Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Wednesday of the First Week in Lent

(Jonah 3:1-10; Luke 11:29-32)

Enter into almost any doctor’s office, and you will be asked for a sign.  The attendant will want to see your insurance card guaranteeing the doctor will be paid.  You can tell the person that you have plenty of money to cover the doctor’s fee, but he will not believe you.  In today’s gospel Jesus chastises the people for a similar lack of faith.

The people want Jesus to produce miracles on demand before they believe in him.  Jesus is telling them that this is not God’s way.  He says that just as the Ninevites believed Jonah’s prophecy that God was ready to destroy them, Jews should believe his message.  Of course, Jesus wants them to reform for a very different reason.  Rather than touting God’s wrath, Jesus is saying that God is at hand dispensing mercy.

 It is hard for many of us to trust.  Perhaps we have been abused by someone we once loved.  But, as Jesus indicates, there is plenty of reason to do so.  We have life and likely more than enough to eat.  We probably have had at least one parent who would have died for us and friends who are willing to help meet our needs.  These are all signs of a sort indicating God’s presence.  But some still hold out saying that they require miracles on demand before they will believe. 

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Tuesday of the First Week of Lent

(Isaiah55:10-11; Matthew 6:7-15)

When Isaiah speaks of God’s word going forth from His mouth, he is using the term figuratively.  Word is more than a vocal sound with a definite meaning; it is a figure of speech standing for all truth about God.  For this reason Jesus is called the “Word of God.”  When we see Jesus, we see God.  This does not mean that we can know everything about God who will forever remain a mystery.  In a sense, but in an infinitely greater way, as we cannot know everything even about any person even our spouses for fifty years, we will never come to know all about God.

In today’s gospel Jesus reveals what is most important to us about God.  When he urges us to call God “Father,” he is telling us that although God created the universe, He still cares for us individually with the tenderest of loves.  Jesus also reminds us, “like father, like son”: as we expect God to pardon our sins, we should forgive others theirs.

Many of us pray the “Our Father” throughout the day.  We do well to make it our last words as we go to sleep at night and the first words on our lips in the morning.  In this way we will never forget that God is at hand to help us and that we are made to be like Him.

Monday, February 23, 2015

Monday of the First Week in Lent

(Leviticus 19:1-2.11-18; Matthew 25:31-46)

A few weeks the Vatican announced that it is arranging free haircuts and shaves for street people in Rome.  Already a section of St. Peter’s colonnade has been sectioned off for showers and toilets for these poorest of the poor.  Now the Church is also providing a space for barbers to come on their day off to provide their services.  It is not so much that Pope Francis thinks “cleanliness is next to Godliness” but that he knows caring for the poor is God’s will.

The first reading today is part of the “holiness code” of the Old Testament.  Its emphasis on justice shows that religion in the Jewish tradition demands more than prayer and asceticism.  Jesus pushes the idea to its extreme.  He tells his disciples that they reverence him when they serve the needy.

The poor surround us.  They are not necessarily begging on street corners.  They may be serving us breakfast or cutting our lawn.  We must not look pass them.  Quite the contrary we need to see in them a reflection of Jesus.  In a way like taking the body and blood in the Eucharist, meeting their needs provides access to eternal life.

Friday, February 20, 2015

Friday after Ash Wednesday

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

Fasting – Isaiah in effect denies it in the first reading today, and Jesus delays it in the gospel.  There is, therefore, cause to wonder about its worth. 

Physicians often require patients to fast before undertaking various kinds of medical procedures.  Of course, people needing to lose weight regularly fast for salutary reasons.  Religious traditions, despite the reservations of the readings today, have long considered fasting a way to purification.  Not only does it allow the body to purge itself of contaminants, but it signals a victory over one’s desires.

Although the practice almost mocks the meaning of the term, Catholics are bound to fast only on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.  That is, on these two days we are not allowed to eat between meals.  But individual, more strenuous fasting is encouraged.  Skipping a meal and even passing an entire day without eating can express genuine love for the Lord.  We must remember, however, the fasting that pleases God most.  As today’s reading from Isaiah proclaims, God wants us to work so that all people may be free.  That is, we are to free the poor from excessive want so that their fasting may be a willful act of love and not an inescapable necessity.

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Thursday after Ash Wednesday

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

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,” writes poet Robert Frost discerning the direction he should take in life.  One road, he says, “bent in the undergrowth” as if it was so well traveled that one might lose oneself on it.  He took the other one because, he claims, it seemed less worn.  Is that second trail the road of life, which Moses exhorts the Israelites to follow in today’s first reading and which Jesus delineates in the gospel?

Moses also refers to a choice.  He exhorts the Israelites to choose wisely in what may be called a fork in the road ahead.  One prong will lead them to life and prosperity through love of God and compliance with His commandments.  The other will bring them to dissolution through self-indulgence and injustice.  Jesus explicates what God desires of humans: that they deny themselves for His sake.  He too mentions a choice.  One can gain the whole world and be imprisoned in it.  Or she can lose everything that she has and find herself in the company of Jesus, the resurrected one.

Lent is a period of grace to reflect on the choices which the readings today propose.  We are to spare ourselves of comfort so that we can focus on Jesus.  He gave up everything so that we might choose life with him.