a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country,
the father of Alexander and Rufus,
to carry his cross.
They brought him to the place of Golgotha
— which is translated Place of the Skull —
They gave him wine drugged with myrrh,
but he did not take it.
Then they crucified him and divided his garments
by casting lots for them to see what each should take.
It was nine o'clock in the morning when they crucified him.
The inscription of the charge against him read,
"The King of the Jews."
With him they crucified two revolutionaries,
one on his right and one on his left.
Those passing by reviled him,
shaking their heads and saying,
"Aha! You who would destroy the temple
and rebuild it in three days,
save yourself by coming down from the cross."
Likewise the chief priests, with the scribes,
mocked him among themselves and said,
"He saved others; he cannot save himself.
Let the Christ, the King of Israel,
come down now from the cross
that we may see and believe."
Those who were crucified with him also kept abusing him.
At noon darkness came over the whole land
until three in the afternoon.
And at three o'clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice,
"Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?"
which is translated,
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Some of the bystanders who heard it said,
"Look, he is calling Elijah."
One of them ran, soaked a sponge with wine, put it on a reed
and gave it to him to drink saying,
"Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to take him down."
Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.
Here all kneel and pause for a short time.
The veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom.
When the centurion who stood facing him
saw how he breathed his last he said,
"Truly this man was the Son of God!"
There were also women looking on from a distance.
Among them were Mary Magdalene,
Mary the mother of the younger James and of Joses, and Salome.
These women had followed him when he was in Galilee
and ministered to him.
There were also many other women
who had come up with him to Jerusalem.
When it was already evening,
since it was the day of preparation,
the day before the sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea,
a distinguished member of the council,
who was himself awaiting the kingdom of God,
came and courageously went to Pilate
and asked for the body of Jesus.
Pilate was amazed that he was already dead.
He summoned the centurion
and asked him if Jesus had already died.
And when he learned of it from the centurion,
he gave the body to Joseph.
Having bought a linen cloth, he took him down,
wrapped him in the linen cloth,
and laid him in a tomb that had been hewn out of the rock.
Then he rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb.
Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses
watched where he was laid.
OR MK 15:1-39
As soon as morning came,
the chief priests with the elders and the scribes,
that is, the whole Sanhedrin held a council.
They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate.
Pilate questioned him,
“Are you the king of the Jews?”
He said to him in reply, “You say so.”
The chief priests accused him of many things.
Again Pilate questioned him,
“Have you no answer?
See how many things they accuse you of.”
Jesus gave him no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.
Now on the occasion of the feast he used to release to them
one prisoner whom they requested.
A man called Barabbas was then in prison
along with the rebels who had committed murder in a rebellion.
The crowd came forward and began to ask him
to do for them as he was accustomed.
Pilate answered,
“Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?”
For he knew that it was out of envy
that the chief priests had handed him over.
But the chief priests stirred up the crowd
to have him release Barabbas for them instead.
Pilate again said to them in reply,
“Then what do you want me to do
with the man you call the king of the Jews?”
They shouted again, “Crucify him.”
Pilate said to them, “Why? What evil has he done?”
They only shouted the louder, “Crucify him.”
So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd,
released Barabbas to them and, after he had Jesus scourged,
handed him over to be crucified.
The soldiers led him away inside the palace,
that is, the praetorium, and assembled the whole cohort.
They clothed him in purple and,
weaving a crown of thorns, placed it on him.
They began to salute him with, “Hail, King of the Jews!”
and kept striking his head with a reed and spitting upon him.
They knelt before him in homage.
And when they had mocked him,
they stripped him of the purple cloak,
dressed him in his own clothes,
and led him out to crucify him.
They pressed into service a passer-by, Simon,
a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country,
the father of Alexander and Rufus,
to carry his cross.
They brought him to the place of Golgotha
—which is translated Place of the Skull —
They gave him wine drugged with myrrh,
but he did not take it.
Then they crucified him and divided his garments
by casting lots for them to see what each should take.
It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him.
The inscription of the charge against him read,
“The King of the Jews.”
With him they crucified two revolutionaries,
one on his right and one on his left.
Those passing by reviled him,
shaking their heads and saying,
“Aha! You who would destroy the temple
and rebuild it in three days,
save yourself by coming down from the cross.”
Likewise the chief priests, with the scribes,
mocked him among themselves and said,
“He saved others; he cannot save himself.
Let the Christ, the King of Israel,
come down now from the cross
that we may see and believe.”
Those who were crucified with him also kept abusing him.
At noon darkness came over the whole land
until three in the afternoon.
And at three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice,
“Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?”
which is translated,
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Some of the bystanders who heard it said,
“Look, he is calling Elijah.”
One of them ran, soaked a sponge with wine, put it on a reed
and gave it to him to drink saying,
“Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to take him down.”
Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.
Here all kneel and pause for a short time.
The veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom.
When the centurion who stood facing him
saw how he breathed his last he said,
“Truly this man was the Son of God!”
The Gospel of the Lord
Before I begin with my reflection, I’d like to share a reflection on the Easter Triduum :
This week we begin the shortest liturgical season of the year: The Triduum. This is a Latin word meaning three days and it includes Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. We tend to separate these three days from each other as if they existed alone and not in concert with each other. We tend to think in terms of re-enactment, as if we were reliving those days and we try to place ourselves in these events. What was it like at the Last Supper, or at Calvary, or at the empty tomb? What did the apostles and disciples, the people in the scriptural stories experience those three days? What would I have done if I were there? But these events can’t be relived or re-enacted. As the Church teaches, what happened once in history becomes a part of our sacramental celebrations of this week. The Triduum is one long story of God’s love for us; it celebrates mystery, not history. We need to think of these three days in relation to how God is working in our lives today. How do the events of this week shape and mold my faith; how do these events draw me closer to God in today’s world; what do they say about my interaction with the problems of my family, my community, my society; how do these events give me hope in a troubled world; and how do they assist me in being the best disciple I can be? I invite all of you to share in as much of our events of this week as you can to reflect on how God is working in your life. May this be a week of grace and inspiration, but especially peace.
Reflection
In Mark 11:1-11 (Jesus entry into Jerusalem), Bethpage (meaning house of unripe figs) was on the Mount of Olives but its exact location is unknown. Bethany is about 2 miles east of Jerusalem and today is known as El-Azaraih and is connected to the tomb of Lazarus.
During the last week of Jesus life, Bethany serves as a home base for Jesus. Look in the gospel: many things happen between Jesus entry to Jerusalem and his death, some which are well known, such as the parable of the talents, paying taxes to the emperor, and the greatest commandment, to mention a few.
The Mount of Olives is a large hillside to the east of Jerusalem and is quite a bit higher in elevation than Jerusalem itself; it provides quite a spectacular view of the whole of Jerusalem. It received its name because it was a good place to grow olive trees. According to Zechariah 14:4, the Lord will be revealed here in the decisive battle against the nations. In our time, there are a lot of graves on the Mount of Olives, and it is a great privilege to be buried there. For the Jewish people, those buried here are to be the first ones to rise to greet the Messiah
Jesus sends his disciples to the “village opposite you” probably meaning Bethphage, which was located between Bethany and Jerusalem. He sends them to find a “colt tethered on which no one has ever sat.” This symbolic action comes from Zechariah 9:9, a description of the divine warrior: “Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Matthew’s Gospel Jesus sends the disciples out to find a donkey and a colt, a more literal reading of Zechariah 9:9. The significance of a donkey on which no one has ever sat is that it adds to the ‘purity’ of Jesus prophetic actions.
Jesus gives instructions to the disciples should someone question them. They are to say, “The Master has need of it.” When they are questioned, they answer as Jesus told them. Some commentators say that Jesus has this whole scene prearranged. That seems a little mundane to me. If so, what’s the purpose? I think that this scene points toward the divinity of Jesus. Who else can tell the future except God? Mark is saying that the one riding into Jerusalem is not only the long awaited Messiah, but also the Son of God.
Putting their cloaks over the donkey is making a throne for their King. The reference to ‘many people’ presumably includes many more people than just the disciples. The spreading of cloaks on the ground signifies the messianic significance of this action: see 2Kings 9:13: “they all took their cloaks and spread them for him on the bare steps; and they blew the trumpet and proclaimed ‘Jehu is King.’” The spreading of palm branches has the same meaning.
“Those preceding him as well as those following kept crying out: "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come! Hosanna in the highest!" The people are hoping that Jesus is the one promised, the Messiah that God promised to send. They hope that he is a king like David who frees the people from their enemies and builds up the kingdom economically, politically, and religiously. But Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, signifying a different type of Messiah, one that is humble, one that comes to serve, one that comes to save.
We see that in the long passion narrative from Mark’s Gospel. Jesus begins the week by riding triumphantly into Jerusalem, like a King, but ends his week seemingly as a failure on the wood of the cross. His triumph of the early part of the week seems to end in the humiliation of crucifixion. But he comes not to establish an earthly kingdom, but an eternal and heavenly one. He comes not to vanquish our earthly enemies, but our spiritual ones; he comes to conquer sin and death.
On the cross Jesus says, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” Who is he asking to be forgiven? Is it the soldiers? Yes. Is it the disciples who ran away? Yes. Is it Pilate? Yes. Is it the religious leadership who helped bring all this about? Yes. More importantly for us, he is asking for forgiveness for you and me. For all those who try to believe but fail. For all those who turn away from him. For all those who ever lived on earth so that they can live in heaven.
Jesus’ love is so great that he was willing to suffer horribly and die for us. Not just humanity in general but for you and me specifically by name. He takes on our sins so we can take on his holiness. He conquers death so we can attain everlasting life: not just life in heaven, but the fullness of life today and everyday.
Jesus gives the great gifts of forgiveness, life in abundance, and salvation. What can we offer in return? We get a hint in the first reading from Isaiah when he gives us the best biblical definition of one who follows God: “Morning after morning he opens my ear that I may hear; and I have not rebelled.” We take time in prayer to listen to God, to see what he wants for us, and then we carry that word to others, “The Lord GOD has given me a well-trained tongue, that I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them.” And like Jesus, when we are persecuted, “I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting.” Revenge is not a part of our vocabulary, but forgiveness is. And we do not despair or lose hope because, “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.”
I hope that everyone has a wonderful and spiritually fulfilling Holy Week, and may the crucified and risen Christ bless you and your families abundantly.
Fr. Phil
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
BIBLE STUDY
FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT
March 25, 2012
READING 1
JEREMIAH 31:31-34
The days are coming, says the LORD,
when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel
and the house of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers
the day I took them by the hand
to lead them forth from the land of Egypt;
for they broke my covenant,
and I had to show myself their master, says the LORD.
But this is the covenant that I will make
with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD.
I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts;
I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
No longer will they have need to teach their friends and relatives
how to know the LORD.
All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the LORD,
for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.
The Word of the Lord
READING 2
HEBREWS 5:7-9
In the days when Christ Jesus was in the flesh,
he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears
to the one who was able to save him from death,
and he was heard because of his reverence.
Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered;
and when he was made perfect,
he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.
The Word of the Lord
GOSPEL
JOHN 12:20-33
Some Greeks who had come to worship at the Passover Feast
came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee,
and asked him, "Sir, we would like to see Jesus."
Philip went and told Andrew;
then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.
Jesus answered them,
"The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies,
it remains just a grain of wheat;
but if it dies, it produces much fruit.
Whoever loves his life loses it,
and whoever hates his life in this world
will preserve it for eternal life.
Whoever serves me must follow me,
and where I am, there also will my servant be.
The Father will honor whoever serves me.
"I am troubled now. Yet what should I say?
'Father, save me from this hour?'
But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.
Father, glorify your name."
Then a voice came from heaven,
"I have glorified it and will glorify it again."
The crowd there heard it and said it was thunder;
but others said, "An angel has spoken to him."
Jesus answered and said,
"This voice did not come for my sake but for yours.
Now is the time of judgment on this world;
now the ruler of this world will be driven out.
And when I am lifted up from the earth,
I will draw everyone to myself."
He said this indicating the kind of death he would die.
The Gospel of the Lord
Reflection
Greeks, in this sense, does not mean people from Greece, but probably Gentile proselytes (pagans converted to Judaism and circumcised). They approached Philip, who approached James, both of whom have distinctly Greek names, which suggests that these 2 mediated Jesus to the Greek world. Philip and James were from Bethsaida; they were Galileans who were usually bilingual.
We hear Jesus talk about his “hour” more than once in the Gospels. For example, in John 2, the Wedding at Cana, Mary tells Jesus that they have no wine. He responds, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.” In John chapter 7, the religious authorities tried to arrest Jesus, but they didn’t because “his hour had not yet come”. And, in John 13:1, Jesus washes the feet of his disciples the night before died: “Jesus knew that his ‘hour’ had come.”
His hour is a time when he is glorified and lifted up, a time of victory and judgment. His hour is a time of anguish and suffering when he embraces death and resurrection, which has the universal effect of drawing people to faith; it also initiates a new era in salvation history. John can’t think of Jesus death without reference to his resurrection. Jesus hour is not only the anguish of the cross, but the glory of the resurrection.
In the Old Testament, the terms ‘glory’ and ‘glorification’ refer to God revealing himself in the exercise of his power and love; people respond to that power and love by honoring God is some positive manner. Jesus’ death and resurrection reveal God’s love, and the disciples (including us), respond by following Jesus and through faith in him receive the saving live of God.
This ‘glorification’ is described in terms of a grain of wheat that dies and bears much fruit. The death of Jesus leads to new life for many; through Jesus we share in God’s divine life. When we ‘die’ in Christ, we then ‘rise’ to a new life. By ourselves, we are barren; with God, we produce much fruit. When we die to our old selves of sin, then we are reborn to new and everlasting life.
If we refuse to die with Christ, we are throwing away an opportunity to rise to eternal life. We may have lots of earthly things, but we will die in the end.
The word ‘hate’ means that we hate sin and anything that keeps us separated from God: we hate the earthly life of sin that will deprive us of eternal life. We lose our life in Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life and we gain not only eternal life, but happiness, peace and meaning in our earthly life. We are called to follow Jesus and to imitate him in our lives. If we do so, the Father will honor us, that is, grant us eternal life.
Jesus says he is ‘troubled’; this may be a reference to Gethsemane. Jesus does not pray to be saved from his suffering because this is the desire of the Father, “It was for this purpose that I came to this hour.” Jesus is more interested in glorifying God. He wants to reveal God’s saving love and life so people can come to know God through him. The Father and the Son are in perfect harmony. Through the voice form heaven, God confirms and grants Jesus request for glorification.
The judgment on the world is that the ruler of the world will be driven out. The ruler is Satan, and Jesus will conquer Satan (and sin and death) in his passion, death, and resurrection. His being ‘lifted up from the earth’ (crucifixion) which draws believers away from Satan and to the saving love of God.
In the first reading from Jeremiah, King Josiah instituted a religious reform because of the rediscovery of the Book of Deuteronomy in the Temple. Jeremiah was a supporter of this renewal. When Josiah died in battle, his successor, Jehoiam, was weak and did not continue the reform. He was also weak politically and eventually fell to the Babylonians. They were in a dire situation. Today’s passage comes from a section of Jeremiah called the Book of Comfort (Chaps. 30-33). This is comforting because the new covenant that God will make with his people goes beyond the covenant made with the people when they left Egypt. We believe that this new covenant described in this reading is fulfilled in Jesus and is available to those who have faith in Jesus. This knd of faith will last forever, be written in our hearts, and will give us true knowledge of God.
The Gospel for the scrutinies:
JOHN 11:1-45
Now a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany,
the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil
and dried his feet with her hair;
it was her brother Lazarus who was ill.
So the sisters sent word to him saying,
"Master, the one you love is ill."
When Jesus heard this he said,
"This illness is not to end in death,
but is for the glory of God,
that the Son of God may be glorified through it."
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
So when he heard that he was ill,
he remained for two days in the place where he was.
Then after this he said to his disciples,
"Let us go back to Judea."
The disciples said to him,
"Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you,
and you want to go back there?"
Jesus answered,
"Are there not twelve hours in a day?
If one walks during the day, he does not stumble,
because he sees the light of this world.
But if one walks at night, he stumbles,
because the light is not in him."
He said this, and then told them,
"Our friend Lazarus is asleep,
but I am going to awaken him."
So the disciples said to him,
"Master, if he is asleep, he will be saved."
But Jesus was talking about his death,
while they thought that he meant ordinary sleep.
So then Jesus said to them clearly,
"Lazarus has died.
And I am glad for you that I was not there,
that you may believe.
Let us go to him."
So Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples,
"Let us also go to die with him."
When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus
had already been in the tomb for four days.
Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, only about two miles away.
And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary
to comfort them about their brother.
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming,
she went to meet him;
but Mary sat at home.
Martha said to Jesus,
"Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died.
But even now I know that whatever you ask of God,
God will give you."
Jesus said to her,
"Your brother will rise."
Martha said to him,
"I know he will rise,
in the resurrection on the last day."
Jesus told her,
"I am the resurrection and the life;
whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live,
and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?"
She said to him, "Yes, Lord.
I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God,
the one who is coming into the world."
When she had said this,
she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying,
"The teacher is here and is asking for you."
As soon as she heard this,
she rose quickly and went to him.
For Jesus had not yet come into the village,
but was still where Martha had met him.
So when the Jews who were with her in the house comforting her
saw Mary get up quickly and go out,
they followed her,
presuming that she was going to the tomb to weep there.
When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him,
she fell at his feet and said to him,
"Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died."
When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping,
he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said,
"Where have you laid him?"
They said to him, "Sir, come and see."
And Jesus wept.
So the Jews said, "See how he loved him."
But some of them said,
"Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man
have done something so that this man would not have died?"
So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb.
It was a cave, and a stone lay across it.
Jesus said, "Take away the stone."
Martha, the dead man's sister, said to him,
"Lord, by now there will be a stench;
he has been dead for four days."
Jesus said to her,
"Did I not tell you that if you believe
you will see the glory of God?"
So they took away the stone.
And Jesus raised his eyes and said,
"Father, I thank you for hearing me.
I know that you always hear me;
but because of the crowd here I have said this,
that they may believe that you sent me."
And when he had said this,
He cried out in a loud voice,
"Lazarus, come out!"
The dead man came out,
tied hand and foot with burial bands,
and his face was wrapped in a cloth.
So Jesus said to them,
"Untie him and let him go."
Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary
and seen what he had done began to believe in him.
The Gospel of the Lord
Reflection
This Gospel is popular at funerals for its promise of rising from the dead. However, remember that Lazarus was raised to earthly life and he had to die a second time (called a resuscitation); Jesus was raised to eternal life or resurrection.
The death and rising of Lazarus prefigures the dying and rising of Christ. Ironically, as Lazarus is raised, the religious authorities are looking for ways to kill Jesus.
The main theme in this whole story is that Jesus dies to give us life. He suffers so that we may live.
The raising of Lazarus also tells me that Jesus gives us life in the sense that our life on earth is so much more blessed when we believe. Sin kills us spiritually, and we are spiritually raised to new life because of Jesus sacrifice on the cross. Jesus died for our sins so we can live in his peace and can be his light to others.
A story called “The Quilt”:
I faced my Maker at the last judgment, I knelt before the Lord along with all the other souls. Before each of us laid our lives like the squares of a quilt in many piles; an angel sat before each of us sewing our quilt squares together into a tapestry that was our life.
But as my angel took each piece of cloth off the pile, I noticed how ragged and empty each of my squares was. They were filled with giant holes. Each square was labeled with a part of my life that had been difficult, the challenges and temptations I was faced with in every day life. I saw hardships that I endured, which were the largest holes of all.
I glanced around me. Nobody else had such squares. Other than a tiny hole here and there, the other tapestries were filled with rich color and the bright hues of worldly fortune. I gazed upon my own life and was disheartened.
My angel was sewing the ragged pieces of cloth together, threadbare and empty, like binding air.
Finally the time came when each life was to be displayed, held up to the light, the scrutiny of truth. The others rose, each in turn, holding up their tapestries.. So filled their lives had been. My angel looked upon me and nodded for me to rise.
My gaze dropped to the ground in shame. I hadn't had all the earthly fortunes. I had love in my life and laughter. But there had also been trials of illness and wealth, and false accusations that took from me my world, as I knew it. I had to start over many times. I often struggled with the temptation to quit, only to somehow muster the strength to pick up and begin again. I spent many nights on my knees in prayer, asking for help and guidance in my life. I had often been held up to ridicule, which I endured painfully, each time offering it up to the Father in hopes that I would not melt within my skin beneath the judgmental gaze of those who unfairly judged me.
And now, I had to face the truth: My life was what it was, and I had to accept it for what it was.
I rose and slowly lifted the combined squares of my life to the light. An awe-filled gasp filled the air. I gazed around at the others who stared at me with wide eyes.
Then, I looked upon the tapestry before me. Light flooded the many holes, creating an image: the face of Christ. Then our Lord stood before me, with warmth and love in His eyes. He said, 'Every time you gave over your life to Me, it became My life, My hardships, and My struggles.
Each point of light in your life is when you stepped aside and let Me shine through, until there was more of Me than there was of you.'
May all our quilts be threadbare and worn, allowing Christ to shine through!
Fr. Phil
FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT
March 25, 2012
READING 1
JEREMIAH 31:31-34
The days are coming, says the LORD,
when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel
and the house of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers
the day I took them by the hand
to lead them forth from the land of Egypt;
for they broke my covenant,
and I had to show myself their master, says the LORD.
But this is the covenant that I will make
with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD.
I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts;
I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
No longer will they have need to teach their friends and relatives
how to know the LORD.
All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the LORD,
for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.
The Word of the Lord
READING 2
HEBREWS 5:7-9
In the days when Christ Jesus was in the flesh,
he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears
to the one who was able to save him from death,
and he was heard because of his reverence.
Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered;
and when he was made perfect,
he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.
The Word of the Lord
GOSPEL
JOHN 12:20-33
Some Greeks who had come to worship at the Passover Feast
came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee,
and asked him, "Sir, we would like to see Jesus."
Philip went and told Andrew;
then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.
Jesus answered them,
"The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies,
it remains just a grain of wheat;
but if it dies, it produces much fruit.
Whoever loves his life loses it,
and whoever hates his life in this world
will preserve it for eternal life.
Whoever serves me must follow me,
and where I am, there also will my servant be.
The Father will honor whoever serves me.
"I am troubled now. Yet what should I say?
'Father, save me from this hour?'
But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.
Father, glorify your name."
Then a voice came from heaven,
"I have glorified it and will glorify it again."
The crowd there heard it and said it was thunder;
but others said, "An angel has spoken to him."
Jesus answered and said,
"This voice did not come for my sake but for yours.
Now is the time of judgment on this world;
now the ruler of this world will be driven out.
And when I am lifted up from the earth,
I will draw everyone to myself."
He said this indicating the kind of death he would die.
The Gospel of the Lord
Reflection
Greeks, in this sense, does not mean people from Greece, but probably Gentile proselytes (pagans converted to Judaism and circumcised). They approached Philip, who approached James, both of whom have distinctly Greek names, which suggests that these 2 mediated Jesus to the Greek world. Philip and James were from Bethsaida; they were Galileans who were usually bilingual.
We hear Jesus talk about his “hour” more than once in the Gospels. For example, in John 2, the Wedding at Cana, Mary tells Jesus that they have no wine. He responds, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.” In John chapter 7, the religious authorities tried to arrest Jesus, but they didn’t because “his hour had not yet come”. And, in John 13:1, Jesus washes the feet of his disciples the night before died: “Jesus knew that his ‘hour’ had come.”
His hour is a time when he is glorified and lifted up, a time of victory and judgment. His hour is a time of anguish and suffering when he embraces death and resurrection, which has the universal effect of drawing people to faith; it also initiates a new era in salvation history. John can’t think of Jesus death without reference to his resurrection. Jesus hour is not only the anguish of the cross, but the glory of the resurrection.
In the Old Testament, the terms ‘glory’ and ‘glorification’ refer to God revealing himself in the exercise of his power and love; people respond to that power and love by honoring God is some positive manner. Jesus’ death and resurrection reveal God’s love, and the disciples (including us), respond by following Jesus and through faith in him receive the saving live of God.
This ‘glorification’ is described in terms of a grain of wheat that dies and bears much fruit. The death of Jesus leads to new life for many; through Jesus we share in God’s divine life. When we ‘die’ in Christ, we then ‘rise’ to a new life. By ourselves, we are barren; with God, we produce much fruit. When we die to our old selves of sin, then we are reborn to new and everlasting life.
If we refuse to die with Christ, we are throwing away an opportunity to rise to eternal life. We may have lots of earthly things, but we will die in the end.
The word ‘hate’ means that we hate sin and anything that keeps us separated from God: we hate the earthly life of sin that will deprive us of eternal life. We lose our life in Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life and we gain not only eternal life, but happiness, peace and meaning in our earthly life. We are called to follow Jesus and to imitate him in our lives. If we do so, the Father will honor us, that is, grant us eternal life.
Jesus says he is ‘troubled’; this may be a reference to Gethsemane. Jesus does not pray to be saved from his suffering because this is the desire of the Father, “It was for this purpose that I came to this hour.” Jesus is more interested in glorifying God. He wants to reveal God’s saving love and life so people can come to know God through him. The Father and the Son are in perfect harmony. Through the voice form heaven, God confirms and grants Jesus request for glorification.
The judgment on the world is that the ruler of the world will be driven out. The ruler is Satan, and Jesus will conquer Satan (and sin and death) in his passion, death, and resurrection. His being ‘lifted up from the earth’ (crucifixion) which draws believers away from Satan and to the saving love of God.
In the first reading from Jeremiah, King Josiah instituted a religious reform because of the rediscovery of the Book of Deuteronomy in the Temple. Jeremiah was a supporter of this renewal. When Josiah died in battle, his successor, Jehoiam, was weak and did not continue the reform. He was also weak politically and eventually fell to the Babylonians. They were in a dire situation. Today’s passage comes from a section of Jeremiah called the Book of Comfort (Chaps. 30-33). This is comforting because the new covenant that God will make with his people goes beyond the covenant made with the people when they left Egypt. We believe that this new covenant described in this reading is fulfilled in Jesus and is available to those who have faith in Jesus. This knd of faith will last forever, be written in our hearts, and will give us true knowledge of God.
The Gospel for the scrutinies:
JOHN 11:1-45
Now a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany,
the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil
and dried his feet with her hair;
it was her brother Lazarus who was ill.
So the sisters sent word to him saying,
"Master, the one you love is ill."
When Jesus heard this he said,
"This illness is not to end in death,
but is for the glory of God,
that the Son of God may be glorified through it."
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
So when he heard that he was ill,
he remained for two days in the place where he was.
Then after this he said to his disciples,
"Let us go back to Judea."
The disciples said to him,
"Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you,
and you want to go back there?"
Jesus answered,
"Are there not twelve hours in a day?
If one walks during the day, he does not stumble,
because he sees the light of this world.
But if one walks at night, he stumbles,
because the light is not in him."
He said this, and then told them,
"Our friend Lazarus is asleep,
but I am going to awaken him."
So the disciples said to him,
"Master, if he is asleep, he will be saved."
But Jesus was talking about his death,
while they thought that he meant ordinary sleep.
So then Jesus said to them clearly,
"Lazarus has died.
And I am glad for you that I was not there,
that you may believe.
Let us go to him."
So Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples,
"Let us also go to die with him."
When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus
had already been in the tomb for four days.
Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, only about two miles away.
And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary
to comfort them about their brother.
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming,
she went to meet him;
but Mary sat at home.
Martha said to Jesus,
"Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died.
But even now I know that whatever you ask of God,
God will give you."
Jesus said to her,
"Your brother will rise."
Martha said to him,
"I know he will rise,
in the resurrection on the last day."
Jesus told her,
"I am the resurrection and the life;
whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live,
and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?"
She said to him, "Yes, Lord.
I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God,
the one who is coming into the world."
When she had said this,
she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying,
"The teacher is here and is asking for you."
As soon as she heard this,
she rose quickly and went to him.
For Jesus had not yet come into the village,
but was still where Martha had met him.
So when the Jews who were with her in the house comforting her
saw Mary get up quickly and go out,
they followed her,
presuming that she was going to the tomb to weep there.
When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him,
she fell at his feet and said to him,
"Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died."
When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping,
he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said,
"Where have you laid him?"
They said to him, "Sir, come and see."
And Jesus wept.
So the Jews said, "See how he loved him."
But some of them said,
"Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man
have done something so that this man would not have died?"
So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb.
It was a cave, and a stone lay across it.
Jesus said, "Take away the stone."
Martha, the dead man's sister, said to him,
"Lord, by now there will be a stench;
he has been dead for four days."
Jesus said to her,
"Did I not tell you that if you believe
you will see the glory of God?"
So they took away the stone.
And Jesus raised his eyes and said,
"Father, I thank you for hearing me.
I know that you always hear me;
but because of the crowd here I have said this,
that they may believe that you sent me."
And when he had said this,
He cried out in a loud voice,
"Lazarus, come out!"
The dead man came out,
tied hand and foot with burial bands,
and his face was wrapped in a cloth.
So Jesus said to them,
"Untie him and let him go."
Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary
and seen what he had done began to believe in him.
The Gospel of the Lord
Reflection
This Gospel is popular at funerals for its promise of rising from the dead. However, remember that Lazarus was raised to earthly life and he had to die a second time (called a resuscitation); Jesus was raised to eternal life or resurrection.
The death and rising of Lazarus prefigures the dying and rising of Christ. Ironically, as Lazarus is raised, the religious authorities are looking for ways to kill Jesus.
The main theme in this whole story is that Jesus dies to give us life. He suffers so that we may live.
The raising of Lazarus also tells me that Jesus gives us life in the sense that our life on earth is so much more blessed when we believe. Sin kills us spiritually, and we are spiritually raised to new life because of Jesus sacrifice on the cross. Jesus died for our sins so we can live in his peace and can be his light to others.
A story called “The Quilt”:
I faced my Maker at the last judgment, I knelt before the Lord along with all the other souls. Before each of us laid our lives like the squares of a quilt in many piles; an angel sat before each of us sewing our quilt squares together into a tapestry that was our life.
But as my angel took each piece of cloth off the pile, I noticed how ragged and empty each of my squares was. They were filled with giant holes. Each square was labeled with a part of my life that had been difficult, the challenges and temptations I was faced with in every day life. I saw hardships that I endured, which were the largest holes of all.
I glanced around me. Nobody else had such squares. Other than a tiny hole here and there, the other tapestries were filled with rich color and the bright hues of worldly fortune. I gazed upon my own life and was disheartened.
My angel was sewing the ragged pieces of cloth together, threadbare and empty, like binding air.
Finally the time came when each life was to be displayed, held up to the light, the scrutiny of truth. The others rose, each in turn, holding up their tapestries.. So filled their lives had been. My angel looked upon me and nodded for me to rise.
My gaze dropped to the ground in shame. I hadn't had all the earthly fortunes. I had love in my life and laughter. But there had also been trials of illness and wealth, and false accusations that took from me my world, as I knew it. I had to start over many times. I often struggled with the temptation to quit, only to somehow muster the strength to pick up and begin again. I spent many nights on my knees in prayer, asking for help and guidance in my life. I had often been held up to ridicule, which I endured painfully, each time offering it up to the Father in hopes that I would not melt within my skin beneath the judgmental gaze of those who unfairly judged me.
And now, I had to face the truth: My life was what it was, and I had to accept it for what it was.
I rose and slowly lifted the combined squares of my life to the light. An awe-filled gasp filled the air. I gazed around at the others who stared at me with wide eyes.
Then, I looked upon the tapestry before me. Light flooded the many holes, creating an image: the face of Christ. Then our Lord stood before me, with warmth and love in His eyes. He said, 'Every time you gave over your life to Me, it became My life, My hardships, and My struggles.
Each point of light in your life is when you stepped aside and let Me shine through, until there was more of Me than there was of you.'
May all our quilts be threadbare and worn, allowing Christ to shine through!
Fr. Phil
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
BIBLE STUDY #81
FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT
March 18, 2012
READING 1
2 CHRONICLES 36:14-16, 19-23
In those days, all the princes of Judah, the priests, and the people
added infidelity to infidelity,
practicing all the abominations of the nations
and polluting the LORD's temple
which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.
Early and often did the LORD, the God of their fathers,
send his messengers to them,
for he had compassion on his people and his dwelling place.
But they mocked the messengers of God,
despised his warnings, and scoffed at his prophets,
until the anger of the LORD against his people was so inflamed
that there was no remedy.
Their enemies burnt the house of God,
tore down the walls of Jerusalem,
set all its palaces afire,
and destroyed all its precious objects.
Those who escaped the sword were carried captive to Babylon,
where they became servants of the king of the Chaldeans and his sons
until the kingdom of the Persians came to power.
All this was to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah:
"Until the land has retrieved its lost sabbaths,
during all the time it lies waste it shall have rest
while seventy years are fulfilled."
In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia,
in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah,
the LORD inspired King Cyrus of Persia
to issue this proclamation throughout his kingdom,
both by word of mouth and in writing:
"Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia:
All the kingdoms of the earth
the LORD, the God of heaven, has given to me,
and he has also charged me to build him a house
in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
Whoever, therefore, among you belongs to any part of his people,
let him go up, and may his God be with him!"
The Word of the Lord
READING 2
EPHESIANS 2:4-10
Brothers and sisters:
God, who is rich in mercy,
because of the great love he had for us,
even when we were dead in our transgressions,
brought us to life with Christ -by grace you have been saved-,
raised us up with him,
and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus,
that in the ages to come
He might show the immeasurable riches of his grace
in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
For by grace you have been saved through faith,
and this is not from you; it is the gift of God;
it is not from works, so no one may boast.
For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works
that God has prepared in advance,
that we should live in them.
The Word of the Lord
GOSPEL
JOHN 3:14-21
Jesus said to Nicodemus:
"Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
And this is the verdict,
that the light came into the world,
but people preferred darkness to light,
because their works were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light
and does not come toward the light,
so that his works might not be exposed.
But whoever lives the truth comes to the light,
so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.
The Gospel of the Lord
Reflection
In the Book of Numbers, chapter 21, the Israelites were on their way to the Promised Land, but the people were tired of the journey and began to complain against God to Moses. So God sent serpents that bit them, and many of them died. The people repented and God told Moses to make a seraph and mount it on a pole, and anyone who was bitten by a serpent was to look on this seraph and be cured. In the same way, Jesus was to be lifted up on the cross to ‘heal’ us of our sins. If we believe, then we won’t die, but inherit eternal life.
God loves us, and does not sit on the sidelines watching what happens to us, but he wants to be a part of our lives to guide, direct, inspire, and nurture us along our journey. Like any good parent, God wants the best for us. And, like any good parent, God would do anything for us, including sending his Son to teach us what God wants (to reveal God to us) and to show us how we are to live and relate to one another, and to suffer, die, and rise for us. God gives us his Son in the incarnation, but also in the sense of the crucifixion: he is given for our sins.
Since God knows best, whatever we learn from Jesus should be the best way to live. It should give us the ultimate in peace, happiness, and meaning, and eternal life.
Faith, then, is founded in the person of Jesus. He is the bridge between us and the Father. Jesus is the perfect revealer of the Father, and we share in the divine life of the Father through Jesus, who teaches us about ourselves (earthly things), but also the mystery of his own person. Faith is our response to Jesus as God’s revelation, who shares with us his intimate love of the Father. Jesus is the one “lifted up” on the cross (like Moses lifted up the seraph on the pole) where he is the source of eternal life: as those who looked on the seraph were healed, so those who have faith in Jesus receive the ultimate cure: eternal life.
God’s love for the world is directed towards salvation, not condemnation. The giving of his Son in the incarnation and the crucifixion (and subsequent resurrection) show the depth of God’s love for us, and how much he wants us not only to be saved, but to live a full and graced filled life in the present. God is full of mercy, forgiveness, and compassion. God is about life, not death. God wants to heal the sick and the broken hearted, not punish them.
We can be condemned by turning away from ‘the light’, in other words, by refusing to believe in Jesus and preferring darkness. We have to be careful not to be too judgmental or condemnatory because the gospel promises us that God will judge us the way in which we judge others. But it seems to me that condemnation comes in two stages: turning away from faith in Jesus and turning towards darkness (knowingly doing sinful and evil things when we know better).
I love the following story and I’ve told it many times: a woman who worked in a high rise office building was nearing retirement age and was a bit afraid of driving in bad weather. One winter day, she looks out the window and sees the snow falling outside. She decides to leave before the weather worsens. By the time she drives out of the underground parking garage, it is snowing so hard she can’t see 2 feet in any direction. She sees a light, and decides to follow it. “If I follow the light, I’ll get home safely,” she thinks. Whatever the light does, she does. When it goes right, she goes right; when left, she goes left. Finally, the man in the vehicle in front of her stops, gets out, and knocks on her window. He says to her, “Ma’am, I notice that you have been following me.” “Oh, yes,” she says, “If I follow the light, I’ll get home safely.” He chuckles and says, “Well, Ma’am, you can follow me all you want. But for the last 20 minutes, I’ve been plowing a parking lot.”
Jesus is our light, our connection to the Father and eternal life. He is the one we follow. But, we all follow imperfectly: sometimes we go left when we should go right, and sometimes we go right when we go left. What counts is that we follow the light. God sent his son so we might not perish: Jesus sacrifice’ assumes the penalty for our wrong turns. Today’s Gospel is one of great hope. We can always turn back from sin and evil (darkness) and our loving God will be there to forgive us and He will steer us in the right direction.
Another story:
Garry Wills recounts this story in his book What Jesus Meant, a reflection on the Gospel:
"My young son woke up with a violent nightmare one night. When I asked what was troubling him, he said that the nun in his school had told the children they would end up in hell if they sinned. He asked me, 'Am I going to hell?' There is not an ounce of heroism in my nature, but I instantly answered what any father would: 'All I can say is that if you're going there, I'm going with you.'
"If I felt that way about my son, God obviously loves him even more than I do. Perhaps the Incarnation is God's way of saying that no matter what horrors we face or hells we descend to, he is coming with us." (From CONNECTIONS, March 2012).
The first reading, from the Second Book of Chronicles, picks up where the First Book of Chronicles leaves off. This unnamed author continues with the Reign of Solomon and then deals with the Monarchy of Judah after Solomon’s death. Today’s selection is from the final chapter of this book.
This author perceived history through the lens of revelation: history was seen as revealing God’s purposes for his people. In other words, we can see God in history through studying history.
All of the prosperity, successes, and victories are seen as rewards for fidelity to the law and God’s covenant. All calamities and problems are a result of infidelity. This is the reason they were conquered by the Babylonians and brought into exile. They were being punished for their sins.
The author of this book also saw God’s hand in raising up Cyrus, the King of Persia, who released the people and let them go from exile back to their land. The punishment for their sins being complete, God forgives and releases them from exile.
Gospel for Scrutinies (10 am Mass)
John 9:1-41
As Jesus passed by he saw a man blind from birth.
His disciples asked him,
"Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents,
that he was born blind?"
Jesus answered,
"Neither he nor his parents sinned;
it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.
We have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day.
Night is coming when no one can work.
While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
When he had said this, he spat on the ground
and made clay with the saliva,
and smeared the clay on his eyes,
and said to him,
"Go wash in the Pool of Siloam" —which means Sent—.
So he went and washed, and came back able to see.
His neighbors and those who had seen him earlier as a beggar said,
"Isn't this the one who used to sit and beg?"
Some said, "It is, "
but others said, "No, he just looks like him."
He said, "I am."
So they said to him, "How were your eyes opened?"
He replied,
"The man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes
and told me, 'Go to Siloam and wash.'
So I went there and washed and was able to see."
And they said to him, "Where is he?"
He said, "I don't know."
They brought the one who was once blind to the Pharisees.
Now Jesus had made clay and opened his eyes on a sabbath.
So then the Pharisees also asked him how he was able to see.
He said to them,
"He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and now I can see."
So some of the Pharisees said,
"This man is not from God,
because he does not keep the sabbath."
But others said,
"How can a sinful man do such signs?"
And there was a division among them.
So they said to the blind man again,
"What do you have to say about him,
since he opened your eyes?"
He said, "He is a prophet."
Now the Jews did not believe
that he had been blind and gained his sight
until they summoned the parents of the one who had gained his sight.
They asked them,
"Is this your son, who you say was born blind?
How does he now see?"
His parents answered and said,
"We know that this is our son and that he was born blind.
We do not know how he sees now,
nor do we know who opened his eyes.
Ask him, he is of age;
he can speak for himself."
His parents said this because they were afraid
of the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed
that if anyone acknowledged him as the Christ,
he would be expelled from the synagogue.
For this reason his parents said,
"He is of age; question him."
So a second time they called the man who had been blind
and said to him, "Give God the praise!
We know that this man is a sinner."
He replied,
"If he is a sinner, I do not know.
One thing I do know is that I was blind and now I see."
So they said to him,
"What did he do to you?
How did he open your eyes?"
He answered them,
"I told you already and you did not listen.
Why do you want to hear it again?
Do you want to become his disciples, too?"
They ridiculed him and said,
"You are that man's disciple;
we are disciples of Moses!
We know that God spoke to Moses,
but we do not know where this one is from."
The man answered and said to them,
"This is what is so amazing,
that you do not know where he is from, yet he opened my eyes.
We know that God does not listen to sinners,
but if one is devout and does his will, he listens to him.
It is unheard of that anyone ever opened the eyes of a person born blind.
If this man were not from God,
he would not be able to do anything."
They answered and said to him,
"You were born totally in sin,
and are you trying to teach us?"
Then they threw him out.
When Jesus heard that they had thrown him out,
he found him and said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?"
He answered and said,
"Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?"
Jesus said to him,
"You have seen him,
the one speaking with you is he."
He said,
"I do believe, Lord," and he worshiped him.
Then Jesus said,
"I came into this world for judgment,
so that those who do not see might see,
and those who do see might become blind."
Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this
and said to him, "Surely we are not also blind, are we?"
Jesus said to them,
"If you were blind, you would have no sin;
but now you are saying, 'We see,' so your sin remains.
The Gospel of the Lord
Reflection
The healing of the blind man is the fifth sign in John’s Gospel. Signs are something that reveal Jesus identity if understood in faith, and they are also a call to faith in him.
Jesus pass by a man blind from birth. His disciples want to know who sinned to cause this calamity. It was thought that the parents’ sins were visited upon their children. It was also thought that sin caused illnesses, so a case can be made that this man is a sinner and is being punished by God. Jesus dispels both notions. This mans’ blindness will show forth the glory and power of God.
To heal this man, Jesus spits on the ground, makes clay with his saliva and smeared it on his eyes. God’s grace and healing power are mediated through things of the earth. Sounds like our sacraments, doesn’t it? Bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ, the water of baptism, and the oil of anointing, for example.
Jesus tells him to go and wash in the Pool of Siloam. This could possibly be a test of faith: does the man believe in Jesus? There is a similar story in 2 Kings 5:10-14 when Elisha tells Naaman the Syrian to go wash in the Jordan 7 times. Siloam is a word that means ‘sent’ and is a symbol of Jesus, who is sent buy the Father.
The belief in Jesus grows in the healed man throughout this passage. When first questioned about this healing by his neighbors, he refers to Jesus as “The man called Jesus.” Later, when questioned by the Pharisees, he refers to Jesus as a “Prophet.” Even later, when confronted by the ‘Jews ‘, that is the religious leadership, he refers to Jesus as “a man from God.” And finally, when confronted by Jesus, he calls him ‘Lord’. Also notice that as time goes by, he gets bolder with his proclamation of faith in Jesus, so much so that he was thrown out of the temple for his ‘insubordination’.
Jesus not only heals this man of his blindness, but also of his unbelief. Since it was thought that sin caused illnesses and physical problems such as blindness, if Jesus heals the blindness, he also forgives the sin, the latter being the more important healing of the two. The more we are healed of our sins, the more our faith should grow, and we can begin living our faith boldly in words and deeds.
Like the man born blind, we are helpless to overcome our own blindness, that is, our sins. There is nothing we can do to atone for our sins. It is only through the saving and healing actions of Jesus that we can overcome our sins and be healed and made whole.
Here is another story:
What would you do if your son or daughter's life was being made miserable by a bully at school?
In the newsletter At Home with Our Faith (January 2011), Catherine O'Connell-Cahill writes how one wise mom handled the situation.
The woman's son Josh was being bullied by another boy at school. Josh was a regular target of the boy's abuse. Josh's mom also knew the bully and, like many troubled kids, knew the agony he was living at home.
Josh would come home from school angry at yet another humiliation at the hands of the bully. Like most parents, Josh's Mom and Dad wanted to go and annihilate the kid and his parents. But they didn't. Instead of advising Josh to punch the kid in the nose or signing him up for a martial arts course or threatening the bully's parents with legal action, Mom asked Josh this: "Josh, is there one thing you like about this kid?"
Josh thought for a while and finally said, "He's really good at football."
Knowing Josh and his friends played football at recess, she asked whether the bully was ever chosen.
"No way. No one ever wants to pick him because he's the class bully and they don't like him."
"And do you ever get to be the captain and pick kids for your team?" Mom asked.
"I get the chance every so often," Josh replied.
"So next time you're the captain, why don't you pick this kid and see what happens?"
Josh agreed. At the next opportunity, Josh managed to put aside his resentments and fear and picked the bully for his side.
This started a whole chain of events: Other kids also began picking the bully, the boy started to make friends instead of victims, and soon the bullying itself faded away.
All because a wise, compassionate Mom asked her son a question we seldom ask of those who harm us: Is there one thing you like about this kid? (from CONNECTIONS March 2011).
Josh’s Mom was the inspiration for her son to be an agent of healing. Both boys were healed because Josh was willing to reach out to someone in need. Jesus healed the man born blind not only for his own healing, but so he could help heal those he met. Jesus heals us of our sins not only for our own sake, but so we can, like the movie says, ‘Pay It Forward’. Do you know anyone in your life that needs healing?
Fr. Phil
FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT
March 18, 2012
READING 1
2 CHRONICLES 36:14-16, 19-23
In those days, all the princes of Judah, the priests, and the people
added infidelity to infidelity,
practicing all the abominations of the nations
and polluting the LORD's temple
which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.
Early and often did the LORD, the God of their fathers,
send his messengers to them,
for he had compassion on his people and his dwelling place.
But they mocked the messengers of God,
despised his warnings, and scoffed at his prophets,
until the anger of the LORD against his people was so inflamed
that there was no remedy.
Their enemies burnt the house of God,
tore down the walls of Jerusalem,
set all its palaces afire,
and destroyed all its precious objects.
Those who escaped the sword were carried captive to Babylon,
where they became servants of the king of the Chaldeans and his sons
until the kingdom of the Persians came to power.
All this was to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah:
"Until the land has retrieved its lost sabbaths,
during all the time it lies waste it shall have rest
while seventy years are fulfilled."
In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia,
in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah,
the LORD inspired King Cyrus of Persia
to issue this proclamation throughout his kingdom,
both by word of mouth and in writing:
"Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia:
All the kingdoms of the earth
the LORD, the God of heaven, has given to me,
and he has also charged me to build him a house
in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
Whoever, therefore, among you belongs to any part of his people,
let him go up, and may his God be with him!"
The Word of the Lord
READING 2
EPHESIANS 2:4-10
Brothers and sisters:
God, who is rich in mercy,
because of the great love he had for us,
even when we were dead in our transgressions,
brought us to life with Christ -by grace you have been saved-,
raised us up with him,
and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus,
that in the ages to come
He might show the immeasurable riches of his grace
in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
For by grace you have been saved through faith,
and this is not from you; it is the gift of God;
it is not from works, so no one may boast.
For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works
that God has prepared in advance,
that we should live in them.
The Word of the Lord
GOSPEL
JOHN 3:14-21
Jesus said to Nicodemus:
"Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
And this is the verdict,
that the light came into the world,
but people preferred darkness to light,
because their works were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light
and does not come toward the light,
so that his works might not be exposed.
But whoever lives the truth comes to the light,
so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.
The Gospel of the Lord
Reflection
In the Book of Numbers, chapter 21, the Israelites were on their way to the Promised Land, but the people were tired of the journey and began to complain against God to Moses. So God sent serpents that bit them, and many of them died. The people repented and God told Moses to make a seraph and mount it on a pole, and anyone who was bitten by a serpent was to look on this seraph and be cured. In the same way, Jesus was to be lifted up on the cross to ‘heal’ us of our sins. If we believe, then we won’t die, but inherit eternal life.
God loves us, and does not sit on the sidelines watching what happens to us, but he wants to be a part of our lives to guide, direct, inspire, and nurture us along our journey. Like any good parent, God wants the best for us. And, like any good parent, God would do anything for us, including sending his Son to teach us what God wants (to reveal God to us) and to show us how we are to live and relate to one another, and to suffer, die, and rise for us. God gives us his Son in the incarnation, but also in the sense of the crucifixion: he is given for our sins.
Since God knows best, whatever we learn from Jesus should be the best way to live. It should give us the ultimate in peace, happiness, and meaning, and eternal life.
Faith, then, is founded in the person of Jesus. He is the bridge between us and the Father. Jesus is the perfect revealer of the Father, and we share in the divine life of the Father through Jesus, who teaches us about ourselves (earthly things), but also the mystery of his own person. Faith is our response to Jesus as God’s revelation, who shares with us his intimate love of the Father. Jesus is the one “lifted up” on the cross (like Moses lifted up the seraph on the pole) where he is the source of eternal life: as those who looked on the seraph were healed, so those who have faith in Jesus receive the ultimate cure: eternal life.
God’s love for the world is directed towards salvation, not condemnation. The giving of his Son in the incarnation and the crucifixion (and subsequent resurrection) show the depth of God’s love for us, and how much he wants us not only to be saved, but to live a full and graced filled life in the present. God is full of mercy, forgiveness, and compassion. God is about life, not death. God wants to heal the sick and the broken hearted, not punish them.
We can be condemned by turning away from ‘the light’, in other words, by refusing to believe in Jesus and preferring darkness. We have to be careful not to be too judgmental or condemnatory because the gospel promises us that God will judge us the way in which we judge others. But it seems to me that condemnation comes in two stages: turning away from faith in Jesus and turning towards darkness (knowingly doing sinful and evil things when we know better).
I love the following story and I’ve told it many times: a woman who worked in a high rise office building was nearing retirement age and was a bit afraid of driving in bad weather. One winter day, she looks out the window and sees the snow falling outside. She decides to leave before the weather worsens. By the time she drives out of the underground parking garage, it is snowing so hard she can’t see 2 feet in any direction. She sees a light, and decides to follow it. “If I follow the light, I’ll get home safely,” she thinks. Whatever the light does, she does. When it goes right, she goes right; when left, she goes left. Finally, the man in the vehicle in front of her stops, gets out, and knocks on her window. He says to her, “Ma’am, I notice that you have been following me.” “Oh, yes,” she says, “If I follow the light, I’ll get home safely.” He chuckles and says, “Well, Ma’am, you can follow me all you want. But for the last 20 minutes, I’ve been plowing a parking lot.”
Jesus is our light, our connection to the Father and eternal life. He is the one we follow. But, we all follow imperfectly: sometimes we go left when we should go right, and sometimes we go right when we go left. What counts is that we follow the light. God sent his son so we might not perish: Jesus sacrifice’ assumes the penalty for our wrong turns. Today’s Gospel is one of great hope. We can always turn back from sin and evil (darkness) and our loving God will be there to forgive us and He will steer us in the right direction.
Another story:
Garry Wills recounts this story in his book What Jesus Meant, a reflection on the Gospel:
"My young son woke up with a violent nightmare one night. When I asked what was troubling him, he said that the nun in his school had told the children they would end up in hell if they sinned. He asked me, 'Am I going to hell?' There is not an ounce of heroism in my nature, but I instantly answered what any father would: 'All I can say is that if you're going there, I'm going with you.'
"If I felt that way about my son, God obviously loves him even more than I do. Perhaps the Incarnation is God's way of saying that no matter what horrors we face or hells we descend to, he is coming with us." (From CONNECTIONS, March 2012).
The first reading, from the Second Book of Chronicles, picks up where the First Book of Chronicles leaves off. This unnamed author continues with the Reign of Solomon and then deals with the Monarchy of Judah after Solomon’s death. Today’s selection is from the final chapter of this book.
This author perceived history through the lens of revelation: history was seen as revealing God’s purposes for his people. In other words, we can see God in history through studying history.
All of the prosperity, successes, and victories are seen as rewards for fidelity to the law and God’s covenant. All calamities and problems are a result of infidelity. This is the reason they were conquered by the Babylonians and brought into exile. They were being punished for their sins.
The author of this book also saw God’s hand in raising up Cyrus, the King of Persia, who released the people and let them go from exile back to their land. The punishment for their sins being complete, God forgives and releases them from exile.
Gospel for Scrutinies (10 am Mass)
John 9:1-41
As Jesus passed by he saw a man blind from birth.
His disciples asked him,
"Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents,
that he was born blind?"
Jesus answered,
"Neither he nor his parents sinned;
it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.
We have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day.
Night is coming when no one can work.
While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
When he had said this, he spat on the ground
and made clay with the saliva,
and smeared the clay on his eyes,
and said to him,
"Go wash in the Pool of Siloam" —which means Sent—.
So he went and washed, and came back able to see.
His neighbors and those who had seen him earlier as a beggar said,
"Isn't this the one who used to sit and beg?"
Some said, "It is, "
but others said, "No, he just looks like him."
He said, "I am."
So they said to him, "How were your eyes opened?"
He replied,
"The man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes
and told me, 'Go to Siloam and wash.'
So I went there and washed and was able to see."
And they said to him, "Where is he?"
He said, "I don't know."
They brought the one who was once blind to the Pharisees.
Now Jesus had made clay and opened his eyes on a sabbath.
So then the Pharisees also asked him how he was able to see.
He said to them,
"He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and now I can see."
So some of the Pharisees said,
"This man is not from God,
because he does not keep the sabbath."
But others said,
"How can a sinful man do such signs?"
And there was a division among them.
So they said to the blind man again,
"What do you have to say about him,
since he opened your eyes?"
He said, "He is a prophet."
Now the Jews did not believe
that he had been blind and gained his sight
until they summoned the parents of the one who had gained his sight.
They asked them,
"Is this your son, who you say was born blind?
How does he now see?"
His parents answered and said,
"We know that this is our son and that he was born blind.
We do not know how he sees now,
nor do we know who opened his eyes.
Ask him, he is of age;
he can speak for himself."
His parents said this because they were afraid
of the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed
that if anyone acknowledged him as the Christ,
he would be expelled from the synagogue.
For this reason his parents said,
"He is of age; question him."
So a second time they called the man who had been blind
and said to him, "Give God the praise!
We know that this man is a sinner."
He replied,
"If he is a sinner, I do not know.
One thing I do know is that I was blind and now I see."
So they said to him,
"What did he do to you?
How did he open your eyes?"
He answered them,
"I told you already and you did not listen.
Why do you want to hear it again?
Do you want to become his disciples, too?"
They ridiculed him and said,
"You are that man's disciple;
we are disciples of Moses!
We know that God spoke to Moses,
but we do not know where this one is from."
The man answered and said to them,
"This is what is so amazing,
that you do not know where he is from, yet he opened my eyes.
We know that God does not listen to sinners,
but if one is devout and does his will, he listens to him.
It is unheard of that anyone ever opened the eyes of a person born blind.
If this man were not from God,
he would not be able to do anything."
They answered and said to him,
"You were born totally in sin,
and are you trying to teach us?"
Then they threw him out.
When Jesus heard that they had thrown him out,
he found him and said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?"
He answered and said,
"Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?"
Jesus said to him,
"You have seen him,
the one speaking with you is he."
He said,
"I do believe, Lord," and he worshiped him.
Then Jesus said,
"I came into this world for judgment,
so that those who do not see might see,
and those who do see might become blind."
Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this
and said to him, "Surely we are not also blind, are we?"
Jesus said to them,
"If you were blind, you would have no sin;
but now you are saying, 'We see,' so your sin remains.
The Gospel of the Lord
Reflection
The healing of the blind man is the fifth sign in John’s Gospel. Signs are something that reveal Jesus identity if understood in faith, and they are also a call to faith in him.
Jesus pass by a man blind from birth. His disciples want to know who sinned to cause this calamity. It was thought that the parents’ sins were visited upon their children. It was also thought that sin caused illnesses, so a case can be made that this man is a sinner and is being punished by God. Jesus dispels both notions. This mans’ blindness will show forth the glory and power of God.
To heal this man, Jesus spits on the ground, makes clay with his saliva and smeared it on his eyes. God’s grace and healing power are mediated through things of the earth. Sounds like our sacraments, doesn’t it? Bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ, the water of baptism, and the oil of anointing, for example.
Jesus tells him to go and wash in the Pool of Siloam. This could possibly be a test of faith: does the man believe in Jesus? There is a similar story in 2 Kings 5:10-14 when Elisha tells Naaman the Syrian to go wash in the Jordan 7 times. Siloam is a word that means ‘sent’ and is a symbol of Jesus, who is sent buy the Father.
The belief in Jesus grows in the healed man throughout this passage. When first questioned about this healing by his neighbors, he refers to Jesus as “The man called Jesus.” Later, when questioned by the Pharisees, he refers to Jesus as a “Prophet.” Even later, when confronted by the ‘Jews ‘, that is the religious leadership, he refers to Jesus as “a man from God.” And finally, when confronted by Jesus, he calls him ‘Lord’. Also notice that as time goes by, he gets bolder with his proclamation of faith in Jesus, so much so that he was thrown out of the temple for his ‘insubordination’.
Jesus not only heals this man of his blindness, but also of his unbelief. Since it was thought that sin caused illnesses and physical problems such as blindness, if Jesus heals the blindness, he also forgives the sin, the latter being the more important healing of the two. The more we are healed of our sins, the more our faith should grow, and we can begin living our faith boldly in words and deeds.
Like the man born blind, we are helpless to overcome our own blindness, that is, our sins. There is nothing we can do to atone for our sins. It is only through the saving and healing actions of Jesus that we can overcome our sins and be healed and made whole.
Here is another story:
What would you do if your son or daughter's life was being made miserable by a bully at school?
In the newsletter At Home with Our Faith (January 2011), Catherine O'Connell-Cahill writes how one wise mom handled the situation.
The woman's son Josh was being bullied by another boy at school. Josh was a regular target of the boy's abuse. Josh's mom also knew the bully and, like many troubled kids, knew the agony he was living at home.
Josh would come home from school angry at yet another humiliation at the hands of the bully. Like most parents, Josh's Mom and Dad wanted to go and annihilate the kid and his parents. But they didn't. Instead of advising Josh to punch the kid in the nose or signing him up for a martial arts course or threatening the bully's parents with legal action, Mom asked Josh this: "Josh, is there one thing you like about this kid?"
Josh thought for a while and finally said, "He's really good at football."
Knowing Josh and his friends played football at recess, she asked whether the bully was ever chosen.
"No way. No one ever wants to pick him because he's the class bully and they don't like him."
"And do you ever get to be the captain and pick kids for your team?" Mom asked.
"I get the chance every so often," Josh replied.
"So next time you're the captain, why don't you pick this kid and see what happens?"
Josh agreed. At the next opportunity, Josh managed to put aside his resentments and fear and picked the bully for his side.
This started a whole chain of events: Other kids also began picking the bully, the boy started to make friends instead of victims, and soon the bullying itself faded away.
All because a wise, compassionate Mom asked her son a question we seldom ask of those who harm us: Is there one thing you like about this kid? (from CONNECTIONS March 2011).
Josh’s Mom was the inspiration for her son to be an agent of healing. Both boys were healed because Josh was willing to reach out to someone in need. Jesus healed the man born blind not only for his own healing, but so he could help heal those he met. Jesus heals us of our sins not only for our own sake, but so we can, like the movie says, ‘Pay It Forward’. Do you know anyone in your life that needs healing?
Fr. Phil
Thursday, March 8, 2012
BIBLE STUDY #80
THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT
March 11, 2012
READING 1
EXODUS 20:1-17
In those days, God delivered all these commandments:
"I, the LORD, am your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.
You shall not have other gods besides me.
You shall not carve idols for yourselves
in the shape of anything in the sky above
or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth;
you shall not bow down before them or worship them.
For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God,
inflicting punishment for their fathers' wickedness
on the children of those who hate me,
down to the third and fourth generation;
but bestowing mercy down to the thousandth generation
on the children of those who love me and keep my commandments.
"You shall not take the name of the LORD, your God, in vain.
For the LORD will not leave unpunished
the one who takes his name in vain.
"Remember to keep holy the sabbath day.
Six days you may labor and do all your work,
but the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD, your God.
No work may be done then either by you, or your son or daughter,
or your male or female slave, or your beast,
or by the alien who lives with you.
In six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth,
the sea and all that is in them;
but on the seventh day he rested.
That is why the LORD has blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.
"Honor your father and your mother,
that you may have a long life in the land
which the LORD, your God, is giving you.
You shall not kill.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor's house.
You shall not covet your neighbor's wife,
nor his male or female slave, nor his ox or ass,
nor anything else that belongs to him."
OR EX 20:1-3, 7-8, 12-17
In those days, God delivered all these commandments:
"I, the LORD am your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.
You shall not have other gods besides me.
"You shall not take the name of the LORD, your God, in vain.
For the LORD will not leave unpunished
the one who takes his name in vain.
"Remember to keep holy the sabbath day.
Honor your father and your mother,
that you may have a long life in the land
which the Lord, your God, is giving you.
You shall not kill.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor's house.
You shall not covet your neighbor's wife,
nor his male or female slave, nor his ox or ass,
nor anything else that belongs to him."
The Word of the Lord
READING 2
1 CORINTHIANS 1:22-25
Brothers and sisters:
Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom,
but we proclaim Christ crucified,
a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,
but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike,
Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom,
and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
The Word of the Lord
GOSPEL
JOHN 2:13-25
Since the Passover of the Jews was near,
Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves,
as well as the money changers seated there.
He made a whip out of cords
and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen,
and spilled the coins of the money changers
and overturned their tables,
and to those who sold doves he said,
"Take these out of here,
and stop making my Father's house a marketplace."
His disciples recalled the words of Scripture,
Zeal for your house will consume me.
At this the Jews answered and said to him,
"What sign can you show us for doing this?"
Jesus answered and said to them,
"Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up."
The Jews said,
"This temple has been under construction for forty-six years,
and you will raise it up in three days?"
But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
Therefore, when he was raised from the dead,
his disciples remembered that he had said this,
and they came to believe the Scripture
and the word Jesus had spoken.
While he was in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover,
many began to believe in his name
when they saw the signs he was doing.
But Jesus would not trust himself to them because he knew them all,
and did not need anyone to testify about human nature.
He himself understood it well.
The Gospel of the Lord
Reflection
The Temple in today’s Gospel was dedicated in 515 B.C. Herod had an extensive restoration to the Temple from 20 B.C. to 64 A.D. The Temple wasn’t completely restored at the time that Jesus cleansed it. The cleansing of the Temple in the other gospels happens in the last days of Jesus life (in Matthew and Luke, on the day he enters Jerusalem; in Mark, on the day after). This difference is due to theological, not historical, reasons.
This is the first time Passover is mentioned in Johns’ gospel; it’s also mentioned in 6:4, and 13:1; which indicates a minimum of a 2 year ministry for Jesus. John calls it “the Passover of the Jews,” indicating that the Christian community isn’t celebrating it anymore, but because through Jesus, the Passover has been fulfilled.
The animals that are in the Temple are used for sacrifices for major feasts. The doves were offerings for the poor (Leviticus 5:7). According to Exodus 30:11-16, every male over 19 years old paid a Temple tax of a half shekel coin, which had to be paid in Syrian currency. The money changers were needed for those with other types of currency. They collected high profits on the currency exchange.
Jesus drives all the traders out of the Temple with a wrath that could not be resisted. This type of trade was considered a desecration of the Temple. This could refer to Zechariah’s vision of a Temple free of traders; it could refer to Jeremiah’s words in 7:11-14 when he said that these evil doings are destroying the temple, or it could refer to Tobit in 14:7-10 when he envisioned a Temple that had no commerce. Notice, however, that his wrath was only directed to the traders who detracted form worship, not to those leading worship. As it says in Psalm 69, Jesus is consumed with “Zeal for your (God’s) house.”
Fund raising is an important part of parish life, but we must be careful not to let the vestibules and gathering places of our churches become marketplaces for anyone and everyone who needs to make money, regardless of the worthiness of their cause. We priests need to limit second collections and the times we talk about money. We need to focus on the spiritual more than the temporal.
Jesus refers to the Temple as “my Father’s house” which he does 27 times in John’s Gospel. This phrase affirms Jesus special relationship with the Father which he was (and still is) willing to share with us.
The Jews want a sign of his authority. Jesus says, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up." But Jesus was not referring to the Temple, but his body. The previous section of this gospel is the wedding feast at Cana. Just as the water was changed into the wine of salvation at Cana, so the Temple and its liturgy are being replaced by Jesus. Animal sacrifice is no longer needed because Jesus offered himself as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. As both priest and sacrifice, Jesus offered the perfect liturgy. Jesus is both the sign and what is signified.
Jesus is not out to destroy Judaism, but to complete it. Ezekiel said that in the time of the Messiah, the Temple will be rebuilt (chapters 40-46). Jesus is the new Temple, the center of our worship, because he is the one who bridges the gap between us and the Father; he brings us to God, and God to us.
The sign that Jesus offers is his death and resurrection. Signs are something that reveal Jesus identity if understood in faith, and they are also a call to faith in him. Jesus death and resurrection reveal that he is the long awaited messiah who dies for our sins and who conquers death. We are called to a belief in Jesus as our Lord and Savior and to be missionaries of God’s great love for us.
The disciples didn’t understand right away, and how could they? They began understanding after the resurrection when they remembered Jesus’ words and actions, and things began to make sense. This is especially true after Pentecost, when they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Our faith grows slowly also. We don’t always understand, but when we keep seeking the Lord, his grace will help us grow in our understanding and faith
In the first reading from Exodus, the Israelites have been released from slavery in Egypt and are their way to the Promised Land. God leads them, feeds them, gives them water, and most importantly, gives them laws.
There are many laws in this section of Exodus (go look it up – you may be surprised what is there). Today, we have the Ten Commandments that tell us about our relationship to God (the first 3 commandments) and each other (the other 7 commandments). They reflect the covenant between God and His people. A good meditation for Lent would be to pray and reflect on each of these Commandments for their meaning and application to our lives.
In the RCIA program we are in the period of purification and enlightenment which coincides with Lent. There will be scrutinies on the next three Sundays at the 10 am Mass for those in this program who are to be baptized (called the elect). These scrutinies are “rites for self searching and repentance and …are meant to uncover, then heal all that is weak, defective, or sinful in the hearts of the elect; to bring out, then strengthen all that is upright, strong and good…to deliver the elect from the power of sin and Satan, to protect them against temptation, and to give them strength in Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life” (from The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, paragraph 141) . Each Sunday a prayer of exorcism is prayed over the elect to achieve these ends. Through the exorcisms they will “receive new strength in the midst of the spiritual journey and they open their hearts to receive the gifts of the Savior (paragraph 144).” These scrutinies should “complete the conversion of the elect and deepen their resolve to hold fast to Christ and to carry out their decision to love God above all” (paragraph 141). We also have special readings for these scrutinies. At the 10 am mass only, we will hear the Gospel of the Samaritan Woman at the Well this week; the Man born Blind next week, and the raising of Lazarus in 2 weeks. Here is the gospel of the Samaritan woman at the well:
CHAPTER 4
The Samaritan Woman. 4He had to* pass through Samaria. 5So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar,* near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.a 6Jacob’s well was there. Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well. It was about noon.
7A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. 9* The Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”b (For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.) 10* Jesus answered and said to her,c “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11[The woman] said to him, “Sir,* you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep; where then can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?”d 13Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; 14but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”e 15The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16Jesus said to her, “Go call your husband and come back.” 17The woman answered and said to him, “I do not have a husband.” Jesus answered her, “You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’ 18For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.”f 19The woman said to him, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.g 20Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain;* but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”h 21Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews.i 23But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth;* and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him. 24God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.”j 25* The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming,k the one called the Anointed; when he comes, he will tell us everything.” 26Jesus said to her, “I am he,* the one who is speaking with you.”l
27At that moment his disciples returned, and were amazed that he was talking with a woman,* but still no one said, “What are you looking for?” or “Why are you talking with her?” 28The woman left her water jar and went into the town and said to the people, 29“Come see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the Messiah?” 30They went out of the town and came to him. 31Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.” 32But he said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” 33So the disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?” 34Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work.m 35Do you not say, ‘In four months* the harvest will be here’? I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest.n 36The reaper is already* receiving his payment and gathering crops for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together.o 37For here the saying is verified that ‘One sows and another reaps.’p 38I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; others have done the work, and you are sharing the fruits of their work.”
39Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him because of the word of the woman* who testified, “He told me everything I have done.” 40When the Samaritans came to him, they invited him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41Many more began to believe in him because of his word, 42and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”q
The Gospel of the Lord
This unnamed Samaritan woman is at the well at noon during the heat of the day which was unusual. I wonder what forced her to avoid the other women who would have been at the well first thing in the morning when it was cool? Would they have looked down on her as somehow being ‘less’ because she was married so many times? Was she tired of their looks, sneers, and comments and thought this was a better alternative? She must have been very lonely.
I wonder why she was married so many times. Was it the Levitical marriage system that forced her marry after her husband died? Was she forced to marry men she didn’t love nor want? How did that make her feel? Or was she just divorced 5 times and decided to live with the sixth? Divorce was easy for men, impossible for women. If so, she must have felt bad about herself for being rejected so many times, and she must have felt bad that the sixth wouldn’t marry her. How difficult her life must have been. Everything seems to be working against her.
She meets Jesus at the well. She is surprised that he even talks to her, since he is a Jew. But this encounter will be transformative for her and all she ends up bringing to Jesus. At first, he is only “a Jew” to her; then a “greater than Jacob”; then she sees him as “a prophet;” then he is “the Christ.” After he stayed with the Samaritans for a few days, they began to “believe in him because of his word.”
As Jesus talks with her, she faces the problems of her life; the missteps, the sins, the problems in relationships, and those things that have estranged her from her own people. He accepts her, but he never condones her sins, either. He offers her ‘living water.’
In the Old Testament, this idea of flowing water in an arid country is a symbol of God’s self revelation. Jesus offers her living water, that is, the gift of himself, which is a gift from God for everyone that confers eternal life on those who receive it. This living water is also the gift of the Holy Spirit for those who accept Jesus.
The grace of the living water allows her (and us) to start over again. All is forgiven. All are accepted. Regardless of our past problems, sins and mistakes, we can always be transformed by Christ if we just turn to him. He is waiting for us – the only unforgiven sin is the one not confessed. We are like this Samaritan woman, because we fail, and keep failing. It doesn’t matter how many times we fail, Jesus is always there to give us his living water: to refresh us, to lift us up, to give us meaning and peace, and to confer eternal life.
In thanksgiving, let us be a spring of new life for others.
Fr. Phil
THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT
March 11, 2012
READING 1
EXODUS 20:1-17
In those days, God delivered all these commandments:
"I, the LORD, am your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.
You shall not have other gods besides me.
You shall not carve idols for yourselves
in the shape of anything in the sky above
or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth;
you shall not bow down before them or worship them.
For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God,
inflicting punishment for their fathers' wickedness
on the children of those who hate me,
down to the third and fourth generation;
but bestowing mercy down to the thousandth generation
on the children of those who love me and keep my commandments.
"You shall not take the name of the LORD, your God, in vain.
For the LORD will not leave unpunished
the one who takes his name in vain.
"Remember to keep holy the sabbath day.
Six days you may labor and do all your work,
but the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD, your God.
No work may be done then either by you, or your son or daughter,
or your male or female slave, or your beast,
or by the alien who lives with you.
In six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth,
the sea and all that is in them;
but on the seventh day he rested.
That is why the LORD has blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.
"Honor your father and your mother,
that you may have a long life in the land
which the LORD, your God, is giving you.
You shall not kill.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor's house.
You shall not covet your neighbor's wife,
nor his male or female slave, nor his ox or ass,
nor anything else that belongs to him."
OR EX 20:1-3, 7-8, 12-17
In those days, God delivered all these commandments:
"I, the LORD am your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.
You shall not have other gods besides me.
"You shall not take the name of the LORD, your God, in vain.
For the LORD will not leave unpunished
the one who takes his name in vain.
"Remember to keep holy the sabbath day.
Honor your father and your mother,
that you may have a long life in the land
which the Lord, your God, is giving you.
You shall not kill.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor's house.
You shall not covet your neighbor's wife,
nor his male or female slave, nor his ox or ass,
nor anything else that belongs to him."
The Word of the Lord
READING 2
1 CORINTHIANS 1:22-25
Brothers and sisters:
Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom,
but we proclaim Christ crucified,
a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,
but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike,
Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom,
and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
The Word of the Lord
GOSPEL
JOHN 2:13-25
Since the Passover of the Jews was near,
Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves,
as well as the money changers seated there.
He made a whip out of cords
and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen,
and spilled the coins of the money changers
and overturned their tables,
and to those who sold doves he said,
"Take these out of here,
and stop making my Father's house a marketplace."
His disciples recalled the words of Scripture,
Zeal for your house will consume me.
At this the Jews answered and said to him,
"What sign can you show us for doing this?"
Jesus answered and said to them,
"Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up."
The Jews said,
"This temple has been under construction for forty-six years,
and you will raise it up in three days?"
But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
Therefore, when he was raised from the dead,
his disciples remembered that he had said this,
and they came to believe the Scripture
and the word Jesus had spoken.
While he was in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover,
many began to believe in his name
when they saw the signs he was doing.
But Jesus would not trust himself to them because he knew them all,
and did not need anyone to testify about human nature.
He himself understood it well.
The Gospel of the Lord
Reflection
The Temple in today’s Gospel was dedicated in 515 B.C. Herod had an extensive restoration to the Temple from 20 B.C. to 64 A.D. The Temple wasn’t completely restored at the time that Jesus cleansed it. The cleansing of the Temple in the other gospels happens in the last days of Jesus life (in Matthew and Luke, on the day he enters Jerusalem; in Mark, on the day after). This difference is due to theological, not historical, reasons.
This is the first time Passover is mentioned in Johns’ gospel; it’s also mentioned in 6:4, and 13:1; which indicates a minimum of a 2 year ministry for Jesus. John calls it “the Passover of the Jews,” indicating that the Christian community isn’t celebrating it anymore, but because through Jesus, the Passover has been fulfilled.
The animals that are in the Temple are used for sacrifices for major feasts. The doves were offerings for the poor (Leviticus 5:7). According to Exodus 30:11-16, every male over 19 years old paid a Temple tax of a half shekel coin, which had to be paid in Syrian currency. The money changers were needed for those with other types of currency. They collected high profits on the currency exchange.
Jesus drives all the traders out of the Temple with a wrath that could not be resisted. This type of trade was considered a desecration of the Temple. This could refer to Zechariah’s vision of a Temple free of traders; it could refer to Jeremiah’s words in 7:11-14 when he said that these evil doings are destroying the temple, or it could refer to Tobit in 14:7-10 when he envisioned a Temple that had no commerce. Notice, however, that his wrath was only directed to the traders who detracted form worship, not to those leading worship. As it says in Psalm 69, Jesus is consumed with “Zeal for your (God’s) house.”
Fund raising is an important part of parish life, but we must be careful not to let the vestibules and gathering places of our churches become marketplaces for anyone and everyone who needs to make money, regardless of the worthiness of their cause. We priests need to limit second collections and the times we talk about money. We need to focus on the spiritual more than the temporal.
Jesus refers to the Temple as “my Father’s house” which he does 27 times in John’s Gospel. This phrase affirms Jesus special relationship with the Father which he was (and still is) willing to share with us.
The Jews want a sign of his authority. Jesus says, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up." But Jesus was not referring to the Temple, but his body. The previous section of this gospel is the wedding feast at Cana. Just as the water was changed into the wine of salvation at Cana, so the Temple and its liturgy are being replaced by Jesus. Animal sacrifice is no longer needed because Jesus offered himself as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. As both priest and sacrifice, Jesus offered the perfect liturgy. Jesus is both the sign and what is signified.
Jesus is not out to destroy Judaism, but to complete it. Ezekiel said that in the time of the Messiah, the Temple will be rebuilt (chapters 40-46). Jesus is the new Temple, the center of our worship, because he is the one who bridges the gap between us and the Father; he brings us to God, and God to us.
The sign that Jesus offers is his death and resurrection. Signs are something that reveal Jesus identity if understood in faith, and they are also a call to faith in him. Jesus death and resurrection reveal that he is the long awaited messiah who dies for our sins and who conquers death. We are called to a belief in Jesus as our Lord and Savior and to be missionaries of God’s great love for us.
The disciples didn’t understand right away, and how could they? They began understanding after the resurrection when they remembered Jesus’ words and actions, and things began to make sense. This is especially true after Pentecost, when they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Our faith grows slowly also. We don’t always understand, but when we keep seeking the Lord, his grace will help us grow in our understanding and faith
In the first reading from Exodus, the Israelites have been released from slavery in Egypt and are their way to the Promised Land. God leads them, feeds them, gives them water, and most importantly, gives them laws.
There are many laws in this section of Exodus (go look it up – you may be surprised what is there). Today, we have the Ten Commandments that tell us about our relationship to God (the first 3 commandments) and each other (the other 7 commandments). They reflect the covenant between God and His people. A good meditation for Lent would be to pray and reflect on each of these Commandments for their meaning and application to our lives.
In the RCIA program we are in the period of purification and enlightenment which coincides with Lent. There will be scrutinies on the next three Sundays at the 10 am Mass for those in this program who are to be baptized (called the elect). These scrutinies are “rites for self searching and repentance and …are meant to uncover, then heal all that is weak, defective, or sinful in the hearts of the elect; to bring out, then strengthen all that is upright, strong and good…to deliver the elect from the power of sin and Satan, to protect them against temptation, and to give them strength in Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life” (from The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, paragraph 141) . Each Sunday a prayer of exorcism is prayed over the elect to achieve these ends. Through the exorcisms they will “receive new strength in the midst of the spiritual journey and they open their hearts to receive the gifts of the Savior (paragraph 144).” These scrutinies should “complete the conversion of the elect and deepen their resolve to hold fast to Christ and to carry out their decision to love God above all” (paragraph 141). We also have special readings for these scrutinies. At the 10 am mass only, we will hear the Gospel of the Samaritan Woman at the Well this week; the Man born Blind next week, and the raising of Lazarus in 2 weeks. Here is the gospel of the Samaritan woman at the well:
CHAPTER 4
The Samaritan Woman. 4He had to* pass through Samaria. 5So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar,* near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.a 6Jacob’s well was there. Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well. It was about noon.
7A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. 9* The Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”b (For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.) 10* Jesus answered and said to her,c “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11[The woman] said to him, “Sir,* you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep; where then can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?”d 13Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; 14but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”e 15The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16Jesus said to her, “Go call your husband and come back.” 17The woman answered and said to him, “I do not have a husband.” Jesus answered her, “You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’ 18For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.”f 19The woman said to him, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.g 20Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain;* but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”h 21Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews.i 23But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth;* and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him. 24God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.”j 25* The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming,k the one called the Anointed; when he comes, he will tell us everything.” 26Jesus said to her, “I am he,* the one who is speaking with you.”l
27At that moment his disciples returned, and were amazed that he was talking with a woman,* but still no one said, “What are you looking for?” or “Why are you talking with her?” 28The woman left her water jar and went into the town and said to the people, 29“Come see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the Messiah?” 30They went out of the town and came to him. 31Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.” 32But he said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” 33So the disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?” 34Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work.m 35Do you not say, ‘In four months* the harvest will be here’? I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest.n 36The reaper is already* receiving his payment and gathering crops for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together.o 37For here the saying is verified that ‘One sows and another reaps.’p 38I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; others have done the work, and you are sharing the fruits of their work.”
39Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him because of the word of the woman* who testified, “He told me everything I have done.” 40When the Samaritans came to him, they invited him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41Many more began to believe in him because of his word, 42and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”q
The Gospel of the Lord
This unnamed Samaritan woman is at the well at noon during the heat of the day which was unusual. I wonder what forced her to avoid the other women who would have been at the well first thing in the morning when it was cool? Would they have looked down on her as somehow being ‘less’ because she was married so many times? Was she tired of their looks, sneers, and comments and thought this was a better alternative? She must have been very lonely.
I wonder why she was married so many times. Was it the Levitical marriage system that forced her marry after her husband died? Was she forced to marry men she didn’t love nor want? How did that make her feel? Or was she just divorced 5 times and decided to live with the sixth? Divorce was easy for men, impossible for women. If so, she must have felt bad about herself for being rejected so many times, and she must have felt bad that the sixth wouldn’t marry her. How difficult her life must have been. Everything seems to be working against her.
She meets Jesus at the well. She is surprised that he even talks to her, since he is a Jew. But this encounter will be transformative for her and all she ends up bringing to Jesus. At first, he is only “a Jew” to her; then a “greater than Jacob”; then she sees him as “a prophet;” then he is “the Christ.” After he stayed with the Samaritans for a few days, they began to “believe in him because of his word.”
As Jesus talks with her, she faces the problems of her life; the missteps, the sins, the problems in relationships, and those things that have estranged her from her own people. He accepts her, but he never condones her sins, either. He offers her ‘living water.’
In the Old Testament, this idea of flowing water in an arid country is a symbol of God’s self revelation. Jesus offers her living water, that is, the gift of himself, which is a gift from God for everyone that confers eternal life on those who receive it. This living water is also the gift of the Holy Spirit for those who accept Jesus.
The grace of the living water allows her (and us) to start over again. All is forgiven. All are accepted. Regardless of our past problems, sins and mistakes, we can always be transformed by Christ if we just turn to him. He is waiting for us – the only unforgiven sin is the one not confessed. We are like this Samaritan woman, because we fail, and keep failing. It doesn’t matter how many times we fail, Jesus is always there to give us his living water: to refresh us, to lift us up, to give us meaning and peace, and to confer eternal life.
In thanksgiving, let us be a spring of new life for others.
Fr. Phil
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