April 10, 2022: Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion

We see the great extremities of our human experience in the readings.

The crowds get excited as they acclaim Jesus upon His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, presenting Himself as Savior.  Then the crowds turn against Him later in the week, calling for His crucifixion.  Even the apostles stumble and abandon Jesus.

Yet Jesus still resolutely follows the path ordained for Him by the Father.  He enters into the mess of our world, offering Himself, knowing that God will work through the mess to demonstrate His power of redemption.  By obediently submitting Himself to the worst of humanity, He presents Himself as our Savior, Who redeems us so that we can be our best for God.

And so, as the early Christian hymn in St. Paul's epistle to the Philippians declares, Jesus will be exalted, as we open our hearts to transformation by faith and praise Him, Who suffered for us, and is our Savior, revealing to us, upon the Cross, the love of God.

April 3, 2022: Fifth Sunday of Lent

God is doing something new and amazing: As the prophet Isaiah foretold, He brings water and freshness to the desert, even the deserts within us.

Rather than stand condemned in sin without hope, God has provided a way for us to be free from sin.

He sent His Son to be our redeemer.  And as He spoke to the condemned woman brought before Him, so He speaks to us words that set us free from being weighed down by sin so that we can be free to live righteously.  He goes past the concerns of civil and religious law to bring her what she needs most, the mercy of God, just as He does for us.

So we continue our pursuit to grow in that righteousness, knowing what matters most, above anything else that might have value in the eyes of the world, is knowing the God Who saved us that we may have Eternal Life, and experience it even now as we live anew.

March 27, 2022: Fourth Sunday of Lent/Laetare Sunday

Here, just past the midpoint of Lent 2022, we rejoice at how lavish the Father's love for us is, displayed in the story of the father and his two sons.

No matter how great our sins, He still loves us so immensely.

Like in the reading from Joshua, He has removed the reproach of sin from us.

As St. Paul writes, he has reconciled Himself to us.

When we repent and turn back to God, He embraces us so richly, like the father who runs after the son who returns.  The son, and we, receive what we don't deserve: great mercy.  The father even embraces the older son, who doesn't think the younger son deserves such celebration.

But in God's eyes, it is truly worth celebrating that the one who is in sin turns to new life again and is a new creation.  And as a new creation, each of us is called to be transformed from the heart so that we extend the mercy we have received from God to others, that all the world may rejoice in such an abundant gift given so freely and richly.

March 25, 2022: Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord

It was a wondrous day when God entered into human flesh.

He had a great plan in place that He presented through Gabriel to Mary.

The Son would be the great sign that God is with us, and the One Who would offer HImself to fulfill God's will.

Mary offers a great example of how to respond to God's call to be part of His plan.

She trusted that God had it figured out, even if she couldn't fully understand.  By her fiat, she entered more deeply into the mystery of salvation by bearing the Son of God.

So can we.

Even today, as Pope Francis has consecrated Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, so we are called to consecrate ourselves to live out the call to holiness.

March 20, 2022: Third Sunday of Lent

Lent reminds us that God is calling us to repentance.  God isn't necessarily out to punish us, as Jesus states in the Gospel, because He desires our salvation.  Yet we realize, when looking back in history, that if we stray from God, as the Hebrews did in the desert, we can suffer great consequences.

In some respects, the parable of the fig tree is illogical, that the gardener would want to keep tending to it in the hope that it will bear fruit.  Yet so God is with us.

God is truly mighty, as He declares to Moses, "I AM Who I AM."  He simply exists.  Yet He connects with us as His people, also declaring to Moses that He is the God of his forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  He is aware of the people's suffering in Egypt, and reaches out to rescue them.

So He does with us who are marred by sin.  Aware of such a gracious and merciful God, Who is truly a God of second chances, let's reach out to Him, repenting of our sins, so that we can bear great fruit, undergoing transformation so that we live to reflect His Holiness.

This set of readings was proclaimed 9 years ago when I attended Mass at St. Augustine Mission Church in Winnebago, NE, on the feast of the foundress, St. Mother Katharine Drexel.  Father Dave referred to the place as "holy ground", since a saint walked there.  Yet we, too, make the places where we trod holy ground when we repent, devote our lives to God, and display His Holy presence through our actions.

March 19, 2022: Solemnity of St. Joseph

It's a great day to think back to Christmas Day as we celebrate the earthly father of Jesus.

Throughout the centuries, God was unfolding a great plan of salvation.  He revealed to David that his house would endure forever through one of his descendants.

God then called St. Joseph to take his part in this plan.  While St. Joseph uneasily considered his response to Mary's premarital pregnancy, God revealed the way to him, and made it clear that the Child was conceived by the Holy Spirit and would be Savior of the World.  Without any words of his recorded, St. Joseph responded and took Mary to be his wife, and helped usher in the world's salvation.

St. Joseph offers us a great model of trusting in God, aware that He is unfolding a great plan in our world, and graces us by choosing us to be part of it.

March 13, 2022: Second Sunday of Lent

Our intensified spiritual practices during Lent have a purpose, leading us to the glory of God.  Indeed, it's all about being transformed, to have new perspectives.

Abraham can't make sense of God's promise of numerous descendants.  God gives Him a different perspective by offering him the view of the numberless stars in the sky as a metaphor, and then Abraham believes God, an act of faith.

God then makes a solemn covenant.  In the custom of covenants of that day, God holds Himself to the penalty of breaking the covenant by passing through the pieces of the diced animal carcasses in the form of fire.

As God offers Abraham reassurance, so He offers it to the three apostles by giving a glimpse of His Heavenly glory in His transfiguration on the mountain.  He connects His glory with His preceding Passion, which He discusses with Moses and Elijah.

Indeed, He displays Himself as the Savior, and so God's voice commands the apostles to "listen to Him", the beloved Son.

We can count on God.  So as we journey toward His glory, let's listen to Him, so that we can be transformed and take on a new perspective that brings new purpose to Life.  Because of the Paschal Mystery, we are bound for glory, and, as St. Paul writes, "our citizenship is in Heaven".  May Lent be an opportunity for us to experience the transformation by which we focus on gaze on Heaven, so that, in the midst of whatever we face in life, difficulties included, we can live with purpose.

It was so fitting that I attended a Confirmation Mass this weekend, which included 5 of my RE students.  It was a glorious picture of encountering God's presence in a powerful way, and a great reminder of how God is at work all the time as we open ourselves to seeing His work.