Reflection for the 3rd Sunday of Advent 2024

The crowds asked John the Baptist, “What should we do?”

We have arrived at the third of the four Sundays of Advent, and we continue to contemplate Advent and all its implications.

As mentioned over the past two weeks, Advent has several shades of meaning. It can mean beginning, revelation, expectation, dawning, and a start. Throughout this season we are led through the various ways we will prepare for and encounter Jesus in this new Church year.

In the first week of Advent, we focused on our preparation for Jesus’ return. Last week we focused on our personal preparation for needed changes in our lives through repentance, penance, and reform.

Today, the people who have been hearing John call for change and preparation ask him what they are to do.

John lists some key areas pf personal reform, but it is not for the sake of reform itself, but in preparation for the Kingdom of God. John preached good news to the people. It was the good news of the gospel message that would come from Jesus.

Preparation is about being proactive. We are to take the steps necessary for the revelation of the Kingdom life to people who do not know it. 

Think about what John was asking of his inquirers: share in your clothing and food, stop stealing, stop extorting and accusing. People never saw such a thing. Everyone had their expectations of how people would be, how selfish they would be, but now something had changed, and people were changed.

We are not to get distracted in our proactive preparation for the Kingdom. The people around John, having heard his message, and charged with what they were to do, got quickly lost. They sat around, engaging in speculation – kind of like wondering what the drones are – and John quickly calls them back by pointing to the reality of the Messiah.

What we are to do is take account of these three calls for preparation: to be ready for Jesus’ return in glory, to have undertaken personal reform in our lives, and to be those who are being proactive in showing forth the Kingdom.

What are we to do? Let people know by evangelizing the gospel message of freedom, forgiveness, and new life. Make efforts both verbally and by the signals we send through the way we live out our daily lives of what it means to be in the Kingdom. Let others encounter the unexpected from us because we live differently and are different from those in the kingdom of the world. And, finally, remain focused on what is truly important 

Reflection for the 22nd Ordinary Sunday 2024

“You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.”

For seven Sundays we journeyed with Jesus and His apostles. Today, and for the rest of Ordinary Time, Jesus will discuss the practical application of being in Him. How do we do it?

In the context of the journey, we discussed the Law of God that Israel was commanded to follow, covering it especially during the past two weeks.

There is a lot to the Law. At a basic level, as we heard from Moses today, the Law set Israel apart from other nations, but it wasn’t quite that simple.

Israel’s Law of social and religious behavior was developed based on the Ten Commandments, spoken by God to Moses on Mount Sinai. The Ten express the essential religious and moral principles Israel was to follow and put in a nutshell what God revealed to the Israelites about Himself, as well as how they should live in community. From these Ten “Words,” as well as instruction through prophets and priests, Israel developed a detailed system of religious and social communal regulations.

Now, other nations (e.g., the Amorites of Babylon, Assyrians, and others) had codes of laws that predated Israel. In many ways they were similar, and each borrowed from the other.

The differences are in three essential elements. One is the grounding of the codes. Other kingdom’s codes were based on the authority and power of a ruler. Their laws protected the rights of the wealthy and powerful. For Israel, the Law is grounded on communal experience of God. So, although the Law deals with some economic matters, that does not dominate. Rather, at the center of Law is: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of slavery; you shall have no other gods besides me.”

Other differences are the way God is to be treated. The Law did not change with the whims of a king but was the baseline against which all were to behave under and toward God. Lastly, other codes had an imbalance. They treated rich and poor, slaves and free differently. They punished the poor severely for minor things.  In the Law, the most severe penalties were applied to offenses against other people, regardless of social rank, or actions which threaten the community and its values. It was Law for all.

The Law reflected Israel’s unique encounter with God. Hearing its corruption, it being reduced to a series of dos and don’ts without any relationship to God, Jesus speaks of the Law’s true nature. It is about a community in relationship with God and each other. Being in Jesus means that together we are to grow toward God, have our hearts close to God, and always keep our worship directed to God, living His way.

Reflection for the Solemnity of the Resurrection 2020

Seek! Encounter!

Brothers and sisters: If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.

Early in the morning Mary’s heart would not let her sleep. Her heart broken in the experience of witnessing her beloved Lord and Master’s cruel death called out to her – Go, be with Him. Still dark, she ventured out. Wending her way through the city in the early morning, avoiding the Roman soldiers, Temple guards, and other ne’er-do-wells she headed out to the tomb. On her way there she would look up and see the hill on which He was crucified, the crosses still standing in the dawn’s rising sun. Arriving in the garden near the hill she found the stone removed. Shocked she runs off to tell the apostles. St. Matthew tells us that she saw the angel descend to roll away the stone. He told her to run to the apostles. On the way to the apostles, she encounters Jesus.

We have been called into our own monasteries, our convents, our Sketes. We have been, in a way, in this time of confinement and separation, been called apart from the world and are being asked to encounter Jesus. In the silence of this time, let us anew seek what is above, where Christ is seated at God’s right hand. Let us think, ponder, reflect, and lift ourselves up with a focus on what is above. Lifting ourselves to Jesus, let us find hope and more than that – assurance in our encounter with Him.

In facing our current fears, we are closely aligned with how the apostles and Mary felt that morning. Their hearts were broken, and their bodies worn out from grief. And Jesus broke through! He said, I am going before you to Galilee where you will encounter me once again.

Early each morning let us too venture out, out of the things that confine our hope, that break our hearts, that keep our eyes pointed low and down. Let us go to be with our Lord and Master, to sit with Him in prayer. Let us look up to the hill where the cross stands and encounter in it the tree of salvation and freedom. Let us see the tomb empty, knowing that He has risen, knowing that we too are inheritors of that glorious resurrection.

St. Paul calls the people of Colossae and us to a key truth. If we have encountered Christ’s resurrection let us keep our eyes, hearts, thoughts, and spirits focused on Him. The joy of this day is ours forever and nothing can take it from us. It is ours!

Reflection for the 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time 2019

you shall be called by a new name pronounced by the mouth of the LORD.

Jesus again enters the public scene. What better place to do that than at a wedding?

From Christmas forward we see the revelation of Jesus increasing. First, His obvious revelation to Mary and Joseph, the first to behold Him. Soon the crowd starts finding their way to Jesus. Helped by angels, the shepherds see Him, believe, and go forth to proclaim Him. Simeon, the priest and Anna, the prophetess, behold Him in the Temple. The wise men, guided by a star, find Him and the nations of the world pay Him homage. The people of Egypt come to know Him as a refugee and exile. Next, it is the inhabitants of Nazareth, the crowd on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the teachers in the Temple, John and his disciples at the Jordan and the heavenly proclamation: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

What’s amazing about the Christmas season is the repeated opportunities the world had and has to encounter Jesus. We don’t just jump from shepherds to Magi to John the Baptist to Cana. Rather, it is thousands of smaller, more intimate encounters with Jesus. It is chances (focus on the plural) to encounter Him, be changed by Him and be something different.

The wedding at Cana is a reminder of the encountering and the changing, as well as the work of those who point to Jesus (at Cana, it was Mary). Cana reminds us that things have changed. We are called to reconnect, to re-recognize the ways in which we are different and the ways we fall short of how different we must be. Things have changed – we are changed by our meeting with Jesus. We have more capacity and room for encounter and change.

At Cana, the usual was changed. The good wine came our later. The disciples came to believe. The usual became wonderfully unusual.

Isaiah reminded us that things would be and must be different. We get a new name – we are called differently. What was usual in us becomes wonderfully unusual. Encounter to change, change to further encounter, more change.

Encounter be changed. Call to mind and bring to action the discipleship of being something different in Jesus. 

Reflection for the 2nd Sunday in Lent 2018

Encountering
Him.

He was transfigured before them, and His clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them. Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus.

The absolute purity, perfection, wisdom, and justice of God make encounters with Him a fearful event. None of us is really worthy of such an opportunity. Additionally, what would we say? How could or would we explain ourselves. His all-knowing presence would see into the deepest parts of our hearts and minds. All would be revealed. We would be crushed in our own sins.

Very few in Old Testament times sought out an encounter with God. Those who knew Him either lived in fear and trembling or ignored Him and went their own way. Yet, God did not let Himself remain distant and unknown.

In Old Testament times, God set forth to walk with men and women. He encountered them, called to them, and led them. Among those who encountered God were: Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham (as we hear in today’s first reading and at other times in his life), Sarah, Hagar, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Solomon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, Daniel, and many of the prophets.

With Jesus coming, all who saw and met Him met God in the flesh. The people who recognized Him as Messiah prior to His resurrection included: Mary, John the Baptist (in the womb and when they met at Jesus at the Jordan), Simeon and Anna, Peter, the Samaritan woman at the well, Martha and Mary, the Thief on the Cross, the Centurion at the cross. After the resurrection, the remaining Apostles and 500 disciples and the two traveling to Emmaus recognized who He was.

We, like those who met Jesus after His Ascension (Stephen, Paul, and Ananias) are also able to encounter God. He remains close and accessible to us

St. Paul offers us the same reassurance he had. He does not say that that we are somehow perfect or worthy of encountering God on our own, but that God has extended Himself to us. He has chosen us and has reconciled us so that we may encounter Him in love and fellowship. By His effort – the graces won by his Son, Jesus – we are able to freely draw close to Him. Our sins no longer crush us. In fact, they have been washed away.

Today we see the three accompany Jesus up the mountain. There, they are treated to the Divine vision; the eternal breaking into the world. Jesus is completely revealed to them. Again, God reaches out to us. The encounter with God did not kill the three. Instead, they saw all God is and all He offers.
This Lent is the chance. It is the time to draw close encountering God, to remain with Him and to enter into His Divine life in new freedom without fear.