2015

Today, each of us received a palm to take home to remind usof the drama we just heard joining countless others in praising Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ when he entered Jerusalem, then just days later they scorned him. Why?

A young boy, named Drew, discovered that people could be easily persuaded by the influence of others. Serving as part of the crowd in a stage production of the Passion, he was instructed by the director to repeat whatever the men in red turbans shouted. “When you get on stage, watch the men in red turbans carefully! Shout everything they shout!” he said.

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Palm SundayRead More »

Today’s readings are taken from cycle A and the raising of Lazarus from the dead from the gospel of John. As the elect of our parish, Stephen, Kitrell, and Bill move closer to union in the body of Christ at the Easter Vigil, the readings invite them and us to reflect upon what it means when Jesus says he is the Resurrection and the Life, and what resurrection means to us.

How many times have we misunderstood what Jesus was saying, especially when it comes to the gospel of John? In our humanity, our human life, we see and hear in human terms, in human realities. The gospel today challenges us to think, speak, even see and hear in a different way.

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5th Sunday of LentRead More »

“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” That question hit home for me. Unbeknownst to my parents or the doctors involved, I had a stroke at birth, which caused my hearing loss. To think that either was the consequence of their sins or mine never entered our minds when I was a child. Instead of seeing my condition as a divine punishment, my mom’s explanation resonated with what Jesus said to the disciples. “It is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.”

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4th Sunday of LentRead More »

At first blush, the readings today center around water—water as a source of life; water as a source of destruction; water we thirst for. And, while the water imagery is important, the readings also speak to one’s relationship with God—Moses seeking God’s help as he deals with his people; Paul speaking to the Romans about being in a right relationship with God, being justified by faith and, then in the gospel, Jesus entering into a relationship with the Samaritan woman.

And, the Church calls us, as a community of faith, into special relationship beginning this weekend with those who are preparing to receive the sacraments of initiation at the Easter Vigil. On this third week of Lent, we deviate from the normal readings in Cycle B and return to the readings found in Cycle A. A quick orientation to the Sunday Scripture Readings. There is a three-year cycle for the Sunday Scripture readings- A, B, C. By creating a three-year cycle much of the New Testament and a good portion of the Old Testament is read in this three-year period.

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3rd Sunday of LentRead More »

Revered as the father of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Abraham looms almost like a god over every figure of the ancient world. In our oldest Eucharistic prayer, we even mention him as “our father in faith” yet in the beginning he was as ordinary as anyone could be. God called him from the paganism of his homeland of Ur, in present-day southern Iraq, to take a blind step into the realm of faith in the land of Canaan. In doing so, Abraham manifested a living faith in God that the world had never seen.

His journey was never an easy one. Abraham responded imperfectly but with persistence. There were times when he wavered yet under God’s guidance, Abraham learned to pray, to trust, to persevere and to obey. He prayed that his wife, Sarah, would have the son that God promised even if the time for having a child was long past. The ultimate test of faith comes when God told him to sacrifice his son.

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2nd Sunday of LentRead More »