Monday of Holy Week
With Palm Sunday yesterday, we began what is known as “Holy Week,” which includes the last of Lent and the Triduum of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. We are now quickly moving toward Jesus’ passion and death; we are hastening toward Jerusalem. Today’s first reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah is one from the Old Testament that our Church has always understood Christologically. In other words, although it was written before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, we look at this passage as applying to Christ.
Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion
Today we celebrate Palm Sunday and we enter Holy Week. This is the most solemn week in the liturgical calendar and concludes with the joyous 50-day Easter Season. In today’s Liturgy, we celebrate when the people welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem, with palm branches, welcoming the Messiah, Jesus the Davidic King, with cries of “Hosanna!” And yet we are entering the week which commemorates Jesus’ Last Supper, His rejection, His arrest, His torture, and His death—all of which we must pass through liturgically before we enter into the liturgical celebration of His resurrection.
Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent
In today’s first reading, the prophet Ezekiel writes of how the LORD God will gather the people of Israel together again from their exile. God promises to heal their divisions, to cleanse them from their sinfulness, and to help them obey His commands. He promises to set up make a new and eternal covenant with them. He promises to make a sanctuary, a place to worship Him properly, that will last forever. As Catholic Christians, although we would acknowledge that the Jewish people may have other legitimate ways that they would see a passage such as this fulfilled in their own history, we interpret this passage primarily as relating to the coming of Jesus and to the establishment of the Church. Much of the passage is understood metaphorically- we do not seek to control a particular piece of land upon the earth but instead to be united to God as one “People of God” who are spread out all over the earth. In our understanding, the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist means that God dwells with us constantly in the tabernacles of our various Church communities.
Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent
With the coming of Holy Week and spring and all the end of the school year activities that happen around now, my life feels quite busy – to the point that I’m flagging quite a bit in my Lenten disciplines. Back when Lent started, I had all sorts of ideas about how my fasting and prayer life would go, much like the exaggerated advertising claims you hear on television: “Have a Holier Life in ONLY six weeks’ time! Join Now!”
Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord
It is a striking coincidence that in the middle of Lent we celebrate this Solemnity of the Annunciation. It is a reminder to us that although we are in the season of penance and preparation for the resurrection and Easter season, we are only nine months away from Christmas. Today we celebrate the angel Gabriel appearing to Mary, and hence we also celebrate the conception of Christ within her blessed womb. In a society that often does not consider conception as the beginning of life, this solemnity stands as a marked reminder that for Catholics, conceptions do matter, as does responding to God’s will. It is also a reminder to us that pregnancy takes time. Our Advent preparation for Christmas is remarkably short compared to the nine months of Mary’s preparation for the Nativity.
Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent
The Rites of Christian Initiation (Sacraments of Baptism, First Eucharist, and Confirnation administered to adults during Easter vigil) entitle Lent as “The Period of Purification and Enlightenment.” This whole season has included ritual possibilities for our candidates and catechumens to be purified. The Lenten season is of course full of opportunities for all Christians to grow away from sin and become more faithful to the gospel. For any of us who have been trying to stay true to our Lenten sacrifices, we know that when faced with giving into temptation, some days are better than others. Sometimes the stress of the day can push us in directions that lead us away from God. Purification occurs when we stay true to our faith commitments. Although purification is at times painful, its process often leaves us healthier and holier. What is not always clear at the beginning of the process is what will be the end results?
Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Today’s Gospel reading provides us with a clue to a Christian typological reading of our first reading today from the Book of Numbers. In our first reading from Numbers, we find the Israelites dying in the wilderness. They are dying because of their sins. This might not at first be apparent, since their proximate cause of death was the seraph serpents God sent among them. But the serpents are sent among them in response to their sinful murmuring, impatience and complaining against God, and thus the serpents were a means of blessing, a means by which the people were incited to turn back to the Lord. The difficult time of the wilderness, combined with the deaths from the serpents, assisted the people in their repentance and turning back to God, following the instructions of Moses. And Moses’ instructions were simple: look up at the seraph Moses had made, lifted up on a pole.
Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Yesterday began our fifth and penultimate week of Lent. As we continue along our journey this week, our eyes are focused ever more intently on Jesus and his journey to Jerusalem, to his passion and crucifixion. Our first reading today comes from the book of Daniel and contains a story that is at once tragic, dramatic, and joyful. Susanna, a holy and beautiful woman, is unjustly accused by elders who have lusted after her. She is on the verge of being put to death unfairly when a young boy named Daniel steps in and comes to her defense by challenging the elders.
Fifth Sunday of Lent
(Reflection based on Cycle C Readings)
Today’s first reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah announces something new for Israel. The imagery shows that Isaiah envisions a new exodus event which brings water to the desert. This oracle shares similarities with the vision in Jeremiah 31 of a new covenant God will make, again depicting it as a new exodus event. In St. Luke’s Gospel, and elsewhere, Jesus’ mission in Jerusalem, His passion, death, and resurrection, is depicted as that new exodus event.
Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent
There is an interesting interplay in today’s readings between our expectations or knowledge and God’s work.
In the first reading from the prophet Jeremiah, we hear the emphasis on God as the one who knows all, “I knew their plot because the LORD informed me; at that time you, O LORD, showed me their doings” (Jer 11:18). All knowledge comes from God yet, like Jeremiah, we don’t always realize what God is telling us.
Solemnity of Saint Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Today’s feast day focuses on Joseph as husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the foster father of Jesus, so today’s scriptures focus on family lineage and relationships as a way of helping us reflect on Joseph as father. In particular, I’m struck by the first of today’s possible gospel readings (Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24a) which hints at Joseph’s consternation at discovering that his betrothed wife was pregnant, and not by him.
Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Sandwiched between the feast of St. Patrick and the Solemnity of St. Joseph, we have this Thursday of the fourth week of Lent. Our first reading is from the book of Exodus. The exodus story is a powerful one because of the miracles God worked in freeing his people from slavery in Egypt. But while God managed to get the people out of Egypt, it was harder to get Egypt out of the people. They had become accustomed to the polytheistic religion of Egypt, and were used to the idea of worshiping statues and images. So when Moses went off to confer with God on Mt. Sinai, the people made a golden calf and worshiped the calf as though it were their God.
Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Hopefully, by now the Lenten sacrifices of you have committed too have taken root in you. If not, it may be because you celebrate the Sunday’s as little Easters and reward yourself for a well disciplined six days. This has been my families practice. However, I realize as I get older the Sunday exemption actually makes the discipline of the other sixth days more difficult. In doing some research I have found that science seems to show that it takes three to four weeks to set a good habit in place and yet only three to four days to break one. In light of this, I will try to exercise my discipline through Easter Sunday in order to try to reset these good habits.
Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
The Gospel reading for today from St. John’s Gospel is a powerful one. We find a man who is physically unable to immerse himself in the healing waters of the pool of Bethesda. He tells his problem to Jesus, and Jesus heals the man without even using water from the pool.
Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent
We are now about halfway through our season of Lent; yesterday began our fourth week dedicated to repentance. But in the midst of this repentance, we are also reminded that Lent is not simply about our repentance. Although we take on various Lenten sacrifices, we are ultimately called beyond these to the beauty of our salvation. In this season of Lent, we are called to praise God, for He has rescued us, as the psalm response for today proclaims (Ps 30:2a).
Fourth Sunday of Lent
In today’s first reading we have a description of the first Passover which the Israelites celebrated in the Promised Land at the end of their 40 years of wandering in the desert wilderness. Before celebrating this Passover, they had to repent and turn back to the Lord, which was signified in their having to be circumcised. The fact that they had to be circumcised shows that this generation, the which grew up during the 40 year period in the wilderness, had not followed the Laws of God. It is in the Promised Land, after the exodus, after the wilderness period of trial and testing, at the first Passover in Canaan, that the Manna ceased to fall and the Israelites ate from the fruit of the Promised Land. This of course points forward to the Mass, the fulfilled Passover in which we as Catholics participate. In Heaven, our Promised Land, we will no longer need the signs of the Sacraments, because the supernatural realities signified with the signs here on earth, will be present to us in a new and special way.
Saturday of the Third Week of Lent
The great Catholic fiction writer, Flannery O’Connor wrote a short story entitled “Revelation” in which the main character, Mrs. Turpin, is a Southern white farmer who is social, keeps up a nice appearance, and is well-respected. Yet, by way of the narrator, we get a glimpse into Mrs. Turpin’s head and at one point we see her reflecting: “If it’s one thing I am… it’s grateful. When I think of all I could’ve been besides myself and what all I got, a little of everything, and a good disposition besides, I just feel like shouting, ‘Thank you, Jesus, for making everything the way that it is! It could’ve been different.’”
Friday of the Third Week of Lent
I’m a scholar; I admit that I love a good discussion (okay, argument, if you will) and I enjoy hearing peoples’ views on a variety of issues. But one of the things that troubles me is when people decide, in the heat of trying to “win” an argument, to trump the whole debate by bringing in a “hypothetical.” As an ethicist, I tend to hear the same hypothetical stories over and over: five people are in a boat, they get lost at sea, and realize that until the time for probable rescue, they have only enough food for four. Who should get thrown overboard?
Thursday of the Third Week of Lent
Today’s responsorial psalm refrain “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts,” could be a slogan for Lent (Ps 95:8). This is a time of the liturgical year when we work on hearing God’s voice and responding with love. If we think that this should be an easy task, we need only look at our two readings for today in order to see that it is not.
Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent
God’s law is at the heart of the readings for today. They call upon us to be attentive to how we are thoroughly living these statutes from the Lord. Moses’ plea in the first reading is to remind the Israelites just how very important it is to live God’s laws. He wants his spiritual children to remember that their actions will give spiritual evidence to one another and to those nations of people who will live around them. Moses does this in part to remind the people of Israel what happened to those who had built and worshiped the golden calf. The incident of golden calf drew many who were not strong in their faith to a bitter end. The Israelites would need to be strong especially as they interacted with people who had other values and other Gods.