March 30, 2025: Fourth Sunday of Lent/Laetare Sunday

We rejoice that God loves us and has sent His Son to be our redeemer.

While the parable Jesus tells in today's Gospel reading is often referred to as the prodigal son, the story is also very much about the prodigal father.  No matter how far his younger son has strayed, the father is constantly vigilant for the son's return and lavishes great love upon him, and has a huge celebration, recognizing the son was dead and lost is now alive and found again.

The father is even prodigal in lavishing love on the older son, who feels that his brother doesn't deserve such grand treatment.

When we think about this story in terms of God the Father's love for us, we see that no matter how far we have strayed in sin, He loves us abundantly and redeems us from whatever our faults are.  He loves us for who we can become in Him.

Indeed, Christ redeems us, and in Him, we become a new Creation living for the praise of His glory.

As the Hebrews celebrated being made anew when they celebrated the Passover upon entering the Promised Land, eating its bounty rather than the manna that had sustained them, so we enter the great feast of God's love, which we experience profoundly in the Eucharist.

On this Sunday, when we have just passed the midpoint of Lent, we rejoice anew in God Who showers us with His abundant love that we who were once dead in sin may now be fully alive.

March 25, 2025: Solemnity of the Annunciation

God unfolded a great plan foretold by the prophets when the Angel Gabriel visited Mary, the Blessed Mother.

Though it didn't all make sense, Mary had faith that inspired her to respond "Yes" to God.

She is a great example of how a "Yes" to God can be a tremendous blessing beyond our scope of what we can comprehend as it reverberated throughout time and space.

In our own circumstances, when we say "Yes" to God, His plan of salvation continues to unfold and, from our own circumstances, impacts time and space.

It was a tremendous blessing to celebrate this Solemnity by saying "Yes" to God's gift of Life with hundreds gathered for the Illinois March for Life in Springfield.

March 23, 2025: Third Sunday of Lent

God constantly reveals His compassion and mercy to us.  Unlike what people thought at the time of Jesus, God doesn't necessarily use unfortunate circumstances as punishment.  Yet if we don't repent, we will face judgment.  And He gives us an opportunity to repent.  Even when the landowner wants the tree cut down out of frustration for lack of fruit, the gardener intercedes for us, as Jesus works to fertilize the soil of our hearts so that we will bear fruit.

Week to repent and bear fruit of righteousness in response to the marvels of our God, so awesome and so mysterious.  He commanded Moses to remove His sandals because he was standing on holy ground before the Mighty God.  Yet this God announced He would save His people from slavery, and chose Moses to lead them out of Egypt.

Indeed, God is mysterious, revealing Himself as the Great I AM.  Yet He chooses to work in our hearts so that we repent and bear the fruit of righteousness, making His presence known.  So we make holy the ground where we stand.

These words resonate with me deeply because 12 years ago, I heard them proclaimed when I attended Mass at St. Augustine Mission.  It was founded by St. Mother Katharine Drexel to serve teh needs of the Native Americans in northeast Nebraska.  It is holy ground because she founded it and walked there in service, seeking to make God known.  Our group made it holy ground because we went there in the name of faith to serve, too.

March 19, 2025: Solemnity of St. Joseph

It is a glorious day to celebrate St. Joseph, who was present when the Word became Flesh.

I realize that I can't think of too many Christmas Carols that mention Joseph, aside from a line in "Angels We Have Heard on High".

Yet God gave him an important role to live out virtues by caring for the Son.

May the example of St. Joseph inspire us to do our work in life with purpose, on the job, in the home, and everywhere else we serve in the way God has called us specifically.  Even doing so quietly without fanfare, God is present in our service as it joins with the larger scope of His plans for His greater glory.

March 16, 2025: Second Sunday of Lent

Even in Lent, Sundays are an opportunity for us to rejoice in the reality of our Resurrected Lord.  Today's readings give us a glorious glimpse of the reality we see by faith.

God tells Abram his descendants will be as numerous as the stars of the sky.  A commentary I read said that Abram was looking at the sky during the day when he wouldn't have seen stars.  Yet he recognized the stars would be there, and so he also had faith in God.  Later in the reading, God made an astounding fiery appearance to Abram to assert His faithfulness in the covenant He established with Abram.

Then, three of the Apostles go up a mountain with Jesus and get a glimpse of His glorified state.  Furthermore, they see two important figures, Moses and Elijah.  It is an opportunity for the apostles to look ahead to the glory that comes after suffering.  Rather than bask in the glory, as St. Peter was thinking, God sends them forth to listen to the Beloved Son.

We are looking ahead toward Resurrection Sunday at the end of Lent, when we encounter the glory of the Risen Christ anew, and we seek His glory at other times, too.  Yet we are reminded by the Transfiguration story that we can possess this glory, too.  Our Lenten practices, and even our sufferings in life, have a purpose in light of our relationship with God. They are transforming us so that we listen closely to Jesus Christ, and be more conformed to be like Him in holiness.

I rejoice in the moments of glory I experience this weekend.  I was present as nearly 70 youths at my home parish encountered God when sealed with the Holy Spirit in Confirmation.  Today, I rejoice in that special day when I was born, and I delight in all those who have reached out to me to celebrate this day.  These special days point to a reality that God is marvelously at work to bring glorious purpose to our lives.

March 9, 2025: First Sunday of Lent

We journey into the desert with Jesus, led by the Spirit as He was to face our human weakness. There, we encounter the power of God at work.

The Hebrews journeyed through the desert, which was a call for them to wait upon God to provide for them.  They weren't so faithful.

Jesus, the Word of God, withstood temptation because He spoke the Word that is Truth and Life, showing us an example of how to be faithful.

In this Lenten journey, we strive to be faithful to God, with Jesus as our example, as we abide by and internalize the Word of God, knowing that God's brings us Abundant Life to us in Christ. We call upon Him, professing our faith and belief in the One Who, by the Paschal Mystery, has brought us to life.

I answered the call to live out belief during a week of service at St. Augustine Mission, a trip which concluded 12 years ago with my arrival home.  I continued to put faith into action a year later as I met with the Confirmation group as they continued to prepare for the sacrament.

In these experiences, I pondered deeply what it means to have a relationship with God and how I could be transformed to live it more fully as a profession of faith I have in God.

March 5, 2025: Ash Wednesday

We hear the pressing call to repent.  We must recognize our sinfulness and call upon God, for He is just and merciful.

We call upon Him in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving not to bring attention to ourselves but to honor Him, because we know that He is good to us, even when we are unfaithful.  He responds to people when they call out to Him and turn to Him anew.

As St. Paul bodly writes, now is the acceptable time and the day of salvation, by which we can be transformed anew to be holy before God Who has saved us.