Sunday, March 9, 2025

FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT, March 9, 2025

(Deuteronomy 26:4-10; Romans 10:8-13; Luke 4:1-13)

We began Lent last Wednesday with the reception of ashes, fasting, and abstaining from meat. But it seems to me that this week we begin it in earnest. Lent is more than a one-day performance to put us into the spirit of humility but an extended time to achieve it. The season proposes that we become more willing to love God with our whole heart.

The readings of each Mass during Lent usually focus on one aspect of the paschal mystery. Today they emphasize trust in God. Let's deal with the first reading quickly and give more attention to the gospel.  There we will observe not only Jesus' success over the distorted desires of the human heart but also his solidarity with humanity. Finally, we will see how the reading from the Letter to the Romans signals the accessibility of salvation to the entire world.

The first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy gives the striking phrase: “My father was a wandering Aramean…” It refers to Jacob, son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham, who left his homeland to seek refuge in Egypt. Without land to protect them from both hunger and enemies, Jacob’s descendants lived in precarious conditions for centuries. However, God blessed them so that they grew into a great nation. In time, God freed them from Pharaoh’s tyranny and established them in the land of Canaan.

As great as freedom and land are, God eventually gave Israel nation a far greater gift. He sent his only begotten Son to fulfill the nation’s destiny to be a “light to the nations,” the source of salvation for the world. In the gospel, Jesus arrives in the desert “filled with the Holy Spirit,” which he received through his baptism in the Jordan River. It was a gratuitous act of solidarity with humans since having never sinned, Jesus did not need baptism.

Again, like other human beings Jesus suffers temptations engineered by the devil. In preparation for his ministry, Jesus faces the great desires of the human heart. First, he must overcome sensual longings represented by the temptation to break his forty-day fast. Second, he must subdue the ambition for power and glory in the devil's offer of lordship over the kingdoms of the world. Finally, Jesus must master the human will to manipulate God for its own benefit. At each turn he dismisses temptation with a phrase from Scripture. Jesus proves himself consistent with his teaching throughout the gospel that humans are on earth to serve the Lord God, not to be served.

Jesus' solidarity with humans here at the beginning of the gospel will continue to its end. On the cross he will show its depth when he suffers death as the sacrifice of the sinless for sinners. Only such self-giving can redeem humans from their offenses of doing their own will rather than God's.  Having left behind all earthly ambition, Jesús can truly say, “Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit.”

In the second reading, St. Paul assures us that being included among those redeemed by Jesus Christ is not reserved for a few. We have only to submit ourselves to Christ with an act of faith. We ask, “What about those who have never had the opportunity to know Christ?” Vatican II teaches that all who seek God’s will with a sincere heart will not be abandoned. God will not allow non-Christians who do His will to be lost. But they, like us, must humble themselves before Him.

Friday, March 7, 2025

Friday after Ash Wednesday

(Isaiah 58:1-9a; Matthew 9:14-15)

Needless to say, today’s readings involve fasting.  The first calls into question the fasting of Israel in the sixth century before Christ.  The gospel questions the purpose of fasting with the supreme call to joy present.

Fasting is an outward sign of an interior disposition of humility.  It indicates one’s willingness to do God’s will and not one’s own.  Trito-Isaiah chastises the nation of Israel for putting on a show as if they intended to keep God’s commandments.  In reality, however, they mean “business as usual” with just lip service to justice as God commands.

We say Lent is a forty-day fast.  In most years, however, there are only thirty-eight or thirty-nine days of fasting.  The difference is accounted to a suspension of fasting on March 19, the Solemnity of St. Joseph, and March 25, the Solemnity of the Annunciation.  Both days call for celebration, not signs of humility.  Besides Sundays, on the other days of Lent we should not only fast but make up for the times in which we have not rendered full justice to God or neighbor.

Thursday after Ash Wednesday

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

In a “Faustian bargain” one sells his or her eternal soul to the devil in exchange for temporal goods.  The term originates from a legendary man who bargained with the devil for unlimited knowledge and possessions.  Unfortunately, many people forfeit their souls at a much lesser price.  The readings today exhort us to avoid all such arrangements.

 Moses is speaking to the people just before they enter the Promised Land.  He says that God will give them “life,” i.e., prosperity for them and their descendants.  They only have to keep to His ways.  In the gospel Jesus offers an even greater life.  His followers can secure an eternal reward by focusing on him rather than their own desires.  They are to live without complaints doing good for others. 

 The purpose of Lent is to reinforce the habits of self-denying love in order to have fullness of life.  Like any exercise worth our while, it takes effort.  But we share the experience with one another in the Church and with Christ.  The burden becomes, paradoxically, a joy in such good company.

Wednesday, March 5, 2025

Ash Wednesday

(Joel 2:12-18; II Corinthians 5:20-6:2; Matthew 6:1-6.16-18)

People should not come forward to receive ashes today to show the world they are Catholics.  Not only would this reason indicate an unholy pride, but also an increasing number of Protestant communities serve ashes.  Christians wear ashes on their foreheads today not to show they are different than other humans but to show that they are the same.  Like every human being alive today a Christian is a sinner.  He or she has loved God’s creation more than God Himself.  Ashes also indicate that, as in the case of the first human beings, sinners are bound to return to the earth where they decompose into dirt.

Except for one thing, the fact that Jesus Christ also was human.  For sure, he was the one exception to the rule that all humans sin.  (Mary will not be considered here as she was conceived and maintained herself without sin by virtue of being the mother of Jesus.)  Yet Jesus did not shirk from identifying with sinful humans.  He was baptized in solidarity with sinners as the second reading today points out: he who did not know sin was made sin.  Indeed, he took all human sins upon himself so that he might redeem humans by his horrifically unjust Passion and Death.

Ashes should not remain only a sign of our sinfulness.  Rather, they should say something of our intention to rise from our sinfulness as the phoenix of Greek mythology rises from the ashes of its predecessors.  We do this not by our own efforts, but by faith in Jesus Christ.  Our works of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are but ways of joining Christ, who became like us.  He will lift us up to glory.

Tuesday, March 4, 2025

Tuesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

(Sirach 35:1-12; Mark 10:28-31)

The phrase “giving up” in today’s gospel reminds one that tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.  Christians will be giving up some of the pleasures of life for the sake of Jesus and the for the gospel.  Is this still good practice?

For years some preachers have recommended not to give up anything for Lent but to enter the spirit of the season with a commitment to “do something positive.”   It seems that they have the issue half-right.  Christians should strive to help others during Lent.  But self-denial complements charity in Jesus’ call to promote him and the gospel.

“Giving up” something for the sake of the other is a heartful expression of love.  We might say that we love another, but giving up a meal while acknowledging the other more forcefully shows that love.  Jesus is not with us in person so that we might do something unambiguously for him.  Nevertheless, we recognize his spiritual presence by denying ourselves a pleasure for his sake.  And if others should hear of it, will they not ask themselves what in the gospel makes us do so?