2014

You’re sitting at home reading the newspaper when your door flies off its hinges with a bang so loud you jump out of your chair. “Hands up, and don’t move,” shouts the first officer of a SWAT team as he shoves a cocked .357 magnum in your face.

Two hours later at the police station, you are relieved to see your best friend walk into the room. You know he can verify you were with him earlier in the evening when a man was shot and killed at a convenience store one block from your house. “I don’t know this man,” says your friend. Your mouth drops open in disbelief, but then, you think this has to be a practical joke.

…

Good FridayRead More »

What we Catholics refer to as Holy Thursday, many other Christians call Maundy Thursday.  That name flows from the action we just heard about in this evening’s Gospel.  Before celebrating the Last Supper, that is, before giving them the Eucharist, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples and then told them to do as He had done. The word “maundy” is an English derivative of the Latin word mandatum. We know that word better today as mandate. 

 Jesus performed a symbolic action of totally emptying himself for his disciples. No slave owner could force his slave to do such a lowly demeaning task.   Yet, Jesus washed the feet of His disciples.  He washes our feet too.  He empties Himself on the cross for us to clean the mud of our lives from between our toes.  Then, he calls on us to do the same.  That is his mandate.  

But what does this have to do with the Eucharist?  At the Last Supper Jesus gave himself as the sacrament to remember him by.  But the gift of the Body and Blood of the Lord comes with the mandate, “What I have done for you, you should also do.”  This is similar to the condition for receiving forgiveness from the Lord.  If we wish to be forgiven, we need to forgive.  If we wish to experience the Love of the Lord, we need to love others.  God does the heavy work, but He expects us to join Him in doing our own part in proclaiming his good news.

Receiving Eucharist was never intended to be a private devotion. Its alternate name, Holy Communion, is a reminder that we are a community of believers. Being a Christian was never meant to be mere meditation either. Christians are called to bring Christ to others by what they say and do.   Even when we pray before the Blessed Sacrament, we are not engaged in private devotion. Our Eucharistic devotion is a union with the One who gave everything for us and called us to do the same.  We ask Him to strengthen us to imitate Him in giving ourselves to others.

Figuratively speaking, Jesus is telling us to wash the feet of others. He isn’t telling us to literally do so since washing feet never became an integral part of our worship. The stained glass windows across the back of our church depict ways we can give ourselves to others. When Mass is over, we are instructed to glorify the Lord by what we say and do. The seven works of mercy provide examples for doing just that:visit the imprisoned, care for the sick, feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger,and bury the dead. These acts, like foot washing, require some humility. The incarcerated, the ill, the immigrant, the homeless, the fatherless child, the homebound elderly, for example, need us to reach out to them.

Foot washing has a significance even deeper than humility and service. It also expresses the forgiveness of sins. In effect, Jesus is saying to Peter that the person who has his feet washed is clean all over. In his book, Jesus of Nazareth,Pope Benedict wrote, “Guilt must not be allowed to fester in the silence of the soul…. It needs to be confessed.” Through confession we bring our guilt to light. “In confession,” says Benedict, “the Lord washes our soiled feet over and over again and prepares us for table fellowship with him.”

In the dialogue between Jesus and Peter, we see the basics of the Christian life: humility expressed in service and the forgiveness of sins. When we imitate that humility, we recognize that Jesus wants something deeper – to cleanse us of sin so we can come to the table of the Lord. May wehave the courage to fulfill the mandate he has given us.

Matthew’s narrative of the passion of Jesus focuses on betrayal. That is what many, including Judas, did to Jesus;not only the chief priests, elders and the crowds, but even his own disciples. They weren’t the first to do so, nor would they be the last. Adam and Eve were the first to betray God and any time we sin, we do the same. Betrayal results from the desire to put oneself first. A betrayer thinks that he or she knows what is best.

Betrayal describes the motives behind Judas, Peter, Pilate and nearly everyone else in the passion story.

Imagine how Peter felt soon after the Last Supper ended. During that meal, he swore that his faith in Jesus would never be shaken, yet hours later he denied knowing Jesus, not once but three times. A cock crowed then, just as Jesus predicted, prompting Peter to weep bitterly for betraying him.

The cock’s crow was a wake up call for Peter. Following the resurrection, he let nothing stop him from fully living his life as a follower of Christ to the very end when he too was crucified.  That couldn’t be said for Judas, who took his life rather than believe that Jesus would forgive him.

The passion story is meant to be our wake up call as well. In the past five weeks of Lent, have we grown any closer in our relationship with Christ? Unlike Judas, have we opened our hearts to the compassion and forgiveness of Jesus? You aren’t alone if you feel that you have fallen short of any goals you may have set for yourself when Lent began. Every gospel makes the point that even the disciples abandoned Jesus in his hour of need. What matters is that they resolved to never again betray him. With the exception of Judas, they went on to fully commit themselves to following Jesus in proclaiming the good news.

Like the crowds that welcomed Jesus waving palms and shouting praises, we gather today to welcome him, but will we be any different from those who scorned Jesus when Good Friday rolls around?

If Jesus could give himself up for us in such an unselfish way, can we give up a few evenings of our time in return? That is such a small price to pay for the opportunity to experience his compassion and forgiveness.  This week,which we call Holy Week for good reason, the Church will celebrate the Triduum; our most sacred liturgy which lasts for“Three Days.” On Holy Thursday, we begin with the Mass of the Last Supper. That Mass doesn’t end in the usual way. Instead, we resume the liturgy the next evening on Good Friday with the Lord’s Passion, the only day of the year when the Mass cannot be celebrated. This somber liturgy reminds us of the depth of Jesus’ love for us, giving totally of himself on the cross so that you and I can taste the freedom of new life freed from the vise of sin. We leave in silence to return the next evening at 9 PM to celebrate his resurrection with the Easter Vigil, gathering around a fire that dispels the darkness and chill of the night, remembering that with loveJesus has dispelled the darkness of sin.

This week should be unlike any other week of the year for any one who claims to love Christ. Let us leave our comfort zones to unite ourselves with him and his redemptive work.Let us resolve to make this week holy by fully participating in the entire Triduum liturgy from Holy Thursday through the Easter Vigil, not just attending but also reflecting on the readings beforehand. To avoid betraying Jesus in this holy week, let us also resolve to make this week holy by reaching out to the needy, the lonely, the sick and the afflicted.

Today’s scripture passages brought back a memory of a situation a couple of years ago. I was working on a homily one evening when all of a sudden the lights went out. Of course, you never know how long the power will be out. However, it was early enough that it was still a bit light out. I had a sense of urgency as I really was trying to complete my homily that night. I believe it was a Tuesday or Wednesday, but I lost my power and all my notes were in a file in my computer.

This was really driving me crazy because of my need to finish the homily mid-week so that I could take the rest of the week to fine-tune. This power outage was a real pain on my plans. I tried to write under candle power but the flickering drove me nuts. Made a mental note: Need a generator, need paper copy of notes! Needless to say I was not making any progress and now was becoming much more anxious about my self-imposed deadline. 

I went outside to get some air and to see what was up. I noticed a couple of houses down the street had lights and turned around in a hurry to hopefully see light coming from my windows, but instead, I saw complete darkness. 

The power eventually comes on but by that time my head is not in the right place to write a homily. And so, I head off to bed hoping for a better tomorrow. Of course, I was unable to work on the homily the next day for I had to be at the Church after work to conduct a baptismal preparation class. Will I ever find the time?

By the next day, I believe it was Thursday, you can imagine my anxiety and my urgent need to get this homily done. I worked on it for hours and I didn’t like the outcome. Another night, no progress! That darn power outage really messed me up big time.

Early the next morning, about 2-3 A.M., the Holy Spirit finally bangs me on the head to help me see that, far from being the problem, the power outage was my homily. I remember those days because I was somewhat in the same predicament for this homily this weekend except it was lack of time, which made me feel that I was in darkness. 

The gospel today is all about death and darkness. In remembering back to that night, the Good Lord gave me a power metaphor that tied directly to today’s gospel showing me that I was searching far beyond what was in front of me.

We don’t appreciate the light until we are in darkness. We cannot rise if we have not fallen. We cannot have a resurrection without the cross, and therefore, we cannot have Easter Sunday without Good Friday. However, the gospel takes us further than the darkness of death. It also spoke about patience, courage and faith.

Lazarus is dying and Jesus delays. That may have surprised us and most likely surprised Martha and Mary. Why did Jesus delay going to Lazarus? Clearly he loved Lazarus and his sisters very much. Why would He let him die? God had a plan and everything would happen according to that plan. We call that Patience.

When Jesus does finally go to Lazarus, that decision surprises His Disciples because the last time Jesus was in that area, the Jews tried to kill Him. In fact, so certain are the Disciples that Jesus will die if he goes, they decide to go with him so they can all die together. We call that courage.

Before they get to the village, Martha comes to greet Jesus. She professes a clear and committed belief in life after death and the power that Jesus has as God’s Messiah: We call this faith.

So we have three great virtues: Patience, Courage, and Faith! However, Jesus would not die that day because that was not in the Father’s plan. What was in the plan was giving everyone then and now, a clear demonstration of God’s power over life and death. When the stone was rolled back, Jesus calls Lazarus out of the darkness into the light, out of death back into life. And it amazes all those who were there. The gospel does tell us that many came to believe in Jesus.

To be clear here, Lazarus does not experience the resurrection. He is brought back to life by Jesus, but he will die again. Here’s one observation amongst the scripture scholars and worthy of note: Lazarus comes out of the tomb with his burial cloths still on him, because he will die again. But when Jesus rises from the dead, the burial cloths are left behind in the tomb because he will never experience death again.

One of the important insights I have learned about the power outage that night long ago and the gospel today is preparation. We are now entering into the fifth Sunday of Lent, a time of preparation. But what exactly are we preparing for? That Jesus Christ gained for us our salvation from sin and death through his death and resurrection.

But we are also very much preparing for our own resurrection. And, as I eluded to earlier, there cannot be a resurrection without death. We must die to ourselves and Lent is a time we learn what that means and how to do it. We try with different ways to develop self-control and self-mastery. We die to ourselves in order to open ourselves for something greater.

We use our short time on earth to help us learn how to live in eternity with God, and during Lent we intensify that effort. Off course, the Spirit is at our sides helping us along the way. We use Lent; to help us separate the important from the merely attractive; to help learn to tell the difference between what is real and what is artificial; we use Lent to learn how to put eternity in front of temporary.

Throughout Lent we are challenged to tune our hearts to the voice of God and learn to obey this voice with ever-increasing discipline and commitment. We are asked to place trust in God. The Israelites in our first reading were feeling abandoned and forgotten. But God spoke to let them know that he is their strength and protection. God said he would bring them back to the land of Israel and said he would put his spirit in them that they may live. “I have promised it, and I will do it, says the Lord”. God was in control, they just had to have faith in that.

The story of Lazarus is about the reality of death-a death we will all face eventually. But more, it is about helping us to see that the author of Life is always in control, and that even when we don’t understand, our faith will lead us to accept God’s will with patient courage. How can we not have faith in our faith. The letter of St. Paul to the Romans shows us that that if we have faith in God we will have life in the Spirit.

I can’t help but think that the Spirit of the living God gave me the opportunity to experience, although in a very small way, the darkness that accompanies death. I found myself unprepared. The power outage was not devastating, it was a mere inconvenience. So, fortunately, my lack of preparation did not have grave consequences as it did not have for this homily, I HOPE!

But death is a whole different experience. Unlike Lazarus, our deaths will most likely be a one-shot deal. And lack of preparation can have eternal consequences.

It’s the fifth week of Lent. The readings clearly focus on death- yes, in preparation for Good Friday. 

But also in preparation for that day, which may well come upon us with the suddenness of a power outage, when He will call us to Himself to give account of how we lived our lives. And it will be on that day that He will give us our eternity, what we have chosen throughout our life, be it the darkness or the light.

This Sunday is traditionally called Laetare Sunday, from the first word of the Entrance Antiphon chanted at the start of Mass. Laetare is Latin for “Rejoice!” The Church takes time out from the austerity of Lent with words and symbols that speak to us of joy and consolation.

What is the meaning of this oasis experience in the midst of Lent? The Church is reminding us that we are now just past the half way mark in Lent and before we know it, we will be celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Even during this holy season with its emphasis on repentance and self-denial, we can be people of joy, that kind of joy that comes from seeing the hand of God in all circumstances of life.

Today’s gospel recounts the miraculous healing of the man born blind. The ancients viewed just about every illness and misfortune as a punishment from God for sins committed, whether one’s own sins or the sins of one’s parents, which is why the disciples asked, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

Jesus seizes the moment to provide them and us with a timely lesson that God has many reasons for permitting suffering and tribulation but punishment in this lifetime isn’t one of them. You are the blind ones, he tells the Pharisees.  These teachers of Israel were better prepared than the common folks to recognize Jesus as the Messiah but they didn’t. While the less educated people were able to see God at work in Jesus, the Pharisees allowed prejudice and ill will to blind them to what was unfolding before their very eyes.

Consciously or not, we sometimes imitate the Pharisees in our own way. We can become so set in our personal habits that we become foolishly content with ourselves, blind to our need for improvement or repentance. We find ourselves ruled by the opinion of others and our society instead of living by faith in the unseen God. We equate holiness with simply avoiding sin rather than growing in virtue, thinking we are saved, not by our own personal holiness, but by simply belonging to the Church.  We can become so stagnant in our spiritual life and so fixed in our thinking that we resist any further need for growth of mind and spirit.

Maya Angelou made the comment, “We are as blind as we want to be.” How often have we failed to see the hand of God in every situation, especially during difficult times? Instead of seeing our setbacks and problems as occasions for growing closer to God through the mystery of the cross, we blame others, we flounder in self-pity, or we become resentful toward God and others for our plight.

One thing I learned years ago when my mother died is that God does not cause bad things to happen to us. However, God often permits us to suffer misfortunes so that he can bring about some greater good.  Consider the tragedy of the mudslide in Oso last Saturday.

Nearly every Sunday for 12 years I drove that highway to Darrington, passing through the community of Oso. Never once did I imagine that a mudslide would happen there, much less one of such magnitude. I did at times voice my concern over the lumber industry practice of clear cutting as being unsafe for any number of reasons. That and heavy rain over the past few weeks were what likely caused the hill to give way, catching everyone by surprise, not God.

In the wake of this disaster, there has been an outpouring of generosity and caring concern for everyone impacted. The dark side of this tragedy has produced every kind of good in many people over the past week from donating gas cards to shifting through the muck in search of those still missing.

We must simply believe that everything works for the good of those who love the Lord. That insight has enabled many people, including me, to say, “Were it not for that setback, that illness, that loss, that –you fill in the blank –, I might never have learned an important lesson, met so and so, turned my life around, or you name it.  If we open our eyes to God working in our lives, we can see, as the saying goes,that the Lord writes straight with crooked lines.  

Things may not turn out the way we had planned them. Still, despite our human failings, God wants what is best for us. Knowing this, we can trust him, making sense of setbacks, adversity and changes of plans that pop up at times.

If we enrich each day with a bit of prayer, with some consideration of the Lord’s words and deeds, with some reflection on our daily behavior, we can avoid being spiritually blind to Jesus and resistant to his graces. If you have been lax in your Lenten observances thus far, ask the Holy Spirit to renew in you the spirit of self-denial so that you can put aside your own agenda and focus anew on prayer, fasting and alms giving. As Paul points out, “Try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord…Arise from the dead and Christ will give you light.”

Lent is about preparing well for Easter by crucifying our old self with Christ so that we might die to sin. And Easter is about rising with Christ to walk in newness of life. If you follow the Lord to Jerusalem and to Calvary, keeping in mind that he knows his way out of the grave, your Lenten sacrifices and sacramental confessions will lead you to the kind of joy no one can take from you, the joy of Laetare.