This week’s memory verse: God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day.
Psalm 7:11
Pray the week: Lord Jesus, grant that by my Lenten observances I may reform my life, fully repent, and turn aside the righteous anger I deserve for my sinfulness. Amen.
He knew them all, and did not need anyone to testify about human nature. He himself understood it well.
Welcome on this Third Sunday in Lent. We continue in our theme for this Lent – struggle.
We are considering the stories of those who have struggled to the point of giving up on God. We see in these stories people who, in the end, were fortified because of their struggle. We may not see them ever fully overcoming their struggles, but still committed to overcoming as God has asked. Through these stories we realize that our struggles are evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives. The Holy Spirit moves in us and because of that we struggle against the things that separate us from God. We are never abandoned by Him.
Today’s gospel focuses on conflict. Jesus drives out those doing evil in His Father’s House – with a whip. Jesus is angry at the mockery and self-serving going on under those who were supposed to serve God and care for His Temple.
First, let’s allay any confusion we might have. We can all agree that Jesus was meek and humble, that He welcomed sinners, and that He cured and healed even to the point of raising three people from the dead. He was in touch with the grief others felt and He felt it with them. That said, He did not come to just leave things as they are, but to reveal His Father’s will for all of us, and the way to His Father through repentance and belief.
Today we see Jesus’ righteous anger at sin and profanity. Yes, righteous anger is a thing we are allowed to have when we see wrong. Yes, Jesus loved sinners – and so He never left them in their sin. Listen to Him saying – “go and sin no more.” Again, and again repeating – repent, turn away from your sin.
I want to relate a current struggle that one of our potential seminarians is going through. Let’s call him Jay.
Jay comes from a Christian background and is entering into the Catholic Church with us. He is studying at a Christian college right now. He let everyone know about his desire to be Catholic and a Catholic priest. For this he is being ostracized by his fellow students and the Dean and Chief Pastor of the college went before the entire school and publicly condemned Jay. Of course, Jay was hurt, and is struggling.
Once again, the Temple is being profaned. In the struggle Jay’s solution is to remain resolute, to be a true Christian example walking in Jesus’ footsteps following God’s law and committed to prayer for God’s strengthening grace in the struggle. Pray for Jay.
This week’s memory verse: Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints
Ephesians 1:18
Pray the week: Lord Jesus, in Your Transfiguration I see reason for my hope. Continually transform me into Your image. Amid my struggles grant me confidence in the freedom and security You won for me. Amen.
Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; from the cloud came a voice, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”
Welcome on this Second Sunday in Lent. We continue in our theme for this Lent – struggle.
We will consider the stories of those who have struggled to the point of giving up on God and faith in Him. We see in these stories moments where people may have given up for a time, and who, in the end, were fortified because of their struggle. We may not see these people ever overcoming their struggles, but still committed to overcoming.
Through these stories we will realize that our struggles are evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives. The Holy Spirit moves in us and because of that we struggle against the things that separate us from Christ. We are not abandoned.
Let us consider our readings and gospel.
Imagine the struggle of Abraham as he journeys to Mount Moriah to sacrifice his only son as God had asked him. Abraham’s faith is sorely tested. Each step of the journey a torture and a consideration of the ultimate loss. Imagine Isaac’s bewilderment as the realization of what is to happen sinks in. Yet they are there. They are there in a supreme act of trust. In the end, their faith is reaffirmed and rewarded – but the process of getting there impossible struggle.
Imagine the struggle of those three disciples on Mount Tabor with Jesus. They are given a glorious vision of Jesus, the Son of God. It is meant to strengthen their faith amid the impossible struggle coming up in Jesus’ arrest, torture, death, and burial. As they descend the mountain the specter of death is before them, and they live in confusion from that day forward. After Jesus’ arrest and death, they forgot the lesson of the Transfiguration including God’s voice: “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” All but John went into hiding and would not stay with Jesus.
St. Paul reminds us of the power of our God amidst our struggles. He tells us what he knew by experience, by the salvation he received on the road to Damascus. If God is for us, who can be against us?
God carried out what He stopped Abraham from doing. He did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all. God gave His all for us and in that we have reassurance amidst our struggles. We can proclaim with Paul that God will give us everything else along with Jesus. Because of that we are free and secure even in our struggles.
This week’s memory verse: Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Psalm 119:105
Pray the week: Lord Jesus, As I journey toward heaven and full unity with Your Father and mine, grant me strength such that the struggles and adversaries along the way may not overcome me. Give me the grace of perseverance.
The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan.
Welcome on this First Sunday in Lent. As many of you heard on Ash Wednesday, our theme for this Lent is struggle.
This Lent we will consider the stories of those who have struggled to the point of giving up on God and faith in Him. We will see in these stories moments where people may have given up for a time, and who, in the end, were fortified because of their struggle. We may not see these people ever overcoming their struggles, but still committed to overcoming.
Through these stories we will realize that our struggles are evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives. The Holy Spirit moves in us and because of that we struggle against the things that separate us from Christ. We are not abandoned.
We hear of Jesus’ desert journey today. He fasts and is constantly tempted – the temptations did not just come at the end. The fast and journey were a struggle for Jesus, He did not just glide through it. He was spiritually and physically hungry and tired each day of the journey, beset by the same temptations we face in struggle – you’ll never make it, you’re not strong enough, give up. That is how we know He gets us, understands what we face, and why He gives us, through the Holy Spirit, the grace of perseverance.
I have printed and left for you the poem Ithaka by Constantine Cavafy. Please take it home and read it. Use it as an opportunity for prayer.
I first encountered this poem when it was read at Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’ funeral by her longtime companion, Maurice Tempelsman.
Ithaka describes the journey of Odysseus, and in turn each of journeys, to our homeland. For us that homeland is heaven.
In the poem we encounter a prolonged journey. Along the way the good things in our life are increased if we keep our eye on the goal, face the struggles head on, refuse to focus on the negative, refuse to hurry, and relish each day necessary to get there. Along the way we encounter the unknown – making new discoveries about ourselves.
Each of us has their struggles on the road to our Ithaka and in Lent. In the poem’s epigram we hear: “Keep Ithaka always in your mind. / Arriving there what you’re destined for.” Let us hear that as “Keep heaven always in your mind. / Arriving there what we are destined for.”
In the end, as the poem speaks, we will understand what the struggle and journey has meant.
Ithaka
C. P. CavafyAs you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you’re seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind—
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you’re destined for.
But don’t hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you’re old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn’t have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.
Working together, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says: In an acceptable time I heard you, and on the day of salvation I helped you. Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
Prawdą, Pracą, Walką – the motto of our Holy Church. It stands for Truth, Work, and Struggle – and by these we shall succeed or be victorious.
In our Epistle St. Paul writes to the Corinthians and calls them to conform themselves to the gifts they have received from Jesus’ sacrifice: namely justification and becoming God’s new creation in but apart from the world. Paul doesn’t stop there. He provides concrete instructions on how to accomplish this conformity. It is done through becoming God’s righteousness in real and lived ways, by living for others, not themselves, and by being reconciled where there is division.
Calls are time dependent and Paul notes that now is “an acceptable time.” God is bestowing favor and salvation at this very moment, as He is this very moment for us. Paul is saying – do it now.
Lent has begun and we must start living our justification by being God’s new creation in but apart from the world. We are to be righteous, living for others, and reconciling ourselves with all we are in conflict with.
Brothers and sisters, we know that our Church’s motto is a call to all things that will lead us to establishing the Kingdom of God on earth at which time we will have the ultimate success or victory. It is a call to use our Church life as the guide to our personal success in living as God asks us to live. Of course, Lent is a perfect opportunity to realign ourselves to God’s way of life.
If we take the motto apart, we see that a couple of the statements in the motto are straight forward. Truth – we can all get onboard with God’s truth, rejecting the world’s version of things. Work – we all know work is required to conform to God’s way, and especially in Lent where we pledge to do the work necessary – fasting, prayer, devotion, and charity. Then we get to struggle. That is a far harder concept and seems daunting.
What is it about struggle? If we look at its synonyms we can easily see that it is the taking of the much harder road: To fight, grapple, engage in conflict, compete, contend, contest, vie, fight, battle, clash, wrangle – and most perfectly in our case to strive, try hard, endeavor, make every effort, spare no effort, exert oneself, do all one can, and do one’s utmost.
Those definitions and synonyms are key to understanding our journey along God’s way. We have a call, we know the time is now, and if we are perfectly honest, we recognize it will be a struggle.
This is the part that is most difficult for us as Christians, the struggle to live in conformity to God’s will for us. The struggle to accept God’s love for us in a simple act of faith and confession. We have this great, all powerful, awesome God Who only desires our love, yet we struggle to give it fully. We want unity with God, to be His righteousness, to live for others, and to be symbols of reconciliation to all, yet we fail to do it. We try and try and try and come up short. We think this over and over and wonder if we should give up. We often get exhausted in the struggle.
In struggling we reach a point where we consider giving up.
This Lent we will consider the stories of those who have struggled to the point of giving up – most especially giving up on God and faith in Him.
In those stories we encounter difficult struggles, some who perhaps gave up for a time, and in the end were fortified because of their struggle. What you may notice is I did not mention whether they overcame their struggles.
In the end what we will find is the realization that the struggle itself is evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives. The Holy Spirit moves in us and because of that we struggle against the things that separate us from Christ. We will find that the struggle itself and our not giving up is evidence of the Lord’s work in our lives.
As we walk with Christ through Lent, and reflect on the struggles He faced, we will recall Jesus’ promise that those who followed him would face constant struggle (ref. John 15:19 and John 16:33). As we face our struggles now and, in the future, let us acknowledge that the struggle itself leads to ultimate success and victory and resolve to keep pressing on with faith and hope.
This week’s memory verse: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16
Pray the week: Lord Jesus, Grant that I may love You and in doing so carry Your model of love into the world. May Your letter of love written on my heart draw many to salvation. Amen.
No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; And no one puts new wine into old wineskins.
In this third week of Pre-Lent, Quinquagesima, we consider the power of overwhelming love.
I remember my Kindergarten girlfriend, Donna, my 8th grade girlfriend Lori, and perhaps a few others before finally meeting and falling in love with Renee.
We may all recall that special person we were attracted to and perhaps fell in love with. If we really consider the difference between the girlfriends and boyfriends we may have had and perhaps the person we finally entered relationship with, we will note differences in the depth and breadth of our love. That is important to remember since we see today God calling out in love to His people, seeking response.
God says He will give His beloved people everything. He pledges Himself to them. Not only that, but those who are His people will respond in love. What a beautiful vision of mutual love – deep love that knows no limit, where no sacrifice is too great – even to the sacrifice of Jesus for all of us.
I will betroth you to me forever: I will betroth you to me with justice and with judgment, with loyalty and with compassion; I will betroth you to me with fidelity, and you shall know the LORD.
Some may say: If I only had that kind of love in my life! Let us not forget that we already have that love it in Jesus.
Paul reminds the Church in Corinth that the relationship of love within the Christian Church is a letter, written on our hearts. The Holy Spirit writes God’s love within us – within our entirety. That love written in us is to be known and read by everyone.
Our relationship with God, in the best way, is the model for our relationship with each other. God’s model allows us to love not with mere infatuation or passion, not only on occasion, but with the totality of our being all the time.
The covenant relationship Jesus came to establish with us is one of total love. It is a call to mutuality. He tells us that something new is among us – new wine that will not work in old systems of relationship. Our way of life is not like anything of old. He tells the Pharisees to see things with new eyes, with new hearts open to love.
As we prepare to enter Lent, let us focus on the grandeur of God’s love and offer Him our entire selves in love.
This week’s memory verse: And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you..
Psalm 9:10
Pray the week: Lord Jesus, Grant that I may trust in You, that all Your promises are trues, and that in You there is no shadow of change. With this assurance help me to conquer my doubts and fears. Amen.