2/17/2016 – Wednesday of the 1st week of Lent – Jonah 3:1-10

      The Old Testament tale of Jonah is often thought of as a children's story complete with a whale & a great adventure.  As a college student at Wake Forest University, I recall attending a Sunday morning service in a Baptist church in Winston-Salem with some friends in which there was a tent fashioned into a whale in the sanctuary area in order to re-enact the story of Jonah for the children.  All of the children entered the tent in order to simulate the fantastic journey that Jonah took.  They were absolutely thrilled to do so. Yet, the real message of the book of Jonah is a very adult one that gives us an opportunity to stretch our understanding of God and the salvation we receive through his son Jesus Christ.  It doesn’t matter if the story of Jonah really happened or not.  The truth contained in its message is what matters.

       Today’s first reading tells of God's 2nd call to Jonah and his less than enthusiastic response.  God tells Jonah "to go to Nineveh, the great city."  Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, an enemy nation that had destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel and that held the southern kingdom of Judah as a vassal state for almost one hundred years.  Assyria was a brutal occupying force that forever changed Israel's future.  Jonah is called out by God to go and prophesy to the capital city of Israel’s enemy.

         We could criticize Jonah for his little faith.  However, it might be more helpful for us to identify with Jonah for a moment rather than to criticize him, to empathize with the difficult mission to which God has called him.  With the difficult and challenging tasks we are called to do in our modern world, we could consider Jonah our patron saint.  The message we receive from our modern secular world is that we cannot make a big difference in the world, that we might as well just fall in line and make the best living we can for ourselves and our family, concentrating on our material success and on the secular values of our society.  Our calling from God and our values may tell us we need to head East to Nineveh, but we all too often turn around, walk away, and get on the boat with Jonah as a means of escape.  Perhaps we find it too difficult or too lonely to walk the way of our faith, to choose the path of faith over the ways of our secular world.  By running away, perhaps we find ourselves in the belly of the whale, or out of touch with our calling from God, or distant from a sense of meaning and purpose in our lives.

        We need to think about those things that we try to flee in our life of faith, things that we are being called to do by God, but perhaps we are too scared or too uninterested or just don’t have the inclination to do what God is asking us to do.  This story of Jonah’s gives us a lot to think about, doesn’t it?

The works of mercy

As part of the year of mercy, we are trying to incorporate the spiritual and physical works of mercy into our daily lives. The corporal and spiritual Works of Mercy are actions that we can do that bring God's love, compassion and mercy to others.  

In the corporal works of mercy, we meet the physical and material needs of others:
1. To feed the hungry
2. To give drink to the thirsty
3. To clothe the naked
4. To shelter the homeless
5. To visit the sick
6. To visit the prisoner
7. To bury the dead

In the spiritual works of mercy, we meet the emotional and spiritual needs of others:
1. To counsel the doubtful
2. To instruct the ignorant
3. To admonish sinners
4. To comfort the afflicted
5. To forgive offenses
6. To bear wrongs patiently
7. To pray for the living and the dead

2/10/2016 – Miércoles de cenizas – 2 corintios 5, 20 - 6, 2; Mateo 6, 1-6, 16-18

        La Cuaresma comienza hoy con el Miércoles de Ceniza.  La Cuaresma es un tiempo de oración, penitencia y ayuno.  Es cuarenta días que marca para la conversión del nuestros corazones.  Las palabras que se usamos para la imposición de cenizas son: “Arrepiéntete y cree en el Evangelio”.   De nuestros pecados, de nuestros culpas, de nuestros errores, necesitamos el arrepentimiento.  En Israel, los judíos acostumbraban cubrirse de ceniza cuando hacían algún sacrificio y como signo de su deseo de conversión de su mala vida a una vida con Dios.  En los primeros siglos de la Iglesia, las personas que querían recibir el Sacramento de la Reconciliación el Jueves Santo, se ponían ceniza en la cabeza y se presentaban ante la comunidad vestidos con un hábito penitencial,  representando la voluntad de convertirse.

        En sus enseñanzas en el Evangelio de hoy sobre las obras de piedad y la manera de orar, Jesús nos enseña sobre el reino de Dios.  ¿Qué es el Reino de Dios?  Es decir que la voluntad de Dios se realice en la vida de cada uno de nosotros, viviendo como Dios quiere que vivamos.  El Reino de Dios se nos manifiesta y se hace presente en el mundo a través de Cristo.  El Reino de Dios es hacer en todo momento lo que agrada a Dios y hacer siempre lo que Dios nos manda.  Este Miércoles de Ceniza, Jesús nos invita a hacer presente en nuestra vida el Reino de Dios.  El nos invita a abrir nuestros corazones a lo que Dios quiere y espera de nosotros.  Jesús quiere que nuestra vida se realice de acuerdo a los planes de Dios; por eso, necesitamos vivir una conversión.

Conversión quiere decir “cambios” en nuestras vidas - cambios en el modo de vivir en nuestras relaciones con nosotros mismos - cambios en el modo de vivir nuestra relación con nuestro prójimo y con Dios.

      “Arrepiéntete y cree en el Evangelio”.  Creer en el Evangelio no significa simplemente estar de acuerdo con lo que nos dice la Palabra de Dios.  Significa ponerlo en práctica; vivirlo; hacerlo vida.  El camino que nos lleva a vivir el Reino de Dios, por lo tanto, es la conversión.  No hay otro camino.  Todos nosotros somos responsables del mal y del pecado que llena actualmente el mundo.  Si queremos que las cosas cambien, necesitamos empezar a cambiar nuestra propia vida.

         La Cuaresma que ahora comenzamos es un tiempo de gracia.  Es un tiempo de salvación.  Dios nos da la oportunidad y los medios que necesitamos para emprender un cambio y una renovación en nuestra vida personal y comunitaria.  Aprovechemos la ocasión que se nos presenta.

San Pablo nos decía hoy en su segunda carta a los corintios: “En nombre de Cristo les pedimos que se reconcilien con Dios.”  Nos recuerda que Cristo entregó su vida por nosotros.   El nos quiere como verdaderos hijos y hijas de Dios. Eso es nuestro papel como discípulos de Cristo cada día de nuestro camino de fe.

2/14/2016 – 1st Sunday of Lent – Cycle C - Luke 4:1-13

      Here we are at the beginning of our Lenten journey on this first Sunday of Lent.  We started Lent last week, as we commemorated Ash Wednesday.  Our masses are always full on that day, with the faithful wanting to publicly declare their desire to turn away from sin and the follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And I bet many of you feel the same way I do about Lent.  I really look forward to the Lenten journey each year.  I look forward to this time when we can deepen our understanding of our Catholic faith, of participating in a liturgical season that brings us time for renewal, reflection, and new beginnings. 

       On the first Sunday of Lent, the Gospel reading is always about Jesus being tempted in the desert.  Indeed, the 40 days of Lent correspond to Jesus’ own forty days spent in the desert. For Jesus, it was a period of preparation for his coming mission.  At the end of the 40 days, Jesus is tempted by the Devil. 

        We all face our own temptations and our own obstacles in our own journey of faith, don’t we?  As we hear Jesus stand up to the Devil and those things that tempt him, we might think about the ways our Lenten journey and our Lenten disciplines can help us turn away from our sins and our temptations and to help us more fully incorporate the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our daily journey of faith.

        We Catholics should have cemented in our minds the main pillars of our Lenten journey: fasting, prayer, and acts of charity and mercy.  On this first Sunday of Lent, I want to bring up how important our Lenten prayer devotions are to this journey.  It is interesting to see in Bible Belt Mississippi how many other Christian denominations are adapting our Catholic Lenten devotions to their own faith, such as the distribution of ashes on Ash Wednesday, the foot washing ritual on Holy Thursday, the veneration of the cross on Good Friday, the stations of the cross on Fridays, and even our Easter Vigil service on Holy Saturday.  Many of neighboring churches are not practicing these same Lenten devotions that we Catholics have practiced since the Early Church.  Having grown up in the Methodist faith myself as a child and a youth, I know that these practices were never something we did in the Methodist Church, and in fact, I always envied my Catholic friends who went to church on Ash Wednesday and received ashes on their foreheads. To me, with the other denominations adopting these practices, it shows how important it is to pass them down to our children and to follow them in our own families.

         Actually, it surprised me a couple of years ago when I was visiting the religious education classes in our parish right around the Lenten season when a high school student from a very involved family in our parish asked me what the stations of the cross was, that he had no idea what I was talking about and that he had never had been before. This past Friday, we had the stations of the cross for the first time this year, and to be honest, I was very disappointed at the low turnout, especially at seeing how few children and youth attended.  We need to take time out of our busy lives to really live out our faith and our traditions and devotions.  We have stations of the cross 3 times each Friday during Lent: 12:10 and 6:00 pm in English and 7:00 pm in Spanish.  Please join us for our many Lenten activities this year.

      Lent has a special significance this year in the midst of our celebration of the Jubilee Year of Mercy.  Our liturgy committee has chosen to focus on the spiritual and corporal works of mercy this year during Lent.  We have the spiritual works of mercy and the corporal works of mercy.  Many of our readings during the Lenten season can be seen as being directly related to the works of mercy that we are called to practice as Catholics.  We can have a lot of types of hunger in our lives.  And physical hunger is one type of hunger we can have.   The first temptation Jesus goes through in his journey in the desert is to turn a stone into bread in order to satisfy his physical hunger. And one of the corporal works of mercy is feeding the hungry. Even though we live in a land of plenty, in a country where we export food to feed many people throughout the world, we are also a country where hunger is a big issue.  This year we are going to have different lay reflections during our Sunday masses during Lent.  Andrew Bataille, a long-time parishioner at St James, is very involved at St Luke Food Bank, an organization that feeds a lot of people here in Tupelo. We are going to hear from Andrew today in how feeding the hungry is one way Andrew serves the Lord as a follower of Christ. 

2/12/2016 – Friday after Ash Wednesday – Isaiah 58:1-9A, Matthew 9:14-15

       Our readings today bring up questions about fasting.  The disciples of John the Baptist wonder why they and the Pharisees fast, but they do not see the disciples of Jesus doing so.  Through the Prophet Isaiah, the Lord tells us that some types of fasts are false – those that are trumpeted before others and that put on a false impression of being miserable. Instead, God wants a quiet, private fast that comes out of our humility.

        Pope Francis often has a way with words that get us thinking. Recently, in a Lenten message he delivered, Pope Francis talking about a fast from indifference, saying that we are often tempted by indifference in our daily lives.  On the evening news and in the newspapers, we are bombarded with stories of human suffering and war, violence and terrorism, which can overwhelm us and make us feel helpless.  We can respond with apathy and indifference and withdrawal. Pope Francis asserts that we can avoid this indifference by praying in communion with the Church, by helping others in works of charity and mercy, and by responding to a call to conversion, being aware of the suffering of others and standing in solidarity with them.  Our Lenten disciplines of fasting and prayer and almsgiving are not just empty gestures or exterior motions.  Our fasting is to make a difference on our journey of faith.  May our Lenten disciplines draw us closer to God. 

2/10/2016 – Ash Wednesday – Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

      Last Sunday morning, I visited some of our religious education classrooms.  I always enjoy visiting our children and youth while they are learning more about our Catholic faith.  In most of the classrooms, the teachers were talking about Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the holy season of Lent, our season of repentance and preparation for Easter.  I thought about the quote from the prophet Daniel concerning the disciplines we practice during Lent, how he wrote of turning to the Lord to seek in his help in his prayers, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.  I asked the students about why someone would publicly wear uncomfortable sackcloth, about why someone would publicly wear a smudge of ash on his forehead.  When we sin, when we turn away from the Lord, when we rupture our relationships with God and with our brothers and sisters, we are to repent and turn back to the Lord, we are to reconcile and mend and renew.  As you will hear proclaimed to you in a few moments when you receive a smudge of ash on your forehead, as a disciple of Christ, you are to repent and believe in the Gospel.  When we receive that smudge of ash on our foreheads and keep them on throughout the day, we recognize that our lives on earth will pass away. During Lent, we are to strive to refocus our lives on God.  During Lent, we are to look toward God’s kingdom and the values it represents, rather than focusing solely on the kingdom we here now on earth.

       The ashes we receive on our foreheads today symbolize our fragility and our mortality, they symbolize the need all of us human being have to be redeemed by the mercy of God.   Jesus warns us in the Gospel today that our righteous deeds and Lenten devotions and the ashes we receive on our forehead are not just to be an empty show we put on for others, not just an external action. Jesus warns us that our Lenten devotions and righteous deeds are to come out of our humility and simplicity, rather than out of our pride and arrogance.  Our Church uses these ashes we receive today to symbolize that attitude of internal penance that we are called to during the holy season of Lent.  While Ash Wednesday is not a holy day of obligation, it is one of the most popular days for the faithful to come to church in our liturgical year, for the significance of what Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent symbolize resonates deeply in the souls of the faithful. 

       Today, we start our journey of accompanying Jesus on his way to the cross, to his death and resurrection.  We are called to practice our Lenten disciplines, to fasting and abstaining for eating meat on certain days, to praying the stations on the cross on Friday with our community of faith, to reaching out to others in works of charity and mercy.  We start our journey of 40 days in the desert with Jesus today.  May this holy journey prepare us for the Easter joys to come. 

Back from the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela

      I have not posted to my blog in several weeks because I was out in northern Spain along the ancient pilgrimage route of Santiago de Compostela.  I will be posting journal entries and photos of my three weeks of pilgrimage later on in this blog.  This was my fourth time on the Way of St James.  I had a great time and great experiences, journeying about 325 miles in 18 days.  Journeying on the Way to Santiago is unlike anything else I have experienced on my own journey of faith.  I give thanks for the opportunity to journey to Santiago de Compostela again this year.   My feet and legs are a bit sore, but my soul is renewed and re-energized.