THE FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

John 14:1-12 

Dear Friends, In my early days as a Carmelite seminarian, I had a retreat that I remember quite vividly these seventy -one years later. I do not remember anything of the preacher’s message. What I do remember is that he told us he slept in a coffin each night. He wanted to grow in awareness that he was going to die. At the time, I thought it was really weird. Now that I am several decades closer to my death, I think the nightly coffin routine is way beyond weird.

In the Easter Season, there is a magnificent message about our personal death. It is not all that bad. In fact, it is a wonderous gift! The Preface for the Mass of the Resurrection for burials lays out a very comforting description in this way:

In him who rose from dead our hope of the resurrection dawned.

The sadness of death gives way to the bright promise of immortality.

Lord, for your faithful people life is changed not ended.

When the body of our earthly dwelling lies in death

We gain an everlasting dwelling place in heaven.

Today’s Gospel is often used in funeral masses. In the context of this powerful ritual, most people get it. We are going to a better life. The problem is most of us only get it when we can no longer evade the reality of death. The death of a loved one simply engulfs us in the great and painful mystery that is death. There is only a token nod to the overwhelming gift of the resurrection. This is usually expressed in the phrases” the end of suffering” and “he/she is now is in a better place”.

Our culture is very evasive in facing death for what it is: a very big and defining part of life. The message of the Easter season surely does not call us into the bizarre and morbid activity of sleeping in a coffin. It does, however, invite us to face death as a crucial part of our life.

Jesus wants us to know that life is a gift for today. I need to embrace it in joy and wonder all the more enthusiastically because I have no guarantee of tomorrow. God calls us to live this day in love and service. Accepting death as a truly big part of our life is not an invitation to live in worry and anxiety. It is a call to be realistic.

Thomas’ concern in today’s Gospel relates to our confusion about balancing these two drastically different elements of death. It is both a horrendous loss leading to unavoidable personal torment and it is a glorious victory transcending any joy or expression of happiness in this life.

Jesus responds to Thomas by telling him that He is the way. All we need to do is walk with Jesus and He will bring s to our true home.

Jesus tells us again to not let our hearts be troubled We simply need to have faith in Jesus.

There is no avoiding the good and the bad, the harmonious and conflictual, sickness and health, and all the elements of our human condition that are all held in the loving hands of the gracious God revealed in Jesus. Jesus is the way and the life and the truth (Jn 14:6) Jesus tells us. “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.” (Jn 14:1-2)

Today we are all one day closer to God’s loving call that changes our death into life everlasting. This is the message of the Easter Alleluia! We are fools to not accept this reality and let it define how we live. The Resurrection is real. It means death has lost its sting. Our job is to celebrate with a life filled with hope and joy, love and service.

If we keep our eyes on Jesus, we will be drawn into the most real and honest response to the ever-present dilemma of death. Jesus tells us he is the way, the surest way to God. Jesus is the fullest and richest expression of God. All of his teachings and patterns of life, all of his miracles and service, and most of all, the great revelation of love in the Passion, Death and Resurrection – they all invite us to walk in love with Jesus. The astonishing song of the Alleluia we proclaim this Easter Season directs our heart to Jesus. For indeed, there is no surer way that leads to the truth and fullness of life that is God.

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THE PEOPLE´S EXPERIENCE OF GOD-3

III 

Lectio Divina and Deep Personal Prayer 

As we grow in understanding Lectio Divina, there is a truly beautiful unveiling of the approach to God’s Word and prayer. The practice of deep personal prayer draws one into oneself where the light of God’s Word opens the passage to true self-knowledge. This, in turn, draws us back to the world in a way that moves away from selfishness to service and loving presence to all.

Faithfulness to prayer engenders an ever-repeating cycle. We turn inwards to seek God and we turn outwards to share in the divine love for our brothers and sisters. True prayer will always lead us to the task of healing and reconciling through the gospel message of justice, peace and love. This leads us to the great prayer of our day:” Let us hear the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth!”

This way of deep personal prayer calls us to the Word of God. It calls us to true self-knowledge. It calls us to a true transformation of consciousness that removes the prejudices and false values of a culture far removed from gospel values. It calls us to a continual search seeking to grow in love with Jesus which provokes us to the inevitable task of loving our neighbor and being responsible for our historical reality.

A commitment to deep personal prayer demands many things. First and foremost, it is a commitment to pray regularly with an openness to personal transformation. It calls us to seek an understanding and fidelity to God’s Word. It asks that we develop a spirituality leading to self-knowledge and dependence on God. Likewise, it guides us to be open to our historical reality and the demands of justice, peace and loving care of God’s creation.

All these elements of prayer lead to the growth of a personal spirituality rooted in a hunger for God and knowledge of God’s Word. This is where Lectio Divina and deep personal prayer connect. This new life in the spirit creates a desire to do God’s will. All of this movement inward is the gift of the faithful practice of deep personal prayer.

How we handle this glorious journey to the center is a step-by-step process that demands a unified effort and much self-sacrifice. A clear understanding of Lectio Divina and its supportive role to deep personal prayer will be a great help along the way.

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FOURT SUNDAY OF EASTER

John 10:1-10 

Dear Friends in Christ. This is the Fourth Sunday of our Easter Season. Our message today focuses on Jesus as the gate. In the time of the Gospel, the shepherd had many duties. They all built up a meaningful relationship with the sheep.

The image of the gate was especially expressive of the role of the shepherd. As the sheep entered the gate there was a guarantee of security from the many sources of violence and even death that waited in the darkness of the night.

During the night the shepherd literally slept in the gate, the entrance to the sheepfold. Any coming or going had to go through the protective presence of the shepherd.

In the morning, the shepherd led the sheep out of the gate to the fertile fields that offered satisfying food and drink.

The gate was truly s symbol of life that was offered in abundance. During the Easter Season we are called to ponder and pray about the great Mystery of the Crucified and Risen Christ. This is the true source of our life in abundance.

Only when we bring our life experiences to the Easter message can we begin to get a glimpse of how Jesus came into the world to bring us life and to bring life In abundance.

The message of the full life is repeated over and over in the Gospel of John. It is most appropriate for the Easter Season. In the loving encounter with Jesus, we recall the great victory of life over death, of good over evil. Because of the Easter event we not only have life in abundance, we have the highest quality of life, eternal life.

John uses the “I AM” statements in the fourth Gospel to invite us into the mystery of God. The Evangelist is revealing, in the person of Jesus, the source of eternal life to sinners. In the resurrection, Jesus is the “gate” that opens to eternal life. He is the life-source in the “vine,” the “life” and the “resurrection.” He is the “gate” and the “way” for sinners searching in the darkness and unpredictability of life. He is the “shepherd” guiding us in our confusion and bewilderment. He is the “bread” that nourishes along the way.

In this season of Easter, we are invited to enter in the “gate” of life in the face of our daily hassles and insecurities. We are the people of the Alleluia. The victory has been won. We attain the victory through “gate” that is Jesus, the Risen Lord. He will lead us to embrace life and live it to the full with the Alleluia ringing in our hearts.

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THE FALSE SELF AND THE TRUE SELF-4

This is the fourth of eleven reflections on Thomas Merton’s teaching on the True Self/False Self dynamic. This conflictual but enlightening relationship permeates Merton’s huge quantity of writing on the spiritual life. The basic point of the conflict is the individual’s pull toward and away from God, one’ true and ultimate destiny. Merton’s exposure of the consequences of original sin is ruthless in its intensity. This is the task of the False Self. At the same time, the pull of the True Self, the ever-present call of God’s personal and passionate love, is even more powerful. The human heart is the battlefield of this seemingly endless confrontation.

Part One

On the spiritual journey, most people have experiences of numerous conversions. These spiritual experiences vary in degrees of intensity and depth. One of the components of this conversion process is a surprisingly new awareness of how blind one had been to the demands of the gospel message.

I think many can relate to my lifetime encounters to the seemingly endless gospel call to inclusiveness. Growing up, I felt it was a sacrilege for girls to play sports. Likewise, the “colored people” had their own truly God-given neighborhood. Homosexuals and lesbians, for all practical purposes, just did not exist.

It has been a tumultuous trip for me moving away from the sexism, racism and homophobic attitudes that supported the dominance my false self. No doubt, I still have a long way to go in these major deceptions in our society.

In each of these deep prejudices, there were periods of conversion that included an eventual eye-opening reflection. It exposed the depth of the deviation from the gospel message that reigned in my heart. This is a clear example of Merton’s teaching on the passage to enlightenment and conversion as we move partially away from the False Self to the True Self. It is a long, difficult trek. Yet, there are many small, and even great, victories along the way. As we stay faithful to the struggle to walk with Jesus, God’s grace never forsakes us. The process in this life is always limited and unfinished and calling for more. Nevertheless, we are moving in the right direction as long as we do not succumb to apathy and neglect.

The Road to Jerusalem

In the Gospel of Mark, we have a truly challenging example of this struggle of the darkness and the light in the False Self/True Self dynamic. All through his Gospel, Mark offers a particularly harsh portrayal of the Apostles. They are presented as a group that just do not get the message.

This approach in Mark is part of his insightful lesson on the complexity and the depth that authentic faithfulness to Jesus actually demands.

In the section of the Gospel (Mk 8:22-10:52) that is often referred to as “The Road to Jerusalem”, Jesus has three predictions of the Passion, Death and Resurrection. In each of these three segments there is a common structure.

• Jesus makes the prediction. The Apostles do not understand and do not accept the frightful possibility.

• In fact, they move in the opposite direction of Jesus’ statement. His message proclaims a Suffering Messiah. This was totally contrary to the Apostles hopes and ambitions. Their expectant future envisioned power, prestige and wealth.

• Finally, Jesus presents a short, clear teaching on the demands of conversion to the gospel message.

This selection of Mark’s text begins and ends with the healing of a blind man. In the three Gospel segments, the blindness of the Apostles is shown in Peter telling Jesus that he did not have to suffer (Mk 8:32), the apostles arguing who was the greatest (Mk 9:34), and finally, James and John asking for the privilege of sitting at his right and left in the coming days of glory (10:35).

These are all examples of the power and influence of the False Self. These were good men who considered themselves deeply committed to Jesus. In their mind, they had left all to follow Jesus. Each day they listened to his teachings. They witnessed his healings. They shared the multiplied loaves and fish. They saw Jesus walking on the water. They experienced the overwhelming enthusiasm of the crowds. It is hard for us to overstate the intensity and immediacy of their experience of Jesus. Yet, they had a vision in harsh conflict with that of Jesus. This was never clearer than in the total abandonment in the Garden on that first Good Friday.

Mark was making it clear to us as readers of his Gospel that true faithfulness to Jesus is genuinely demanding. It calls for many experiences of further enlightenment even after we make an initial pledge to follow Jesus. There always is more. The blinding power of the False Self is acute and dominant. The demands of the True Self insist that we take Jesus’ teaching to heart. Here are some selections from this part of Mark’s Gospel.

• “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” (Mk 8:34)

• If anyone wishes to be the first he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” (Mk 9:35)

• “Whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant…For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as ransom for many.” (Mk 10:43-45)

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THE PEOPLE´S EXPERIENCE OF GOD-2

Study and Prayer 

Our approach to the Bible requires two distinct methods. One is to study the Bible to absorb the story and to grow in familiarity with the word of God. This should be done with a reverent spirit. However, it is an exercise of the intellect. We must develop a familiarity with the overall story. This should include a broad sense of the general themes, major events and the basic timeline from Abraham to Jesus. Pope Francis called for this bible study in his classic Exhortation, The Joy of the Gospel. He says, “The study of the sacred Scriptures must be a door opened to every believer. It is essential that the revealed word radically enrich our catechesis and all efforts to pass on the faith…Let us receive the sublime treasure of the revealed word.” (#175)

The second method is the prayerful reading of the Scriptures. This task goes beyond the mind to the depth of the spirit within us, a truly different tactic. The prayerful reading of the Bible seeks primarily to listen to what God has to say to us in the midst of our lives. This demands an openness and emptiness that echoes Samuel as we approach the Holy Word: “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.” (1 Samuel 3:10)

We need to always be aware that the text is more than fact. It is a symbol, a window, and a reflection that lets us see the past as a mirror of today’s experience. This prayerful reading of the word of God needs to lead us into our present historical reality in a way that it discloses the mystery of God’s saving presence here and now.

Our search has three goals:

  1. We want to acquire a personal understanding of God’s word.
  2. We want to let God’s will for our life situation to become clear and practical.
  3. We want to live the call to walk with Jesus.

These goals prepare us to face the challenge of the brokenness and confusion of our daily experience. In this prayerful reading of the Bible, we need to receive the message as if it is addressed to us personally at this specific time in history because it is.

In this time of prayerful reading of the scriptures, it is important to set aside any sense of study or preparation to share our understanding with others. We prayerfully read the Bible for one purpose. We want to grow in faith and simply be in the presence of the living God.

I

Lectio Divina: A Reading Leading to Prayer

Among the many gifts of Vatican II was a new emphasis on the Bible. It brought the Word of God to the center of all Christian spirituality. This revival has led to a growing practice of prayer that has had a long tradition in the Church. This is called lectio divina. Literally, this means divine reading. Another description would be the prayerful reading of the Bible.

Lectio Divina is all about the transforming encounter with God’s special means of revelation, the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. This prayerful reading seeks to listen to what God has to say to us. Reflection and prayer will lead us to know and embrace God’s will.

When approaching the Mystery unveiled in the Scriptures, Samuel’s great insight is the key: “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.” (1 Samuel 3:10).

There are four steps to this prayerful reading of the Bible. We can describe them as the four “Rs” of Reading, Reflecting, Responding and Resting.

  1. A slow meditative reading of a selected text of the Scriptures.
  2. A reflection on the text that connects it with our life experience.
  3. A response in prayer to this reflective activity.
  4. Finally, a quiet resting in the Mystery of this encounter.

II

Seeking God Through A Mediator

There is a fascinating story about the Jewish people in the Exodus and their fear in approaching God. Moses had been experiencing a series of encounters with God on Mt. Sinai. These experiences had been marked by some natural signs such as storms, thunder and lightning. God spoke from a cloud. The people had become terrified. They had heard God’s Word telling them to keep their distance from the mountain lest they see the face of God and die. So, they said to Moses: “You speak to us and we will listen, but let not God speak to us, or we shall die.” (Ex 20: 18-19) They clearly wanted a mediator, a secondary approach to their experience of God.

In our day, many people use the Church as such a mediator to God. They are faithful members meeting their religious obligations. They have the sacraments and the teachings of the Church. Their approach to God is secondary by the faithful membership in the Church.

For others, their approach to God is rooted in an emergency. They go to God when their plan for happiness has run into a crisis. They see God as a remedy of the last resort.

There are many variations to these two themes such as the gospel of prosperity and those seeking deep religious feelings as the product of their worship. However, in all these different religious pursuits, the emphasis is on the individual and less so on God.

True religion places God as the center. True spirituality clarifies the goal and directs the person in a genuinely authentic and immediate search for God. Religion has its comfortable rituals and practices. Spirituality brings transparency and the immediacy with a clear focus in seeking union with God. Spirituality has the distinct and demanding goal of deep personal prayer.

In today’s religious practice, many people are moving beyond the security blanket of active Church membership as their search for God. This has taken many different avenues. Some have become more involved in their religious responsibilities. Others have withdrawn altogether. Most have had mixed results with many running into painful spiritual dead-ends. There is one common factor. They are all looking for a deeper spiritual experience.

In the US, the largest religious denomination is Roman Catholic. The second largest group is former Roman Catholics. In El Salvador, which is typical of many traditionally Catholic Latin American countries, the Evangelicals outnumber the Roman Catholics.

In the midst of this religious turmoil, there is a growing hunger for a more authentic experience of God. There is a yearning to move beyond the does and don’ts of religion to a spirituality that taps into the deepest longings of the human heart. Deep personal prayer is an avenue that is authentic, demanding and life-giving in this quest for a meaningful spirituality that offers this experience of God.

Lectio Divina, the prayerful reading of God’s Word, offers a method of truly spiritual encounters with the call of God’s will. It also opens up to a powerful and rich spirituality. This is why there is an intimate connection between Lectio Divina and deep personal prayer.

This journey, or better expressed as pilgrimage to God, leads to a personal purification, a personal enlightenment and a personal transformation. This happens through a growing awareness, a growing self-knowledge and an increasing understanding of God’s Word. These moments of spiritual growth gift the person with a generous acceptance of God’s will. A central part of this transition is the transformation of consciousness. A meaningful encounter with God’s Word exposes the depth of false values that blind us to the presence of God within ourselves, within our neighbor and within our historical reality.

This process of growing in the awareness of God’s presence leads to deeper awareness of God. In our present situation, we have a series of veils that blind us to God. These veils are the deceptive illusions and false values imposed by our culture and other sources of deception. Removing the veils obstructing us from God is a critical task of any true spirituality.

This pilgrimage to God with the help of Lectio Divina may seem overwhelming. However, like any other journey, it is simple enough if we realize it only is possible when we take one step at a time. We now face the real challenge. Taking that first step!

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THE THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER

Luke 24: 13-35 

Dear Friends, The Easter Season is a time we desperately need to let the overwhelming truth of the resurrection to penetrate our being. Today on this Third Sunday of Easter we have the wonderful story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Like all of the Resurrection stories, this beautiful passage invites to enter into the mystery of the Risen Christ. It is a journey from the head to the heart.

Today’s story is especially heartfelt. The two disciples tell the story to Jesus. For them it is a profound tragedy. They are frustrated and floundering in a world of shattered dreams. Their story conveys pain and hopelessness. In particular, they pass over the message of the women with the account of the empty tomb and the angels.

Jesus takes their story and transforms it into a message of hope and life. He showed that the mystery of the Cross unveiled the deepest and most gracious level of reality. In God’s wisdom, weakness gives way to true power, emptiness expresses the fullness of God’s presence and death gives way to life everlasting. “Then they said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while He spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?’” (Lk 24:32) This is the story of the Alleluia!

In the disciples’ experience, we have a fundamental insight into the Christian life. We need to measure the Gospel story against our life experience. Sooner or later, we experience the common human fate of the two disciples: broken dreams, love rejected and the multiple consequences of our mortality. Much of our life’s efforts struggle to cover all the contingencies but in the end we are not ready for what life has in store for us. Who could ever really envision the depth of the broken division of partisanship in our country, the coronavirus and its impact on our world? Or who could believe the number of mass shootings being greater than the number of days in the year? We are like the disciples engulfed in dreams of great things coming from Jesus, the one who would be their savior. Yet, like them, our vision of life holds little room for the rejection and Passion and Crucifixion on that fateful weekend.

Luke uses the phrase “opened eyes” six of the eight times It appears in the New Testament. It is always about the journey from the head to the heart. “While he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight.” (Lk 24:31-32) When we recognize Jesus in faith, we begin to see the Resurrection for what it is. The victory of love over all the evil the world has to offer. All is not lost. Indeed, the victory is ours when we walk with Jesus. This is the story of the Alleluia!

Thomas Merton has a beautiful definition of prayer: Prayer is yearning to be in the presence of God, a personal understanding of God’s Word, knowledge of God’s will and the capacity to hear and obey. This is what happened to the disciples in their encounter with Jesus. They were walking away from life. They were fleeing the difficulty of their broken dreams. Jesus drew them into the presence of God. God’s grace opened their eyes to the fire of love that was there all the time. This happened when Jesus released the Word of God for them. Now, they were ready to do God’s will.

Comparable to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, we have to bring faith to our story. With faith, we enter the story of the Scriptures and slowly we see that God is with us all along. This is the story of the Alleluia!

In Jesus telling the story over again, hope and faith replace the despair and pain that dominated the disciples’ experience of the story. Like Jesus’ version of the events, we need the Word of God to give us direction on our road to Emmaus so we too can find our way back to Jerusalem. God has a loving plan for us.

The power of deep personal prayer can open this way of love and new life for us. We can begin to see reality as pregnant with hope and new possibilities once we encounter the Risen Christ. This is the story of the Alleluia!

Faith lets us see Jesus turning the story of the two disciples and our story upside down as he did with so many experiences in his gospel teachings. Through the mystery of the Cross, he unveiled the deepest level of reality. In this revelation of God’s wisdom, weakness gives way to true power, emptiness expresses the fullness of God’s presence and death opens the way to life that is everlasting. This is the story of the Alleluia!

In our celebration of the Eucharist, we remember in a most powerful way Jesus breaking the Bread. We need to let our hearts also burn with the recognition of Jesus’ presence. As we travel our journey of life with Jesus, he is once again retelling the story that is our life. This is the story for the Alleluia!

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SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER

Dear Friends in Christ, In the challenging and confusing journey of three years with Jesus, the apostles had all kinds of startling experiences. Yet, nothing prepared them for the final seventy two hours that found them locked in the room “for fear of the Jews.” (Jn 20:19)

No one was on the roller-coaster of emotions more than Peter. First, we hear his protest at the Last Supper: “You will never wash my feet.” Then in an immediate reversal: “Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and face as well.” (Jn 13:8-9) Right after that: “I will lay down my life for you.” (Jn13:37) Then a few hours later after falling asleep in the Garden, we are stunned to hear: “Then the maid who was the gatekeeper said to Peter, “You are not one of this man’s disciples are you?” Peter said, “I am not.” (Jn 18:17) Finally, Peter gets an idea of the horror of it all and the depth of his personal weakness: “He went out and he began to weep bitterly.” (Mt 26:75)

For Peter and the other disciples, it was a short tumble from total arrogance to total devastation. They who were longing for the gift of power and wealth, prestige and privilege, now were engulfed in shattered dreams and enveloped in fear and hopelessness. Slowly, they realized the events of the weekend had exposed them as losers for wasting three years of their life chasing an illusion. Now, there was a greater danger at their doorstep. They actually were facing the risk of prison, and maybe even losing their lives.

Crisis management did not give them much time to let the depth of their change in circumstances to sink in. Likewise, they were unable to see with any clarity the extent of their personal cowardice. Their incredible abandonment of Jesus was a shocking denial of three years of discipleship and intimacy at the feet of Jesus. Their journey of self-knowledge was undergoing a tumultuous invitation to new and alarming enlightenment.

Then, in the midst of the pain, the fear, the loss and utter confusion, they see Him and hear, “Peace be with you.” Jn 20:19.

They had a lot of experience with the upside down world of Jesus. However, nothing made them ready for this. In an instant, defeat and failure are now victory and triumph. Darkness is now light. Abandonment opens to embrace. Sin and denial are washed away in love, mercy and healing. Indeed, “Peace be with you.”

The Church is very wise to call us to ponder and pray about this awesome mystery of the Resurrection for the next seven weeks. There is a lot to take in.

If we are willing to dig deep enough, we gradually will see the story of our lives in the vulnerability of the disciples. We will see that we, like the disciples in the locked room, are being called out of the dominance and control of our fear and anxieties. We are being offered the most magnificent of all gifts in hope. We have before us the brilliant display of the mercy of God, “Whose sins you shall forgive are forgiven them”. (Jn 20:23) It is for this reason this Second Sunday of Easter is dedicated to remembering and celebrating the mercy of God.

The readings of this Second Sunday of Easter proclaim the presence of the risen Lord in the midst of the reign of fear, skepticism and apprehension. In this Easter feast Jesus comes to us with peace and healing. He offers us courage and unspeakable joy.

Like the disciples, we are loved in our brokenness. We are accepted in our weakness and sinfulness. Slowly, we will get a glimmer of the love Jesus has for us. It is without limit or condition. It is a treasure so rich and splendid that we can hardly begin to realize it. Whether we grasp it or not, the goal of our spiritual journey in life is to let the power and beauty of this love transform us into a new creation just as it did for the disciples.

Indeed, Christ is risen! Alleluia! When we let this Mystery penetrate the deepest reality of our being, nothing will ever be the same again. We need to be among those who believe and love Jesus even though we have not “seen” him. In him we have peace, hope and unspeakable joy. The wonder of God’s love is always there. We are invited to enter this love through our Easter celebration. We need to let the Alleluia bring us into the depth of God’s love, the true experience of Easter. May our Easter joy lead us to witness to draw others to the Alleluia of salvation.

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EASTER SUNDAY

The Gospel of Matthew offers us a message that is far from a Hollywood ending where all is peace, goodness and love. In Matthew, the Resurrection is not a guarantee that all are problems will pass away. It is not an easy solution to the burden of life’s relentless encounter with sin, injustice sickness, aging and even death.

What the Resurrection is, however, is another glorious stroke in the portrait of a loving God that began with the description of Emmanuel, (God is with us) in chapter one. All throughout the Gospel we have this growing exposure of a God of love and life: Emmanuel. The entire Gospel is of one piece. For our part, we are called to a personal transformation that draws us into the life-giving and renovating love of Emmanuel.

So, in the Passion, while we have a picture of people’s injustice and hatred and rejection, we also have an underlying theme of God’s plan of love at work. In the Garden, Jesus prays that this cup may not be necessary. On the Cross, Scripture is sighted that this suffering was the plan of God to reveal the true nature of the Messiah. Here is our God who shares our pain and loss. Here is our God who shares the travesty of our suffering in this valley of tears. Here is our God who enters into the depth of ultimate anguish of death only to open up the final expression of our reality, the destiny of eternal life and happiness. In the resurrection, we have the revelation of life free of all the consequences of sin. This is the ultimate expression of love and freedom in the hands of our saving God. This is Emmanuel!

Easter is a further expression of Emmanuel. Easter is the renewed invitation into the mystery of life’s victory over death, grace’s final domination of sin, and the Incarnate goodness, in the person of Jesus, devastating evil.

Often in life we are driven to ask, “How can this be?” The raw and savage power of evil is never far from our doorstep. Its destructive forces are clawing at the edges of our life. It may be the death of an innocent child or a young parent, the power of a pandemic like Covid, the senseless destruction of war or gang violence. These realities are always surfacing in our daily life

When these encounters break loose from the shadows of life, the new meeting with evil always seems to drive us to ask again with new intensity, “How can this be?”

In the Pascal Mystery of Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection, God responds to our question and the same question all through human history. Jesus has taken upon himself, at the request of the Father, all of evil so he shares single-mindedly in all human suffering. He is God’s response to our deeply painful question. He is the victory of life and love in the resurrection. The Easter Alleluia is our invitation to gradually share in the victory over evil, destruction and death. We are called to grow in faith, hope and love and to break free from the binding forces of our broken human condition. The Alleluia calls us to life and freedom, hope and conviction when we walk with Jesus into the mystery of Emmanuel.

This whole Gospel of Matthew is woven together to unveil Emmanuel (God is with us). This Gospel is a revelation of love without limit or condition. This message of Good News proclaims the final word of God. It moves beyond sickness or suffering. It breaks the bondage of division and violence. It lets reconciliation and peace overcome the impossible. It lets pardon and love be the mustard seed that becomes the tree whose healing shadow covers all of life’s hurts in its loving embrace. It is the fullness of truth and the ultimate invitation into life and love, Emmanuel!

Our challenge is to know this is not just information for us to understand, but a deep and gripping mystery only open to us by an acceptance of Christ Crucified and Christ Risen. It is only in our personal struggle between grace and sin that life will we find the life-giving direction and meaning of this Mystery of Emmanul. This is done solely by walking in the footsteps of Jesus to Jerusalem and sharing in the wonder of the Pascal Mystery where death gives way to life.

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PALM SUNDAY

Down through history we have had numerous distortions of the gospel message. When I was young, our celebration of Lent had clearly lost its focus. The emphasis was on personal sacrifice. Lent was an endurance contest. At noon on Holy Saturday Lent was declared over. It became a moment to gorge ourselves on candies and other elements of our Lenten abstention. This was an incredible caricature of the Church’s message. Jesus got lost in our indulgence.

Today, we have another distortion of Easter by neglect. The big day is Good Friday. For many, if not most, Easter is an afterthought in much of our popular religious practice.

The Church’s teaching is very clear. The Death and Resurrection are one event! We take thirteen weeks to celebrate, in the most solemn and beautiful way, the central reality of our faith, the Pascal Mystery. This one event includes the Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ. This same event is celebrated and experienced in every Mass.

We take a good chunk of the Church year to recall this story. However, it is so much more than a history lesson. In the thirteen weeks from Ash Wednesday to Pentecost we have three seasons of the Church Year. The main purpose of the prayer and penance of Lent is to prepare us to be spiritually ready to celebrate the three holy days of the Triduum, Holy Thursday to Easter Sunday.

We need to understand that this moment of the Passion and Death was accomplished by the union and surrender of Jesus to the Father. This is God’s plan of salvation, life coming through death all wrapped in eternal love. We pray in the Preface of the Mass on Passion Sunday: “though innocent he suffered willingly for sinners and accepted unjust condemnation to save the guilty!”

No matter how clear the ultimate expression of evil is in the suffering of an innocent and loving God, the final statement of God wins out in the Resurrection. The Father has chosen through the cup of Christ’s suffering that the final victory of life and love has engulfed the world in Christ’s saving grace.

To embrace this truth, we have seven weeks of the Easter season as a time of prayer and reflection on the central reality of our faith, the Pascal Mystery, Christ Crucified and Christ Risen.

Here is the bottom line of all this material. The Church understands the Triduum, and the liturgy in general, in this way. It is not a reenactment. It is not simply a repetition of the story no matter how solemn. We do not retell history. The Church teaches that we celebrate the Mystery. In the celebration, we are present to the Mystery, the one and singular and historical event. The power of the Spirit in the Church makes us present to the saving event, the Pascal Mystery.

The celebration is the power and presence of God’s saving grace coming into our lives here and now. This one saving event is not broken into parts. It is the Mystery of the saving action of God in Jesus Christ. We are entering into the deepest reality of our present life. We are experiencing here and now, in our worship, the presence of the saving love calling us to life. When we receive communion, the minister does not say this is a remembrance of the Body of Christ. The words state the reality. This is the Body of Christ!

So, this week we have the most special of all the most sacred events in our liturgy. This is the most hallowed time to celebrate, and in the celebration not only recall, but be present to the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is what liturgy does. It brings us into the presence of the Pascal Mystery that we celebrate. We do not repeat it. We enter into it. This why we are Easter People! We, in turn, are called to live a life of love and service that we reflect our love for our Crucified and Risen Savior.

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THE FIFRH SUNDAY OF LENT

John 11:1-45 

On this Fifth Sunday of Lent, we have the beautiful story of Lazarus. This is the third story of our Lenten message from John’s Gospel. The Samaritan woman, the man born blind and Lazarus are stand-ins for us. In these very special engagements with Jesus, we witness an underlying message of sinful humankind’s salvation. We are invited to see our call to new life in their encounter with Christ.

Water, light and life in these three stories are the basic elements that Jesus uses to draw us into the depths of the saving mystery. These stories unveil our need for these basic spiritual necessities. The stories are rich in many dimensions of our human experience but especially in the theme of conversion for the Lenten journey

Lazarus is described as the one Jesus loved. We, too, are the one Jesus loves. We are invited to let the story open us to the presence of divine love in our life. One passage can unseal our eyes and heart to this love of Jesus for us. “When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Sir, come and see.’ And Jesus wept.’” (John 11: 33-35)

“Jesus wept” lends itself to many interpretations. The following is especially beautiful. Jesus was encountering in the death of Lazarus the universal reality of death and evil. It would be this very same face of sin that would shortly draw Him to the Cross. But it was more.

Just as Jesus wept for Lazarus, He weeps for each of us and the people of all time as we encounter the consequences of sin and death. No injustice nor any expression of evil is free of this divine compassion. Whether it is the horror of war or the hatred of prejudice or the ravages of disease and poverty, they all touch the heart of Jesus. God has an answer to the great mystery of evil and death. Jesus entered into it. This is part of the deepest truth of the Passion and Death. But this was not the end. ln Lazarus, God shows that Jesus can bring life even in death.

Jesus showed that more powerfully in his own death. He went far beyond weeping. He shared and embraced death and all of evil to show the victory of life and love in the Resurrection. He passed through it with a transforming love. In the Resurrection, God has the last word on all death. It is the Easter Alleluia!

We have many tombs in the journey of life that make us feel like the dry bones Ezekiel refers to in the first reading. It may be the paralyzing hostility within a family situation. It may be the empty house of a new widow or widower. Often it is the life-draining consequences of the abuse of alcohol or drugs or more often, the destructive relationships that flow from these addictions. Then there are the abuses surrounding various manifestations of sexuality outside the socially accepted norms or racism or poverty or gang violence. They all are the tombs we experience. They come in all different sizes and durations but they all feel like death. To all of these, Jesus speaks the word to us, “Come out, for I am the resurrection and the life!”

Every time we celebrate the Eucharist and our salvation is proclaimed once again, Jesus has the same message for us. “Come out!” We are being called from our sinfulness and our self-sufficiency. We are being called to a new life that will pass through death to life eternal!

Indeed, we need to come out. We need to experience the conversion of this Lenten Season. We need to accept the power and beauty of the Gospel so we are part of the solution not the problem. We need to cast off the bondage of the death-cloths of our addictions and sin so we are free to walk with Jesus.

The victory over death needs to be embraced and acclaimed again. That is the goal of our Lenten journey. The eyes of our heart must see that not only does Jesus weep for us but we must realize what Psalm 56:9 tells us. He “put my tears in your bottle. Are they not counted?” Indeed, He counts our tears and reaches out the saving hand that is our assurance of the “resurrection and the life.”

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FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT

John 9:1-41 

Dear Friends, Once again, we have a story of conversion from St. John on our Lenten journey. Jesus is the Light of the World calling us out of the darkness of the blindness of the spirit.

I like to call the story of the blind man the Catholic way of conversion. Unlike last week where the Samaritan woman fought Jesus at every step until the final cave in, today’s blind man begins with the beautiful encounter with Jesus in the restoration of his sight.

In the Catholic way of conversion, we begin with what we think is the true faith, the true knowledge of Jesus. In reality, we have a long way to go, a very long way to go to truly know Jesus. This is the experience of the blind man in today’s gospel passage.

Having experienced the outrageously beautiful gift of sight, the blind man was no doubt confused by the reaction of the Jewish leaders, the people and even his parents. Each step along the way was laden with obstacles that demanded a new decision and a stronger commitment to Jesus. He responds to the crescendoing inquiries and hostility by choosing Jesus at a deeper level each time. In verse (9:12) he says, “a man named Jesus.” In verse (9:17) he says, “He is a prophet.” Then in (9:38) he professes, “I do believe (in the Son of Man) and he worshipped him.”

St. Teresa of Avila’s story follows this pattern. She was a mediocre religious for twenty years. Basically, she let the dry rituals of convent life define her. Then she evolved with a transforming encounter with Christ. She moved from her head to the deepest recesses of her heart and discovered she was loved without condition or limit. This was only possible as she fought off the spirit-killing tentacles of religious life in her time. This was a religious life far removed from the fire and passion of the Jesus of the Gospels. Her consequent radical quest for transforming change was anchored in the growing awareness of the limitless mercy of God revealed in Jesus. Thus, her mantra was, “Keep your eyes on Jesus.” In the process, Teresa moved on the painful but joyful journey from being a pious nun to a glorious saint, a reformer of religious life and a Doctor of the Church.

The blind man was on a similar journey to meet Jesus. His experience was quite different from the rigid, limited vision and hostile response of the Jewish leaders.

Today’s gospel message celebrates the blind man’s call to light physically, and much more so, spiritually. This shines out in contrast to the Jewish leaders’ rejection and hostility to Jesus who is the Light of the World. They were handicapped by their pride and self-interest. We are challenged to break loose of our pride, our self-absorption and a spiritual blindness that lets us think we see. We are called to share the joy and wonder of the blind man in accepting the light of Christ in the darkness of our hearts. We need to respond to the question that the blind man had for the Jewish leaders, “Do you too want to become his disciples?”

On this Fourth Sunday of Lent when we are called to embrace the light and to keep our eyes on Jesus, we need to accept the message of the blind man. He is the one whose journey let him see Jesus.

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THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT

Jn 4:4-42 

Dear Friends, In the next three weeks of our Lenten journey, there are three episodes addressing the sinful condition of our humanity. They include today’s story of the Samaritan woman followed by the healing of the blind man and the raising of Lazarus. All three are invitations into the saving experience of Jesus. The basic theme of Lent is baptism and penance. It applies in a special way to the catechumens and to each of us.

Today’s Gospel has many levels, one deeper than the next, drawing us into a saving dialogue with a very unrelenting God. Jesus is talking about thirst which is a very appt symbol for the deepest yearnings of the human heart, a very relevant topic for all of us. The woman from Samaria is a model for us. She embodies the transition to wholeness and holiness that is encouraged by the thirst God places in each of us.

Right off, the woman basically rejects any kind of dialogue. For a man and woman to be talking in public was a gross violation of a deep sexual taboo. Then, add the Jewish and Samaritan elements of group hostility and you have an explosive situation. It is as if she says to Jesus, “You truly are one ignorant hombre to ask me for a drink. Do you have any idea how much trouble this can bring to both of us?”

Jesus cuts through her defenses for the first of many times. He asks about her husband. She goes theological on him to avoid this delicate topic. Her relationships are the last thing she wants to talk about. Nor does it seem to be Jesus’ concern. With the woman and with us, Jesus’ agenda is about the possibilities of the future not the often painful issues of the past. The woman reluctantly allowed to surface the thirst in her heart for something more. Her gradual openness to Jesus would draw her into the living water that is Jesus. Mercy knows no limits when Jesus is concerned.

Jesus persists. As before, He takes her response and goes deeper. The truth of His living water bubbles to the surface. She takes a sip. It frees up her fears and resistance. She soon discovers she is on to something good here. Her genuine openness shines brightly in contrast to the closed minds at that time and in our time. In spite of the personal cost, she is receptive to the dialogue and exposure to some painful self-awareness. She is a model for us. We, too, thirst for truth, understanding, mercy, a change of heart and a new beginning. The cost for us is also a painful self-knowledge and a call to change.

As she finally opens herself up to Jesus, she experiences a new freedom and a power beyond her dreams. She casts off the burden of her disgrace and all the other destructive baggage that was her life along with the hurt in her heart.

She drinks deeply of the living water of Jesus. She begins to grasp that this is what she had always been seeking in the confusion and self-deception that had been the driving force of her life. Now, our Samaritan friend becomes a disciple to her townsfolk. She understood that the living water of Jesus was a gift of salvation to be shared with all.

As Jesus had said earlier to the first disciples, she now proclaims to the people of her village, “Come and see!” (John1:39) They do, and are joyful in what they find. It is the combination of God’s thirst for us and our thirst for God that invites us to share their common joy.

This is a story of salvation and how it works. It is our story. Our God is a patient but a very insistent God who is open to our search, accepts us in our brokenness and has a permanent invitation to the living water. As with the Samaritan woman, who is a symbol of sinful humankind, God is waiting for us. The dialogue and interplay with the reality of our life experience are pregnant with the possibility of the new life that the living water brings. As we gradually surrender our fears and defenses, we are able to admit and name our thirst. It is of such depth and magnitude that only Jesus can quench it with the power of His word that is the living water.

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THE FALSE SELF AND THE TRUE SELF-3

This is the third of eleven reflections on Thomas Merton’s teaching on the True Self/False Self dynamic. This conflictual but enlightening relationship permeates Merton’s huge quantity of writing on the spiritual life. The basic point of the conflict is the individual’s pull toward and away from God, one’ true and ultimate destiny. Merton’s exposure of the consequences of original sin is ruthless in its intensity. This is the task of the False Self. At the same time, the pull of the True Self, the ever-present call of God’s personal and passionate love, is even more powerful. The human heart is the battlefield of this seemingly endless confrontation.

Thomas Merton’s teachings on the True Self and False Self are very helpful in understanding the spiritual life. They offer great insights on how we experience God. Theses insights are evident in the Gospel stories and parables.

It is clear that Jesus is the perfect expression of the True Self, a total and complete openness to God’s will. The Blessed Mother was protected from the False Self in her Immaculate Conception.

Other individuals portrayed in the Gospels offer us the opportunity to see the basic conflict of good and evil, the weeds and the wheat take place in several different ways.

We have very positive expressions of the True Self in the Good Samaritan and the father of the two problematic sons. We have moments of significant choice for the True Self in the persons of the widow and her generous offering (Lk 21:1-4), in Zacchaeus (Lk19:1-10), in the Gentile woman (Mt 15:21-28) and her faith and determination to challenge Jesus for her daughter’s freedom. Then there was the woman with the twelve year hemorrhage (Mt 9:20-2), the grateful leper (Lk 17:11-17), the many other individuals who turned to Jesus for healing and plentiful other examples. All of these individuals offer a clear example of the True Self holding sway. No doubt, they all shared in the normal lifetime struggle between the True Self and the False Self that characterizes the human experience.

The False Self clearly prevails in the rich young man (Mt 19:16-25), the two sons in the parable (Lk15:11-32), the negative characters in most of the parables, and especially, in the leaders of the Jews who maneuvered the circumstances leading to the Passion and Death.

Then we have the story of the Apostles who display a genuinely revealing struggle with ambivalence. They reveal a heart in the fundamental struggle to make a definitive choice for Jesus. Their experience with the miracle-worker Jesus was an easy option. As the threatening darkness of the Road to Jerusalem rose to front and center, they were engulfed in doubt and confusion. This radical turn of events was frightening and extremely disturbing.

Peter offers a treasure trove of insights to this wavering between a yes and a no to Jesus, between the True Self and the False Self. In the Gospels’ description of Peter, we have a glorious display of our battle with the pull of God’s grace and love in the True Self, ever in the tension of the heart’s hesitation in the very human response of “not yet Lord!”. This is the best-loved phrase of the False Self.

One of the first encounters with Peter is the powerful declaration. “Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful person.” (Lk 5:8) Yet, in the first of many contradictions, he turns around and leaves his boat, nets and “all” to follow Jesus. After witnessing the multiplication of the loaves and fishes and numerous other miracles, we have a clear demonstration of Peter’s ambivalence. While walking on the water towards Jesus, he surrenders to fear and begins to sink only to be saved by Jesus. (Mt 14:28-30).

In John’s magnificent chapter six on the Eucharist, we have another example of faith by Peter. He states, “Master, to whom shall we go. You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and our convinced that you are the Holy One of God.” (Jn 6:68-69)

We then have the road to Jerusalem section of Mark that is as clear a portrait as possible of Peter and the other Apostles’ wavering from the True Self to the darkness of the False Self (Mk 8:22-10:52).

Then, at the Last Supper, we have Peter rejecting the washing of his feet only to turn around making a whole body commitment to accepting Jesus’ invitation to the symbolic cleansing. This is followed by truly contradicting statements of “Master, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” (Jn 13: 37). A few hours later we have Peter’s denial: “You are not one of his disciples are you? He denied it and said “I am not.” (Jn 18:25)

Then we have the Resurrection stories. These show the journey away from heartbreaking incongruities of the final days before and including Calvary. The Peter of The Acts of the Apostles is the Peter dominated by the True Self. Here we have a picture of a person passionately committed to walking with Jesus in service and love. Ultimately, he surrendered his life generously in witness to Jesus Christ.

Conclusion

These examples from the New Testament have a great message for us on our pilgrimage to God. First and foremost, the message of Jesus comes to us in stages over our lifetime.

Our journey is not straight forward. Our deliverance from the ambivalence of the False Self is a back and forth movement until the end. It is normal to think we are safe and committed to Jesus. In reality, however, our heart is most often dominated by false and hidden values of conventional wisdom.

• We only experience the message and call of Jesus in stages. We think we have it. Then we experience a fresh encounter calling us forward into new and welcoming horizons of life and light.

• We only achieve the full power of the True Self in contemplation or death. For most of our life, we live with the struggle between good and evil in the symbols of the True Self and False Self.

• Humility, our acceptance of the truth of our human condition, will help us to gradually see the pervasiveness of the consequences of Original Sin. Awareness of our sinfulness and brokenness is a moment of freedom that helps us turn to our merciful God. This is the essential task of the True Self: knowledge of our merciful and saving God and of our sinful but loved and forgiven condition as a child of God.

• Life is a struggle to be open to God’s call to live the True Self and to reject the inordinate pull of the False Self. This is a clear description for us of what it means to take up our cross and to walk with Jesus.

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SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT

Mt 17:1-9 

Dear Friends, Lent is a time to prepare to celebrate the Death and Resurrection of Jesus the Christ with new joy, stronger faith and growing love. This is the great mystery of our faith and that opens the mystery of our life.

Today’s gospel passage focuses on the Transfiguration. This same celebration of the Transfiguration takes place in all three Lenten cycles. It obviously has a special message for our communal Lenten journey. Our task is to let it truly enlighten us as we prepare our basic Lenten task: to embrace the great act of love that is the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus.

The key passage in today’s gospel are the words of the Father: “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” (Mt 17:5)

Right before going up the mountain with Jesus for this special revelation, Peter had recognized Jesus as the Messiah only to deny his mission to suffer and die. (Mt 16:13-23) In rebuking Peter, Jesus challenged all of us to lose our life, to take up the cross and to follow him. (Mt 16:24-25) Now, the Father is once again inviting Peter, and us, to acknowledge Jesus in all of his truth, not just a diluted version to fit our limited standards. The event of the Transfiguration is our invitation into the mystery of the Suffering Messiah. Like Peter, we are called to try to balance the seemingly contrary truths of Jesus as Messiah and Jesus as the Crucified Savior.

The Father’s words tell us it is as God’s Beloved Son that he will suffer and die. Our task is to embrace Jesus on his terms and “Listen to him.” (Mt 17:5)

Peter had a long journey ahead of him. Only slowly did he learn to “Listen to him.”

Shortly after the vision on Mt. Tabor, the same three disciples joined Jesus for another very special moment in the Garden of Gethsemane. They had a chance “to listen to him” and to witness the incredible anguish of the oncoming Passion and Death. Like the disciples, we need to learn that the transfiguration of pain and suffering foreshadowed in Gethsemane was equally important with the transfiguration of glory and wonder on Tabor. The salvation Jesus calls us to needs to experience death to selfishness along with the glory of our true destiny in the eternal life of the resurrection.

(Mt 17:5) Only gradually did the disciples connect Tabor and Gethsemane’s message: death gives way to life when we follow Jesus and “listen to him.” Jesus became the disciples map and a guide. That is our call in this Lenten Season. We need to learn to “listen to him” as we face the darkness of life.

Like the disciples, it is the same with us. As we are caught in the seemingly endless challenges of good and evil: whether the war in Ukraine or the unending gun violence, the turbulence of our political scene or the burden of the distortion and abuse of the multiple expressions of our sexuality, or the simple but relentless demands of family life or the various passages in life from beginning school to aging. All these, and so much more, call us to “listen to him.” (Mt17:5) He is the Beloved Son that will show us the way.

As many times as we have heard the story of the Transfiguration, it still holds the seeds of light and wisdom, of hope and tenderness. It reminds us how close God is to us and how thin the curtain between the divine and human truly is. We are always on the edge of our human frailty and mortality. Equally, we are on the threshold of eternal life and happiness. Whether it is the brokenness of our relationships, the consequences of sin, or the corruption of our world, we need to search the depths of our hearts and “Listen to Him!” (Mt 17:5) will reveal anew that the last word is not sickness, injustice, prejudice, and the foibles of nature’s awesome power or even death. The last word revealed in the Crucified and Risen Christ is life and the victory of love. Once again, our journey to Jerusalem in Lent and, more so in our life, is an invitation to enter into the mystery. This mystery joins the Divine and the relentless afflictions in our life with the suffering and glorious Messiah. It leads to the victory of Easter.

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FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT

Mt 4:1-11 

Dear Friends, One of the many blessings of Vatican II was a return to the importance of the Word of God in the Bible. This led to a deeper appreciation of the Old Testament. In turn, we have learned the dependence of the New Testament, and particularly the Gospels, on the Jewish Scriptures.

Today’s temptation stories are rooted in the universal challenge of sin in the human heart. Here we find sin flowing steadily from the disoriented appetites, the ever-present pride and the excessive pull of vanities and self-importance. Mattew’s portrayal of the temptations is built on the temptations and failures of the Jewsish people in their sojourn in the desert before their arrival in the Promised Land.

In contrast to the unfaithfulness of the newly-liberated exiles from Egypt, Jesus is faithful to God in rejecting the deceits of Satan. The Golden Calf story is intimately connected to today’s story of Jesus’ temptations. His encounter with Satan is modeled after the Chosen People’s time in the desert and their infidelity most clearly expressed in the Golden Calf.

The Jewish stay in the desert betrayed God’s call for reliance and faithfulness. Their failure to trust in God is contrasted with Jesus’ fidelity in rejecting Satan’s deceits. As it was for Isreal, so it was for Jesus. Each temptation is a test to embrace a fundamental trust in God.

Jesus, the New Israel in the eyes of Matthew, discards all the pleas of Satan. Each temptation, and each responding Scripture quote by Jesus, is taken from chapters six to eight in the Book of Deuteronomy where the story of the Golden Calf holds center stage. In each of the three temptation stories, the appeal to Jesus is to be a Messiah not rooted in faithfulness to the Father. He is being tempted to be a Messiah of worldly values: of power, prestige, privilege and wealth. All these values are contrary to the Father’s plan of salvation. Jesus rejected Satan’s ploys. It was the Suffering Messiah of Isaiah that Jesus embraced. He was determined to proclaim the Kingdom from a position of simplicity and vulnerability, not power and dominance, not wealth but poverty, not exclusiveness but inclusiveness, not personal indulgence but service for others, not stressing the rich and powerful but the special option for the poor and marginalized. In the end, Jesus knew it was love not the law that was the source of victory over all evil, even death!

Jesus refused to let anything or any person replace God in his life. In this effort, he relied on the Word of God. This is where he found the strength to stare down evil both in the desert temptations and in his crescendoing battle with injustice, lies and pride that led to the Cross.

The failures of Moses’ folks in the desert mirror our failures today. These rejections of God’s plan are rooted in a divided heart. The modern day version of the Golden Calf comes in many forms. The human heart has a seemingly inexhaustible ability to create new idols that basically give us a false sense of security. We replace God as the center of reality. This process is called sin. Money, sex, drink, drugs, prejudices, false science, hostilities along with the ever-growing hunger for more control and possessions are simply today’s upgraded model of the Golden Calf.

The human heart simply finds that the new idols are more comfortable than the demanding love of the God revealed in Jesus. We loath the insecurity of being creatures. Much of our life is a quest for personal security seemingly guaranteed in wealth, power, reputation and indulgence. These are all expressions of the essential elements of sin: disoriented appetites, disproportionate pride and exaggerated vanity and self-importance. Through these ventures we are trying make smaller gods that we can control. The end product places ourselves at the center of reality.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus shows us the true model of faithfulness in the midst of the devil’s slick deceptions and illusions. Jesus will not accept the version of the Kingdom according to the standards of Hollywood or Wall Street or Main Street. Only the Word of God will reveal the true Kingdom. Jesus shows us the way of faithful acceptance of the Father’s call where there is no space for the false security and the deception of the Golden Calf.

With the beginning of Lent, the Church invites us to search our soul, to discover our Golden Calves. Now is the time to clean our house of all the idols. Now, at the beginning of Lent and throughout these six weeks, we are being invited to present an empty and longing heart to Jesus and to walk with Him to Jerusalem so to share with him the death that leads to life now and for all eternity.

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