Fifth Sunday of Lent

Dear All,

The First Reading of this Fifth Sunday of Lent comes from two chapters of the Old Testament Book of Jeremiah called “the little book of consolation”.  Jeremiah, son of a priest lived around the time of siege and destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon at the beginning of the sixth century B.C.E.  Fear and despair seem to grip the people and empty them of hope and they wonder if their promise-making God had deserted them.  But Jeremiah assures them that the days are coming when God will pour new life into them, when God will make a new covenant with them. There have been many previous covenants; with Noah, with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses at Sinai and Joshua at Shechem (the ones highlighted we have read during this season of Lent).  All were God’s initiative at times of crisis and transitions for God’s people and are described in terms of intimate relationships.  Now, says Jeremiah, God will make one that will be even more intimate:  not cut onto tablets of stone, but onto their people’s hearts, giving them a new capacity to respond faithfully to God “from the inside out”.  This will require conversion of heart to God, who alone can truly forgive and forget their (and our) sinfulness.

At the time when Jesus walked the surface of the earth the Greeks were seasoned wanderers. They had the money.  They were like yesterday's jet set with an insatiable desire to see fresh places and taste new ideas.  Being smart tourists they knew the time to be in Jerusalem was Passover. Then they would get all the action and color they wanted.  John is the only Gospel containing the story of the Greek travelers.  Not surprising, as John's work was written to present Christ to the Greeks and Gentiles.  His Jesus was designed for export.  The Greeks of the Gospel story may have seen some of the miracles worked by the Christ in Jerusalem. They may have witnessed Him driving the traders out of the Temple.  They must have heard of His triumphal entrance into Jerusalem.  No wonder they wanted to get to know Jesus, probably suspecting such an outspoken person would not live long.   They chose the apostle Philip as their messenger (must have liked his Greek name ;-).  Their famous line "Sir, we would like to see Jesus!" has been echoed by billions since the Greeks spoke it.  But Philip broke into a sweat at their request.  Did the Master want to chat with these foreigners?  They had no appointment.  Timidly Philip threw the ball into Andrew's court, one of the more senior followers of Jesus.  He set up the rendezvous immediately.  He had learned long before, what we now know, that the Teacher has time for everybody.  You need no appointment.  He has no voice mail, no cell phone, no e-mail.  He takes all calls immediately.  He is on the job 7/24/365.  He's just a prayer away.

With the “hour has come” Jesus foretells for the last time his death and resurrection, with the powerful parable of the grain of wheat having to die in order for the plant to grow and produce much fruit.  We can call this paradoxical wisdom of emptying in order to become full, of dying so that we may be raised to new life.  I am reminded of a story of a very successful person going to a Zen Master seeking the meaning of life.   The visitor began telling all about his ideas, his achievements and his interests.  While the visitor was talking and talking the Zen Master put a cup in front of him and began serving tea.  Even after the cup was filled, he continued pouring tea.  The visitor jumped away from the overflowing cup saying to the Zen Mater: “The cup is overflowing!   Don’t you see that not more will go in?”  To which the Master responded: “Like this cup, you are overflowing with your own views and accomplishments.  I have no way of showing you Zen, unless you first empty your cup”.

After receiving feedback from my dear readers that the scripture website sometimes was confusing (particularly on dates when several readings are available to choose from), I have created a dedicated blog posting only the scripture text I am referring to in any given commentary.  For this one, the complete text of the readings at: http://scriptures-my-journey-oflife-andfaith.blogspot.com/2009/03/fifth-sunday-of-lent.html

With God’s Love and Blessings,

Rainer

Fourth Sunday of Lent - Laetare Sunday

Dear All,

The Fourth Sunday of Lent is Laetare Sunday.  From the Latin it means joy at one stage of our Lenten journey.  Rose colored vestments and flowers on the altar are signs of the Church's joy.

This week’s readings are about faith and behavior, good and bad in the history of God’s people.  The First Reading from the Old Testament – 2^nd Book of Chronicles reports about bad behaviors -infidelities, practicing abominations, polluting– of leaders –princes, priests- and people, ignoring –mocking, despising- the messengers that God had sent over time.  This bad behavior and reluctance to repent leads to destruction of the Temple, palaces and the walls of Jerusalem and those that escaped the sword end up in the seventy year Babylonian captivity.  The subject of bad behavior is characterized in John’s Gospel as staying in the darkness doing wicked things, earning condemnation.

In the Second Reading, the apostle Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians helps us understand one of the central questions about faith, which is the gift of God.  Salvation does not come from good works.  It is by grace through faith, which is a gift from God.  Every time I come across this passage, I need to take a deep breath and slow down a moment, read it a few times and just let it float in my head for a while.  Often I end up with an immense sense of gratitude about this precious gift of eternal life.  It is so godly and so counter-intuitive of all the other goodies in life which have to be earned.  We can all relax and enjoy the moment of this notion of the great gift.

John’s Gospel tells about Jesus’ teaching to his timid, well-read disciple Nicodemus, and to us, about the great mystery of the Resurrection as a precursor to eternal life.  The famous passage of John 3:16, so often quoted and referenced by many, is about God’s love for the world and offering up his only Son for salvation of all.  We started reflecting about the consequences of bad behavior and end with the teaching of John that good behavior may be clearly seen by God, as it brings it to the light that came into the world.

To me today, this means that the consequences of un-repented bad behavior are condemnation.  Yet God’s mercy is unlimited, always available to redeem us, like he did bring back the Israelites form Babylon, with the only requirement of our repentance.  The relationship between God’s offering of his only son and salvation is one of the great mysteries, which I include into the categories of things I still don’t fully understand.  However I am free to hope that one day I may.  In the meantime I can relax, as the greatest of all, salvation to eternal life, is a free gift.  Gratitude and Joy –Laetare- is the response I choose.

A complete text of the readings at: http://scriptures-my-journey-oflife-andfaith.blogspot.com/2009/03/fourth-sunday-of-lent.html

With God’s Love and Blessings,

Rainer

 

P.S.  Please include Astrid’s boyfriend, Simo in your prayers, for the healing of whatever is causing some nasty back pains.

Third Sunday of Lent

Dear All,

It looks like this year’s Lenten reflections are all being written above 35,000 feet.  Last week’s was written on my way to Brazil, the one before on my way to London and this one is being typed into to laptop on my way to Germany.  With all this traveling around it has been a challenge to find that quiet time for prayer and reflection.  Fasting is going well as reflected by several pounds less.  As for almsgiving, the third of the Lenten priorities, I am glad we have a few more weeks before Easter to give me a chance to catch up.  How is your Lenten coming along?

The Old Testament Readings continue on the path of God’s covenants.  We recall Genesis’ Noah’s story of the First Sunday with God’s promise to all living creatures.  Last week it was a promise to Abraham and his descendants larger in number than the stars on the night sky.  This week we read from the Book of Exodus about God’s ten commandments given to Moses on Mount Horeb, better known as Mount Sinai.  Every year we get a chance to remind ourselves of these instructions given to the Israelites just a few months into their journey to the Promised Land.  Some scholars estimate that only three months had elapsed since they had escaped captivity from Egypt and they were already getting into all sorts of troubles among themselves wondering if captivity with sure food would not be better than this wondering around in the desert.  The commandments are God’s promise that if they follow them they will have better relationships among themselves.  They certainly needed them for their 40 year journey through the desert.  I ask myself how well am I following them and how am I doing in relationship with my fellows on this life’s journey.  In this day an age, some are straightforward and almost self evident for some of us, like “Thou shall not kill”.  Although there are Catholics in high ranking positions today (number 2 and 3 in the US Presidential succession as one example) that with a “pro choice” versus “pro life” position seem to have a bit of a fuzzy view about this one.  I am going to stay away from commenting an all ten here.  But I do suggest that you spend sometime reflecting on one or two of them that are in your way of better relationships.  That is what God wants from us, to live in good relations with our neighbors.

John’s Gospel was written about 70 years after the Resurrection at the time when the three Synoptic Gospels were well known in the Christian community.  While Matthew, Mark and Luke wrestle with the What, When and Who, John is more on the question of Why.  The Story of kicking out the traders and money dealers from the Great Temple, one of the world wonders at its time -under construction for half a century, is told by all three Synoptics much later in their narrative, while John has it quite early.  When John tells his story the Temple of Jerusalem had already been destroyed by the Romans, not leaving a single stone in its place.  Jesus shows a strong emotion, though he took his time to let it build up.  “He made a whip out of cords” must have taken some time.  The market place was not unrelated to the temple… the money changers were there to change liras, roman coins to shekels, Hebrew money (as roman coins would have been an offense for the offerings)… the dove, sheep and oxen traders found their place to provide ‘material’ for the sacrifices.  The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has the original of El Greco’s great rendition of this scene.  Yet the Jews were loosing sight of what the worship was all about with the distractions about all the trading going on.  Jesus confrontation with the religious leadership of his time (the Jews) who felt threatened by this Jesus and challenged him for signs, is a repeating theme in John’s Gospel.  Paul tells us in his first Letter to the Corinthians that Jews were looking for signs, very much like Greeks believed in reason as a source of the almighty.  Jesus foretells his resurrection by using the words of rebuilding the temple in three days.  I like John’s editorial comment for all of us who may not get it either, “but he was speaking about the temple of his body”.  John’s gospel has seven sign’s from the miracle of converting water into wine at the Canaan wedding all the way to the resurrection of Lazarus, providing ample signs.  Yet the Scribes and Pharisees did not get it.  Much worse they felt threatened… but that is a story we’ll read in a few weeks, on Palm Sunday.

A complete text of the readings at: http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/031509a.shtml

With God’s Love and Blessings,

Rainer

Second Sunday of Lent

Dear All,

On our Lenten journey to Easter, the highest feast of the liturgical year, we come across another covenant of God in the First Reading of the Book of Genesis.  Not unlike last week’s covenant relationship with all the creatures of the world, this week we read of the covenant made with Abraham.  Having promised Abraham descendants and land, God asks him to sacrifice the very son through whom the promise was to be carried out.  Abraham is put to the test to choose between the promise of God to be fulfilled in Isaac and the very God who made the promise in the first place.  Abraham shows the depth of his faith in God with a terrifying response, getting ready to kill his only son.  Accepting God’s grace, even when not understanding, was the key to avoid focusing on the promise itself.  Complicated indeed, I have to admit, but part of the mystery of suffering in this world.

In the Second Reading from his Letter to the Romans, Paul says simply, yet with profound and unshakable faith, that if God is with us, no one and nothing can be against us.  This deep conviction Paul wishes to convey to his Roman communities… and to us.  God being with us does not mean avoidance from suffering, very much like to get to Easter, Jesus had to suffer through Good Friday.  No one and nothing against us, means that nothing can prevent the Good News of Salvation and Eternal Life.  Not even Jesus crucifixion and burial prevented God from raising Him on Easter Sunday.  This is a great mystery of the suffering.  I often think that we are good company to Peter, John and James when coming down from Mount Tabor when “questioning what rising from the dead meant”.  We need the faith of Abraham and of Paul that sustains us during our travel through the weeks of Lent.

I realize, I got ahead of myself coming down from the high mountain before we even got up there.  Six days before the story we read from Mark’s Gospel, Jesus had told his closest followers that he must go to Jerusalem, where he would suffer and be put to death.  He tried to tell them that it was a path to glory both for him and for them.  For them, like it would be for us if we wouldn’t know about the Easter Resurrection, it didn’t make any sense.  They were worried and anxious.  Jesus had to give them something to hold onto.  He took three of them to the lonely summit of a mountain where they had a mystical experience that would stay with them for the rest of their lives.  The Greek Bible talks bout the metamorphosis.  As Jesus transfigured and for a brief interval his divinity shone through, two biblical ancestors, Moses and Elijah, who also had experienced suffering, revelation and transformation on mountain tops (Sinai and Carmel) engage in dialogue with him.  They represent the Mosaic Law and the Prophets from the Old Testament.  And while the three are terrified and Peter makes the off the wall suggestion of building tents, we hear for the second and last time in the New Testament, God’s voice, pointing us, like at Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan, to his beloved son.  This time with a precise instruction to Peter, John, James and all of us, who often hear but not understand: “Listen to him”.

A complete text of the readings at: http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/030809.shtml

With God’s Love and Blessings,

Rainer

First Sunday of Lent

Dear All,

The First Reading from the Book of Genesis, the first Book in the Christian Bible and the Jewish Torah, tells the story of the flood and Noah’s ark. Every time we look at a rainbow we are reminded of God’s promise, the close bond remembered over three thousand years ago, not only to mankind but also to every living creature.  The rainbow, this most beautiful and transient of all things, is a wonderful sign of God’s love.  All the colors are there and all the grades in between. And there are even colors we can’t see. This shows the breadth of God’s love.  His love covers the whole range of existence and even things we are totally unaware of.  In some ancient cultures the rainbow is a sign of a weapon as in a bow and arrow, representing God’s bow and the lightning his arrow.  The rainbow for them is a sign of anger, but for us it is a sign of God’s love.  We do enough things to provoke God’s anger, but in this great covenant God says that he will be merciful to us.  Although we have sinned he will hold back his anger.  Instead he will love us all the more.

During this season of Lent we think about fasting and doing penance.  The Gospel tells us about Jesus spending time in the desert being tested and experiencing all kinds of temptations.  He emerged victorious in Galilee proclaiming the good news:  "This is the time of fulfillment.  The kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent, and believe in the gospel."  These were the first spoken words of Jesus in Mark’s Gospel.  The account of the temptation reads almost like a telegram.  There are just two verses compared to the lengthier and fuller eleven verses of Matthew and thirteen of Luke.  Mark doesn’t bother about the content of the various temptations.  He bluntly states the fact of the forty days when Jesus was tempted by Satan.  The wild beasts are traditional symbols of evil and like Satan they prowl around looking for any signs of weakness.  And by enduring the tests successfully Jesus demonstrates that he is the true heir of Moses and Elijah who also endured periods of fasting.  The forty days is a symbolic allusion to the forty years the Chosen People spent in the wilderness after the Egyptian captivity, being tested by God.  We remember all this during the forty days of Lent. 

All testing involves privation and suffering.  If all testing involves suffering then in spiritual terms we can also say that all suffering is a testing. The test hopefully will increase our faith and trust in God.  We can also undergo spiritual suffering when we experience times of doubt and darkness, which are also tests.  God seems so far away.  We find it hard to place ourselves in his presence, wondering sometimes if all this isn’t a complete waste of time.  Most of us dread being put to the test, but it is something we all have to endure.  It is an essential element of our pilgrimage.  But you notice that even for Jesus it was for a fixed time, the forty days.  There is always an end.  During Lent we are invited to undergo some small hardship as a spiritual exercise, as a strengthening and a preparation for that real time of testing we may encounter during our journey.  We place ourselves in God’s hands relying trustfully upon him.  Remembering those hidden Angels, who are not far away, during these trials we unite ourselves with Christ and ask him to endure the Temptation with us.  When we emerge from the desert we enter more fully into the presence of God and it will have all the beauty and more of the rainbow.

A complete text of the readings at: http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/030109.shtml

With God’s Love and Blessings,

Rainer

Ash Wednesday

Dear All,

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the season of Lent.  The liturgical year has for special seasons, Christmas, Lent and Easter.  The weeks “in between” are called ordinary time.  Lent starts with an invitation from the Book of Joel, one of the twelve minor Prophets from the Old Testament, to open our hearts and return to the Lord with fasting.  He pronounces our God to be merciful, slow to anger and rich in kindness. 

Jesus gives us some practical means to get our priorities straight and return to God.  We learn how to perform righteous deeds, how to pray and how to fast.  Interesting that all three paragraphs in the Gospel start with the phrase “when you…” leaving it assumed that those three activities are the ones that will get us back on track.  In all three situations he directs us to do it privately, assuring us that God will know about it, even if nobody else on earth notices it.  I get the sense from this scripture from Matthew that the less observable to the physical world, higher the degree of acceptance of our loving Father.  We have all experienced it at one point in our lives.  When intensely focused on any of these three, we get to remember moments of intense inner peace in the aftermath of it.  Lent are five weeks during which we are invited to specially focus on fasting, praying and almsgiving.  Not that we won’t do any of them the rest of the year, but it is a good occasion to focus on them.  Fasting makes me reflect at the opportunity to shed some pounds or kilos, which are excess baggage any way.  And five weeks are a manageable time.  Talking about manageable, we learned something very encouraging during our six year in Germany, a sort of crutch to make the weeks of Lent even more acceptable.  A German Jesuit priest told us that taking a break from fasting on Sundays is perfectly fitting.  He reminded us that it is the Lord’s Day and our joy should not be hindered by fasting afflictions.  Neat, isn’t it?  We are all invited to reflect on plans for fasting, thinking about what it is we are going to give up during these weeks.  Same with praying, are we considering any special dedication to prayer during this Lent?  And for righteous things and almsgiving the opportunities are facing us almost every step of the way.  Are we going to act differently in this season than we usually do, when the next opportunity crosses our path?

From the second reading from St Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, which we have been following for the last several weeks, we read that now is an acceptable time when God will help us.  The letters to the Corinthians come across as very modern.  The society at Corinth had many common traits with our present western society.  Very successful merchants, great architects, not withholding much on promiscuity and very developed social lives.  Paul is writing to people like us.  Therefore we can take to heart when he speaks as an ambassador for Christ, "Be reconciled to God...Now is the day of salvation." 

A complete text of the readings at: http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/022509.shtml

Wishing everyone a blessed Lent,

Rainer

Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dear All,

The Prophet Isaiah makes a amazing pronouncement in this Sunday’s First Reading when saying:” Thus says the LORD: … It is I, I, who wipe out, for my own sake, your offenses; your sins I remember no more.”  What an introduction to one of the themes of this last Sunday before the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday.  Forgiveness of sins together with healing and friendship are significant topics of this week. 

From the second chapter of the Gospel of Mark we read this great story of the paralytic and his friends.  After the extensive healings of the first chapter: the man with the unclean spirit, Peter’s mother in law, the many people who followed Jesus looking for some sort of cure, and even the healing of a leper.  This week’s story is a lot deeper than a miracle story.  It is a story of healing forgiveness, the power of the Lord, and the power of friends.  Jesus is teaching in a house, crowded with people.  Four friends want to bring their paralyzed buddy to the Lord, but they can’t get near the door.  So, they climb up onto the roof, haul the poor guy up, then pull apart the roof making a hole right over where Jesus was.  Jesus’ response to the incident is to commend the friends for their faith and then to forgive the paralytic.  When some scribes complain that only God can forgive, Jesus notes that according to Isaiah a sign of the Messiah would be that sins would be forgiven and that, among other healings, the lame would walk.  The lame is forgiven, healed and he leaves carrying his mat.

In the ancient world paralysis was seen as resulting from sin.  We now know that this is not true, at least not directly.  In the case of this healing, the man is paralyzed by sin, the same way sin can paralyze us today.  Sin can exercise such force over us that we feel incapable of movement.  A person’s self worth can be so torn down, feeling incapable of approaching healing.  “How can I go to confession?” someone asks.  “I’ve destroyed a life, destroyed a marriage, destroyed my family?”  Many times a person will say, “I want forgiveness, but I just can’t get up the courage to seek it.  I can’t control temptations.  I probably will sin again.”  When we feel that way we are paralyzed by sin.  We need healing.  Physical healing, perhaps.  Spiritual healing, certainly.  Jesus gives the paralytic both physical and spiritual healing.  How come?  Because He is God’s Love come down to earth.   He loves the man too much to allow him to continue suffering both spiritually and physically.

And now we come to the real heroes of the story, the paralytic’s four friends.  These four would do whatever it took to bring their friend to the Lord.  Certainly they were pushed aside when they tried to enter the door.  They probably were yelled at, insulted and mocked for climbing onto the roof and destroying it.  But their determination to do what was the best for their friend, their determination to bring him to the Lord, was all that mattered.  This is at the center of Christian friendship.  It is a huge blessing to have friends willing to do whatever it takes to bring someone to the Lord.  It takes a courageous friend to say to someone, caught up in the effects of sin, whether he/she caused the sin or is suffering from the sin of others: “Look, your killing yourself with … drugs, with alcohol, with the way you treat other people.  You don’t like who you’ve become.  But you don’t have to stay suffering like this.  Come to Jesus.  Start new again and be happy.”  This gospel story tells us about the responsibility and the opportunity we have for one another.  There are times that we are paralyzed by selfishness, fear, pride, greed or whatever.  We might not realize the extent of our need.  We might be unable or unwilling to do anything on our own behalf.  We depend upon others to carry us to the Lord.  And there are times that we come upon others that need our strength and our faith to help them to see the Light of Christ in the midst of their darkness.  When Jesus saw the faith of the four friends, he healed the paralytic. 

We pray today that we might not just have friends like that, but that we might become friends like that to others.  A complete text of the readings at: http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/022209.shtml

With God’s Love and Blessings,

Rainer