Monday, March 31, 2025

Monday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

(Isaiah 65:17-21; John 4:43-54)

All human life has dignity.  Ergo, euthanasia is wrong.  But letting live only begins to respect life.  Life must be assisted so that it may develop and prosper.  This is the whole point of Easter as the readings during this second half of Lent will testify.

In today’s first reading the prophet promises a new earth.  It will be a place of joy.  There will be no premature death.  Indeed, at a hundred years old, a person will be considered young.  The gospel shows Jesus enabling the dying son of the royal official to live.  His miraculous cure is called a “sign.”  It signifies that Jesus has come to give eternal life to those who believe in him.

We should note a very different tenor in the mass readings of the second half of Lent.  They no longer call for repentance and penance.  Rather, they emphasize the fullness of life God bestows through His Son.  Easter will soon be here.  We will leave behind our sins and worries.  It is almost time for us to rejoice. 

Monday, March 27, 2017

Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent

(Isaiah 65:17-21; John 4:43-54)

The fourth Sunday of Lent marks a threshold.  No longer will the weekday readings call for prayer, fasting, and forgiving.  Now they center on the life that Christ promises.  The gospel book changes as well.  For almost four weeks one of the Synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) was used.  Now the Gospel of John presenting Jesus as “the resurrection and the life” is opened for work.

Jesus seems perturbed with the royal official when he says, “’Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.’”  He is wary of people’s faith that is based solely on the miraculous.  Jesus is encouraging the man to believe so that he may have eternal life.  As a matter of fact, the official does so without seeing the miracle take place.  Only the next day does he learn that his son recovered from his “near death” condition. 

Jesus has also given us new life.  Many of us were dead spiritually.  We thought too much of money, food, and prestige to appreciate life’s true meaning.  The disciplines of Lent have hopefully reoriented us correctly.  Now we look forward to experiencing the fullness of life. We should expect not just balance in our daily activities but the joy and peace of caring about one another.  Heaven or eternal life consists precisely in this.

Homilette for February 7, 2008

Thursday after Ash Wednesday

(Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Luke 9:22-25)

“Choose life.” We have all seen bumper stickers and tee-shirts with this anti-abortion message. No doubt, people who feel burdened by an unexpected pregnancy find the message ironic. To them life is being liberated from responsibility so that they may care for other needs and pursue their desires. Life, then, is one of those simple words with various levels of meaning.

In the reading from Deuteronomy today, Moses exhorts the Israelites also to “choose life.” He has in mind God’s law that promises to extend the existence of both individual and community. Following these commandments of truth and justice, both present and future generations will thrive. Descendants will remember with gratitude forebears who passed on the law to them and so, in a sense, keep them in existence. Jesus radicalizes the message. As we hear in the gospel, he says that life comes when we choose to follow his way of self-surrender to God’s love. This may even involve a renunciation of biological life. However, its promise extends way beyond immortalization in the minds and hearts of descendants to a new realm of personal existence with God in eternity.

We have chosen Jesus’ way to life. But have we been faithful to that selection? During Lenten we test ourselves and make all necessary adjustments to renew the choice. We foresee ourselves easily back on the road to full life by Easter and happily partaking of full life at death.