Last Sunday, the 1st Sunday of Lent, we remembered the Temptation of Jesus in the desert. The 2nd Sunday of Lent, we celebrate his transfiguration in glory on the mountain.
The gospel writers, Matthew, Mark and Luke, say Jesus appeared in glory after telling his disciples he was going to suffer and die in Jerusalem. They’re deeply troubled and saddened by that announcement, and so Jesus reveals his glory, the glory of his coming resurrection, to strengthen their faith.
This gospel is also meant to strengthen our faith.
Jesus’ message about carrying the cross was not just a hard message for his disciples then, it’s a hard message for us now. Carrying a cross is something we back away from. The teachings of Jesus can seem hard : Love your enemies; do good to those who sin against you. Turn the other cheek when someone strikes you. Forgive your brother or sister, not seventy times but seventy times seven. Think better of others than yourself. Bear the burdens of others. Be simple like little children. Never say a word against someone else. Take the last place instead of the first. Be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
So many of Jesus’ teachings seem to go beyond what we are able to do. Let’s be reasonable about this, we say. So we’re tempted to lower our sights and even give up on trying to reach them.
For us today, this feast promises there’s glory ahead, no matter how bad our personal lives may be, or how bad our world might seem to be, or how impossible the message of the gospel sounds.
We may not experience what the three disciples experienced, but we’re promised experiences of God’s glory, experiences of a lesser kind, intimations of God’s glory, to strengthen us to keep going, following Jesus Christ.
But we can’t pass over our first reading this Sunday, God’s call to Abraham to sacrifice his own son, Isaac, on Mount Moriah. That’ s also a hard reading to understand. Abraham, ”Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There you shall offer him up as a holocaust on a height that I will point out to you.”
Why would God ask for such a thing, that a father take his son, his only son, the son he loves, and put him to death? In that command we can see all the mysterious sufferings wonder about in life.
Why did my son, my daughter, my friend die? Why these wars that take the lives of children and destroy families and nations. Why this violence in our country and all over the world. Why can’t we get along in our country? So much suffering seems unjust.
Why does God permit it? Why doesn’t God do something?
The mystery of the Passion of our Lord is God’s answer to questions like that. He sends his only Son, the Son that he loves, and he experiences the evils of our world, and he dies and rises again.
We ask for the faith of Abraham. His faith was so strong. He believed in God’s ultimate love and justice. We ask for the faith of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, whose faith also was so strong. She saw her only son, the son she loved, suffer and die. We ask for the faith of our church, that we may believe, that God will strengthen our faith.
For this week’s homily please watch the video below.
Our pilgrimage on earth cannot be exempt from trial. We progress by means of trial. No one knows himself except through trial, or receives a crown except after victory, or strives except against an enemy or temptations.
But we are not left on our own. Christ chose to foreshadow us, who are his body, by means of his body, in which he has died, risen and ascended into heaven, so that the members of his body may hope to follow where their head has gone before.
He made us one with him when he chose to be tempted by Satan. We have heard in the gospel how the Lord Jesus Christ was tempted by the devil in the wilderness. Certainly Christ was tempted by the devil. In Christ you were tempted, for Christ received his flesh from your nature, but by his own power gained salvation for you; he suffered death in your nature, but by his own power gained glory for you; therefore, he suffered temptation in your nature, but by his own power gained victory for you.
If in Christ we have been tempted, in him we overcome the devil. Do you think only of Christ’s temptations and fail to think of his victory? See yourself as tempted in him, and see yourself as victorious in him. He could have kept the devil from himself; but if he were not tempted he could not teach you how to triumph over temptation.”
My dear Brothers, Sisters and Friends in the Passionist Family,
Greetings of peace and hope of God’s closeness to you all!
Once again, we are confronted by the special season of Lent, during which we hear the call to ongoing conversion (metanoia), by which we are challenged to turn away from sin and choose to grow closer to God by loving Him and loving our neighbor as ourselves. The Gospel passage which is given at the beginning of Lent each year as a roadmap for our Lenten journey, places before our attention: prayer, almsgiving, and fasting as means by which we can love God and our neighbor as ourselves (cf. Mt. 6:1-6,16-18). This season is filled with the promise of new opportunities and new beginnings, powered by God’s grace and presence. Let us seize this precious moment. As St. Paul urges: “…we urge you not to let your acceptance of God’s grace come to nothing. As God said, ‘At the time of my favor, I have answered you; on the day of salvation, I have helped you’. Well, now is the real time of favor; now the day of salvation is here.” (2Cor. 6:1-2).
In this Lenten message, I would like to focus and share some reflections with you on the subject of PRAYER, particularly since Pope Francis has announced this year to be a Year of Prayer, in preparation for the Jubilee Year next year (2025).
Lent is an opportunity for our spiritual formation and discipline. To seize this opportunity, we need to be led and guided by the Spirit who facilitates our encounter with God. Like Jesus, we want to respond by accepting the call to go into the ‘desert’, driven by the Spirit (Mt. 4:1-13; Lk. 4:1-11). God is waiting for us, expecting us, offering us a time of restoration…a time of RETREAT…the chance for a fresh start in the spiritual life (cf. Hosea 2:16-17). The goal of this time is to seek and find the will of God over and beyond all the movements of our heart. St. Ignatius of Loyola says that two things are needed for this: i) magnanimity, i.e. a wide and open mind which is not confined to narrow horizons of small interests, and ii) generosity, i.e. the readiness to give without conditions and limits.
“Lent is an occasion, not so much for increased time given to prayer, as for a different prayer:
a prayer with that distinctive flavor which arises from a realization of who I am ‘in Christ’,
the unlimited potential in me for growth into Christ,
and the possibility of achieving it because of his power as risen Lord.”
~ Gregory Manly, CP/Anneliese Reinhard, MSC
Driven by the Spirit, God’s intention in the ‘desert’ is not to punish us but to purify us. In the desert, God will want to purify us of any excessive attachment we may have to consolation in prayer. If in prayer God blesses us with a lot of consolation (“spiritual highs”), there is a danger that we may seek and love “the consolations of our God more than the God of our consolations”, saidSt Teresa of Avila.In general, prayer in the desert will become less of us, and more of God.
The following are good indicators that our experience of ‘spiritual desert’ (dryness in prayer) is the purifying work of God:
If during the time of dryness, we remain faithful to prayer.
If our prayer is honest and flowing from the real stuff of our lives.
If we are trying to integrate prayer and life.
If we are trying to live a life of charity.
If our prayer is helping us to be more loving.
If we are genuinely trying to avoid sin and live our lives according to God’s Word.
If we thirst, yearn, and have a desire for God as we walk in the desert.
As Jesus was led into the desert by the Spirit (Mt. 4:1) to face the great issues of his life and mission before he entered into his ministry, so also, we too enter into this Lenten time to face the great issues of our life – God’s invitations and the evil attractions and allurements. In the solitude of the desert, we are meant to find the clarity and firmness which we shall need in the turmoil of actual life.
We read in all the gospels that Jesus would withdraw to deserted places and pray. While prayer was a common practice of his culture, Jesus nevertheless sought times of quiet, times of solitude. For any Christian who aspires toward union with God, SOLITUDE holds an extremely important place in life in that it is a pre-requisite for the communion one must keep both with God and with other people. Christian solitude is never a solitude from people, but a solitude for people.
“The desert does not mean the absence of people,
it means the presence of God.”
~ Carlo Carretto
The Trappist monk, Thomas Merton said: “It is in deep solitude that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brothers…Solitude and silence teach me to love my brothers for what they are, not for what they say.” ~ The Sign of Jonas
As Passionists, we know that one of the pillars upon which our Congregation is founded by St. Paul of the Cross, is solitude. For Paul, solitude was a cyclic journey into his human heart (self), to the Divine Heart (God), to every human heart (others). It is linked to a call to community and evangelization. In a letter written to Canon Felice Pagliari in 1768, Paul of the Cross wrote:
“Our Congregation is established on this foundation…the vocation which God has given to her…our Rule obliges us after missions, retreats etc. to withdraw immediately into the Retreats of our solitude in order to recollect our spirit in prayer and fasting. Believe me, an evangelical worker who is a man of prayer, a friend of solitude and detached from all created things accomplishes more than a thousand others who are not such men…”
~ L III, 13 February 1768
Lent gives us the opportunity to re-encounter prayer which brings us face-to-face with God who already delights in us. Prayer is an encounter with God.The goal and mentality of prayer is not success or conquest, but surrender. The goal is to give oneself away completely and to remember how much the Lord will love you when you fail and try again. I offer you this Prayer for Lent composed by St. Ambrose of Milan (339 – 397):
O Lord, who has mercy upon all,
take away from me my sins,
and mercifully kindle in me
the fire of Thy Holy Spirit.
Take away from me the heart of stone,
and give me a heart of flesh,
a heart to love and adore Thee,
a heart to delight in Thee,
to follow and enjoy Thee,
for Christ’s sake. Amen.
May these reflections assist your Lenten journey and enrich your preparation and participation in the celebration of the Paschal Mystery of Christ. May the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ be always in your heart.
The last few weekdays we have been reading at Mass from the dark chapters of David’s life following his murder of Uriah and his affair with Uriah’s wife Bathsheba. (2 Samuel 9-20) Our readings this week are from 2 Samuel 15-18 as he faces the consequences of his sin.
In Monday’s account David must flee from Jerusalem because his own son, Absalom, takes over his kingship by popular acclaim. The people abandon him, and even as he flees from Jerusalem, David’s cursed and stoned and called a murderer. Absalom’s tragic death following that humiliation only deepens his misery. (Tuesday)
Sin has consequences, human consequences, we’re reminded. “If he does wrong, I will correct him with the rod of men and with human chastisements.” (2 Samuel 7, 14)
“ The rod of men” strikes David hard; he not only faces reaction to his own sins but to the sins of his predecessor Saul as well. He lives in a world of violence and revenge, a world not perfect.
David’s not perfect either. He’s imperfect till be dies. But David will not fail, God supports him. Our readings for Thursday and Friday praise David as a man and king “The LORD forgave him his sins and exalted his strength forever.” ( Sirach )
David orders a census as he regains his throne and expands his kingdom. To take a census doesn’t strike us as wrong at first. We take surveys and censuses all the time. But David recognizes that his census taking is an act of pride. He’s making his own calculations more important than the wisdom of God. He’s making his own war preparations and plans more important than the power and plans of God.
Still, the last words about David in the scriptures praise him. How easy to type him as a murderer, an adulterer, a bad father, a failed leader. We humans type people– today we do that a lot. David was more than all those things. He reminds us how complex we humans are. And also how great the mercy of God is.
“On that journey as I drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from the sky suddenly shone around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ I replied, ‘Who are you, sir?’ And he said to me, ‘I am Jesus the Nazorean whom you are persecuting.’ My companions saw the light but did not hear the voice of the one who spoke to me. I asked, ‘What shall I do, sir?’ The Lord answered me, ‘Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told about everything appointed for you to do.’ Since I could see nothing because of the brightness of that light, I was led by hand by my companions and entered Damascus.” Acts 22:8-16
If this account of Paul’s conversion is the only way we see conversion happening, we may tend to look for conversion in some great light from the sky and a voice from heaven knocking us to the ground. Conversion doesn’t happen ordinarily that way. The longer reading of Paul’s conversion for our feast ( Acts 9: 1-22) describes conversion more fully, I think.
St. Francis de Sales, whose feast we celebrated yesterday, probably describes best how God works to convert us- in ordinary ways. God works with us as he works in creation, day by day, morning and night. The farmer in the parables of Jesus hardly notices or understands what’s happening, and we’re like him. Conversion happens through a life time.
We sometimes also think of conversion as a personal gift – God making us better people. But conversion goes beyond changing us, it’s calls us to change the world beyond us. The Feast of Paul’s conversion is followed by the feast of two of his disciples, Timothy and Titus, who continued Paul’s mission in a new way, as they were given charge of the churches of Ephesus and Crete. Paul’s conversion was more than a personal gift. He had a mission to the church and to the world.
Conversion is not a one time grace. In our antiphons for his feast, Paul himself acknowledges his need for the daily grace of God that strengthens him and helps him meets challenges he never expected.
Conversion is not limited to people either. Pope John XXIII called for the Second Vatican Council on the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, January 25, 1959. He saw the council as a converting grace for the church and a contribution to the conversion of the world.
As an event of conversion, the council is not just a shining moment of a few years, but continual event that gives grace in the years and centuries ahead.
Finally, notice the place of the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist in the longer account as he is instructed by Ananias: ” Immediately things like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight. He got up and was baptized, and when he had eaten, he recovered his strength.
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