Monday of Holy Week

Lectionary: 257

Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil
made from genuine aromatic nard
and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair;
the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. 

I know little about fragrant oils but a liter sounds like an awful lot to pour over a man's feet. However, I have smelled myrrh and it's a powerful scent. It's easy to imagine how "the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil." The neighbors down the street must have noticed. And the astonishment of those in the room; and the complaint of at least one of them. 

Myrrh was used to anoint dead bodies, which were immediately buried or entombed. Mary's odd behavior, outrageous expenditure, and invasive odor certainly upset more than a few people. If Judas was the only one to object, the rest may have been too surprised, polite, or cowed by the presence of the Master to complain about it.

However, we should notice that Nicodemus did something similar when he attended the Lord's entombment several days later. 

"The one who had first come to him at night also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about one hundred pounds."

That's enough for an entire village of corpses! 

Their excess is heavy with meaning for us. They remind us of Isaiah's proclamation in today's first reading: 

Here is my servant whom I uphold,

my chosen one with whom I am pleased....

This man, whose presence overwhelms us is the same Cloud of Glory that overwhelmed the priests in Solomon's temple. He has come from God and is returning to God. He is the One who was with God in the beginning, and is God. (John 1:1-2) He is the One through whom all things came to be, and he is with us here. 

This overpowering myrrh smells of heaven itself, which may be initially repulsive -- as death and corpses and futility and waste are repulsive. But that is because we do not understand the ways of God. His light is too bright for blind eyes; and his voice, too loud for those who don't listen. 

Jesus, by his human nature and his sacrifice has made our humanity beautiful in God's sight, and by his compassionate divinity has made the divine delightful to our taste, smell, touch, hearing, and sight. But Jesus is a cultivated taste, meant for everyone though welcomed by few. 

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you, because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world. 

Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion

 Lectionary: 37 and 38

Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God (as) something to be grasped.

Several weeks ago we overheard a conversation between Jesus and Satan. God's perennial antagonist offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the earth, and the Lord refused the offer. He insisted that he would serve God alone, and would worship neither Satan nor his power. In fact, he seemed to renounce every claim to power. 

But Satan and his people have always suffered a profound confusion about power. He thinks it has given him authority. Satan, it may be true, has control of material things and can manipulate them in any way he sees fit. However, whether his power is economic or military or government; mechanical, chemical, electrical, or atomic; whether it is fame, popularity, or influence: it is not authority. Authority and power should not be confused. 

All authority in heaven and on earth, as the Gospels tell us, belongs to God the Father, and to anyone on whom he bestows it. We know, as God's people -- and Satan is not among God's people --  that he gave all authority to Jesus, the Son of Mary. If the Lord didn't seem to have much authority or power as he stood before his accusers, His time would come. 

Satan has great power today but he does not have the authority. Many politicians suppose their power over armies, navies, and air forces gives them authority over the minds and hearts of men and women. Many wealthy people with their lackeys, propagandists, and influencers, with their money and luxuries, with the deference they’re given by the adoring public and other elites, suppose that they have authority; although they never have so much as they want. 

They do not; authority remains with the Lord who calls every nation and every citizen of every nation to live freely in mercy and in justice, in righteousness, truth, and beauty. Any member of any despised minority and any criminal condemned to death knows what the Lord knows,“They may control my body but they cannot control my mind.” 

As Christians gather for Palm Sunday, we remember the final contest for all authority in heaven and on earth. This is the epic struggle between Good and Evil, between God and Satan. But we already know how this war ends, as the Book of Revelation tells us, 

Then war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels battled against the dragon. The dragon and its angels fought back, but they did not prevail and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. The huge dragon, the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world, was thrown down to earth, and its angels were thrown down with it.

There is no contest! Within “an instant, within the blink of an eye,” Satan with all his naked, brute power is overthrown. 

But the victory does not come so easily to Earth, because Satan and his angels are thrown down to earth and they can still deceive the whole world. We, the Church, must remain until our hearts, and all the hearts of those who are being saved, are united in the Lord. 

During Holy Week we will watch as Jesus defeats the Enemy in the only way it can be done; by obedience to his Heavenly Father, by believing in God in the face of death, by dying to himself, and by waiting for the Redemption that has been promised. 

Death, with his customary impudence, will find him on the cross and will swallow him up, taking him from our sight and carrying him into hell. But neither death nor Satan can foresee what Jesus does upon his arrival in Hell. 

We call it the Harrowing of Hell, when Satan stripped of all his power, watches helplessly as the Lord takes everyone who faithfully observed God’s law, from Adam and Eve, to Abraham, Moses, and David, from Hosea to Jeremiah to Zechariah, from Sarah, Rebecca, Miriam, Deborah, Ruth, Judith and Esther; and all the unknown holy men and women who believed in God and Truth and Goodness despite their many disappointments and sorrows. The Lord finds them, sets them free, and brings them into paradise with the repentant thief, and all the saints and martyrs. 

Holy Week invites all of the faithful to go with us to the Upper Room, the Cenacle, where the Lord will celebrate his Last Supper, and give us his own flesh to eat and his blood to drink. We will go to pray with him in Gethsemane, and endure his trials before Annas and Caiaphas, Herod and Pontius Pilate. We will carry our crosses with him to Calvary, and stand with Mary his Mother. We will remain as the dying man gives us to Mary his mother and she becomes our mother. We will remain with Mary Magdalene as she stays by his tomb, though she cannot imagine what will happen on Sunday morning. 

And we will gather again on Easter to hear the voices of heaven, and earth, and under the earth declare, “Jesus Christ is Lord!” 

And we will hear the Victor over sin, Satan, and death announce;

All power (and all authority) in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent

 Lectionary: 256

Thus says the Lord GOD:
I will take the children of Israel from among the nations
to which they have come,
and gather them from all sides to bring them back to their land.
I will make them one nation upon the land,
in the mountains of Israel,
and there shall be one prince for them all.

On this day before Palm Sunday, as we prepare to relive the story of Jesus' arrival in the Holy City, the Church offers the above passage from Ezekiel. It concerns the "one prince for them all." 

Perhaps J.R.R.Tolkien was thinking of that phrase when he penned his famous incantation:

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,

One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie. 

As I have studied the Old Testament -- especially Deuteronomy, Isaiah, and Ezekiel -- and recited the Psalms daily, I notice how important the return of all Jews to Israel is for the Bible. The prophets agree their diaspora came upon them due to their grievous sins against the Lord. If their systematic neglect of widows, orphans, and aliens was not enough, their sacrifice of infants was unspeakable. (It was a common practice throughout the Phoenician world, and suppressed only when Rome leveled Carthage, the Phoenician capital.) 

The Assyrian army first invaded and destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel. They forced many Israelites to flee while some were forced to move to Assyria. (The Book of Tobit is situated in Assyria.) Later, the Babylonian army captured and leveled Jerusalem. Even the marvelous Temple of Solomon was destroyed, while the Jewish leaders were forced to migrate to Babylon. 

History might have forgotten the Israelites as it forgot the "Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites." (Exodus 3:8) However, God would not forget his promise to Abraham, 

I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the families of the earth will find blessing in you." (Genesis 12)

Remembering the promise and the covenant, the scattered tribes of Israel wait hopefully for the Lord to bring them back to their native land where they will be ruled once again by David or his heir. 

I hear that poignant longing for reunion in our Eucharistic Prayer 2:

Remember, Lord, your Church,

spread throughout the world,

and bring her to the fullness of charity,

together with Leo our Pope

and N. our Bishop, [and his assistant Bishops]

and all the clergy. 

And in Eucharistic Prayer 3:

...you never cease to gather a people to yourself, 

so that from the rising of the sun to its setting 

a pure sacrifice may be offered to your name. 

Saint Paul saw that universal communion restored in the Body of Christ. He urged the Corinthians in both his letters to send money to Jerusalem to support the Christians who endured ostracism from their Jewish people, and also a drought and famine. Because there is only one Body of Christ, if one member suffers all the members suffer. That's how the human body functions, and the Risen Lord Jesus is a human being!

He also felt God's intense desire that everyone -- Jew first and then gentile -- should recognize the fulfillment of Abraham's promises and Moses' Law in Jesus. That too would fulfill Ezekiel's prophecy:

I will take the children of Israel from among the nations

to which they have come,

and gather them from all sides to bring them back to their land.

I will make them one nation upon the land,

in the mountains of Israel,

On Palm Sunday we joyfully greet the "One Prince for them All." In his Kingdom all nations, peoples, tribes, clans, and families will worship the LORD. 

Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent

Lectionary: 255

I hear the whispering of many:
“Terror on every side!
Denounce! let us denounce him!”
All those who were my friends
are on the watch for any misstep of mine.

Christian typology has long recognized the Prophet Jeremiah as the most Christlike of all the Hebrew prophets. The young unmarried man was chosen before he was born; he was despised and abused by many of his contemporaries; he warned of impending doom, and saw it come. So we read his anxious musings in today's reading in the light of what happened to Jesus, and we suppose that the Lord found his own fate in the words of Jeremiah. 

First, they heard the whispering of their enemies. A speaker should watch and read the reactions of their hearers as they speak to them, and both prophets knew their audiences far better than the faithful who stood among them and were rapt in every word they spoke. They saw those who were not as enthusiastic; as well as those who walked away, and those could not be bothered. They saw those who wanted to trap them, that they might prevail and take their vengeance on them.

But Jeremiah and Jesus also knew "...the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion: my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph." Only with that assurance can they continue. 

In their failure they will be put to utter shame,

to lasting, unforgettable confusion.

True sons of Abraham, they shared the confidence of the psalmist who wrote 

I have seen a ruthless scoundrel,

spreading out like a green cedar.

When I passed by again, he was gone;

though I searched, he could not be found. (Psalm 37:35-36)

Jeremiah prayed that he might see the downfall of his foes in the words,

O LORD of hosts, you who test the just,

who probe mind and heart,

Let me witness the vengeance you take on them,

for to you I have entrusted my cause. 

God's vengeance is severe: his Word will never speak to them, relieve their anxiety, heal their distress, or give them a sense of accomplishment, satisfaction, or purpose. It will not allow them even a sense of humor about themselves and their failure. Left entirely to themselves, which was clearly what they preferred, they wicked will wish for death and never learn that the only way to die is to oneself. 

And finally, in the resurrection Jesus will sing with Jeremiah... 

Sing to the LORD, and 

praise the LORD,

For he has rescued the life of the poor

from the power of the wicked!

 

Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent

 Lectionary: 254

When Abram prostrated himself, God spoke to him:
“My covenant with you is this: you are to become the father of a host of nations.
No longer shall you be called Abram;
your name shall be Abraham....

The New Testament writers refer to Abraham 74 times in their twenty-seven books and letters; and the early Church understood that our religion reflects the Faith of the first patriarch rather than the Law of Moses. While Jesus insisted that he had not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it, the Church understood that a scrupulous adherence to the demands and taboos of laws would satisfy neither the demands of faith nor the needs of the human heart. We must believe in God if we would be saved; playing by the rules satisfies no one. 

Faith is always a matter of the heart; seeking salvation through appearances can lead only to moral and social disintegration. If that vain ambition is characteristic of a culture or nation, those people face extinction. That is not a matter of divine revenge against foolishness; rather, it is the inevitable consequence of human life without purpose or meaning. 

In her book, Body and Identity, Angela Franks shows how western philosophy and culture lost its sense of purpose when it dismissed the ontological foundation of life and reality. If knowledge includes only what can be seen, touched, heard, or smelled; measured, weighed, and analyzed; and does not address the underlying question of why anything exists, it wanders into uncertainty and relativity. That knowledge cannot include the worth of anything. Not only does it waste time, treasure, and energy; it regards human beings as useless, disposable commodities. 

Jesus' New Covenant takes us back to Abraham's faith in the LORD who personally called him out of the Ur of the Chaldeans in Mesopotamia. The patriarch found his purpose in obedience to God. His faith was blind in the sense that he did not know where God was leading him. He saw a fulfillment of God's promise when Isaac was born of his barren, aged wife.

Jesus insisted that we should believe as Abraham believed. Saint Paul (Romans 4:3 & Galatians 4:6) and Saint James reminded their readers of that Abrahamic dimension of faith. Lent and its practice of penance tell us that we can neither hide from God nor fool him. God looks into the heart. He knows who we are better than we know ourselves; He knows our destination. Despite all the glittering appearances and distracting promises of this world, we go with Him. 

Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord

Lectionary: 545

The angel Gabriel was sent from God
to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,
of the house of David,
and the virgin’s name was Mary.
And coming to her, he said,
“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”

Pope Saint John Paul II dedicated his papacy under the epigram, Totus Tuus. Anticipating the second millennium since the birth of Jesus, he called for a Holy Year in 1987 as a year of reflection on the Immaculate Conception and Nativity of Mary. He addressed his encyclical Redemptoris Mater to all Christians, reminding them of Mary's unique names -- Kecharitomene and Theotokos-- and her vocation as the Mother of God. 

Kecharitomene is the original Greek expression, translated in today's gospel as Full of Grace. It is the name by which the Angel Gabriel greeted her.

 

But she was greatly troubled at what was said

and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.

No one had ever been addressed by God in such a way, and she was understandably troubled. What could it mean for her, her family, her betrothal to Joseph, and the children who might be born of this couple? It was clearly a name like that of Abraham, Sarah, and John (the Baptist) which would change everything, even the history of the world. As the angelic conversation continued she learned the name she should give her firstborn son, Jesus. 

The story must remind us of our identity before the God who names us at our Baptism. Our parents and family chose our baptismal names! Usually, these words were chosen with great care and mean something. 

Mary's name was more than just a word to identify her among others; it was also a commission from the Lord. As the Most Blessed among Women and the Mother of God she would become the Mother of the Church. In fact that mission was given to her on Calvary; as she gave her Firstborn Son to God she beheld her son, the Beloved Disciple. We recognize in that moment the birth of the Church by the flood of Blood and Water which flowed from his wounded side. 

Disciples Jesus and followers of the Way learned to like the name Christian despite its first disreputable inflection. You might notice that Paul avoided using the word in his conversation with King Agrippa, who said to Paul,  

“You will soon persuade me to play the Christian.”

Paul replied, “I would pray to God that sooner or later not only you but all who listen to me today might become as I am except -- for these chains.”

Whether we like the word or not, Christian means that we are anointed like Christ -- and come with binding chains. We are sent as missionaries to announce the name of Jesus, 

"...making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

The story of Mary reminds us that our names and missions are not arbitrarily chosen; we have a purpose. 

Recently, I remembered a peculiar expression from the 1990's, "I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!" In the Saturday Night Live persona of "Stuart Smalley," Al Franken expressed the bewilderment of a generation of uncertain young people. 

I was ordained by then; had passed through the initial crises of personal identity as a Franciscan priest; and understood Franken's humor. But, was being liked by some people the best anyone could hope for? It's not much of an identity, nor does it suggest one's purpose in life. 

Thirty years later, identity, purpose, and mission are fighting words in the United States; and people pretend to be greatly offended if anyone fails to acknowledge and respect their plastic identities. In some states offenders can be prosecuted for ignoring the civil rights of bizarre identities. But we've seen 'em come; and we've seen 'em go. Does anyone remember multiple personalities? That was the thing for a while. And Goth. I can't help it if I'm goth!  I heard one teenager complain.

Christ the Anointed One remains, as does Kecharitomene, Theotokos, and Christian. We know who we are and to whom we belong.

Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent

Lectionary: 252

You belong to this world,
but I do not belong to this world.
That is why I told you that you will die in your sins.
For if you do not believe that I AM,
you will die in your sins.”
So they said to him, “Who are you?”

Realizing their mortal peril, they asked, "Who are you?"

The question recurs, in one form or another, frequently in the Gospel of Saint John, and throughout human history. Who was this man? Where did he come from? What was he talking about? Who gave him such authority? Why did he care so much? Why doesn't he just go back to wherever he came from?

Living in a flattened universe which cannot imagine or reckon on a spiritual dimension, we have a hard time explaining to our skeptical neighbors, family, and friends that Jesus is Lord, and that his throne is a cross. It is harder to explain that everyone must take up their crosses and follow him to Calvary.

Reality has a rude way of intruding into the narrow dimensions of our space and time. Clueless despite their cleverness, they can only speculate about what might happen and should happen.

Knowing the Truth who is God, and recognizing the Son, the Ambassador whom Truth has sent, we walk amid the familiar dimensions of time and space but our hearts and minds recognize the spiritual dimension where meaning, purpose, and satisfaction appear. We can see consequences coming that might not appear in the predictable dimensions. You can see the meaning of ominous remarks like, "You will die in your sins."

"God rescues us from dangers beyond all human expectation. We felt within ourselves that we had received the sentence of death, so that we might not trust ourselves but in God, who raises the dead; from so great a danger did he deliver us, and does deliver us; we hope in him, for he will deliver us again." Saint Basil

Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent

 Lectionary: 251

Then Jesus straightened up and said to her,
“Woman, where are they?
Has no one condemned you?”
She replied, “No one, sir.”
Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you.
Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”

How can anyone not love this story of Jesus mocking his enemies by playing in the dust, and saving a woman from death with the same silly gesture? It is comical, instructive, and inspiring. 

"He is My Savior!" we might shout, as we watch the street gang drop their stones and melt away. A simple inoffensive suggestion -- "“Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” -- sends them running for cover. 

We know as he knows that the outcome will be different when the city officials and Roman authorities get involved. The same gang will regroup and scream at him from behind the Roman soldiers. On that occasion he will remain silent, saying nothing in self-defense, for he knows and they sense that the hour has  come. The comedy will be over; the tragedy will begin; the glory will appear in its time. 

In the hour of our salvation we will stand silently with him. We will take our places on Calvary with Mary, the Beloved Disciple, and the Penitent Mary Magdalene. We will behold our salvation breaking into history; as unexpectedly to the authorities as his suggestion to the street gang.

 

Who can believe what we have heard?

A hanged man died and deified;

Isn’t this story a bit absurd?

The whole world saw him crucified.

The hanged man died and deified

Belonged to us as one of our own;

The whole world saw him crucified.

A man as common as a stone

Belonged to us as one of our own.

Bore dignity beyond the skies,

This man as common as a stone.

We could not see through his disguise

His dignity beyond the skies.

Enmeshed, begrimed in politics,

We could not see by his disguise

An excellence that would bollix

The powers meshed in politics.

The holy struggle to revive

An excellence that should bollix

those who rule and now deprive

The holy struggling to revive.

They'll stand at last to fill their lungs.

Those who rule will be deprived

but will praise God with splintered tongues.

They'll also stand and fill their lungs.

And no one dares call it absurd;

Their praising God with splintered tongues.

Who would believe what we have heard?

                    Fr Ken Bartsch, OFM Conv.

Fifth Sunday of Lent

 Lectionary: 34

Thus says the Lord GOD:
O my people, I will open your graves
and have you rise from them,
and bring you back to the land of Israel.
Then you shall know that I am the LORD.

Ezekiel is fond of reminding us who we are and where we find ourselves in God's plan of salvation. We are certainly important to God, but not as important as we might suppose. Speaking for God, the Prophet insists, "When I do these things, then you shall know that I am the Lord."

As the wise man Sirach wrote several centuries later, God uses us to show the world his holiness; and for that purpose Jesus, Mary, the saints and martyrs, the Church, and the Jewish people are everlasting signs – despite the sins of the Church and the Jews.

Every year, during the Easter vigil, the cantor sings Saint Augustine’s “O felix culpa,” O happy fault which merited such a redeemer.” Human sin, as dreadful, horrible, and unspeakably ugly as it is, rather than being a total catastrophe, has given God a perfect opportunity to demonstrate the generous, superabundant Grace which outshines billions of stars and gazillions of galaxies in our universe. We have seen with our eyes, heard with our ears, and touched with our hands the God made human flesh who gave his very life to win our salvation and our everlasting gratitude.

Yes, it is possible to exponentially multiply Infinity by infinity; God has done it in the death and resurrection of Jesus; and we are his witnesses.

But that infinite goodness can be revealed to us only so far as we are able and willing to see it. And so God is born of Mary, an otherwise unknown Galilean virgin, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger. The same God grows up as all children do, and begins to demonstrate his singularity only as an adult, and only with signs and wonders visible to our eyes. As Saint John said, that which “we have seen and heard, and touched with our own hands...."

Were He to appear as a royal prince riding an Arabian stallion, or an American president in an Abrams tank, his glory would be ridiculous. Can you set off a diamond with the sun? Precious gems are set off with dark fabrics that attract no attention. Sunbeams sparkle through its facets and flaws but disappear in a black matte setting.

Likewise, it is fitting that we should see our God only in the smallest things: a wafer which appears to be bread, and a liquid drop which tastes for all the world like wine. God presents himself in a human body suspended between heaven and earth, before the dark futility of death. He wears a crown of thorns, not of silver or gold; his suffering is mocked by an angry mob. That’s how we know he is our God.

We see these small things – things which the world ignores – and we know what they mean. We know God because we believe in him; and are glad that no other sign will be given. Consider Lazarus. The poor fellow was dead and buried for four days! Can anyone be more dead? Can any reasonable person hope that he might return to the land of the living? Even his grieving sister will remind the Lord, “He’s been dead for four days; there’ll be a stench. We cannot open the grave.” But Jesus had predicted, “Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he gave to his Son the possession of life in himself.” When Lazarus heard the voice of his friend and Lord Jesus, he came out, as you and I will come out of our tombs when we hear his voice. Some will come reluctantly to their doom; others will come joyously to celebrate forever God's mercy and justice. In the wonder of God’s face, we will see infinite goodness and beauty multiplied exponentially. We have heard that voice. We know it from our life of prayer. We’ve heard it in churches, chapels, and cathedrals; we’ve heard it in your solitary room. It’s as familiar as a mother’s voice, which we learned to recognize weeks before we were born! The Voice of Jesus is just that sweet, charming, and attractive. It overcomes our resistance, and makes our stubbornness look foolish. It’s a voice with authority and wisdom, and when he calls us from the grave we will sing out, “Here I am! You called me!”

Ezekiel reminds us that God will demonstrate his holiness and power by saving us from our sins, a small thing of no great significance in the eyes of the world. But to us it is heaven itself.

Lent reminds us that we must choose our God over every evil thought, word, deed, or impulse. And we must be acutely aware of our sins as we turn to the Lord for mercy. We pray continually with King David and his 51st psalm,

Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your merciful love;  
according to your great compassion, blot out my transgressions.
Wash me completely from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

We have that choice during Lent; we still have two weeks before Easter. We can turn away from sin, believe in the Good News of Jesus, and obey his voice. We too can come back to life as we hear the prophet’s words:

O my people, I will open your graves

and have you rise from them,

and bring you back….

Then you shall know that I am the LORD,

when I open your graves and have you rise from them,

O my people!

Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent

 Lectionary: 249

Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them, 
"Does our law condemn a man before it first hears him
and finds out what he is doing?"
They answered and said to him,
"You are not from Galilee also, are you?
Look and see that no prophet arises from Galilee."

At the funeral of Republican Senator John McCain, then-President Joe Biden spoke of their long friendship. On many occasions over many years they met in one or the other's home and argued politics. They rarely agreed with one another and they always parted friends. The President's grief was not for a senator but for a close friend. 

He also recalled, more recently, that his Democratic colleagues sometimes came to him and warned him not to associate with the Republican. "People are talking about you!" they said. Senator McCain had received similar warning from his Republican colleagues. This made no sense to the older veterans who had seen generations of legislators come and go, and many political issues appear and disappear. Their friendship was more important than their opinions; it had a certain quality which their ideas lacked; perhaps an aura of the eternal. 

The Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin Nicodemus is remembered reverently by Jews and revered as a Saint in Christian churches. Drawn to the truth an d committed to his Jewish faith, he had gone to Jesus one evening to meet privately with him and hear more about his teachings. If he was not convinced to abandon his privileged position in Jerusalem, he had not yet seen the Resurrection of the Lord. He could wait and see what rebirth might mean for those who followed Jesus. 

Saint John does not tell us how Nicodemus responded to the stories of His Resurrection. However, he does tell us that after Jesus died:

...Joseph of Arimathea, secretly a disciple of Jesus for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus. And Pilate permitted it. So he came and took his body. 

Nicodemus, the one who had first come to him at night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about one hundred pounds.

They took the body of Jesus and bound it with burial cloths along with the spices, according to the Jewish burial custom.

Christians will never forget Nicodemus' personal loyalty to Jesus, his piety, and kindness. It is not unlike Biden's tribute to McCain. Like Tobit, he took serious risks when he met with Joseph of Arimathea and contributed a king's ransom of myrrh and aloes to anoint his body. 

Americans would do well to ponder Saint John's stories of Nicodemus and Joseph. Loyalty and friendship are stronger than politics and deeper than religion. They endure forever.

Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Lectionary: 248

Jesus moved about within Galilee;
he did not wish to travel in Judea,
because the Jews were trying to kill him....
But the Jewish feast of Tabernacles was near.
But when his brothers had gone up to the feast,
he himself also went up, not openly but as it were in secret.

The repetition of the word but in today's gospel signals the reader and congregation that today's passage from the Gospel of John has been heavily edited. In fact, between them, twenty-one verses have been removed; and the broken narrative shows. 

This seventh chapter describes the conflict that the Lord and his words generated in Galilee and Judea. His own family ("brothers") did not believe in him, while the crowds of the Holy City wondered what to make of him. He spoke with wisdom and authority and yet seemed uneducated. Unlike someone who rises through the ranks from obscurity to notoriety, the Nazarene with a Galilean accent suddenly appeared in the temple and the crowds flocked to him despite their confusion. 

But if he spoke with such assurance, had the religious and civil authorities approved him and his teaching? They must have, because there he was. But the authorities were as confused as the crowd! 

"Could the authorities have realized that he is the Christ? But we know where he is from!"

Actually, they don't know where he is from. And their ignorance is culpable because he has come from God, and God's people know him. And that is the key to the Fourth Gospel. 

Jesus is still a crisis; he demands a decisive, life-altering response. Half-measures, provisos, and "yes buts..." serve neither the Lord nor his indecisive listeners. Jesus knows where he was from; there can be no doubt in our minds or hearts. 

Lent presents us with the same immediate demand and leads us toward the same decision. We step forward with conviction or fall into the misery of uncertainty, desolation, sin, and death. Each disciple takes up the cross or flees from Calvary. Spectators lose interest, and skeptics disappear. They don't matter to the Lord or themselves. That is their choice. 

Most of all, man is in need of a sense of the unconditional. Otherwise, he will perish. "Without relating himself to the unconditional," Kierkegaard says, "man cannot in the deepest sense be said to live... that is it may be said he continues to live, but spiritlessly."  

Kierkegaard... felt that man's gravest danger lurked in the loss of his sense of the unconditional, the absolute. We conduct our lives according to conditionals, compromises, and concessions, all relatives.

In faith an individual commits everything to the Absoluteness of God. But the Absolute is cruel; it demands all.

         Abraham Joshua Heschel, A Passion for Truth, Jewish Lights Publishing, 1995, page 112)

Solemnity of Saint Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary

 Lectionary: 543

'When your time comes and you rest with your ancestors,
I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins,
and I will make his kingdom firm.
It is he who shall build a house for my name.
And I will make his royal throne firm forever.
I will be a father to him,
and he shall be a son to me.

Someone asked an American correspondent in Moscow if Putin is grooming his successor, and who that might be. She replied, "He doesn't plan to die." 

But kings,emperors, presidents and dictators with ordinary common sense try to cement their names in history by choosing a clone-like heir who will maintain their policies beyond the foreseeable future. They try to establish dynasties; and some succeed. 

King David's dynasty survived but not well. His son Solomon built a spectacular Jerusalem and a corrupt bureaucracy. His temple was magnificent; his school was famous; his unified kingdom of Israel and Judah was unsettled. No sooner had he died than an unrelated official, Jeroboam, engineered a coup and split the two nations apart. They were never reunited. 

But the LORD's solemn oath, given to David through the prophet Nathan, would endure forever. Despite the evidence of  corruption in the smaller nation of Judah, despite the complete collapse of Israel and Judah before the invasions of Babylon, Greek, and Roman armies, David's heirs remembered God's promise. They did not forget who they were. Nor did the LORD, who sent Angel Gabriel to both Joseph and Mary; to the first, while he slept; and to Mary as she prayed. 

To Joseph he said,

“Joseph, son of David,

do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.

For it is through the Holy Spirit

that this child has been conceived in her.

She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,

because he will save his people from their sins.”

And to Mary, 

Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.

o He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,* and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,

and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

The Word of the Lord endures forever. We read that repeatedly in scripture, and God's Word is the foundation of our faith. We believe in Him and we believe in His Word; especially as we have seen His Word made flesh and dwell among us. Even the testimony of history which has seen innumerable kingdoms rise and fall, cities built and abandoned, monuments fashioned and wasted, witnesses the Church which still gathers the faithful into the Kingdom of God.  

We pray that we will be faithful like the just man Saint Joseph who rendered to God, his wife, son, and neighbors their due. He will be remembered when Putin is familiar only to researchers of ancient history. 

Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

 Lectionary: 246

Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word
and believes in the one who sent me
has eternal life and will not come to condemnation,
but has passed from death to life.

There are people who never cuss or swear but they might use certain expressions when they are speaking very seriously. To signal the importance of what he is about to say, the Lord says, "Amen, Amen, I say to you...." He uses the expression twenty-five times in the Gospel of Saint John; and three times in today's Gospel, as he speaks of his sonship in God the Father. Clearly, we know nothing about Jesus if we do not know he is the Son of God. 

Nor do we know anything of God if we do not know Jesus. As Saint Paul said, "He is the image of the invisible God." (Col 1:15) Without denying the same Apostle's statement to the Romans that any reasonable person anywhere and at any time can recognize the work of an All Wise, All Powerful, and All Creating God in His creation, to know God we come through Jesus. Supposing there ought to be a God bears little resemblance to knowing Him. 

That's a hard message for those who feel their religion should include everyone in God's mercy regardless of their ignorance of Christianity. But it accurately describes the "crisis" of Jesus as the Evangelists describe him. It also describes the compelling obligation we have to share that Good News. 

Given the evidence of continual wars, violence, suspicion, and instability, Pollyanna cannot expect everything to work out just fine. But Pollyanna's "optimism" works fine as an excuse for those who, have not considered the Cost of Discipleship. In fact, it's a matter of life and death for us as well as for them. As Jesus said,

"Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more." Luke 12:48

Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Lectionary: 245

The angel brought me, Ezekiel,

back to the entrance of the temple of the LORD,

and I saw water flowing out

from beneath the threshold of the temple toward the east,

for the facade of the temple was toward the east....

Ezekiel's story about his adventure in the marvelous stream which flowed from the heavenly temple follows several chapters about the temple which the exiled Jews should build when they return to Jerusalem. It's a fantastic vision from a man who had seen the Temple of God on a plain in Heaven and supposed a replica should appear in the mountainous terrain of Israel. 

What they actually built when they returned was marvelous but bore little resemblance to his vision, and disappointed those ancient ones who remembered Solomon's splendid temple. (Some devout hobbyists have attempted to build models of Ezekiel's temple.)

Saint John saw a resemblance between Ezekiel's stream and the pool of Bethesda near the temple's Sheep Gate, which was fed by natural springs. It provided water to the city, and a pool for bathing. Beggars saw opportunity in that public place and took up stations there. There was a legend that anyone who might jump into the water when it stirred -- as it might when an angel stirred it or a seismic tremors shook the region -- would be healed of whatever ailed them.

Saint John also recalled Ezekiel's sacred stream in his passion narrative, 

"...one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out." (19:34) 

The Lord's body is the temple. We enter through his sacred wounds, are baptized in its stream, drink his Eucharistic blood, and are healed. 

Saint John also uses this story to introduce the Lord's teaching about his unique relationship with God the Father. He is the Only Begotten Son of God, unlike any other child of God. Those who would know God must go to Jesus and ask about His Father. He should never be confused with our human fathers. Whether they were present or absent, strong or weak, kind or cruel, our human fathers are brothers in Christ. They stand with us before the majesty of Our Father in Heaven. As Saint Paul said, 

"For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.... (Ephesians 3:14)

Lent and Holy Week draw us more deeply into these fascinating mysteries. We are the prophets who see them; they should consume our attention in the next few weeks.