Sunday Gospel Reflection, April 6, 2025: The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad indeed!

The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad indeed!
Do we perceive what God is doing right here, right now? 

    When you’re living in exile under foreign domination, it’s hard to imagine things can get better. But God sends the Prophet Isaiah to the people of Israel in Babylon to encourage them to pay attention to God’s activity right here and now. See, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth; do you not perceive it? The people mistakenly believed that the God of Israel had no power outside of their land, but Isaiah sets them straight: God has not abandoned them and will not abandon them in the future. If they pay attention, if they are aware right here, right now, if they are sensitive to God’s activity in the present moment, they will see that things are changing, the world is transforming. God is at work in their lives right now -- do they not perceive it? It’s hard to imagine that they will soon be home in their own land, praying Psalm 126: The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy! They will be grateful for all God has done and hopeful that God will continue to work in their midst, filling the empty wadis with water and helping the seeds to be sown to prosper. God will be at work then, too. Will they perceive it? 

    Certainly the woman who had been caught in adultery in Luke’s Gospel will quickly become aware of what God is doing in the present moment. The scribes and Pharisees who bring the woman before Jesus feel challenged by him, because Jesus challenges Judaic law in ways that none of them can argue with. What they don’t perceive, however, is that God is at work even in their bringing the woman to him; it is an opportunity for Jesus to reveal God’s love and compassion for God’s people – even the scribes and Pharisees themselves. But do they perceive it? If they continue to pass judgment, reserving judgment for themselves, they are not going to see God at work. And so Jesus commands, Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her. Jesus hopes to change their perception, not only of God but of themselves, for they too are sinners! And once all the scribes and Pharisees have left, the woman herself has an opportunity to see things differently: Has no one condemned you? Jesus asks. Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more. It is hard to imagine that her perception could possibly remain unchanged after such a stunning intervention by Jesus in her life! 

    St Paul himself had a similarly stunning conversion moment. Having been sold on the tenets of Judaic law, Paul was ready to defend its finest details and force others to obey it. In his Letter to the Philippians, however, Paul looks back upon that part of his life as so much rubbish, because it kept him from recognizing Jesus and finding salvation. Like Paul – and the woman whose life is saved by Jesus – we need to pay attention to what God is doing in our midst, right here, right now, and strain forward to what lies ahead. We have gained Christ; let us now be found in him, that he might take possession of us and continue to transform us, as we dwell in his grace and in his presence. For he is at work at us, if only we make the effort to perceive it! 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Re-awakening to spiritual brotherliness (Anne Celestine Ondigo FSJ)

   The father keeps watching and waiting for the return of his wayward son. The father sees him from afar and is filled with compassion. He runs to embrace him with open hands. He makes a banquet in his honor. 

   The elder son unaware of his father's depth of compassionate mercy sees this and is indignant, saying “I have been faithful all these years, you have not thrown a party in my honor.” He seemed to have a calm spirit before the brother arrived, however, as the African proverb puts it, ‘calm water does not mean there are no crocodiles.’ At the same time, wise men avow that faults are like a hill, you stand on top of your own and talk about those of other people. The elder brother wants retributive justice applied on his brother-he wants to see some kind of punishment. 

   However, the father’s justice is different because it is based on mercy, love and forgiveness that leads to restoration. The father intervenes by re-awakening his conscience from a selfish spirit and rebuke to the marvels of a sincere re-entry of his lost brother who has returned, a dead brother who is alive and a repentant brother who needs love, mercy and restoration to the family. 

   Pope Francis’ encyclical Fratelli Tutti, exhorts us to this kind of re-awakening to spiritual brotherliness, sisterliness, to the sense of one family of God, a reconciled human race. In this sense, God the father draws the elder sons’ attention to true repentance and reconciliation where the old passes away and we are recreated anew. 

--Anne Celestine Ondigo, FSJ 

Image source: James Tissot, Prodigal Son, The Return (1882), https://www.wikiart.org/en/james-tissot/prodigal-son-the-return. For an in-depth analysis of this painting by Fr. Patrick van der Vorst, go to:  https://christian.art/daily-gospel-reading/luke-15-1-3-11-32-2025/
Quotation source

He was dead and has come to life again (St. Francis de Sales)

   Such was the prodigal son, when, quitting the infamous company of the swine, amongst which he had lived, he returned into his father's arms, half-naked, unclean and bemired, and smelling most offensively of the filth which he had contracted in the company of those vile beasts. 

   For what is it to forsake the swine, but to withdraw from sins? And what is it to return all ragged, tattered and unclean, but to have our affections engaged in the habits and inclinations which tend to sin? Yet still was he possessed of the life of the soul which is love; and as a phœnix rising out of its ashes, he found himself newly raised to life. He was dead, said his father, and is come to life again, he has revived. 

--St. Francis de Sales,
Treatise on the Love of God,
Book X, chapter iv 

Image source: John August Swanson, Story of the Prodigal Son (1984), https://johnaugustswanson.com/catalog/story-of-the-prodigal-son/
Quotation source

This holy season of Lent is passing quickly (Henri Nouwen)

O Lord, this holy season of Lent is passing quickly,
I entered into it with fear, but also with great expectations.
I hoped for a great breakthrough, a powerful conversion, a real change of heart;
I wanted Easter to be a day so full of light that not even a trace of darkness would be left in my soul.

But I know that you do not come to your people with thunder and lightning.
Even St. Paul and St. Francis journeyed through much darkness
before they could see your light.
Let me be thankful for your gentle way.
I know you are at work.
I know you will not leave me alone,
I know you are quickening me for Easter –
 but in a way fitting to my own history and my own temperament. 

I pray that these last three weeks, in which you invite me to enter
more fully into the mystery of your passion,
will bring me a greater desire to follow you on the way you create for me
and to accept the cross that you give to me.
Let me die to the desire to choose my own way and select my own cross. 

You do not want to make me a hero but a servant who loves you. 

Be with me today, tomorrow and in the days to come,
and let me experience your gentle presence.
Amen. 

--Henri Nouwen 

Image source: https://www.rapidcitydiocese.org/bishop-column-march-22/
Prayer source

God rejoices (Henri Nouwen)

    Celebration belongs to God’s Kingdom. God not only offers forgiveness, reconciliation, and healing, but wants to lift up these gifts as a source of joy for all who witness them. In all three of the parables that Jesus tells to explain why he eats with sinners, God rejoices and invites others to rejoice with him. “Rejoice with me,” the shepherd says, “I have found my sheep that was lost.” “Rejoice with me,” the woman says, “I have found the drachma I lost.” “Rejoice with me,” the father says, “this son of mine was lost and is found.” 

    All these voices are the voices of God. God does not want to keep his joy to himself. He wants everyone to share in it. God’s joy is the joy of his angels and his saints; it is the joy of all who belong to the Kingdom. 

--Henri Nouwen

Image source: https://www.christthesavioroca.org/prodigalson
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The Father celebrates! (Pope Francis)

   God does not know how to forgive without celebrating! And the Father celebrates because of the joy he has because his son has returned. And then, like the Father, we have to rejoice . When someone whose heart is synchronized with God’s sees the repentance of a person, they rejoice, no matter how serious their mistakes may have been. They do not stay focused on errors, they do not point fingers at what they have done wrong, but rejoice over the good because another person’s good is mine as well! And we, do we know how to look at others like this? 

--Pope Francis

Image source: Marion Honors, CSJ, Prodigal Son, https://x.com/JamesMartinSJ/status/1369463340007886853?mx=2
Quotation source

We need to die to the brokenness (Fr. Patrick Michaels)

   Unless we allow ourselves to be vulnerable and to be mistaken, Jesus doesn’t die in us. Unless we recognize that we are imperfect, Jesus doesn’t die in us, and he doesn’t rise in us either. We need his death in us. We need to die to the brokenness within ourselves so that we can rise from it, so that he can lift us up. It’s not something we’re doing for ourselves; it’s something he is doing in our lives, but we need to let him. When we are vulnerable and we know that we don’t have all the answers, when we know that we need him in our lives, we can allow him to die in us and then raise us. But if we don’t, it’s not going to happen. So we need to take the Penitential Rite seriously at Mass—as a moment when we allow Christ to die in us, so that he can lift us up through the Eucharist, gather us together, unite us in his infinite love. 

--Fr. Patrick Michaels,
Scripture Class, March 24, 2022

Image source: https://orthochristian.com/68270.html

Sunday Gospel Reflection, March 30, 2025: But now we must celebrate and rejoice!

But now we must celebrate and rejoice!
How often do we celebrate God’s love and mercy? 

   When, having circumcised all of the men and thus removing the reproach of Egypt from them all, Joshua leads the people of Israel into the Promised Land, the people celebrate! Covenant has been restored between the Lord and his people through this clear transition in identity, and God’s goodness and love are revealed in the bountiful produce of the land, which the people eat in the form of unleavened cakes and parched grain. They can now, as Psalm 34 suggests, taste and see the goodness of the Lord! The psalmist himself knows that he has been redeemed by God’s goodness and proclaims his faithfulness to God by glorying in the Lord and inviting all others to join him: Glorify the Lord with me, let us together extol his name, he sings. The psalmist celebrates God’s care and grace, radiant with joy! 

   In Luke’s Gospel, when the father of the prodigal son has his servants bring the finest robe, a ring for his son’s finger, and sandals for his feet, he is in essence reinstating his son in the family, restoring him to relationship through forgiveness and mercy. Notice that the father doesn’t even let his son finish the statement he has prepared, Father, I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers. Rather, filled with compassion, the father forgives the son the moment he catches sight of him; he does not wait for him to grovel and be penitent. In spite of all of his son’s transgressions, he father celebrates and rejoices, because this son was lost and has been found! 

   Like the compassion of the father for his son, God’s forgiveness reaches out to us when we turn in his direction; as soon as we begin to move back towards him, God’s compassion can reach us. Jesus, through his death and rising, came to reveal a love greater than any we can imagine. Jesus wants God’s love to be accessible to us. He wants all of us to know how much God loves us. We are therefore, as Paul tells the Corinthians, called to be a new creation through our baptism in Christ. Whatever we have been, we can leave behind, that we might be reconciled to God, for God reconciled the world to himself in Christ, that we might be the Body of Christ in the world. Behold, new things have come! Let us rejoice! 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Let us cherish the afterflow of grace (Dr. Alice Prince)

   After the overflow of grace, there is an afterglow. 

   The overflow then the afterglow of grace! When we talk about the afterglow of divine grace, we’re referring to the lasting impact of God’s blessings in our lives. It's that lingering presence of divine love and mercy, illuminating our path even after the initial moment of blessing has passed. Just as the sky retains the warmth of the sun after it sets, our hearts carry the light of God’s grace. The afterglow also deepens our faith. 

   

   Let us cherish this afterglow, allowing it to remind us of God's unfailing love endures forever. 

--Dr. Alice Prince

Image source: https://laymansbible.wordpress.com/2014/05/21/a-land-flowing-with-milk-and-honey/
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How can this be? (Fr. Paul Murray)

It opens like a river
in full spate, or like a window
with a gust of wind.
And it’s as if an archangel
had entered the room. And
everybody has to stop what they’re doing.
And the air is a river of words.
And all of a sudden you see
– and with a start –
that an archangel has entered,
and your heart is in your mouth.
And you feel you are drowning
in a river of divine words, and hear
yourself saying, over and over,
‘How can this be?’ 

 --Paul Murray OP

Happy Solemnity of the Annunciation!

Source of images: Annunciation, Notre-Dame de Banneux, Liège, Belgium, https://banneux-nd.be/fr/neuf-jours-pour-preparer-la-belle-fete-de-lannonciation/
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One more chance (Bishop Robert Barron)

     [Sunday's] Gospel includes the parable of a fig tree that bears no fruit. This is a standard trope in the theological literature of Israel: the tree that bears no fruit is evocative of the moral person who bears no spiritual fruit. Every single person has a mission: to be a conduit of the divine grace into the world. Planted in God—think of Jesus’ image of the vine and the branches—they are meant to bring forth the fruits of love, peace, compassion, justice, nonviolence. 

    And notice that this should be effortless. The closer God gets, the more alive we become. But the mystery of sin is that we resist the invasion of God; we prefer to go our own way; we cling to our own prerogatives and our own narrow freedom. And the result is lifelessness. It feels like depression, like your life is going nowhere—in Dante’s language, like being "lost in a dark wood." 

    In Jesus’ parable, the one caring for the tree begs the owner for one more chance to manure the tree and to hoe around it, hoping to bring it back to life. But if no life comes, the tree will be cut down. This is the note of urgency that is struck over and again in the Bible. We can run out of time. We can become so resistant to God’s grace that our leaves dry up. This is not divine vengeance; it is spiritual physics. So don’t be afraid of God! Surrender to him. 

--Bishop Robert Barron,
Gospel Reflection, October 25, 2019

Image source 1 & Quotation source: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=2548195388552906&set=a.343034215735712
Image source 2: https://bible.art/gallery/the-fig-tree-cursed

Acting the barren fig tree's part (Robert Murray M'Cheyne)

Within a vineyard's sunny bound
An ample fig tree shelter found, 
               Enjoying sun and showers -
The boughs were graceful to the view,
With spreading leaves of deep-green hue,
               And gaily blushing flowers. 

When round the vintage season came,
The blooming fig was still the same,
               As promising and fair;
But though the leaves were broad and green,
No precious fruit was to be seen,
               Because no fruit was there. 

"For three long years," the master cried,
"Fruit on this tree to find I've tried,
               But all in vain my toil;
Ungrateful tree! the axe's blow
Shall lay thy leafy honours low;
               Why cumbers it the soil?" 

"Ah! let it stand just one year more,"
The dresser said, "till all my store
               Of rural arts I've shown;
About the massy roots I'll dig,
And if it bear, we've gained the fig -
               If not, then cut it down." 

How many years hast thou, my heart,
Acted the barren fig tree's part,
               Leafy, and fresh, and fair,
Enjoying heavenly dews of grace,
And sunny smiles from God's own face -
               But where the fruit? ah! where? 

How often must the Lord have prayed
That still my day might be delayed,
               Till all due means were tried;
Afflictions, mercies, health, and pain,
How long shall these be all in vain
               To teach this heart of pride? 

Learn, O my soul, what God demands
Is not a faith like barren sands,
              But fruit of heavenly hue;
By this we prove that Christ we know,
If in His holy steps we go -
             Faith works by love, if true. 

--Robert Murray M’Cheyne,
The Barren Fig Tree

 

Image source 1: https://pastormartinsmyopia.blogspot.com/2015/07/prayer-cursing-fig-tree-and-all-that.html
Image source 2: https://www.ticanots.com/blog/Figuier-Maudit-Martinique-arbre-magique-ou-malefique_a21.html
Poem source

We must remove social injustice (St. Óscar Romero)

      I will not tire of declaring that if we really want an effective end to violence we must remove the violence that lies at the root of all violence: structural violence, social injustice, exclusion of citizens from the management of the country, repression. All this is what constitutes the primal cause, from which the rest flows naturally. 

--St. Óscar Romero 

Image source: Kelly Latimore, Our Lady of the Journey, https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1172038444282247&set=a.269313067888127
Quotation source

Enjoying life in the Promised Land (Fr. Mike Stubbs)

    In the early church, those newly baptized at the Easter Vigil were often given a mixture of milk and honey to drink. This practice referred to the way the Promised Land was often described in the Bible. 

    This may strike us as a strange way to describe a land. The milk, however, would not be cow’s milk but, rather, goat’s milk. The honey would not come from bees, but instead was a syrup made from dates. Consequently, the milk would stand for the raising of livestock and the honey would stand for the raising of crops — the two components of agriculture in this new land. The land was described as flowing with milk and honey, because it produced livestock and crops in abundance. 

    This sweet beverage given to the newly baptized is intended to give them a taste of the new life of grace they had received through baptism. It pointed to the new experiences they would encounter in the church, and eventually in heaven. They had left behind their life of sin, just as the Hebrews would leave their life of bondage in Egypt. They had passed through the rigors of Lent, just as the Hebrews would travel with much hardship through the desert to reach the Promised Land. 

    The early Christians saw a parallel between their spiritual journey and the journey of the Hebrew people in escaping slavery in Egypt to enjoying life in the Promised Land. We can see a similar parallel for ourselves, especially now as we keep Lent. We join with the catechumens and candidates for full communion in their passage toward the Easter sacraments, to membership in the church and all that that promises. 

    As we gather at the altar on Sunday, we recall God’s blessings given to us — above all, the gift of God’s Son Jesus Christ. He is the one who brings us to the Promised Land of heaven, to freedom from sin. 

--Fr. Mike Stubbs 

Image source 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_palm
Image source 2: https://organicbabyfood.shop/blogs/information/goat-milk-for-babies
Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, March 23, 2025: A land flowing with milk and honey...

A land flowing with milk and honey…
What gifts God has for us all! 

    Why, in the Book of Exodus, does the Lord appear to Moses in fire flaming out of a bush? Moses has not yet left Egypt; he is tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro when God calls his name, Moses! Moses! In this direct encounter with the Lord, Moses is given a tremendous gift: God’s name, I am who am. The gift of this name will help Moses to convince the Israelites enslaved in Egypt that the God in question here is the one they have always worshiped, the God who has been present, is present, and will be present to them throughout their travails. It is this first encounter with the Lord that will allow the great exodus of the people out of their enslavement to begin. For as Psalm 103 recalls, The Lord secures justice and the rights of all the oppressed. He has made known his ways to Moses, and his deeds to the people of Israel. God is present to them, and that divine presence is grace. 

    Jesus will similarly share examples of God’s generous presence with those who surround him in Luke’s Gospel. Using the parable of the barren fig tree, Jesus encourages the people to draw nearer to the Lord through the act of repentance. If you do not repent, he says, you will all perish. However, as with the fig tree, God keeps giving his people another chance: the gardener requests more time for the fig tree to bear fruit, and the owner of the tree grants it: leave it for this year also. The gardener shall cultivate the ground around the tree and fertilize it, giving it every advantage, just as God does with his people. God gifts us the wherewithal to change so that we can draw closer to him, so that nothing stands in the way of his love for us, nothing keeps us from that love. God remains present to us, and that divine presence is grace. 

    In his First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul reminds the community that how they deal with God’s grace will have a lot to do with how their lives turn out. Using the story of Moses in the desert to illustrate this, Paul writes, these things happened to them as an example, and they have been written down as a warning for us. Even if we don’t understand God’s way, Paul says, we have to be careful so that we don’t fail to gain the real grace God offers us. Whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall. We too drink from the spiritual rock that is Christ. We bless the Lord because we can’t begin to imagine what God is doing for us – not because we’ve earned it but because God loves us, and God’s compassion and kindness is greater than anything we can imagine. God remains present to us, and that divine presence is indeed grace! 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

How pure our eyes must be (St. Maximilian Kolbe / St. Mother Teresa of Kolkata)

Lent is a time of grace,
a time for conversion,
a time to come home to God.

 --St. Maximilian Kolbe 

   More than ever people want to see love in action through our humble works—how necessary it is for us to be in love with Jesus—to be able to feed Him in the hungry and the lonely. How pure our eyes and hearts must be to see Him in the poor. How clean our hands must be to touch Him in the poor with love and compassion. How clean our words must be to be able to proclaim the Good News to the poor. 

--St. Mother Teresa of Kolkata 

Image source 1: https://www.ellenwhite.info/life-of-christ-11.htm 
Image source 2: https://www.kofc.org/en/news-room/columbia/2022/september/saint-of-the-peripheries.html
Quotation source 1
Quotation source 2

Willing to be attentive (Henri Nouwen)

   Lent is the most important time of the year to nurture our inner life. It is the time during which we not only prepare ourselves to celebrate the mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus, but also the death and resurrection that constantly takes place within us. Life is a continuing process of the death of the old and the familiar, and being reborn again into a new hope, a new trust, and a new love. The death and resurrection of Jesus therefore is not just an historical event that took place a long time ago, but an inner event that takes place in our heart when we are willing to be attentive to it. 

    Lent offers a beautiful opportunity to discover the mystery of Christ within us. It is a gentle but also demanding time. It is a time of solitude but also community, it is a time of listening to the voice within, but also a time of paying attention to other people's needs. It is a time to continuously make the passage to new inner life as well as to life with those around us. 

    When we live Lent attentively and gently, then Easter can truly be a celebration during which the full proclamation of the risen Christ will reverberate into the deepest place of our being. 

--Henri Nouwen 

Image & Quotation source:  https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Reflection-for-the-First-Sunday-of-Lent.html?soid=1011221485028&aid=U9YTIAxqLLs

Energized by the power of the divine Spirit (Pope Francis)

    The ever more vibrant rediscovery of Jesus is not the aim in itself, but spurs us to “come down the mountain”, energized by the power of the divine Spirit, so as to decide on new paths of conversion and to constantly witness to charity, as the law of daily life. 

    Transformed by Christ’s presence and by the ardor of his Word, we will be a concrete sign of the invigorating love of God for all our brothers and sisters, especially for those who are suffering, for those who are lonely and neglected, for the sick and for the multitude of men and women who, in different parts of the world, are humiliated by injustice, abuse and violence. 

--Pope Francis, August 6, 2017 

Image source: https://johntsquires.com/2023/02/14/changed-transformed-transfigured-matt-17-transfiguration-a/
Quotation source

Can we be a source of transfiguration for others? (Pope Francis / Fr. James Martin SJ)

Lent comes providentially to reawaken us,
to shake us out of our lethargy.

 --Pope Francis 

    On the Second Sunday of Lent, we read a story not of penance, but of conversion. And not the kind of conversion that we’re used to hearing about at Lent—that is, not a story of turning away from sin. Instead, it’s a “transfiguration” (in the Greek, "metamorphōthē") in which Jesus, in front of three of his closest disciples, is transformed. 

    Obviously, none of us will see Jesus in this way (at least not during this lifetime) and we are surely never going to be “transfigured” like he was. But can we be a source of transfiguration for others? And can we see in others a transfiguration?

    Sometimes I’ve seen a friend doing something with great compassion and I’m so moved that it is as if I’ve never seen them before. They are, in a sense, transfigured before me. We’re also called to help to transfigure the world for other people, to point them to signs of God’s presence. To say, “There is death, suffering, violence, bullying and all sorts of horrible things happening in the world, but there are also moments of joy, comfort and beauty.” Maybe it’s a kind gesture that someone has done. Or a beautiful work of art that someone has created. Or simply the love that exists between two people. 

    “The world is charged with the grandeur of God,” wrote the Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. One of our tasks, as Christians, is to let others see this. And let them witness the transfiguration of the world. 

--Fr. James Martin SJ,
Outreach, February 24 & 25, 2024

Image source: Tom Denny, Transfiguration, Durham Cathedral, https://artandchristianity.org/ecclesiart-listings/thomas-denny-transfiguration-window
Quotation source 1
Quotation source 2

New eyes (Marcel Proust)

   The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking landscapes, but in having new eyes. 

--Marcel Proust 

Image source 1: https://ai4prompts.com/illustrations/1054-midjourney-prompt-for-optical-illusions-impossible-perspectives.html
Image source 2: https://johnfreund.net/2022/06/10/learning-to-see-as-god-sees/ (What do you see in this image?)
Quotation source

Abram sitting in that terrible darkness (Vivian Cabrera)

   [This weekend’s] readings for the second Sunday of Lent remind me of the constant back and forth between longing and doubt. In the first reading from the book of Genesis, God promises Abram descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. Imagine being shown a future so bright, one literally promised to you by God. Abram immediately puts his trust in the Lord but expresses some doubt. ‘O Lord God, 'he asked, ‘How am I to know that I possess it?’ The Lord asks Abram for an offering, to bring him a heifer, a she-goat, a ram, a turtledove, and a pigeon and so he does. And he waited and waited and waited for the Lord, until the sun was about to set and a ‘trance fell upon Abram and a deep terrifying darkness enveloped him.’ I picture myself as Abram here, on the cusp of something great, something the Lord had promised me. But, as time goes on and on, and it gets colder and darker, my enthusiasm for that something great wanes. Doubt grows. And I think of Abram sitting in that terrible darkness, unable to see what was coming but believing in God and choosing to stay. Would I have stayed? I’d like to say yes, but I’m not sure. 

--Vivian Cabrera 

Image source: Br. Robert Lentz, OFM, Children of Abraham.  Note that Jews, Christians, and Muslims all consider Abraham to be their father in faith, and a throng of these children crowd onto his lap. The Arabic Inscription reads, "Abraham, the Friend of God," which is how Muslims often refer to him. The Hebrew inscription is taken from Genesis and reads "Abraham, the Father of many Nations." https://trinitystores.com/products/wood-plaque-children-abraham-r-lentz?srsltid=AfmBOor1SLxYRBtz8Q2vqRZmZ_QEl9fL87r8yzk559d9rwSdXSTiBCx_
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Sunday Gospel Reflection, Marcy 16, 2025: They saw his glory...

They saw his glory…
 How might Lent change your vision? 

   If the Lord told you to look at the sky and count the stars, do you think you would ever look at the sky the same way again? In the Book of Genesis, God points to the stars in the sky as a revelation of the extraordinary numbers of descendants who will be born of Abram’s line. Then, to assure Abram that this promise is trustworthy, God plunges him into a deep, terrifying darkness as he cuts a covenant with Abram. Abram’s faith in God’s promise will result in both progeny and land; Abram’s vision has been changed, transformed, by his trust in the extraordinary relationship he has with the Lord. Abram knows, as Psalm 27 will one day proclaim, that the Lord is his light and his salvation, and he believes that he will see the bounty of the Lord in the land of the living – because Abram waits for the Lord with courage! 

   Although Jesus tells his disciples that his death is both necessary and imminent, they fail to see or understand, limiting their vision to what they know rather than seeing past what can be seen with the eyes. And so, in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus takes Peter, John, and James and goes up the mountain to pray. There, the disciples’ vision will be radically altered when, during the Transfiguration, they are able to see Jesus as God sees him: they see his glory! This change in vision is compounded by a voice that comes from the cloud that says, This is my chosen Son; listen to him. Peter, John and James will continue to struggle, for they have no concept for a suffering Messiah. But they will remember this moment into the future. 

   In his Letter to the Philippians, Paul will reinforce the importance of believing not only in the resurrection but also in the crucifixion. Many, Paul says, conduct themselves as enemies of the cross of Christ, giving no credence to the notion of a Messiah who suffered for their sake. But without Christ’s dying, his love is not revealed; the cross is the revelation of his glory as much as the resurrection is, and we must see Christ as God sees him in order to claim our citizenship in heaven. 

   Faith shifts how we look at our world, allowing us to see it – and ourselves – as God sees it – and us. We often get focused on the tangible, but in Lent, we are called to a transformation of vision, that we might see what we have not seen before, and trust that one day, Christ will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body… all because we, like Abram, change the way we see the world and put our faith in the Lord!

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

What does our faith call us to? (President Jimmy Carter / Pope Benedict XVI)

I have one life and one chance
to make it count for something.
I’m free to choose that something.
My faith demands that I do whatever I can,
wherever I am, whenever I can,
for as long as I can with whatever I have
to try to make a difference.

--President Jimmy Carter

   Dear friends, may no adversity paralyze you. Be afraid neither of the world, nor of the future, nor of your weakness. The Lord has allowed you to live in this moment of history so that, by your faith, his name will continue to resound throughout the world. 

--Pope Benedict XVI 

Image source: https://carterschool.gmu.edu/about/legacy-president-carter
Quotation 1 source
Quotation 2 source

Jesus meets the devil (Bishop Robert Barron)

You shall tread upon the asp and the viper;
you shall trample down the lion and the dragon.

--Psalm 91

   [Sunday’s] Gospel tells of the Lord’s temptation in the desert. After forty days of fasting in the desert (evocative of Israel’s forty years of wandering in the desert), Jesus meets the devil, who proceeds to lure the Messiah onto the path of sin. Jesus’ sacrifice will entail his coming to battle sin at close quarters, his willingness, therefore, to be drawn by its power, to come under its sway. 

    Satan first tempts him with sensual pleasure: "If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread." One of the most elemental forms of spiritual dysfunction is to make the satisfaction of sensual desire the center of one’s life. Jesus responds: "One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God." 

    Jesus enters, through psychological and spiritual identification, into the condition of the person lured by this sin, but then he manages to withstand the temptation and in fact to twist this perversion back to rectitude. 

--Bishop Robert Barron,
Gospel Reflection, February 26, 2023

Image source: Christ Treading the Beasts, mosaic, Chapel of St. Andrew, Ravenna (6th c.), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_treading_on_the_beasts#/media/File:Christ_treading_the_beasts_-_Chapel_of_Saint_Andrew_-_Ravenna_2016.jpg
Quotation source

Proclaim the Lord and you will encounter him (Pope Francis)

    This is beautiful: When we proclaim the Lord, the Lord comes to us. Sometimes we think that the way to be close to God is to keep him tightly close to us; because then, if we reveal ourselves and start to talk about him, judgements, criticisms arise, and we may not know how to respond to certain questions or provocations. 

    So, it is better not to talk about him, and to close up: no, this is no good. Instead, the Lord comes while we proclaim him. You always find the Lord on the path of proclamation. Proclaim the Lord and you will encounter him. Seek the Lord and you will encounter him. Always on a journey, this is what the women [who witness the empty tomb] teach us: we encounter Jesus by witnessing him. Let us put this in our hearts: we encounter Jesus by witnessing him. 

--Pope Francis,
Angelus, April 10, 2023 

Image source: https://www.ncregister.com/cna/pope-francis-do-you-live-as-a-witness-of-jesus

Quotation source

Intentional desert traversing (Diana Marin)

    Living into God’s vision for our life might call us into the desert. It might call us to live a life we don’t expect for ourselves, to utilize resources within ourselves we don’t know we have; to find our way through unfamiliar terrain - geographic, metaphorical, spiritual. The desert upends our world. But the good news is that God is there, with us, in all. 

    This past week we entered into Lent, a season of intentional desert traversing. I like to think of Lent as a skills building time. It’s a desert that is measurable and measured: we know when it begins and when it ends, we know the rules, we know to deepen our prayer, fast, and give. We do this in community. This doesn’t mean it’s not challenging, it is. But it’s a desert that invites us to build spiritual muscles, so that when life wallops us sideways, we can get back on our feet and see, even if it’s only in distant retrospect, that God softened our fall. 

    Lent invites us to trust in God, fully. 

    Entering the desert does not mean that we took a wrong turn or made a mistake. It doesn’t mean we’re being punished. Sometimes leading the life God affirms for us can mean taking us into the desert, a place that is unfamiliar and world-turning. And as we look at Jesus’ life and consider what it means for our own, I believe there’s an invitation for us to live a life that is bold and courageous, knowing very well that it will lead us into unsettled terrain. 

   As we enter into Lent, may we remember that we are beloved by God. May our hearts be softened to the injustices in the world. May we hear God’s call to us to live boldly and courageously, even if this means we find our lives unsettled. And may we leave this time trusting in God, fully. 

--Diana Marin 

Image source: Linda Saskia Menczel, Temptation in the Wilderness, https://www.contemporaryartcuratormagazine.com/artist-of-the-future-award/linda-saskia-menczel
Quotation source

Where is Lent taking you? (Pope Benedict XVI / Catherine Doherty)

Lent stimulates us to let the Word of God
penetrate our life and in this way
to know the fundamental truth:
who we are, where we come from,
where we must go,
what path we must take in life.

 --Pope Benedict XVI 

   Lent is a time of going very deeply into ourselves… What is it that stands between us and God? Between us and our brothers and sisters? Between us and life, the life of the Spirit? Whatever it is, let us relentlessly tear it out, without a moment’s hesitation. 

--Catherine Doherty 

Image source: https://jamesjackson.blog/2024/09/01/day-245-the-point-we-miss-in-mens-ministry-ezekiel-2230/
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How could Our Lord be tempted? (Brian Kelly)

    After forty days of fasting and prayers Our Lord is tired and hungry. He has not yet begun His public life. Saint John the Baptist has given testimony that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus is baptized by John and he retires to a desert place to prepare for His Messianic public ministry. 

     The fast is about over. It has been forty days. The devil has been watching Him, waiting for the last day, thinking then this Jesus will be most vulnerable. The devil, as far as we know from scripture, did not assault John the Baptist who lived his life in the desert fasting on honey and locusts. The demon knew that John was not the Messiah. He was not of Juda, a son of David, he was from Levi. But Jesus of Nazareth was of Juda, the kingly tribe, a son of David. The time for the advent of the Messiah, prophesied by Daniel, had come. The seventy weeks of years were complete: “Seventy weeks are shortened upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, that transgression may be finished, and sin may have an end, and iniquity may be abolished; and everlasting justice may be brought; and vision and prophecy may be fulfilled; and the saint of saints may be anointed” (9:24). The anointing of the Saint of saints was by the Holy Ghost who effected the anointing in the fruition He made in the womb of Mary in the Incarnation. Messiah, is a Hebrew word, meaning “the anointed one.” 

    Forty days is a long time to fast. Imagine how weak Our Lord was in His body! How hungry! 

    There is a stench in the air. Satan approaches Our Lord. Jesus allows it. 

     How could Our Lord be tempted? 

--Brian Kelly 

To read the rest of Brian Kelly’s reflection, click here. 

Image source: https://comeandreason.com/the-temptations-of-jesus-a-lesson-for-us/
Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, March 9, 2025: The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart...

The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart…
How often do we give voice to our faith? 

      Throughout their history, the people of Israel had trouble remaining in right relationship with the Lord God, and Moses knows it. The golden calf they chose to worship, the complaints they made about their lack of food and water… On so many occasions, the people have demonstrated their lack of fidelity to the Lord who loves them, failing to give witness to their faith. But in the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses reminds the people that, once they reach the promised land, they will need to show their gratitude to God. Moses even provides the words they are to say, the story they are to tell: Then you shall declare before the Lord, your God: The Lord brought us out of Egypt with his strong hand and outstretched arm; he gave us this land flowing with milk and honey. The people are also to acknowledge God’s goodness with the firstfruits of the products of the soil, bowing down in his presence. God has been with them all along; they need to return to right relationship and give thanks. 

      In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus knows it is incumbent upon him to right the wrongs of Adam and Eve and their descendants. When Jesus is tempted by the devil in the desert, each temptation the devil offers represents a historical breakdown in relationship, whether it center upon control or idol worship or testing God, and each time, Jesus chooses love and relationship, citing Scripture to correct the devil’s misuse of the holy text. When the devil cites Psalm 92, for example – With their hands, the angels will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone – Jesus counters with his own knowledge of Scripture: You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test. Jesus trusts wholeheartedly in his relationship with his Father; where the people of Israel failed, Jesus makes choices congruent with his Father’s will, and speaks his mind boldly, even when confronted with the devil himself. 

      St. Paul will similarly encourage the Romans to prioritize relationship with the Lord over all else and to give voice to their faith when challenged: if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Faith is in the heart and comes from the heart, but it needs to be verbalized, spoken, affirmed. What is the story we tell? May it be one that affirms the intimacy of our relationship with the Lord, a story that comes from the heart, with thanks. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Let me find thy grace (The Valley of Vision)

Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly,
Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision,
where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights;
hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold thy glory. 

Let me learn by paradox that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision. 

Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells,
and the deeper the wells the brighter Thy stars shine;
let me find Thy light in my darkness,
Thy life in my death,
Thy joy in my sorrow,
Thy grace in my sin,
Thy riches in my poverty,
Thy glory in my valley. 

 --The Valley of Vision,
A Collection of Puritan Prayers
and Devotions
(ed. Arthur Bennett)

Today is Ash Wednesday!
What do you hope to learn during Lent?

Image source: Valley of the Ten Peaks, Banff National Park, Canada, https://www.worldatlas.com/valleys/the-world-s-most-beautiful-valleys.html
Image source 2:  https://www.mercyhome.org/blog/sunday-mass/reflections/ash-weds/
Read how this poem helped NYT columnist David Brooks come to faith here: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/19/opinion/faith-god-christianity.html?campaign_id=2&emc=edit_th_20241220&instance_id=142771&nl=today%27s-headlines&regi_id=67728187&segment_id=186234&user_id=e6442f68320ad8470b72ce4a672cfb87
Poem source