3/16/2015 – Monday of the fourth week of Lent – Isaiah 65:17-21

      Isaiah gives a vision of a new heaven and a new earth that the Lord will create, of a new Jerusalem that will be the joy and delight of all the people. Through Isaiah, the Lord announces that these things we will unlike what we’ve known in the past.  Some of the prophets before Isaiah saw the new creation to come as a return to the paradise that was lost to the original sin of Adam and Eve.  Today, Isaiah puts a new twist on the vision, as do the other apocalyptic writings in the Old and New Testaments.  The sickness, pain, suffering, and crying that we have known on this earth will be no more.

       When I thought of this vision of a new heaven and a new earth, I thought about the announcement of new products at the Apple Computer event last week. These Apple events are anticipated greatly by computer users throughout the world, as they announcement new products that will change the way use technology in our daily lives.   To show how much technology changes, I have only been in Tupelo for two years, and before I came here I never had an ipad or a smart phone, and now those are two devices that I use many times each day. Last week, Apple not only announced an Apple watch that does more things that James Bond can even dream of a few years ago, but they debuted a new laptop that is thinner and sleeker than anything else on the market.  Yet, it seems like now, the trend is to make things more fashionable and more “bling-bling” than something more powerful and with more memory.  So, I guess we all have opinions about what “new and improved” means.  And needless to say, this new technology comes with a very hefty price tag.

       The vision that Isaiah brings of no more suffering and no more pain foreshadows the healings and miracles of Jesus, with the healing of son of the royal official in Capernaum.   Out of compassion for the faith of the people, Jesus heals the son and gives him life.  We know the realities of our world, don’t we?  We know that the shiny new computer or smart phone or other piece of technology may seem old or clunky when something new comes out in a matter of months or years.  We also know that pain, suffering, and tragedy are common occurrences in our lives here on year, even lives lived as faithful followers of Christ.  Yet, as we journey through this season of Lent, as we stay true to our Lenten promises and commitments, as we try to live as disciples of Christ, we hope to experience the joy and the peace that only can come from such a commitment, that can only come from the promise of eternal life in him. 

3/15/2015 - el cuarto domingo de Cuaresma – Juan 3:14-21

       Para creer en Jesucristo no es algo muy fácil en nuestro camino de fe. Para ser discípulo de Cristo no es una decisión que podemos hacer sin consecuencias.  Podemos mirar que dice en el Evangelio de hoy: “El que cree en El, no será condenado. Pero el que no cree, ya está condenado, por no haber creído en el Hijo único de Dios.”  Son palabras muy fuertes.  No es un mensaje suave.

        En verdad, podemos, escuchar muchas voces en nuestro mundo moderno.  En estas semanas antes de Pascua en el tiempo de cuaresma, estamos en el desierto con Jesús, estamos en un camino muy duro.  La Iglesia nos dice, en verdad Cristo nos dice, que tenemos las disciplinas de oración, ayuno, y obras de caridad durante estos 40 días. Y este año, hicimos estas tarjetas de compromiso con Dios y con nuestra Iglesia.  Tenemos la llamada durante Cuaresma para examinar nuestros corazones y las relaciones que tenemos con Dios y con nuestros hermanos.  En estas semanas de cuaresma, es importante para mirar la manera que necesitamos cambiar nuestra vida según la voluntad de Dios.  El mundo moderno dice que es tanto y sin mérito para hacer las disciplinas de cuaresma, para hacer sacrificios en el nombre de Cristo, porque el mundo secular dice que es mejor para disfrutar de nuestra vida.  Un hombre me dijo que el va a ayunar de brócoli esta cuaresma porque no le gusta el brócoli.  Pero, no tenemos las disciplinas de cuaresma para ponerlos en ridículo.  Las promesas que tenemos con Dios deben venir de nuestro corazón y nuestra humildad – no son chistes o bromas. 

        Para nosotros como católicos, no es suficiente para creer.  Para creer es la base de nuestra fe, es algo esencial.  Pero, necesitamos vivir las enseñanzas de Jesucristo en nuestra vida – necesitamos ponerlas en práctica.  Nuestra fe no es una teoría – debe ser una realidad para nosotros.

        “Porque tanto amó Dios al mundo, que le entregó a su Hijo único, para que todo el que crea en él no perezca, sino que tenga vida eterna.”   Este verso del Evangelio de Juan es tal vez el verso mas conocido de la Biblia.  Podemos decir en la luz de este mensaje de Dios que no somos capaces por nosotros mismos de justificarnos en nuestra fe cristiana.  No somos capaces de santificarnos o de salvarnos.  Necesitamos decir también que necesitamos entender sin reservación que nuestra salvación depende primeramente de Dios – de un don de El – de una acción de gracia de El.  

       Pero, tenemos responsabilidad en nuestro camino de fe también.  Nosotros, como seres humanos, tenemos una participación en la vida de fe, en el Reino de Dios.  Tenemos que dar respuesta a todas las gracias que Dios nos ha dado. Nuestra participación en cuaresmo, nuestra acompañamiento con Cristo en su vía cruces, en su 40 días en el desierto, es una manera para vivir nuestra fe, es una manera para dar gracias a Dios y para reconocer la autoridad de Jesucristo en nuestra vida. 

        Me gusta mucho el mensaje que San Pablo nos da en la lectura de la carta a los efesios hoy día.  “La misericordia y el amor de Dios son muy grandes; porque nosotros estábamos muertos por nuestros pecados, y El nos dio la vida con Cristo y en Cristo. Por pura generosidad suya hemos sido salvados.”  En la misericordia de Dios, en su amor, estamos caminando con Jesús esta cuaresma.  Cuando estamos cayendo en nuestro camino, cuando sufrimos, estamos con Cristo en su camino.  Si, por pura generosidad de Dios, hemos sido salvados.

3/15/2015 – 4th Sunday in Lent – John 9:1, 6-9, 13-17, 34-38, Ephesians 5:8-14

     Our Catholic readings come in a three-year cycle.  This year we are in cycle B.  However, because we have Catechumens in our parish who will be baptized and will be entering our Church during the Easter Vigil mass on April 4, we revert to the Cycle A readings during three weeks of Lent to coincide with the scrutinies that the Catechumen participate in during those weeks. 

      From the very beginning of today’s Gospel, this story of healing strikes us as being different than most of the other such stories in the Gospels.  Usually, we have someone rush up to Jesus with great faith and enthusiasm and energy, pleading to be healed, trying to convince Jesus to help him.   However, in today’s Gospel, as Jesus and his disciples pass a blind man on their journey, the disciples ask a question that is reflective of what people widely believed in the Ancient World: that certainly this man is blind on account of sin – either his sin or the sins of his parents.  Yet, without even saying a word to Jesus, before the blind man even knows what is happening, Jesus is spitting on some clay, spreading that mixture on the man’s eyes, and telling him to go wash in the pool of Siloam in order to be healed.  We don’t know how much the blind man knew about Jesus before his encounter with him.  If nothing else, I am sure it piqued his curiosity. What Jesus does in this encounter is use it as an opportunity for God to manifest his saving power as a challenge to the faith of not only the blind man, but to everyone who witnessed this healing.

       The blind man was restored to sight both spiritually and physically; he is able to finally say: “I do believe, Lord.”  Yet the Pharisees, with their many questions and their continued spiritual blindness, cannot make such a statement of belief.  They cannot even come close to the faith of the blind man.  The Pharisees can see a lot of things, they have a lot of knowledge and are very intelligent in a lot of ways, but they certainly cannot see through the lens of faith. Have you ever had trouble seeing something that was there all the time. Sometimes we are so distracted or overwhelmed by other things on our journey. Sometimes, we start off on our driveway and we start driving on autopilot toward our place of work, only to realize, no, it is not even a work day, and we should be driving in another direction.  It might be that way on our journey of faith – we could be on autopilot cruising in one certain direction without questioning it or realizing we should be going somewhere else.  Or, we are looking for something specific, for something to point us in the right direction, and we just can’t see it. On the pilgrimage route in Spain I was just on, there are these bright yellow arrows pointing the pilgrims in the right direction.  Most of the time they worked very well, but there were a few times when I missed the arrow and went in the wrong direction.  Another time, I stood at an intersection for several minutes looking for the arrow, only to finally see it placed on a stone.  It was really hard to see, but it was definitely there.  The Pharisees had many things showing them who Jesus was, they had miracle after miracle, sign after sign, yet they just couldn’t see.

       And what about that Pool of Siloam where Jesus sent the blind man?  What significance or history might that place have?  Why would Jesus send him there? It seems the history of this pool goes back 8 centuries before Jesus.  King Hezekiah feared an attack in Jerusalem by the Assyrians, so in order to protect the city’s precious water supply, they dug long tunnel under the city to bring water outside the city’s walls to this pool – the Pool of Siloam.   In fact, archeologists rediscovered this pool when repairs were being made to a large water pipe in 2004 South of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.  By Jesus’ day, the pool was used not only as an important source of fresh water for the people, but it was also used for mikveh – a ritual bath that Jews would take to cleanse themselves if they did anything that made them impure.   I mentioned our Catechumens who are preparing for their baptism at Eastertime. Today, is called Laetare Sunday, it is always the fourth Sunday in Lent, which comes at our halfway point in the Lenten season.  Laetare is the Latin word for rejoice – we rejoice today that we are halfway through Lent.  At Easter, our Catechumens will be baptized and will enter into our Catholic faith.  In his letter to the Ephesians that we hear today, Paul tells us that through our baptism, we are called out of the darkness that exists in our lives into the light of Christ, the same darkness that the blind man emerged from in today’s Gospel.  Healed by Jesus, the blind man was able to overcome what was making him both physically and spiritually blind.  The waters of baptism cleansed the blind man.  We ourselves are cleansed by the waters of our baptism.   There might be something keeping us from seeing the signpost God has put out for us on our Lenten journey.  The Pharisees tried to pull the blind man back into the darkness, but he resisted.  By our Lenten disciplines and the promises we made to God, we are renewed and refreshed in our faith.  Before I close, I have a task for all of you to think about.  As children of the light of Christ, we are called to bring others back to the light.  There are perhaps some parishioners you are aware of who you are not seeing at mass or other parish functions.  Perhaps before our celebration of Palm Sunday and Holy Week and Easter, you could write or call one or two people to tell them that we’ve missed them, to ask them to join us for these important liturgical celebrations we have coming up.   That would be a wonderful way for us to rejoice in our faith, just as the blind man rejoiced at his healing, just as we rejoice today on Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Lent. 

3/9/2015 – Monday of the third week of Lent – 2 Kings 5:1-15AB

      Lepers were usually isolated from the rest of society in the ancient world, since people were in such fear of contracting that horrible disease. Yet, we hear in our first reading from the 2^nd book of Kings about a military commander named Naaman, a leper who was highly esteemed by the King and his people.  Naaman had a lot of power and influence.   He thinks that the prophet Elisha should present himself to him and perform some tremendous miracle that is befitting a man of Naaman’s power and status, curing him of his leprosy.  He brings the king of Israel a great tribute of riches, and now he wants to be accorded great dignity and respect, and all he gets is an order to bathe in the river.  His servants and a slave girl that is captured from Israel are the ones who persuade Naaman to swallow his pride and to submit to the healing that the prophet presents to him.  So often on our journey of faith, we can be like Naaman, can’t we?  We can let our pride get in the way.  We have good intentions like Naaman, we can do a lot right, but then at the last minute, our pride can drive a wedge between us and God and our brothers and sisters. Humility goes a long way on our journey of faith.  And being a humble servant is something that Jesus addresses in his teachings again and again.  We are reminded of the word on our rubber wristbands this Lenten season – SACRFICIUM – SACRIFICE.   May we humble our hearts and be the servants that our faith calls us to be.

3/8/2015 – The third Sunday of Lent – Cycle A – First Scrutiny for Catechumens – Exodus 17:3-7, John 4:5-42

This weekend, because our catechumens in the RCIA program are going through the first scrutiny, we hear the readings from Cycle A instead of Cycle B.

      We can thirst for a lot of things in life. We can thirst for meaning.  We can thirst for popularity or success in our job.  We can thirst for material things. Mary Oliver, a very beloved American poet who has been recognized with the Pulitzer Prize for Literature and the National Book Award, has a poem entitled “Thirst.”  Her poem “Thirst” begins this way: “Another morning and I wake with thirst for the goodness I do not have.”  Oliver sees God in the nature around her.  She hears God teaching her many lessons in her life.  Through her thirst, she prays for a goodness of spirit, to learn about this goodness little by little each day.  Oliver could thirst for many things in life, but she thirsts for this goodness of spirit. 

      When we thirst for something with our souls, it is like how our body thirsts for water.   It is something we cannot live without.  On my pilgrimage in Spain, walking 7 or 8 hours a day, you can imagine how one’s body needs water and food to carry on.   There are usually stores and restaurants and water fountains along the way to fill up our water bottles, but during the winter months, a lot of the stores and restaurants are not open and a lot of the fountains were frozen or not working.  So getting enough water can be challenging.  One day, I ran out of water early and found nowhere to fill up my water bottle. Meeting some other pilgrims on the trail, I told them I was desperate for water.   Thankfully, one of them had an extra bottle of water which they gave to me.  Boy, was I relieved and very grateful. 

       In our Gospel today, Jesus stops off at a town in Samaria in the midst of his journey.  He is tired and thirsty.  He sees a woman at the well, a woman there to draw water. Jesus asks her for a drink.  Ironic, since Jesus himself is living giving water for us, and it is Jesus at this well who is asking for some water to drink.  Perhaps during our Lenten journey, we see the thirst Jesus has in today’s Gospel foreshadowing the thirst that he will have at the end of his journey to the cross.  On Good Friday, we hear the passion narrative from John’s Gospel, with Jesus crying out as he hangs on the cross, just moments before his last breath: “I thirst.” 

       Jesus saw that the Samaritan woman had a deep-seeded thirst in her life.  To quench that thirst, he offers her life giving water, way different from the common tap water and bottled water that we use to quench our physical thirst.  We have to drink water everyday to satisfy our physical thirst, but about the living giving water, Jesus explains that “whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst (again).”  This water will give us everlasting life.

        Moses was leading the people in the desert to the promised land in the reading we hear from Exodus.  The people were confused and frustrated and very thirsty.  They had no water.  They thought they would die of their thirst.  Their violent confrontation with Moses has him so scared that he was afraid the people would stone him to death.  In their thirst, the Israelites wondered if God was really with them.  They wondered if he had abandoned them on their journey.  The Lord instructs Moses to strike the rock of Horeb, from which flowed water for the people to drink.  It is interesting that Horeb means “dry” or “desolate”. The people indeed felt dry and desolate on their journey.  In the midst of their fears and their thirst, God gives them a sign that he is with them, that he has not abandoned.  He not only gives them water to satisfy their physical thirst, but he sends them a sign of encouragement and hope that will satisfy the thirst in their souls.  We can have thirst in our souls on our journey, a thirst that we think can never be satisfied.  Our suffering and our fears and our longings, the emptiness we may feel in our lives – all this may seem so overwhelming that we feel as abandoned as the Israelites in the desert.  The thirst that we feel in our souls does not mean that we are outside the will of God. It does not mean that we are outside the realm of his kingdom.  We may be following God’s will in our lives, but we may still suffer, we may still feel frustration and confusion, we may still feel a deep-seeded thirst.  Yet, God will still turn our thirst and our sufferings into something much greater than what we can ever imagine.  The thirst Jesus has the courage to express is a great example for us. It accompanies us on our journey.  And our own thirst helps points us in the right direction – it points us to Jesus and to the Father.  It inspires us to continue on our journey of faith, on our journey through these days of Lent. Let us open our hearts to that thirst. 

Thirst

By Mary Oliver

Another morning and I wake with thirst

for the goodness I do not have. I walk

out to the pond and all the way God has

given us such beautiful lessons. Oh Lord,

I was never a quick scholar but sulked

and hunched over my books past the hour

and the bell; grant me, in your mercy,

a little more time. Love for the earth

and love for you are having such a long

conversation in my heart. Who knows what

will finally happen or where I will be sent,

yet already I have given a great many things

away, expecting to be told to pack nothing,

except the prayers which, with this thirst,

I am slowly learning.

3/6/2015 – Friday of the second week of Lent – Genesis 37:3-4, 12-13a, 17b-28a, Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46

      We hear from a large variety of books and prophets from the Old Testament in our first readings during the holy season of Lent.  Today we hear the beginning of the story of Joseph from the book of Genesis.  Joseph was the beloved son on his father, yet through jealousy and greed, Joseph’s brothers rejected him, trying to kill him and get rid of him. It is similar to what happens to the landowner in the parable that Jesus tells in the Gospel, of how the landowner sends his son to his tenants when other efforts fail, with the son being rejected and killed by the tenants, with them thinking that this will allow them to acquire the son’s inheritance as heir. And all this ties back to the story of Jesus' own life.
       So much in our world is motivated by greed, jealousy, and ambition.  It is easy for us to just look at our own self-interest and our own needs, not looking at the needs of those around us, not looking at what is right and just.  Pope Gregory the Great has this to say: “The proof of love is in the works. 

Where love exists, it works great things.  But when it ceases to act, it ceases to exist.”  Our faith needs to make a difference in our lives.  We need to do more than feel the love of Christ in our hearts – it must motivate us in our daily lives. We can say we believe, but it needs to change and influence our words and our actions. When I was walking on the Camino in a remote mountains area about 20 miles before the city of Burgos, I came across a memorial that was in honor of some of the fallen during the Spanish Civil War.  It is interesting because Burgos is not only the city where General Franco first formed his new government in Spain in the Civil War, but Burgos is also the place where El Cid is buried. El Cid was the great Castilian nobleman from the 11^th century who became one of the military leaders who led the Spanish Christians to victory against the occupying Moors.   When one studies events like the Spanish Civil War or looks at the wars and violence that have occurred throughout history, one realizes all the atrocities we human beings commit against each other, even when we have lofty goals and values to justify those atrocities.  The complexities of the Spanish Civil War and the memory of General Franco, who was the dictator of Spain for decades, is something the Spanish people are having a hard time understanding and accepting. 

       So as we think about Joseph and the trial he went through, how God used it to bless the people of Israel, we can think about how we can use the tragedies and sufferings in our own lives to glorify God as well.  There is hope.  Even when we turn away from God, he is there to help us rise up from some harsh realities in order to truly live out a life of discipleship.

3/8/2015 – el tercer domingo de Cuaresma – Juan 2:13-25

      Jesús entró el Templo de Jerusalén, un lugar muy santo y muy sagrado – el Templo de Dios – el Templo de su Padre.  En este lugar, El miró muchas cosas – vendedores, animales, y hombres cambiando el dinero.  ¿Todo de eso en el Templo de Dios?  ¡Increíble!

       Los judíos quieren una explicación, un signo que puede explicar sus palabras y sus acciones en el Templo.  Pero, El respondió con palabras enigmáticas que no dan claridad a estas preguntas.  Cristo respondió que ellos pueden destruir este templo y en tres días El lo levantará.  Pero El no hablaba sobre un templo de ladrillos y piedras.  El hablaba sobre un templo en nuestros cuerpos humanos.             Como los judíos fueron al Templo en Jerusalén para un encuentro con Dios, en nuestro mundo moderno, vamos a nuestra parroquia cada domingo para tener un encuentro muy especial con Dios.  Encontramos nuestro Señor en este edificio en nuestra comunidad cristiana, en la Iglesia, en nuestros hermanos en Cristo. Somos el nuevo Templo como Jesús era el Templo de Dios que resucitó en tres días después de su muerte en la cruz. 

        Nuestro espacio sagrado en nuestra parroquia es un lugar donde podemos encontrar Dios, donde podemos tener una experiencia con la presencia divina con nuestra comunidad de fe.  Pero, también, no podemos olvidar que el nuevo Templo de Dios está presente en cada ser humano.  No podemos quedar fijado en la presencia de Dios en un edifico, porque Dios supera los limites de un lugar físico. 

        Muchas veces, queremos poner los limites en nuestras relaciones con Dios, limites en nuestra experiencia con El.  A veces, queremos poner nuestro Dios en una caja.  En Cristo resucitado, tenemos un encuentro con Dios Vivo.  Los vendedores y los mercaderes en el Templo en el Evangelio estaban allí para su propio interés, para su propia ganancia.  Necesitamos abrir nuestros corazones a la voluntad de Dios, a Cristo que vive en nuestra presencia, al mensaje del Evangelio.  

         Estamos aquí en el tiempo de cuaresma con Dios.  Tenemos las disciplinas de oración, de obras de caridad, y de ayuno.  Estas disciplinas pueden ayudarnos en nuestra camino.  Si, Cristo vive, y vive con nosotros en una manera especial durante la cuaresma.  Demos gracias al Señor por esta presencia y esta camino cuaresmal.