5th Week of Lent 2025 - Wednesday - Growing hostility toward the Truth

 Our late Lenten scripture readings continue to help us understand the hostility Jesus faced culminating in his arrest and Passion. 

In the first reading from the Book of Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar becomes livid when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse to worship the golden statue he erected. Their refusal to worship his false god leads him to rage and violence. Their refusal is not simply an afront to the King’s pagan god, but also to his ego. They refused to bow to him, to his will, to his demands, to his concept of reality. 

In the Gospel, Jesus explains to his opponents that they are trying to kill him because his “word has no room among” them. The rage of Nebuchadnezzar mirrors the hostility encountered by our Lord. 

The Jewish leaders conspire to kill Jesus because his word challenged their pride, self-righteousness, and ego. His truth exposed their spiritual enslavement to sin, and their blindness to the truth about God. "If God were your Father, you would love me”. But exposing their lack of love, they sought to silence the Word permanently. 

Genuine faithfulness to God inevitably brings believers into conflict with the values and priorities of the world. The world's prideful and self-centered systems resist the message of humility, truth, and freedom that Christ brings. 

Like Nebuchadnezzar, who demanded absolute allegiance to his concept of reality, so many in our culture today do not tolerate challenges to their worldview. Consider the rage on social media when Judeo-Christian values are promoted. 

The readings help us to understand the hostility of the world toward the truth of God, but they also offer powerful encouragement. The three young men in the fiery furnace were not abandoned; God stood with them, protecting them. Likewise, Jesus trusted deeply in the Father's presence, even when His word was rejected and He faced crucifixion. The Father vindicated His Son’s faithfulness through the Resurrection.

As we approach Holy Week, let us consider where Christ’s word may find resistance in our own hearts. May we remain faithful, even when confronted with hostility, opposition, or temptation. Trusting in God's presence, may the truth live in us richly that we may bear it witness, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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Trusting in God’s steadfast presence and protection, let us present our prayers and petitions.

For the Church throughout the world, that she may courageously proclaim the truth of Christ, even in the face of opposition and hostility. Let us pray to the Lord.

For world leaders, that they may act with humility, justice, and openness to the truth, resisting the temptation to impose self-centered agendas or oppressive ideologies. Let us pray to the Lord.

For those who suffer persecution or hostility for their faith, that they may find strength, comfort, and encouragement in God’s unwavering presence and protection. Let us pray to the Lord.

For all who resist the truth of the Gospel due to pride or spiritual blindness, that their hearts and minds may be opened to God’s transformative and liberating truth. Let us pray to the Lord.

For those facing challenges, temptations, or struggles in their spiritual lives, especially the chronically ill, that they may experience God’s sustaining presence and grace, enabling them to remain steadfast in faith. Let us pray to the Lord.

For our deceased loved ones, that through the mercy and faithfulness of Christ, they may enter into the joy and eternal peace of God’s kingdom. Let us pray to the Lord.

Heavenly Father, hear the prayers of your faithful people. Grant us the grace to remain steadfast in your truth and faithful in your love. We ask this through Christ our Lord.

34th Week in Ordinary Time 2021 - Tuesday (School Mass) - Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar's Vision

 

Although we still have a month to go in the calendar year of 2021, we are in the last week of the Church Year, for this Sunday, begins the new church year, beginning with the first Sunday of Advent.

During this last week of the Church year, at daily mass, the Church reads from the book of the prophet Daniel, from which we heard that very long reading about this very strange statue made out of gold, iron, bronze, and clay. 

The book of the prophet Daniel is filled with these strange stories and mysterious visions, a lot of them having to do with the end of the world.  The prophet Daniel lived about 600 years before Jesus, in a time, when the Jewish people had been conquered by a powerful nation known as the Babylonians. The wise and gifted prophet Daniel, had been put to work by God in the court King Nebuchadnezzar who had invaded Israel, destroyed the temple, and marched the people of Israel off into captivity dividing them from their families. Nebuchadnezzar was not a good man, but he did trust Daniel.

And so Nebuchadnezzar tells Daniel about a dream he had about this statue made out of gold, iron, bronze, and clay. And Daniel goes on to explain that this statue represents 4 kingdoms that will come to dominate the earth.

The first Kingdom the kingdom of gold represents the Kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonians. And Daniel explains how that kingdom, as powerful and brilliant as it seems, will not last forever, it will be replaced by a second kingdom, a kingdom of iron, which we interpret to be the Persian Empire, and then that kingdom will be replaced by a third kingdom, which we interpret to be the Greek Empire, and then that will be replaced by a fourth kingdom, and that would be the Roman Empire, who were in charge of things when Jesus was born.

But then, Daniel spoke of a fifth kingdom, a kingdom that will be established by God himself, and kingdom that will never be destroyed, a kingdom that will last forever.

The vision of Nebuchadnezzar did come to pass. The Babylonian Kingdom was replaced by the Kingdom of the Persians, which was replaced by the Kingdom of the Greeks, which was replaced by the Kingdom of Rome. 

And the fifth Kingdom has been established, the kingdom established by God himself. Which kingdom is that? Well, the Church. The Church founded by Jesus Christ, who is our head and our king. The Church has lasted longer than the kingdom of the Babylonians and the Persians and the Greeks and the Romans combined. Over the last 2000 years it has seen kingdoms and nations come and go, rise and fall, but the Church,  will last forever, just as Daniel claimed. 

And God invites people of every time and place and nation to membership in this kingdom. Membership in God’s kingdom is not based on race or social status or place of birth or wealth. It is based on faith, faith that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and obedience to his teachings and commands. To members of God’s kingdom, Jesus promises eternal life in the resurrection to come, when he returns, as he described in our Gospel reading.

This is why the Church is so active in her charitable works—in teaching the young, and caring for the sick, and feeding the hungry, and providing homes for the homeless, and preaching the Gospel. We are so grateful to be apart of this kingdom, that it is seen in our works, in how we treat people and how we pray. The Church is the largest charitable institution in the world and in human history because Christians are filled with such great gratitude and thanksgiving for what Jesus has done for us, and we want to be faithful to what he taught us.

You and I are each invited and called to full membership in this kingdom that will last forever. May we respond to this invitation to God generously, with lives full of gratitude for all of God’s gifts and blessings, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

3rd Week of Lent 2021 - Tuesday - God's Mercy and the Amendment of our Ways

 In the year 587 BC, the Babylonians laid siege to Jerusalem. The Holy City was conquered, the temple was destroyed, and the Jews were separated from their families and marched into Babylonian captivity. 

Once the Jews had arrived in Babylon, King Nebuchadnezzar erected an enormous golden idol. The King ordered that anyone who refused to prostrate themselves in worship of this idol would be thrown into the fiery furnace. Three young Jewish men, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, refused to abandon their Jewish faith, and so the king had them bound up and thrown into the fiery furnace.

The Lord sent an angel to save these young men, and they were able to walk through the furnace unharmed. Today’s first reading, involves Azariah, standing in the furnace, asking God to look kindly upon the Jewish people, to forgive their sins which had brought them such torment and suffering.

The biblical understanding of the Babylonian captivity is that it was due to Israel forsaking the covenant with God, abandoning the commandments and right worship, and then ignoring the prophets that made them vulnerable to their enemies. Their captivity in Babylon, their suffering, was essentially, their own fault. 

And so even in the furnace, Azariah is calling upon God to help them return to the covenant, that the sacrifices, that they hope to offer should they survive, will help them follow God unreservedly. 

The plea to God for mercy was repeated in our responsorial psalm today, “remember, your mercy, o Lord”. And this plea is followed with requests, much like that of Azariah, guide me in your truth, help me to be humble, that I may walk in justice. The plea for mercy must always involve an amendment of one’s life, or else the mercy is wasted, the plea is empty.

A similar dynamic is involved in the Sacrament of confession, isn’t it? The acknowledgement of one’s sins, that expression of contrition, is followed by a plea for God to help us amend our lives. The firm purpose of amendment and the act plea for forgiveness, again goes hand in hand.

Hence in the Gospel, we hear this parable of a servant who receives mercy from his king, but then fails to extend that mercy to others. For this failure to extend mercy, there are severe consequences.

In Christ, God has answered the prayer of Azariah, the plea of the Psalmist: mercy has been shown, and truth has been taught. And now, it is up to us, to walk in that truth and to extend mercy for others, lest we end up like that unforgiving servant, who has failed to forgive as he has been forgiven.

Our Lenten penances are the sacrifices in which we show God how much we desire to follow him unreservedly. We give up those non-essentials, to help us amend our lives from our sins, that our entire hearts may belong to Him, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That readiness to forgive may mark the life of every Christian. Let us pray to the Lord.

That all families will recommit themselves to fervent prayer this Lent so as to grow in greater love and holiness.  Let us pray to the Lord.

That this Lent we will be faithful to fasting and to all the ways that the Lord sanctifies us.  Let us pray to the Lord.

For generous giving for the needs of the poor, the hungry, the homeless, those who are sick, unemployed, victims of natural disaster, terrorism, war, and violence, the grieving and those most in need.  Let us pray to the Lord.

For all those who have died, for all the poor souls in purgatory, for those who have fought and died for our country’s freedom, and for [intention below], for whom this Mass is offered.  Let us pray to the Lord.

Mercifully hear, O Lord, the prayers of your Church and turn with compassion to the hearts that bow before you, that those you make sharers in your divine mystery may always benefit from your assistance.