Reflection for the 4th Sunday in Lent 2025

While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him.

God uses imagery so we might clearly understand His intent for us, the picture He envisions for us. May God’s imagery help us to achieve the vision He has for us and help us to arrive at Easter as light.

This week God’s set of images call us to reliance on His mercy. I, for one, can barely get through the proclamation of this gospel without breaking down because I see the image of God’s infinite mercy as He welcomes me back over and over, embraces me again and again despite my failures.

The richness of God’s imagery in this parable of the Prodigal makes it a sort of movie. We can see what is happening, how each person acts and reacts. Despite the things that are pretty evident, God as the perfect artist has inserted some less obvious images.

In movies and games this is often referred to as an Easter Egg. The term was first coined around 1979 by Steve Wright at Atari Computers to describe a hidden message in a video game. Since then, creators, like our Creator, have inserted things we must search for in their creations.

Let’s look at some Easter Eggs in the Parable of the Prodigal.

The younger son is unwilling to wait for his inheritance. He exhibits selfishness. Once he has wasted everything the Parable tells us he went to care for the swine. The slightly hidden thing is that the swine owner was probably a Gentile. If he were a Jew, he would have let his servants take a portion of the feed for themselves (a commandment in the Law), but here he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any. The son’s selfishness is confronted by the owner’s.

As the son returns, he has no need to search for his father. The father is shown waiting. Imagine that, from the moment the son left the father stood in the road waiting for his return. Prodigal means extravagant – and the father’s love was indeed extravagant.

Finally, the older son is upset. It is not just the father’s extravagance. It is the fact that all that remains of the estate is his, yet he feels unable to enjoy it.

We are called to confront those areas where we are selfish, to seek the less than obvious ways God shows us where we fall short thus taking the lesson to heart. When we turn around and return, let us recognize God’s extravagant love and accept His embrace. Finally, let us enjoy God’s Kingdom here on earth and spend time rejoicing with all who find their way home. In all things let us seek Him so never giving up we may find Him.

Reflection for the 3rd Sunday in Lent 2025

‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. So cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?’

As we have discussed, God uses imagery so we might clearly understand His intent for us, the picture He envisions for us. We will continue this study of God’s imagery throughout the Great Lent. 

May God’s imagery help us to achieve the vision He has for us and help us to arrive at Easter no longer ash, but light.

In last week’s reflection we concluded by praying that our Lenten disciplines strengthen us for the work we must do in the chaos, bringing light to overcome darkness.

This week God’s set of images call us to the charge of overcoming barrenness.

Jesus begins by issuing a set of very stark warnings, and the warning slightly hidden in the parable of the fig tree.

These kinds of warnings concerning consequences are the subject of vast theological and philosophical dances. We might regularly hear pastors saying – Well, Jesus didn’t really mean that, He was actually saying…

People tend to shy away from the idea of consequences, from the idea that they have to lie in the bed they made, that we can set aside God’s justice and take His mercy for granted. It is the very reason the word sin and the concept of hell are rarely if ever brought up – especially in churches.

In Jesus’ parable, the owner of the fig grove is God. He arrives expecting results and when He finds the tree that produces nothing, He orders it cut down – literally cut off from life.

The picture of barrenness is a stark one. Today’s image of the barren fig tree is not the only occasion for Jesus addressing a tree’s failure to produce. In Mark, Chapter 11 we see Jesus cursing a fig tree for failing to bear fruit even though it was out-of-season.

God expects us to bear fruit and to do so both in and out of season, to always be at the top of our game, in the action.

The other message we receive today is the assurance of help in the process. The owner, God, has waited for fruit for three years. He agrees to wait yet another year. The gardener, Jesus, will provide the tree with His grace by tending it, cultivating it, and fertilizing it. But there too we must take care not to take that grace and time for granted. Jesus’ tending, cultivation, and fertilization must be taken into ourselves so we may reach the result He wants.

The image of barrenness and death is juxtaposed with God’s image of life and fruitfulness. Which image we reflect is up to us.

Reflection for the 2nd Sunday in Lent 2025

Jesus took Peter, John, and James and went up the mountain to pray. While he was praying his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white.

As we have discussed, God uses imagery so we might clearly understand His intent for us, the picture He envisions for us. We will continue this study of God’s imagery throughout the Great Lent. 

May God’s imagery help us to achieve the vision He has for us and help us to arrive at Easter no longer ash, but light.

Last week we encountered the tremendous set of images where we saw with the eyes of our heart the fasting Jesus, tired and hungry in the dessert. There He was put to the test by Satan. We saw the rocks – would they be turned to bread, the mountain top with a supernatural view of all the kingdoms of the world, and the parapet of the Temple high above Mount Zion in Jerusalem.

Today, the eyes of our heart are taken to another mountaintop, Mount Tabor, where Jesus is Transfigured, appearing in all His glory, and standing between Moses and Elijah. The Patriarchs and Prophets give testimony to God’s Son come among us.

The three Apostles overwhelmed seek to react. We might have the same thoughts they did – what can we do and how will we do it.

Wait, let’s build three dwellings right here, then we can stay here with Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. Indeed, it is good that we are here. I will leave everything else behind just to remain.

The linchpin in the Gospel is the statement: they spoke of his exodus. Jesus’ path is made very clear. He is going to Jerusalem where He will be arrested, tortured, and killed, and on the third day rise.

The apostles wanted none of that bad stuff. How much better to stay on this mountain then to descend into the coming chaos.

Brothers and sisters, in this place, in this church, we ascend the mountain, and we commune with Christ Jesus. We experience His glory and are safe from the chaos out there. How lovely it would be, and I often picture this, to remain here, to rest here, to be in the Lord’s presence continually. Lovely yes, but not God’s will for us.

St. Paul, as he always does, makes it real for us. We must go out into the chaos filled with the grace we have received here and be those who thus conduct themselves according to the model [we] have in Jesus and His Apostles.

Through our Lenten disciplines let us strengthen ourselves for the work we must do in the chaos, bringing light to overcome darkness.

Reflection for the 1st Sunday in Lent 2025

When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time.

This past Wednesday we entered the Great Lent. I pray that the Pre-Lenten season has prepared each of you for this journey we are now on together.

As we have discussed, God uses imagery so we might clearly understand His intent for us, the picture He envisions for us. We will continue this study of God’s imagery throughout the Great Lent. 

May God’s imagery help us to achieve the vision He has for us and help us to arrive at Easter no longer ash, but light.

We see a tremendous set of images in today’s Gospel. Jesus, having fasted for forty days and nights is put to the test by Satan. You see, all Jesus must do is give in just a little to gain bread for His hunger, power in the world, and ultimately provide a show for Satan by throwing Himself off the parapet of the Temple.

In resisting Satan, Jesus quotes Scriptures, “One does not live on bread alone.” and “You shall worship the Lord, your God, and Him alone shall you serve.”

In the third temptation, Satan quotes back two consecutive verses of Psalm 91, verses 11 and 12. In resisting Satan, Jesus recalls the next verse of that Psalm, verse 13: ‘You can tread upon the asp and the viper, trample the lion and the dragon.’ By resisting, by not giving in just a little, Jesus is victorious over Satan’s temptations. As the Gospel tells us, Satan will wait for another day.

Temptation is very real, and it gets redoubled during this holy season of the Great Lent. 

Think of the many small compromises we may be tempted to make. Consider still more how we might use Holy Scripture to justify our compromises and forego our disciplines.

Lent calls us to an enhanced level of care in our lives.

In our first reading from Deuteronomy, Moses speaks about the obligation of the Israelites to worship, to bring the first fruits of the soil, recognizing that they were given to them by the Lord, and to literally recite out loud the history of salvation. This wasn’t a mere exercise. It kept before the people of Israel the true center of their lives – God and His saving power.

The power of evil in this world calls us to forget God, to give in, to backslide, justify, and place God on the back back back burner – out of sight.

This Great Lent calls us to overcome all that. We are, like Jesus, to resist and persevere. Ultimately, Psalm 91:14 gives us assurance. If we cling to God, if we resist giving in just a little, we will be delivered, we will be set on high with Jesus.

Reflection for Sexagesima Sunday 2025

“Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give, and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”

Welcome to the second week of this Pre-Lenten season.

The Holy Church gives us this season so we might not jump into the Great Lent unprepared, but ready for a spiritual journey of transformation. What we are at the end of Lent needs be quite different from what we are now.

This season is akin to the stretching exercises an athlete does before they head out onto the track. This season of stretching ourselves helps in preventing spiritual injury – regrets and disappointments – because we were unprepared for our Lenten walk.

Last Sunday I noted that God uses imagery so we might clearly understand His intent for us, the picture He envisions for us.

In our first reading we see David presented with an opportunity to get rid of Saul who wanted David dead. Saul and his army was in search of David for that very reason. Saul’s anger was motivated by jealousy. Yet, despite what would have been expedient, David did the faithful thing, refusing to kill Saul. 

David trusted that God would save him. David didn’t need to take matters into his own hands. We see a picture of faithful David on a bluff above the army holding Saul’s water jug and spear which made the point better than any other solution.

Which do we want for our self-vision? Will we be Saul, acting on negativity, assembling an army to do damage to another, or is our self-vision one of faithfulness and doing right even if the wrong is easier and speedier? How do we want God to see us as He looks at us?  Who do we want to present before God on the day we meet Him?

Jesus paints a strong picture of the people He wants with Him, the people He will welcome into eternity. He wants loving, forgiving, tolerant, and faithful followers. He wants the Church to be those who walk the long walk, take the hard road, and because they do are outstanding examples of what it means to be God’s children.

If we take this Pre-Lenten opportunity for reflection and for a re-evaluation of our self-vision, we take the first steps toward being true children of the Most High Who is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked, Who is merciful to all.

Jesus came to show us the road to life, and to remind us of what God desires we pursue. So let us set to work in meeting His vision for us and reap a full measure of blessings.

Reflection for Septuagesima Sunday 2025

Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is the LORD. He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream

Welcome to the start of this Pre-Lenten season of Septuagesima.

The Holy Church gives us this season of preparation so we might not jump into the Great Lent unprepared, but ready for a spiritual marathon through which we pray to be transformed. What we are at the end of Lent needs be quite different from what we are at its start.

Keeping up the sports analogies, this season is akin to the stretching exercises an athlete does before they head out onto the track. This season of stretching ourselves helps in preventing spiritual injury – regrets and disappointments – because we were unprepared for our Lenten walk.

I have begun today by drawing pictures for you. Certainly, you can mentally see an image of a marathon runner, an athlete preparing by stretching, and an athlete ill-prepared getting injured.

God uses imagery today as He has done throughout history in order that we might clearly understand His intent for us, the picture He envisions for us.

Consider our first reading. We can see a dead tree standing in the middle of a lava wasteland. That tree has no life and bears no fruit. What could be beautiful and life giving is useless and an occasion for sorrow.

Is that what we would want for our self-vision? Is that what we would want God to see as He looks at us?  Is that what we would want to present before God on the day we meet Him? Of course not!

But if we turn away from God, if He is not our first priority, if His work is somewhere down our list, we are doing our best to end up a dead tree.

Yet, if we take this opportunity for reflection, for a re-evaluation of our self-vision we take the first steps toward being that living and fruitful tree; not only living and fruitful, but also fully assured no matter what may come.

We can see ourselves as that living and fruitful tree when we stretch out our hands and arms in prayer to the God Who lives and is merciful. We live when we turn to God, do His work, and make Him our priority.

It all comes down to what we want to look like in presenting ourselves to God and how we get there. 

Jesus came to show us the road to life, and to remind us of what God desires we pursue. He paints a picture of life and glory for us. So let us now set to work in meeting His vision for us, a living and flourishing people.

Reflection for the Solemnity of the Presentation 2025

Mary and Joseph took Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord

Today, we complete the forty days of our Christmas observance.

For those not well versed in Mosaic Law there is a bit to unpack here.

The first item is the idea of purification. As our Gospel tells us: When the days were completed for their purification Joseph took Mary and Jesus to Jerusalem. A mother had to spend forty days in the process of purification from having given birth to a son. She was considered unclean or impure during those days and could not be seen in public, and most particularly not in the synagogue or Temple, nor around anything holy.

To complete the purification a sacrifice, a purification offering, was to be made. The Law required the offering of one-year-old lamb and a young pigeon or turtledove. Because Joseph and Mary were poor, they were allowed to offer a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. By the way, if a mother had given birth to a girl, under the Law she is considered unclean for eighty days. If you want to go into all the details read Leviticus 12.

As we all know, the old Law has passed away in Jesus’ sacrifice and our purification by confession and faith. So why do we pay very special attention to this day?

What is most telling for us is what happened on that day in the Temple and its parallels thirty-three years later.

Three plus decades later a purification offering was to be made. Jesus goes up to Jerusalem again to present Himself to the Father and to carry out the Father’s will. He would be that purification offering for us.

Consider as Jesus goes to Jerusalem, He drives out the money changers and sellers who were plying their trade to people who could not afford items for sacrifice – they were taking advantage of people just like Mary and Joseph.

Consider too the cost. Could we afford Jesus? Could we afford the cost of the sacrifice necessary for our salvation? Absolutely not! Even the richest person in the world is too poor to pay for salvation, for their sin, thus why Jesus had to pay our cost.

These parallels are underlined in Simeon’s words to Mary. Jesus would be the reason for the rise and fall of many, and a sign that would be contradicted.

Jesus’ coming has led to our being raised up. Because of Him we are a contradiction to the worldly. As He is our light so are we a light to all who would come to Him.

February 2025 Newsletter – Demonstrating and Tolerating from our Why

 “a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel.”

We begin this month with an excerpt from the Canticle of Simeon which is part of the Gospel for the Solemnity of the Presentation, February 2nd.

Simeon was an old man at the very end of his life by the time Jesus was presented in the Temple. This Canticle is a poignant reminder, prayed each night at Compline (Night Prayer) of our journey toward the end of our day and our lives. Simeon’s prayer calls to mind the light he and we have seen and experienced in Jesus. Having experienced Him and His revelation we can rest peacefully and in peace. Simeon had waited all his life for this moment in which he meets Jesus, the Messiah. As noted in scripture, Simeon had listened to the voice of the Holy Spirit and trusted in the Spirit’s direction even though it seemed to have taken forever to come to fruition.

Last month we concluded our leadership reflection by considering our ‘why’ and how that why, if we rightly listen to the Holy Spirit, is at the core of our Christian life and the leadership we are called to exercise.

For both Simeon and the Prophetess Anna, their length of days is a testament to their faith and trust. Listening to God’s direction was their why, was the center of their lives. They lived with total dedication. Those attributes make them leaders from their why, examples for us in living our why.

As leaders there are two ways by which others see our why and find inspiration for their why. Those are what we demonstrate and what we tolerate or do not tolerate. Simeon and Anna demonstrate their why by their complete faithfulness and proclamation of what God has revealed to them. Their why does not allow them to tolerate departure from that faithfulness. Their why helps them to see beyond their struggles and the wait. Focused on leadership let us take account of what we demonstrate and tolerate. As we take or withhold actions, let us ensure we are consistent in living our why. 

Welcome to our February 2025 Newsletter.

This month we move from the end of the Christmas Season, its fortieth day on the Solemnity of the Presentation, into Pre-Lent. Since Lent does not start until early March, we take this month to begin our preparations.

There is a ton going on, Operation SouperBowl (our 24th year participating), our food pantry partnership, and our regular rhythm of prayer and worship. We hold our Valentine’s raffle, honor Scout Sunday, and exercise the democratic tradition of our Holy Church wherein each member has a voice and a vote. Epiphany home blessings go on through March 4th, see Fr. Jim to arrange an appointment. It is Music Scholarship application time. Get yours in before May first.

We begin a study of the Sacrament of Penance in the Catholic Church to be continued over the next two months. Check it out. Are you called to a service ministry and is that an expression of your Why? We have opportunities for you.

All that and more in our February 2025 Newsletter.

Reflection for the 3rd Ordinary Sunday 2025

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.

Today, we are called to reflect on the ministry we have been given.

Jesus tells those listening to Him that Isaiah’s prophecy has been fulfilled. He is the one that came to carry out a ministry of freedom and to draw us into that ministry.

Jesus’ freedom is true freedom. His freedom is not just a concept nor is it a political system. God’s freedom is the essential way of being and living that is in our very essence. 

Freedom comes from our relationship with our Creator God in which He provides every bit of love we need (we call that grace) and where we in turn live and act within that freedom by sharing it everywhere, every time, and without restriction. Our freedom is the reality wherein no one and nothing can bind us nor restrict us. It is the free invitation we offer to all to enter the community of the one body.

Our words and actions of love and grace toward all is not just something we do because we feel like it or have a few extra minutes, or because it agrees with something we hear on TV or online, but rather it is an expression of our love relationship with God. 

Our free love is perfect and complete when we carry out what we have been given by sharing it, by not being possessive of it, and most particularly by not restricting it in any way.

You see, every other form of alleged freedom is more of a bargaining of this for that. Those ‘freedoms’ only work if we give up parts of our freedom in the bargain. Limit yourself here, don’t say that, don’t stand up for them, repeat what we tell you and you can have what we give you. That sounds more like a deal with the devil.

God’s reality is so different. St. Paul shows the Corinthians the nature of our life together. Now you are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it. We are part of one body. There is no border or division in the Christian life. We cannot cut off one part of us, or another, or another and survive as a body. We must stand together in the many ministries of love given us.

I said at the start that we are here to reflect on the ministry we have been given. It is so true; we each have a ministry we are charged with carrying out and if we do not, the body suffers.

So let us be as the people hearing God’s word for the first time in ages and rejoice as we set forth in the ministries given us to care for the freedom of the whole body.

Reflection for the 2nd Ordinary Sunday 2025

For Zion’s sake I will not be silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet

Welcome as we continue in the forty-day celebration of Christmas.

Today, we are called to reflect on the message and the message giver.

As we read through scripture we find about sixty prophets in the Old Testament. Many of those prophets have an entire book as with Isaiah who we read from in today’s first reading. Some are only found in other books.

In encountering the prophets, their journey typically begins with a word from God. In effect, God tells them He has noticed, or taken account of something, and He directs them to spread a message He will give them.

In a bunch of cases, these prophets were taken aback at God’s request. We can echo their words: ‘Who am I?’ ‘How can I?’ ‘I do not have the ability!’ and so on. We all might answer in the same way – and perhaps we still do. We should work on that.

If we look a little deeper, we will find an echo in those words of choice and sending, the echo of God’s direction to His Son Jesus. We hear that same echo in the words the prophets speak, because they are also reflected in the words Jesus speaks to us.

Today, Isaiah speaks of an urgency, to speak out, to not be silent. For the sake of God’s people proclamation must occur.

This is resounded in Jesus’ miracle at Cana. By His mother Mary’s direction, those who would serve, both the house servants and the disciples, are to listen to Jesus’ words and act on them: “Do whatever he tells you.”

In the hymn we will sing today at the conclusion of Holy Mass, ‘Go Tell It On The Mountain’ we hear: Go, tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere.

The event at Cana provides us with that imperative – to tell what we see, hear, and experience.

To our old responses God gives answer: ‘Who am I?’ You are my sons and daughters, baptized into My Kingdom. ‘How can I?’ Because you can do anything with My grace. ‘I do not have the ability!’ Yes, you do because I created you, and each day I make you able.

As the disciples grew in confidence at Cana, let us do so as well. Let us take every opportunity in confidence to bring those we encounter to the wine of eternal life. 

Jesus fulfills the directions to, and the words given to, the prophets. So must we fulfill Jesus’ words in our lives and in our proclamation.