Sunday, March 17, 2024


 Happy St. Patrick’s Day. 

You may have heard the story of the Irish pastor by the name of Fr. Murphy.  Everyone loved Fr. Murphy: he baptized all the children, officiated at their marriages, visited them in the hospitals, and buried their loved ones.    He was a wonderful human being. But he was a terrible preacher.  Forgetful. Rambling. And repetitive. Finally some parishioners went to the bishop.  Bishop invited Murph to the chancery to give him a few pointers on “what makes a good homily.”   You have to grab the congregation’s attention.  For example, let me tell you what I did last weekend at a parish: I announced: I’m in love with a woman.   Hush in congregation. In fact, I’ve been in love with her for 40 years. Another hush.  That woman is the Blessed Virgin Mary.

And on the following Sunday, Murphy went into the pulpit and announced: the bishop is in love with a woman.   Shock waves. For 40 years.  More shock waves. But for the life of me, I can’t remember her name.  So much for Irish humor.

This Fifth Sunday of Lent, the word of God takes us back in our imaginations to the 6th century before Jesus. 

The 6th century was a catastrophe for the Hebrews. Yet, Jeremiah dreams of a new covenant with God, a new friendship summed up in that magnificent phrase, “You are my people and I am your God.”

This covenant will be written in people's hearts. Yes, God will grace them to keep their promises. Jeremiah challenges us to be faithful to our calling in life, to ask each day for the grace to live well as sons and daughters of God.

The letter to the Hebrews describes the saving work of Jesus Christ, who through his dying and rising has rescued us from death, from nothingness, and opened up to us new life beyond this earthly life. 

Yes: Jesus, already transfigured into a new heavenly reality, anticipates our own future when God will transfigure us as well.

The author challenges us to remember our ultimate purpose: salvation -- eternal life with God.

In the Gospel, Jesus is in Jerusalem for the Passover meal which celebrates the exodus: the deliverance of the ancient Hebrews from their oppressors. Now Gentiles, non-Jews, were seeking Jesus. 

For the author, to see Jesus is to believe in him. Yes, the hour has come. Only by his dying and rising will we have eternal life.

That is the point of the parable about the grain of wheat. Only if Jesus is lifted up on a cross, buried in a tomb, to burst forth gloriously on Easter in a new spiritual embodiment, will the risen Christ draw all men and women into a new heavenly reality.

Yes, Jesus is indeed our salvation. Whether powerful or powerless, rich or poor, brilliant or simple, born here or elsewhere, the purpose of life for all of us is to be in relationship with God: to seek and find friendship with God forever.

The Catholic answer to the question, why are we here? acknowledges the brevity and fragility of human life. 

Playwright Tennessee Williams, known for “A Streetcar Named Desire” observed: "Life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quick you hardly catch it going...." Think about it.

The Catholic answer urges us to seek the grace to become the best version of ourselves. It acknowledges our freedom to choose good over evil, right over wrong, and vice versa, sadly! Each of us is responsible for the way we choose to live.

There is a tendency within ourselves to sometimes choose wrong. The Catholic tradition calls this “original sin.” 

Yet human beings cry out for healing, redemption, salvation. Some look for answers in things, in other persons, in the many “isms.”

But the Catholic tradition looks to a power beyond ourselves, to a God who is not indifferent to our brokenness. An all-good God who created us and loves us.

Yes, God became flesh in Jesus and is alive by the power of the Spirit and is in our midst today—alive within us by virtue of baptism; alive in the Scriptures and alive in the signs of bread and wine upon the altar. We possess in our fragile selves the gift of God’s triune life, God’s grace.

Yes, we are born to be in that awesome relationship with God. Yet, we must struggle against dark forces within ourselves that threaten to derail us on our journey toward our heavenly dwelling place.

Salvation ultimately means God abiding in us and we in God.

Our faith proclaims that God’s life leaps out of death; beyond the agony of our Good Friday is the ecstasy of Easter.

And so I pray that hearing the word of God today, we will recharge ourselves to seek God first, to live a God-centered, other-centered, life. 






Sunday, March 10, 2024

Fourth Sunday of Lent


 Welcome to Daylight Savings time

This Sunday is known as Laetare Sunday. Laetare is a Latin word meaning “rejoice.” Why rejoice? We are close to celebrating the Easter mystery. Jesus Christ is gloriously alive. And because He lives, we live.

Today's word of God challenges us to look beyond appearances, and with the gift of faith, discover three realities:

Jesus as the light who illumines the purpose of life;

ourselves as a light to others in our attitudes and behaviors; and

our fellow human beings as bearers of the light or presence of God. No matter how hidden that presence may be, "seek and you shall find."

The word of God takes us back over 3,000 years. King Saul made a mess of things. God inspired Samuel to look for another king. At first, David is overlooked. He’s the youngest in a family of eight brothers, an unlikely choice. 

Think of how unlikely some leaders in our country have appeared to many people. George Washington looked downright unfriendly with his false teeth. Someone compared Lincoln's face to a trowel. FDR was wheel-chair bound. Yet, they accomplished much. 

The unlikely David became king of ancient Israel. God saw in David his potential to accomplish great things. Today’s word challenges us to look beyond appearances in people and try to bring out their best qualities by affirming them.

Paul in his letter to the Christian community in Ephesus, Turkey, reflects upon light and darkness. Light can transform a cold night into a warm day. Light enables us to study, to discover, to behold the wonders of God’s universe. In short, light warms, nurtures, sustains, reveals and cheers. Paul urges us to live in light, pleasing God in our attitudes and behaviors.

Saint John Henry Newman captured Jesus as light in a wonderful poem which became a hymn:

"Lead, Kindly Light, amidst th'encircling gloom,

Lead Thou me on!

The night is dark, and I am far from home,

Lead Thou me on! ….

Often, people are in darkness about their purpose, and forget that Jesus illumines our path into eternal life. We too are called to be light, to let our life shine forth with virtues such as honesty, integrity, responsibility, courage.

In the Gospel, Jesus cures a blind man: He opens the eyes of this man so that he can see reality. But notice how blind some of the characters in this story were. Blinded by protocol – how dare Jesus heal on the Sabbath! They were blind to the power of God in Jesus. The parents too were blind in their fears. 

The Gospel author challenges us to see Jesus, through the lens of faith, as the light who illumines the purpose of life.   

I think of a twentieth century monk, Thomas Merton, who let the light of God illumine his life, who became a light to others in his attitudes and behaviors and who saw in his fellow human beings and all creation the light or presence of God.

Merton's chance encounter with a classic philosophical book about the Christian understanding of God changed his life. He went with a friend, Robert Lax, to St. Bonaventure University, a Franciscan sponsored school in upstate New York, where he became an instructor of English. He eventually applied to join the Franciscan friars but was rejected. A friend advised Merton about the Trappists. Off he went to the abbey in Kentucky where he was based for the rest of his life. 

The abbey's mantra was ora et labora (pray and work). Merton wrote dozens of books, poems and articles, and corresponded with religious thinkers and cultural icons, political movers and shakers and people of different faiths or no faith. All of us, he argued, are children of God. Faithful to his Catholic tradition, Merton was always open to the truth in other faiths. 

Merton strove to live a life of prayer, of intimacy with God: chanting the psalms, celebrating the Eucharist, and doing such practices as the stations of the cross and the rosary. Above all, he sought solitude and contemplation: that center within where he could feel God's love sustaining him. Buddhist techniques, for example, helped him find that inner stillness.

In his work Seeds of Contemplation, Merton noted that noise, more than anything else, blocks out the voice of God within us. Merton asked for the grace to clear his mind of earthly “concerns” so that in solitude he could move beyond thoughts and words into a felt awareness of the presence of God within himself. There he would sit still and listen to God's voice.

Yes, he sought to find his true self in God: God abiding in him and he abiding in God. Moreover, Merton sensed the oneness of God all about him, in all creatures and all creation: all were holy. The light of God in all creatures simply had to be made visible.

Our Lenten task, Merton might say, is to let the light of God become manifest within ourselves so that others can see beyond appearances the light of God in our attitudes and behaviors. Amen!



Monday, March 4, 2024

Third Sunday of Lent


 You may have heard about the man who went to his doctor with concerns about his health and appearance. “I feel terrible,” the patient said. “When I look in the mirror, I see a balding head, sagging jowls, a pot belly, crooked teeth, bloodshot eyes…I'm a mess! I desperately need good news to boost my self-image.” The physician responded, “Well, the good news is you have perfect eyesight.”  

 We are in the middle of the Lenten season: a six-week journey from ashes to the bright mystery of Easter. Each Sunday in Lent the readings reflect on life, as in a prism. 

The first Sunday, a hungry Jesus tells the tempter what truly nourishes life, eternal life: not bread alone but every word from God. Then last Sunday, the Transfiguration, the disciples saw the unique and awesome presence of God in the earthly Jesus. They saw the future of Jesus and their own future. Yes, God will transfigure us into the likeness of the transfigured Jesus. 

Today Jesus is life-giving water for the woman at the well.  Through the waters of Baptism, God is already transforming us into new creatures, God-like creatures.

The word of God first carries us back to the exodus: the deliverance and freedom of the Hebrews from their oppressors in ancient Egypt. Here they are wandering and complaining in the wilderness! Where is God, they wonder. Moses cries out to God, and God demonstrates his presence. Water flows from a rock and quenches their thirst. 

The life-giving waters from the rock allude to our Baptism and the promises made to God. Now Baptism is a rite of initiation into a global faith community of disciples of Jesus. Water can be threatening (think, e.g., of a hurricane) or life-giving (imagine you’re in a desert). The waters of Baptism symbolize a dying to a self-centered life and rising to an other-centered, God-centered life.Yes, the author may be asking whether we are living a God-centered life.

Paul in his letter to the Christian community at Rome speaks about the saving work of Jesus Christ. Through his horrendous death and glorious resurrection, we have friendship with God whose love and life is poured out upon us and into us in Baptism so that we can begin to reflect the presence and glory of God in our lives. Paul may be asking whether our attitudes and behaviors do precisely that.

In the Gospel, Jesus asks for water from a person of questionable character (five husbands) and from a despised people (the Samaritans), only to engage her in a conversation about thirst. Jesus reveals who he is. He is a prophet, the messiah, the source who gifts us with eternal life, living water who can satisfy our quest for meaning. In faith, this woman discovers new purpose in life through her time with Jesus, and she heralds the good news to her townsfolk. We all thirst like Jesus and the woman at the well, don't we? 

What are we thirsty for? Some for a decent livelihood. Others for health, wealth, pleasure, power, fame. Still others, like the Samaritan woman, seem to thirst for purpose. Lent is a time to ask, what on earth am I here for? What am I living for? And how integrate these into the present.

So often, people imagine, My life will begin when I get a new job, when I get my degree, when I rebuild my home, when I retire someday. Life will begin in the future? In her book Hope Will Find You, Naomi Levy wrote that while caring for her critically ill daughter, she wondered about the dreams and goals she had for herself. She wrote: “I had been promising myself there was a future waiting for me. And just then something snapped inside my soul: This is my future: the present, the here and now. I’d been walking around thinking, this isn’t my life; my life is coming; it’s just around the bend.” But all of us have to learn to live inside the imperfect lives we have here and now.”

Today Jesus urges us to repent, to live our everyday lives to the fullest, to live each day as though it’s our last. This Lenten season is a time for finding our way out of our winters of negativity, our deserts of self-absorption, our wildernesses of disappointments, images that weave in and out of scripture. 

These days before Easter are a time for deciding what we believe to be truly important and meaningful, and then acting upon that now. For the only thing we can count on is today. We can’t do anything about yesterday, and we don’t know about tomorrow.Our Christian faith proclaims that life has meaning, that there is indeed an all-good, compassionate, and merciful God who seeks us out in our everyday experiences. This God became incarnate in Jesus of Nazareth. And through his death and resurrection God re-established his friendship with us and opened up to us life beyond this earthly life. This same God is alive among us today by the power of the Spirit, especially in the sacramental life of our global Catholic community. This is the mystery of the triune God, who is one yet diverse, stable yet dynamic, transcendent yet immanent!

We can participate in God’s triune life not only here and now but hereafter by living a life of regular prayer, by fasting from attitudes and behaviors that jeopardize our relationship with God and with one another, and by living a life of generous service.

That is our Lenten message.  I think this quote sums it up well, and you know it:

I shall pass through this world but once:

any good therefore that I can do

or any kindness that I can show to any human being,

let me do it now, let me not defer or neglect it

for I shall not pass this way again.

Try not to live a life of regrets, a life of should haves or shouldn’t haves. Any good we can do, do it now.


Sunday, February 25, 2024

Second Sunday of Lent


 Lent invites us to make sure we have our priorities straight. And if we’re knocked a bit off course coping with life’s challenges, get back on course. I am reminded of the story about a ship captain who saw what looked like the lights of a ship heading toward him. He signaled: “Change your course 10 degrees south.” A reply came: “Change your course 10 degrees north.” The captain answered: “I’m a captain. Change course.” To which the reply was: “I am a seaman. Change course.”

The infuriated captain signaled: “Change your course. I’m on a battleship!” The reply: “Change your course. I’m in a lighthouse.”

As we journey through Lent, and life, let Jesus be our lighthouse.  He is our way, our truth and our life.

Jesus asks us to have our priorities straight by: recognizing our absolute dependency upon God and expressing our gratitude for His blessings, service to one another and generosity with our time, talents and treasure. 

Last Sunday, we were in the wilderness where Jesus faced down the devil. 

This week, we're on a mountaintop in the awesome presence of God. The earthly Jesus is transfigured into a glorious heavenly reality and a voice from heaven proclaims: “Listen to him.” 

Lent is not only a time to do without so that the needy can have.

Lent is also a season to affirm our faith in the good news that the Jesus Christ is alive. And because he lives, we live, especially through the sacramental signs of our world-wide faith community: water in baptism, bread and wine in the Eucharist, oil in confirmation and the anointing of the sick.

The word of God also takes us back almost 4,000 years: to Abraham, whose call is a watershed in the history of our salvation. God puts Abraham to the test: sacrifice your only son. We may wonder: what kind of God would ask such a thing? But Abraham has committed himself completely to God. And for his trust, God spares Isaac and promises Abraham countless blessings.

Abraham's extraordinary faith in God is a model for us, especially when things are not going our way, or times seem uncertain and hazardous.

Paul in his letter to the Christian community in Rome invites us to be men and women of courage, to stand up for what  is right and true. Yes, God so loved us that He sent his only Son into our midst—the Word became flesh—and through this Jesus's death and resurrection re-established our relationship as adopted sons and daughters of God our Father. Paul then urges us to persevere so God can transform us into his likeness.

In the Gospel, the disciples experienced the transfiguration of Jesus; they saw the unique and awesome presence of God in Jesus. As the scriptures describe this experience, the face of Jesus became as “dazzling as the sun,” his clothes as “white as light,” an allusion to the white cloth a child receives at baptism. The disciples saw a vision of the “glorious” Jesus Christ, beyond the Jesus of flesh and blood in their everyday life.

Yes, God's ultimate aim is to transform us into the likeness of the God.  This transformation has already begun in us through baptism in which we have become “new creatures.” 

And just as Jesus became a transformative person ushering in the kingdom of God, Jesus calls us to become transformative people as well.

We, as co-workers with God, have to do our best to seek God’s grace to transform hate into peace, indifference into compassion, unfairness and prejudice into fairness and tolerance; sorrow into joy, despair into hope. Yes, transform self-centeredness to other-centeredness, so God can transfigure us.   

I close recalling a familiar figure: Notre Dame football icon Lou Holtz, who recognized attitude determines how well one performs any task. Here are a few of his principles:

Focus on your character. Be trustworthy. Behave honorably. When you make a mistake, acknowledge it.

Show people you care. Prove it consistently by praising people's efforts. Show your enthusiasm. Both a great attitude and a bad attitude are contagious.

Surround yourself with people who encourage, who have a positive attitude.

Know what you want; set goals at every stage in life and work to achieve them.

Yes, these are principles that make life worth living.  

May this be one of our Lenten prayers:

Let us forgive those we don’t want to forgive;

be compassionate;

be peacemakers;

care for those in need, even though it’s inconvenient;

persevere when we are exhausted;

carry our crosses; and

love when the last thing we want to do is love. Amen.