4th Week of Lent 2022 - Wednesday - They tried all the more to kill him

 Yesterday we heard how following Jesus’ healing of the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute Jesus. What does that mean? Persecute? It seems, initially, they might have just intended to call him out publicly for violating the sabbath, discrediting him as any sort of religious authority. 

But in today’s Gospel we see how things escalated pretty quickly. In response to their intent to persecute Him, Jesus responds “My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.” For this reason the Jews tried all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the sabbath but he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God.”

In a single biblical verse, the jewish leaders go from openly persecuting Jesus to planning his death. And why? In their estimation, Jesus was now guilty of the greatest blasphemy imaginable, he claimed to be God. And he wasn’t just some lunatic making wild claims, he had actually begun to gather quite the following. He had disciples. Crowds listened to Him. Children ran up to him to be blessed. Children can often detect when someone is mentally disturbed or dangerous. They don’t just run up to raving lunatics. But Jesus was different. There was a candidness, a legitimacy—making him a real threat to the religious system, not to mention their own power base and authority. 

Again, as we near Holy Week and Good Friday, our Lenten Gospels help us to understand how it went from benign miracles to a grizzly murder. So we know who to blame, right? No. 

These Lenten readings help us to understand what happened and why. They also help us to understand our own role in Jesus’ death. The motives in the hearts of the jewish leaders have also motivated us. The arrogance, lust for power, and unbelief in the hearts of jewish leaders in John’s Gospel, which lead to the trumped up charges against the innocent Lamb and his subsequent torture and murder on the cross, have also motivated us. They are not the only ones guilty of sin. 

If it hadn’t been Adam and Eve it would have been me. We’ve all been given the gift of free will, and we’ve all misused it, we’ve silenced the word of God, we’ve known the truth and rebelled against it. Our desire to walk in holiness, as Christians, as Catholics, comes after our acknowledgement of our guilt. We get into trouble when we pretend we’ve never sinned, that we’ve never turned away from truth.

But with that humble admission, comes the awareness, that God loves me anyway, that he goes to the cross to save ME. Love for ME filled his heart. Love enabled him to carry the cross and to forgive me who is guilty of his crucifixion.

May our Lenten observances continue to assist us to live in humble admission of our sinfulness and humble awareness of God’s great mercy for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For an increase in faith for the catechumens and candidates who approach the sacraments of initiation in the coming Paschal Solemnity.

That the Church might be delivered and protected from all evil—all coldness toward good, all indifference to life, all selfishness, error, heresy, schism, and unbelief.

For strength to resist temptation, and the humility to sincerely repent of sin.

That through fasting and self-denial, we may be ever more conformed to Christ.

That those in need may find assistance in the charity of faithful Christians and that peace and security may be firmly established in all places.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

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.

4th Week of Lent 2022 - Tuesday - Good versus evil

 

Yesterday, we reflected upon the second of the seven miracles stories in St. John’s Gospel: the healing of the royal official’s son. We also noted how St. John often includes people’s reactions to those miracles: some are amazed by Jesus, some come to believe, some fail to make that leap of faith or they walk away grumbling because his subsequent teachings are unappealing or deemed too difficult.

What was the reaction to the miracle detailed in today’s Gospel of the paralyzed man. On one hand, you have the obedience and witness of the man himself. He gets up and walks just as Jesus told him to do. When asked about the miracle, he testifies to the source of the healing. He is certainly a model for all of us. We are to testify to the healing we have received through Jesus Christ. 

For Jesus has healed our paralysis—our spiritual paralysis. Without the healing each of us have received in the pool of baptism, we would be paralyzed of walking toward heaven, walking in righteousness, walking in truth, walking up to the altar of God, God who is the source of our joy. Jesus has changed my life, and I know he has changed yours as well. And when people ask us about what animates our lives. We need to point to Him. You know what gets me up in the morning? The desire to serve my Lord who has healed me. We should not be timid about our faith.

So the Gospel contains this wonderful reaction of obedience and witness. But there was another reaction—that of the Jews, the religious authorities of Jerusalem. Their hearts were so far from God that they could not, or would not, recognize the goodness of what Jesus did. This man had been paralyzed for 38 years. Most of us cannot imagine what his life was like. The inability to work to support a family. The boredom. The abandonment. And the religious leaders criticize Jesus, when none of them lifted a finger to help the man into the pool. 

And for healing this man, freeing this man, liberating this man, restoring his hopes, helping him to know the love of God, the religious leaders, St. John tells us, begin to persecute Jesus. That was their response. “Goodness made itself known, and we can’t let that happen again.” Do you see how the powers of evil were rampant in the hearts of Jesus’ enemies?

As we near Holy Week, this reading helps us to understand the conflict that will reach its crescendo on Good Friday: the goodness of God—the life and the healing and moral and spiritual freedom God wants for us—versus the evil that takes root in the hearts—the coldness of the hell we make for ourselves when we turn away from God and seek to selfishly control and manipulate our fellow man.

Lent: it helps us to be open to the healing Jesus wants to work in our lives, it strengthens us to have courage to lead others to Jesus. It also helps us to repent and do penance for those time, when like those religious authorities, have coldly closed ourselves to the goodness of God. 

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For an increase in faith for the catechumens and candidates who approach the sacraments of initiation in the coming Paschal Solemnity.

That the Church might be delivered and protected from all evil—all coldness toward good, all indifference to life, all selfishness, error, heresy, schism, and unbelief.

For strength to resist temptation, and the humility to sincerely repent of sin.

That through fasting and self-denial, we may be ever more conformed to Christ.

That those in need may find assist in the charity of faithful Christians and that peace and security may be firmly established in all places.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

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.

4th Week of Lent 2022 - Monday - Facing Rejection and Inspiring Faith

 

Leading up to Holy Week, our Gospel readings for daily Mass are taken from the Gospel of John.  Where each of the other evangelists record many miracles, John chooses only seven to record in his Gospel: the miracle at the wedding of cana, the healing of the royal official’s son, the healing of the paralytic, the feeding of the five thousand, the walking on water, the healing of the man born blind, and the raising of Lazarus.

John carefully records people’s reactions to Jesus’ miracles, as well. Some are amazed by Jesus, some come to believe that he truly is the Son of God, some are initially impressed with his miracles, but then fail to make that leap of faith or walk away because his subsequent teachings are unappealing or deemed too difficult. 

Today’s Gospel begins with Jesus himself testifying how the people of his hometown for the most part rejected him. The rejection of Jesus is a great tragedy. For the Lord explains, “I came, so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” In rejecting Jesus, they are rejecting life, eternal life.

After his rejection in Nazareth, St. John tells us that the Lord traveled to Galilee and healed the royal officials son. Instead of rejecting him, the royal official and his whole household make that leap of faith. 

Jesus was met with both rejection and acceptance—unbelief and belief. So too will we. We mustn’t become too disheartened when our efforts are met with coldness and unbelief. We’re in it for the long haul, as long as God deems it. Jesus himself, the Word made flesh, was rejected in his ministry. And he could read hearts. He spoke with the clearest understanding of the truth men need to hear, and spoke without timidity. He performed miracles and was still rejected.

So when we’re rejected, we who are imperfect instruments in the hands of God, we mustn’t give up on the Gospel mission. We might need to be rejected by a whole town in order to inspire faith in a household. But that household is a seed for the kingdom to grow and flourish. Give me a family on fire with the faith over a lukewarm town any day. 

May our Lenten observances help us to persevere and trust God when we face rejection. May we, imperfect instruments in the hands of God, remain faithful to the Gospel mission always, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For an increase in faith for the catechumens and candidates who approach the sacraments of initiation in the coming Paschal Solemnity.

That the Church might be delivered and protected from all spirits of error, heresy, schism, and unbelief.

For strength to resist temptation, and the humility to sincerely repent of sin.

That through fasting and self-denial, we may be ever more conformed to Christ.

That those in need may find assist in the charity of faithful Christians and that peace and security may be firmly established in all places.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

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.

4th Sunday of Lent 2022 - Second Scrutiny - To be holy is to see with the eyes of Christ

 This morning we celebrate the second of three scrutinies for those preparing for baptism and full initiation this Easter. 

You’ll hear prayers for the dispelling of darkness in their lives, for the light of Christ and truth and faith to shine in their lives, and you’ll notice how the exorcism prayer references today’s Gospel reading about the healing of the man born blind.

All of us, emerging from our mother’s wombs, are like the man born blind, but we are born with a more terrible malady, original sin, the deprivation of the loss of God’s grace in our souls. And so we require the saving grace of baptism, to restore what was lost due to sin. And through baptism we are given the gift of faith which enables us to see as we should.

The great church father Origen said, “to be holy is to see with the eyes of Christ.”  Blindness is used often in the New Testament to point out that we do not see as we should. We don’t see our neighbor as we should with eyes of loving compassion, we don’t see God as we should,  we don’t see ourselves as we should, we don’t see Truth as we should.  Sin has clouded our vision to rightly perceive truth, goodness, and beauty. 

And so to be holy is to see with the eyes of Christ.  The Saints are those who through a life seeking after holiness have begun to see clearly. They see evil and error and sin for what they really are, and rid them from their lives. They see the poor, as the beloved of God. They see the need to bless those who curse them, and to pray for those who mistreat them, like Christ. The see the cross as the royal road to heaven.

Jesus sees this man born blind.  The blind man was probably begging at the gate, as many blind people were often forced to do.  And Jesus sees him. Jesus sees all of us. The eye of God sees us always, as Padre Pio would say. 

Then Jesus approaches this man, he spits on the ground, and makes a kind of paste, a sort of salve—salve, from which we get the word, salvation.  St. Augustine says, his spittle represents his divinity, the earth, his humanity.  Divinity taking on the flesh, the incarnation of Christ, is the salve God uses to heals our deepest wounds. Jesus rubbing the salve in this man’s eyes, well, that’s Christ himself being rubbed into our eyes.  His incarnation, his presence among us is what allows us to see. 

On Ash Wednesday, we put not earth and spittle on our eyes, but we did put ashes mixed with holy water on our foreheads. That was a salve of sorts. The salve of repentance. The reminder of the need to do penance for our sins, is a salve indeed, that helps baptized and unbaptized alike to take a hard look at our lives, to discern if any sinful attitudes, habits, or behaviors have begun to blind us to goodness of the moral life of Christ.

After placing the salve on the eyes of the blind man, Jesus tells him to then go wash in the pool, and he is then able to see. The pool is evocative of baptism.    

For it is through baptism that we are grafted on to his body and become members of the Church. Isn’t it wonderful to know that when you come to Church, you are gathering with formerly spiritually blind people who are learning how to see again. We are all at different stages of regaining spiritual sight, some of us make better use of the time we’ve been given to regain our sight, some of us have a hard time taking our focus off of the world or off of ourselves. Many of us sadly, at some points in our lives reblind ourselves with the red-hot poker of mortal sin. But even mortal sin after our baptism can be healed in the Sacrament of Confession.

Today I am wearing the rose-colored vestments, because today, the Fourth Sunday of Lent, is "Laetare Sunday".  Laetare means rejoice.  We rejoice because we recognize the prayer, fasting, and almsgiving of Lent helps us see clearly, and helps us to prepare well for Easter which is the source of our spiritual rebirth. We will celebrate the Easter sacraments with our candidates for full initiation, and so we are barely able to contain our joy. 

Again, if you haven’t made a good Lenten confession yet, there is still time. 

We’re 4 weeks into Lent, and I’ve made the invitation to you all several times to go to confession, and many have gone. I was so delighted that Evening of Confession a week and a half ago. I heard about 30 confessions for almost 3 and a half hours, and I would have heard them for three and a half more if I needed to.

But, I can do math. And, there are still many souls in this parish, who haven’t been to confession in a while, too long. Jesus is waiting for you with the salve of his mercy and grace. Go to confession. Especially if you have unconfessed mortal sins. We don’t know the day nor the hour, and the greatest tragedy is when a soul fails to turn to God for forgiveness. There is more joy when one sinner repents than 99 who don’t. Don’t be a member of the 99% who fail to repent. Please. You’ll feel so much better. You’ll begin to see more clearly than you have, perhaps, in a long time.

May this Lenten season continue to bring about the healing of spiritual sight, a dispelling of darkness in all of us, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

4th Sunday of Lent 2022 - Prodigal Son and the Merciful Father

On this 4th Sunday of Lent, we just heard one of the most famous and beloved of all the Lord’s parables. The parable challenges us, warms our hearts, brings us to contrition, and gives us hope. And surprises us. 

It’s known as the parable of the prodigal son, but he’s really not the character who surprises us, nor is it the jealous self-righteous brother. Neither of the two brothers really surprise us.  We all know people like the two sons: rebellious and unrighteous on one hand or cold, resentful, and self-righteous on the other. And if we’re honest, we’ve probably all acted in one of the two ways and a little bit of both. This parable is a mirror for seeing ourselves. But, that is not the surprising element of this parable.

What is striking and causes us maybe even to shed a tear of joy is the third and most important figure, the father. Jesus clearly meant this parable to show us not just who we are. Though that is surely the case. In addressing this parable to the scribes and pharisees, he’s certainly giving them an opportunity to recognize their own sinfulness—their own prodigality—how they’ve wandered from God.

What touches our hearts and surprises us is the father. Think of how he was treated. First, his son insults him by demanding his inheritance to finance his wasteful escapade into wickedness, effectively saying, “Father, I wish you were dead so I could have your money.” Any earthly parent’s heart would be broken by this. To hear from your progeny, I wish you were dead, I will now act as if you were dead.

His son’s coldness, no doubt broke his heart, but the Father was not completely shattered, rather, we find him scanning the horizon, hoping and waiting for his son to return. One could imagine this father lighting a lantern in the window of his house every single night. His prayers and tears likely never ceasing since his son left. The son left his father’s house but he could not leave his father’s heart, no matter how far away the son wandered. Even with a broken heart, he could not forget his son.

He glimpses his son and runs towards him. He can imagine the father’s heavy robes bouncing with his exuberant dash to embrace his lost boy. 

That’s one detail that seems to be missing from Rembrandt's painting. Hopefully you’ve taken a moment to examine the painting in the parking lot entrance way: it’s Rembrandt's depiction of the Son’s return. This was one of Rembrandt's last paintings before his death, and he beautifully depicts the prodigal son, in clothes, tattered from his life of dissipation, his sandals deteriorated from his wayward path, kneeling penitentially at his father’s breast. His father calmly embraces his son, laying hands on his shoulders as if to absolve him of sin. The dark scene is illuminated by the father’s tenderness, a symbol of weary and sinful mankind taking refuge in the shelter of God's mercy.

But when I read St. Luke, I imagine the Father a little bit more disheveled and out of breath after having raced to wrap his arms around his son, kissing him with joyful tears in his eyes. 

And when the son returned, the father doesn’t wait for him to throw himself on the ground groveling at his feet. The Father doesn’t punish his son with coldness, like many of us might do. The father doesn’t make conditions for forgiveness, first say your sorry, first pay back the inheritance you squandered. How could he really ever pay back the debt for wounding his Father anyway? Rather, he embraces, he forgives, no matter the debt.

What a powerful image of God’s love for each of us. No doubt, Jesus wanted to present this image to the Pharisees, who believe God to be distant from sinners, unwilling to embrace us because of our uncleanness. The Father wraps his arms around his son who had been among pigs and prostitutes. There was no one more unclean. And the Father races to embrace him, just as there is no sin so great for God to forgive, he rushes to lavish mercy the instant we turn back to Him. He does not hesitate.

This certainly helps us to understand the love which animated the Lord’s own way of the cross. He does not hesitate to go to the cross for us. He does not hesitate to forgive.

Now, the story of the prodigal son could have ended differently. It could have ended with the son dying alone without knowing reconciliation. He could have been trampled by pigs. Diseased by prostitutes. He could have drunk himself to death without remorse and without the Father’s mercy.

The moral of the story: Don’t let your story end that way. It would be the greatest of tragedies. 

We do not know the day nor the hour when we will reach the end of our earthly life and appear before the judgment seat of God. You do not want to come to the end of your life with an unrepented heart and unconfessed mortal sins. You don’t want to face God as your judge and have him say, you didn’t take me up on my invitation to forgive you. All you need to do is admit, confess.

4 weeks into Lent, I’ve made the invitation to you all several times to go to confession, and many have gone. I was so delighted that Evening of Confession a week and a half ago. I heard about 30 confessions for almost 3 and a half hours, and I would have heard them for three and a half more if I needed to.

But, I can do math. And, there are still many souls in this parish, who haven’t been to confession in a while, too long. God is waiting to race toward you with His embrace of mercy. Make the Father weep for joy. Go to confession.

On this Laetare Sunday, the Sunday of Joy, let us think of the joy we experience when we are forgiven by God, the joy of being embraced by his mercy, the joy we bring to others when we do the same. At Holy Mass, we express and pour out our gratitude for the mercy available to us through Christ. May we have the courage and fortitude to turn away from any sin or wickedness unfitting of our Father’s house, for turning away from sin, we turn towards God’s merciful embrace, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

March 25 2022 - The Annunciation & The Gospel of Life

 27 years ago today, Pope St. John Paul II issued one of his most powerful encyclicals, Evangelium Vitae, latin for, the “Gospel of Life” written to reaffirm the value and inviolability of every human life and to appeal to all people to respect, protect, love, and serve every human life.

No doubt, it was no coincidence that he chose this Solemnity of the Annunciation for the encyclicals’ promulgation for as the Sainted Pope wrote: “The one who accepted "Life" in the name of all and for the sake of all was Mary, the Virgin Mother; she is thus most closely and personally associated with the Gospel of life. Mary's consent at the Annunciation and her motherhood stand at the very beginning of the mystery of life which Christ came to bestow on humanity (cf. Jn 10:10). Through her acceptance and loving care for the life of the Incarnate Word, human life has been rescued from condemnation to final and eternal death.”

The Solemnity of the Annunciation celebrates that moment in which the Virgin of Nazareth chose life, the moment in which life chose her, and the moment that life took flesh within her.

Life chose her. God, the Author of Life, chose her to become the Mother of Eternal Life. This is why St. John Paul draws the connection between the Annunciation and Good Friday. He writes, “The "yes" spoken on the day of the Annunciation reaches full maturity on the day of the Cross, when the time comes for Mary to receive and beget as her children all those who become disciples, pouring out upon them the saving love of her Son: "When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!' " (Jn 19:26).

The motherhood which begins at her Annunciation reaches full maturity, he says, when she becomes the Mother of all the living, all those brought to new life by the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ.

She said yes to be Christ’s Mother, and implicitly, she said yes to be our mother. And we are to become like her, instruments of life, bearers of life, evangelists for life.

Today, Holy Father Pope Francis invites us to join him in praying for life, that the life of Christ may touch and transform a very troubled part of our world, Russia and Ukraine. So, in just a few moments, in union with our Holy Father and the Bishops, I will recite the Act of Consecration, in a plea to God that life may prevail in our world and in our hearts.

May we be servants of life today and all days, by allowing the “fiat”—the “yes”—the acceptance of God’s will of Our Lady, to resound and resonate and be repeated in our lives, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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Act of Consecration

to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Basilica of Saint Peter

25 March 2022

          O Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, in this time of trial we turn to you.  As our Mother, you love us and know us: no concern of our hearts is hidden from you.  Mother of mercy, how often we have experienced your watchful care and your peaceful presence!  You never cease to guide us to Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

          Yet we have strayed from that path of peace.  We have forgotten the lesson learned from the tragedies of the last century, the sacrifice of the millions who fell in two world wars.  We have disregarded the commitments we made as a community of nations.  We have betrayed peoples’ dreams of peace and the hopes of the young.  We grew sick with greed, we thought only of our own nations and their interests, we grew indifferent and caught up in our selfish needs and concerns.  We chose to ignore God, to be satisfied with our illusions, to grow arrogant and aggressive, to suppress innocent lives and to stockpile weapons.  We stopped being our neighbour’s keepers and stewards of our common home.  We have ravaged the garden of the earth with war and by our sins we have broken the heart of our heavenly Father, who desires us to be brothers and sisters.  We grew indifferent to everyone and everything except ourselves.  Now with shame we cry out: Forgive us, Lord!

          Holy Mother, amid the misery of our sinfulness, amid our struggles and weaknesses, amid the mystery of iniquity that is evil and war, you remind us that God never abandons us, but continues to look upon us with love, ever ready to forgive us and raise us up to new life.  He has given you to us and made your Immaculate Heart a refuge for the Church and for all humanity.  By God’s gracious will, you are ever with us; even in the most troubled moments of our history, you are there to guide us with tender love.

          We now turn to you and knock at the door of your heart.  We are your beloved children.  In every age you make yourself known to us, calling us to conversion.  At this dark hour, help us and grant us your comfort.  Say to us once more: “Am I not here, I who am your Mother?”  You are able to untie the knots of our hearts and of our times.  In you we place our trust.  We are confident that, especially in moments of trial, you will not be deaf to our supplication and will come to our aid.

          That is what you did at Cana in Galilee, when you interceded with Jesus and he worked the first of his signs.  To preserve the joy of the wedding feast, you said to him: “They have no wine” (Jn 2:3).  Now, O Mother, repeat those words and that prayer, for in our own day we have run out of the wine of hope, joy has fled, fraternity has faded.  We have forgotten our humanity and squandered the gift of peace.  We opened our hearts to violence and destructiveness.  How greatly we need your maternal help!

          Therefore, O Mother, hear our prayer.

Star of the Sea, do not let us be shipwrecked in the tempest of war.

Ark of the New Covenant, inspire projects and paths of reconciliation.

Queen of Heaven, restore God’s peace to the world.

Eliminate hatred and the thirst for revenge, and teach us forgiveness.

Free us from war, protect our world from the menace of nuclear weapons.

Queen of the Rosary, make us realize our need to pray and to love.

Queen of the Human Family, show people the path of fraternity.

Queen of Peace, obtain peace for our world.

          O Mother, may your sorrowful plea stir our hardened hearts.  May the tears you shed for us make this valley parched by our hatred blossom anew.  Amid the thunder of weapons, may your prayer turn our thoughts to peace.  May your maternal touch soothe those who suffer and flee from the rain of bombs.  May your motherly embrace comfort those forced to leave their homes and their native land.  May your Sorrowful Heart move us to compassion and inspire us to open our doors and to care for our brothers and sisters who are injured and cast aside.

          Holy Mother of God, as you stood beneath the cross, Jesus, seeing the disciple at your side, said: “Behold your son” (Jn 19:26).  In this way he entrusted each of us to you.  To the disciple, and to each of us, he said: “Behold, your Mother” (v. 27).  Mother Mary, we now desire to welcome you into our lives and our history.  At this hour, a weary and distraught humanity stands with you beneath the cross, needing to entrust itself to you and, through you, to consecrate itself to Christ.  The people of Ukraine and Russia, who venerate you with great love, now turn to you, even as your heart beats with compassion for them and for all those peoples decimated by war, hunger, injustice and poverty.

          Therefore, Mother of God and our Mother, to your Immaculate Heart we solemnly entrust and consecrate ourselves, the Church and all humanity, especially Russia and Ukraine.  Accept this act that we carry out with confidence and love.  Grant that war may end and peace spread throughout the world.  The “Fiat” that arose from your heart opened the doors of history to the Prince of Peace.  We trust that, through your heart, peace will dawn once more.  To you we consecrate the future of the whole human family, the needs and expectations of every people, the anxieties and hopes of the world.

          Through your intercession, may God’s mercy be poured out on the earth and the gentle rhythm of peace return to mark our days.  Our Lady of the “Fiat”, on whom the Holy Spirit descended, restore among us the harmony that comes from God.  May you, our “living fountain of hope”, water the dryness of our hearts.  In your womb Jesus took flesh; help us to foster the growth of communion.  You once trod the streets of our world; lead us now on the paths of peace.  Amen.

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That through Immaculate Mary, Queen of Peace, hatred, violence, and cruelty will cease in the world.  Let us pray to the Lord.

That Mary’s maternal care and heavenly intercession will raise us to the moral greatness befitting true children of God.  Let us pray to the Lord.

For blessings on all expectant mothers, newborn infants, and young families.  Let us pray to the Lord.

That from the moment of conception all children will be preserved from bodily harm; for the overturning of unjust laws that permit the destruction of innocent life; and that the minds of all may be enlightened to know the dignity of every human life.  Let us pray to the Lord.

For all those who have died, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, for all 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.

We pray, O Lord our God, that the Virgin Mary, who merited to bear God and man in her chaste womb, may commend the prayers of your faithful in your sight. Through Christ our Lord. 

3rd Week of Lent 2022 - Wednesday - The Law and the Prophets and Life in Christ

 Today, we heard a portion of St. Matthew’s Gospel in which Jesus lays the principles for understanding our relationship with the law and the prophets. 

This is an important teaching. For in certain periods of Church history, Christians have struggled to understand the Old Testament, and what in it applies to Christians. The early church grappled with this. Peter and Paul grappled with this issue: did Christians have to observe the Jewish feasts, did they have to be circumcised, did they have to keep kosher law and the other laws about ritual purity?

In the year 140, there was a theologian named Marcion of Sinope, who went around Rome teaching that the entire Old Testament could be completely disregarded; that it was not inspired by the one true God, and has nothing to teach Christians. Marcion also claimed the letters of St. Paul were to be rejected, especially since they seem to contradict Marcion’s claims—that’s convenient—a tactic heretics have used for two thousand years—rejecting what contradicts their unsound teachings.

Rather, the Old Testament, and the law and the prophets, play a very important role in the life of the Church. We are not bound by certain ritual laws which have been fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, laws which were a foreshadowing of the salvation and sanctification Christ won for us. But the Old Testament does give expression to the moral law that God deigns for humanity. The Old Testament contains expression of that moral law which God has written onto the hearts of all people, of all places, and all times.

Again, while we are not bound by those ritual purification laws like, spending a fortnight outside of camp if we come in contact with shellfish, we are bound to observe the moral law. The words of Moss in our first reading apply to the obedience we owe to the moral law: “Hear the statutes and decrees which I am teaching you to observe, that you may live.”

Life in Christ in this life and the life to come requires obedience to God’s laws. We observe his statues, decrees, laws and commandments, that we may live.

We read this passage during Lent for a number of reasons. First, those to be baptized at Easter need to take care to hear and learn and seek to understand the statutes and decrees taught by the Church, so that they do not receive the grace of God in vain. Secondly, those who are already baptized, us, need to reflect on our own obedience to God’s laws, and repent if we have failed to keep them, and seek to amend our lives.

When we talk about doing penance during Lent through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, what are we doing penance for? We do penance for our own failures to observe God’s law, and we do penance for our neighbors, our enemies, those who have suppressed their consciences out of ignorance or hard-heartedness or addiction to the pleasures of the flesh.

“Whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.”

May we be found to be the best of teachers of God’s law, by word and deed and good example for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That obedience to all the commands of Christ and the Church may mark the life of every Christian. 

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

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

For those preparing for baptism and the Easter sacraments, that they may continue to conform themselves to Christ through fervent prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

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.  

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.  

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.