Monday, Mar 16, 2015

Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent

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

When St. John Paul II was elected pope in 1978, he advised that the celebration of Jubilee 2000 would be the hallmark of his papacy.  Sure enough, as the bicentennial became more proximate, he issued calls for a global celebration.  Grand synods of bishops were convoked in the different parts of the world.  Tributes were issued to God the Father in 1998, God the Spirit in 1999, and Jesus, the Son of God, in the long anticipated year.  The readings today suggest that similar preparations for Easter now be planned.

The theme of the Lenten mass readings has changed from remorse and repentance for sins to anticipation of the graces of Easter.  The first reading from the third part of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah tells of a new beginning about to take place.  God, it says, will turn the people’s mourning into joy.  No one, it continues, will be deprived of a long life.  The gospel passage indicates why.  It shows Jesus performing the first of his healings in the Gospel of John.  His power, it makes clear, transcends space as he heals the royal official’s son from a distance.

People have traditionally prepared for Easter by buying a new set of clothes.  The idea was as much as clothes make the person, so the people will show that they have been recreated in Christ by new dress.  We should concern ourselves with the virtues that indicate a new creation: gratitude in place of criticism, charity in place of miserliness, and hope in place of discouragement.  Of course, now is the time to start practicing these virtues so that at Easter they become as apparent as a beautiful woman’s Easter bonnet.

Friday, March 13, 2015

Friday of the Third Week of Lent

(Hosea 14:2-10; Matthew 12:28-34)

In a sad ballad Elvis Presley used to sing, “It's only words, and words are all I have to take your heart away.”   In the first reading today, the prophet Hosea tells us that God wants us to woo His heart with words.  “Take with you words,” the prophet says on behalf of God, “and return to the Lord.”  Words are like rockets that bring the one who prays close to God.

 

But, as everyone knows, words often fall short of reality.  Sometimes words are used deceptively or, at least, in ways that do not match one’s intentions.  “I would do anything for you,” a university student told his girlfriend.  “Would you go to the library with me on Friday evening?” she asked.  “I would,” he said, “but I am busy then.”  Words then are not enough.  One must be sincere in what one says. 

The step between words on the lips and sincerity in the heart is all that is missing from the scribe’s entering the Kingdom of God in the gospel.  Jesus does not mean to criticize the man when he says that is he is “not far from the Kingdom of God.”  He only means that the scribe’s approval for Jesus’ articulation of the greatest commandment is not enough for salvation.  He must not only approve Jesus’ words but live them.  When we say that we love God, we also must demonstrate our sincerity with actions of self-sacrifice on behalf of others.

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Thursday of the Third Week of Lent

(Jeremiah7:23-28; Luke 11:14-23)

The other day Pope Francis preached that worldliness transforms souls so that they lose consciousness of reality.  They no longer see other people as images of God worthy of respect but as object of exploitation.  This refusal to see, this blindness runs through both readings today.

Jeremiah speaks of the people’s diffidence to the will of God.  He says that God desires to bring them to happiness but they refuse to follow his lead.  The gospel echoes this faithlessness on the part of the people.  Jesus has cast out a demon – a sign that the reign of God has finally arrived.  But witnesses make excuses to withhold their belief in him.  Frustrated, Jesus draws a line in the sand.  “Whoever is not with me,” he says, “is against me.”

We pray that we have really made an option for Jesus.  Sometimes it is hard to tell because we know that the human person has a million ways to deceive herself.  Yet we know that the best prescription for making an authentic choice for Jesus is to imitate his ways – all of them from prayer in the early morning to serving others well after the sun goes down.

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Wednesday of the Third Week in Lent

(Deuteronomy 4:1.5-9; Matthew 5:17-19)

When Judge Roy Moore of Alabama was prohibited by the federal court from displaying the Ten Commandments in his courtroom, he brought the Commandments to the people.  He hauled around a two and a half ton granite monument with the Ten Commandments inscribed.  In his meanderings he argued that the Decalogue forming the basis of law has a place in a government forum.  It is a similar message to what we hear in the Scripture readings today.

In the passage from Deuteronomy Moses exhorts the people to observe the whole law which is based on the Ten Commandments.  Jesus says in the gospel that he will not subtract an iota from that law but means to fulfill them.  In the following section of the Sermon on the Mount he shows that self-sacrificing love is necessary to establish full justice.

At times the Ten Commandments seem like rules for children.  However, we must recognize the different levels -- most often hidden – to which they are applied.  For example, the Fourth Commandments not only admonishes us to obey our parents in our youth but to care for them in their old age.  It further requires us to comply with the laws of the land and to contribute to the common good.  Read properly, the Ten Commandments anticipate the whole natural law which well serves as the basis of positive laws decreed by the state.

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Tuesday of the Third Week in Lent

(Daniel 3:25.34-43; Matthew 18:21-35)

There is a problem implied in Jesus’ parable.  If the servant whose debt is forgiven mistreats a fellow servant, can he expect forgiveness upon request for his second offense?  If yes, then where is justice?  If no, then why does Jesus insist that one must forgive seventy-seven times?

Obviously, Jesus does not imply this dilemma in his “seventy-seven times” rule.  He sees forgiveness as turning on the genuineness of the guilty party’s contrition.  In the parable the servant shows that his original petition of forgiveness is insincere by refusing to show mercy when the tables are turned.  The commandment to forgive “seventy-seven times” applies only when the offender intends to change her ways.  If a request for forgiveness merely simulates contrition, one would be foolish to honor it.

We may worry about the sincerity of our own contrition when we find ourselves confessing the same sins over and over again.  Let us never underestimate God’s mercy.  It is more abundant that the water of the oceans.  But God is also discerning.  He reads human hearts to know whether we really intend to change our ways.  To be sure, God understands that bad habits are hard to break and will allow us plenty of opportunities to mend our ways.