tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27464633029098729342024-03-28T07:18:10.760-04:00Daily HomiliesDaily reflections on Scriptures passages as found in the Roman Catholic Lectionary.Fr Ken Bartsch, OFM Convhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353992638651871015noreply@blogger.comBlogger4623125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2746463302909872934.post-57164816450001709592024-03-28T00:00:00.233-04:002024-03-28T06:10:43.695-04:00Holy Thursday -Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6dRMxzeHthE/U0dAIV7NfVI/AAAAAAAARB8/z82wJCws8Mw/s1200/Holy%2BThursday.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1000" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6dRMxzeHthE/U0dAIV7NfVI/AAAAAAAARB8/z82wJCws8Mw/w334-h400/Holy%2BThursday.jpg" width="334" /></span></a></div><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032824-Supper.cfm"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;">Lectionary: 39</span></a><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.3px;" /><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="background-color: #3d85c6; color: white; font-size: x-large;">W</span><span style="background-color: white;">ith</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Lora; letter-spacing: 0.3px;"> those words in his First Letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul ties the Lord's Last Supper to his Crucifixion. We cannot speak of one without the other. We cannot know the meaning of the Lord's passion and death without the Mass. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">Scholars of the Bible try to determine exactly when that meal was celebrated. If he died during the "preparation day for the sabbath," as Saint John says, then the Last Supper was not a Passover meal. On that Friday the Passover fell on the Sabbath, and the priests were slaughtering the lambs in preparation for the Jews who gathered in the city for the feast. At that very hour, as the lambs were slaughtered, the Lamb of God died on the cross. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">But the Church has always known the two events belong together; they mean nothing without each other, and cannot be far apart. And so we celebrate the Lord's Supper on Thursday evening because our liturgical day, like the Jewish sabbath, begins at sundown. The First Eucharistic Prayer says, "On the before he suffered…” which is true by our reckoning. But the Jews began and ended the day at sundown, so Jesus ate his last meal with his disciples on the day he died. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">The Mass without remembering the passion and death of the Lord would be nothing more than an agape meal, a feelgood celebration of friendship. And the death of the Lord without the Mass is just another senseless killing like Cain’s murder of Abel. It’s been going on since the beginning and will continue until the end of human history. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">But as we eat his flesh and drink his blood we relive Jesus’s agony and death. To keep our focus on his Passion, every Mass is celebrated before a crucifix. We do not look at a bare cross, for God told us through the Prophet Isaiah,</span></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">See, my servant shall prosper,</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">he shall be raised high and greatly exalted.</span></span></div></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">And Jesus told us, “... just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">The crucifix over our altars also recalls Isaiah’s vision of God. The prophet says,</span></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, with the train of his garment filling the temple. Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six wings: with two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they hovered. One cried out to the other: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts! All the earth is filled with ..his glory!” At the sound of that cry, the frame of the door shook and the house was filled with smoke.</span></span></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">During the Mass we also cry out with the angels "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts, heaven and earth are full of your glory….” and we see the Crucified Lord God seated on his throne. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">Saint John the Evangelist adds a third layer of meaning to our ceremony: our care for one another. Holy Thursday Mass and Good Friday mean nothing if the Lord’s disciples are unkind to one another. All barriers of class, wealth, and status must be demolished by our intense, reverent respect for one another. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">No one suffers the curse of Eve in our community. That is, no one "rules over" anyone. Our concern begins with the least among us. The able-bodied, wealthy, and powerful can take care of themselves. They neither deserve nor need kowtowing or special consideration. Those who are set free by the Lord fear the Lord and no one else. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">God’s kindness knows no boundaries; it is openhearted and generous; it does not calculate who is worthy of generosity. We know we have not earned and do not deserve the mercy we’ve been shown. How can we ration mercy to others? Because of his passion and death, Jesus was given healing power and redeeming authority over all nations and peoples. If our charity begins at home it must go well beyond our homes to every needy person. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">We began this Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper with the sign of the cross. With that gesture we fix ourselves on the Cross of Jesus. We will not use that gesture again until the last blessing on Easter Sunday. Between now and then, we will eat his flesh and drink his blood and do all this in memory of him. This Mass of Holy Thursday, the ceremony of Good Friday, the Easter Vigil, and Sunday Mass are a single event. As we undergo this extended ritual, we will know the Lord has forgiven our sins and for everyone who believes in him has eternal life.</span></p><p><br /></p>Fr Ken Bartsch, OFM Convhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353992638651871015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2746463302909872934.post-19052485811094141342024-03-27T00:00:00.336-04:002024-03-27T00:00:00.241-04:00Wednesday of Holy Week <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gVi8LFEu9yU/U03y0YZCKiI/AAAAAAAARHQ/QQeEhhXHdao/s1000/Wednesday+Holy+Week.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="866" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gVi8LFEu9yU/U03y0YZCKiI/AAAAAAAARHQ/QQeEhhXHdao/w346-h400/Wednesday+Holy+Week.jpg" width="346" /></span></a></div><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032724.cfm"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;">Lectionary: 259</span></a><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">“What are you willing to give me</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.3px;" /><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">if I hand him over to you?”</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.3px;" /><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">They paid him thirty pieces of silver,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.3px;" /><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.3px;" /></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: #bf9000; font-size: x-large;">T</span><span style="background-color: white;">he Gospel of Saint Matthew begins with a story of Herod's </span><i style="background-color: white;">homage</i><span style="background-color: white;"> and concludes with Judas Iscariot's sellout. There are many moments of delight between, and the Gospel will end with the overwhelming good news of the Savior's Resurrection, but there can be no gospel which does not include stories of perfidy and cynicism. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">The evangelists offer only one reason for Judas's action: he wanted the money. And yet we know enough about the loss of faith; it doesn't begin with greed. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">That vice is certainly common.</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora; letter-spacing: 0.3px;"> Enough is never enough for misers. But g</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">reed can lie dormant in our souls and never appear when the Spirit of God governs our thoughts. If there are openly greedy people among us, it's because the culture encourages greed. Ordinarily, we might hesitate to let money go; but, persuaded that it's going for a good cause and will do more good for others, we <i>share and share alike</i>. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">But there are other voices within our hearts: cynicism, reservations, and doubts about the Lord who is leading us. They might appear as we face the reality of death. We have heard the promise of everlasting bliss with the Lord but.... really? And what if it's simply not true? That there is only this life, and we should <i>eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die?</i></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">That incantation troubled the divine authors; it appears in Scripture several times, including, <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/isaiah/22?13=">Isaiah 22:13</a>; <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/12?19">Luke 12:19</a>; and <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/isaiah/22?13=">1 Corinthians 15:32</a>. It can become a raucous cheer when we tire of the discipline, focus, and dedication the Gospel wants; when it appears that our coreligionists have different motives and different goals. Perhaps we're not all in this together; perhaps we're not united by our faith; but our solidarity is only habit, convenience, cowardice, and a singular lack of imagination. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">At some point, perhaps, Judas said, "I know where this is going, and I'm not going there." He</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;"> was drifting; he was not seeing the glory of God in Jesus; but he did see the foolishness of his companions. He saw their bickering about which of them is the best; he saw them jockeying for the seats on the Lord's right and left. He knew the authorities were anxious about Jesus. Everything he said and did only pointed toward trouble, and the authorities would move in before that happened. Nothing in Jesus' healing ministry, works, or words pointed to the kind of change Judas could imagine. Nor did he reveal any more to his disciples than he said in public. Would he ever make his move and take control of Jerusalem? Why was he dawdling? </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">The Lord saw it happening in his disciple. As Saint John said, he "</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">did not need anyone to testify about human nature. He himself understood it well." If the others remained under Jesus's thrall, Judas was drifting. Comments, muttering, whispered asides, questions, jokes: his growing discontent was leaking from him like steam from a pressure cooker. </span></span></p><p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">And he was handling the money, How did that happen, that the one who seemed most distracted, least enthusiastic, least inspired was handling the money? </span></span></p><p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">When the Gospels were written, in retrospect, it all made sense. It was greed. But before the greed there was the cynicism that harbored and nurtured doubt, that kept its options open. </span></span></p><p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">The story of Judas must always be told; no gospel can be written without including stories of hypocrisy and cynicism. </span></span></p><p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">Lent is ending; Holy Week is rapidly drawing us through the Lord's Supper into the darkness of Good Friday. Our attention must be focused, and our hearts consecrated for <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/24?24=">even the elect</a> will be sorely tested by what is about to happen. </span></span></p>Fr Ken Bartsch, OFM Convhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353992638651871015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2746463302909872934.post-65715655443984412582024-03-26T00:00:00.215-04:002024-03-26T00:00:00.344-04:00Tuesday of Holy Week <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjId82YyNvTgpDpwzh99WLNfnVkPtUK37hQ6i1jSnpr7ZFUAlFia7B8n6kI9CRkY5v1Uc0XyuKSUrnG5zGeMzHXwfPi_c8w5kUoJMraPIKdHFvD6l0PPDfaammSHtK1XZYGD0Cqy4qpcLmCDvV-4F6J_BQmBLNG4JNl3J7VUiPs7Qn42ajkhRJyhD_NJQ/s400/51968821858_39df94b6c2_5k.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="400" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjId82YyNvTgpDpwzh99WLNfnVkPtUK37hQ6i1jSnpr7ZFUAlFia7B8n6kI9CRkY5v1Uc0XyuKSUrnG5zGeMzHXwfPi_c8w5kUoJMraPIKdHFvD6l0PPDfaammSHtK1XZYGD0Cqy4qpcLmCDvV-4F6J_BQmBLNG4JNl3J7VUiPs7Qn42ajkhRJyhD_NJQ/w400-h300/51968821858_39df94b6c2_5k.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032624.cfm"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;">Lectionary: 258</span></a><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">Reclining at table with his disciples, Jesus was deeply troubled and testified,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me."</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The disciples looked at one another, at a loss as to whom he meant.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">One of his disciples, the one whom Jesus loved,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">was reclining at Jesus' side.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">So Simon Peter nodded to him to find out whom he meant.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">He leaned back against Jesus' chest and said to him,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"Master, who is it?"</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: #999999; color: white; font-size: x-large;">T</span><span style="background-color: white;">oday's gospel introduces a new phrase, "...the one whom Jesus loved." We've not heard it in all the twelve preceding chapters. Tradition calls him <i>John</i>, and says he was the youngest of the twelve, and the last to die, of old age rather than martyrdom. He is often portrayed in Last Supper scenes as beardless; apparently too young to have a beard. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">The Gospel stubbornly refuses to give the man a name, but we suspect he is that <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/1/35">unnamed</a> companion of Andrew. The two heard the Baptist's proclamation in the first chapter, "Behold the Lamb of God!" They followed Jesus and became his first disciples. We suppose he was the <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/18?15">disciple with connections</a> who </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora;">followed the Lord </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora;">with Peter</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora;"> into Herod's courtyard. We'll become more acquainted with him on Sunday and in chapter 21, the epilogue. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora;">We hear this mysterious phrase -- <i>the one whom Jesus loved</i> -- in the same paragraph about the traitor Judas. We know the Iscariot although the gospels only speculate about his motive. Was it greed? He kept the Lord's money and apparently managed the group's expenses. It made little sense that he would keep some for himself, as they surely had no bank accounts, secret or otherwise. Some people suppose he was trying to force the Lord to act by arranging his arrest. Others suppose he'd grown cynical about the Lord's promises and decided to drop out. If someone paid him as he went, that only sweetened the deal. In any case, we remember him as the traitor. Nor do the evangelist express any forgiveness for his crime. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora;">The gospels also say the other disciples were flabbergasted by Jesus's words. They had not suspected there might be a spy or a traitor in the group, and could not guess who it might be. Some, in their astonishment, </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora;">wondered</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora;">"<a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/mark/14?19">Is it I?</a>" -- a question we asked ourselves as we go with the Lord. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora;">There was one disciple who was not capable of betrayal, and received immediate reassurance when the Lord whispered to him, "</span><span style="font-family: Lora;">"It is the one to whom I hand the morsel after I have dipped it." This <i>disciple whom Jesus loved</i> had been with the Lord through it all, from the beginning. He would be the first to believe in the Lord's resurrection, even as Peter gazed in bewilderment upon the empty tomb and neatly folded shroud. He would recognize the Lord before anyone else as they spotted him standing on the shore. And he would survive Peter, as the 21st chapter<span> </span>indicates. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">He was the author and inspiration of the Gospel, although another author finally spoke of him, "It is this disciple who testifies to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true." <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/21?24="><span style="font-size: x-small;">(John 21: 24)</span></a> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">But who was he? Tradition calls him <i>John,</i> but I think that misses the point. The beloved disciple is you. You have known the Lord, and followed him with your life; and perhaps, all your life. You have loved him and grown in your fidelity to him. You always knew he was divine and would be raised from the dead. If you were confused about yourself, and asked, "Is it I?" you did not doubt the Lord. And when he was arrested you went with him. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">You are the one who stood with his mother and heard the Lord's dying wish; a word addressed very personally to you, "Behold your mother." And you heard and were both amazed and grateful when he spoke to her, "Behold your son." </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">Of course you took her into your home. You cling to her as you cling to the Lord, and love her with equal affection. The woman who gave us the Body of the Lord lives in your home and your heart, where she is safe, even as she continues to speak of the Lord to you. </span></p>Fr Ken Bartsch, OFM Convhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353992638651871015noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2746463302909872934.post-38908188591560507442024-03-25T00:00:00.223-04:002024-03-25T00:00:00.343-04:00Monday of Holy Week <p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-stH4ApkOmlE/U0MRQok8USI/AAAAAAAARBU/z51SJDPyn98/s979/Monday%2BHoly%2BWeek.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;"><img border="0" data-original-height="979" data-original-width="810" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-stH4ApkOmlE/U0MRQok8USI/AAAAAAAARBU/z51SJDPyn98/w331-h400/Monday%2BHoly%2BWeek.jpg" width="331" /></span></a></div><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032524.cfm"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;">Lectionary: 257</span></a><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">Here is my servant whom I uphold,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">my chosen one with whom I am pleased,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Upon whom I have put my Spirit;</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">he shall bring forth justice to the nations....</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-size: x-large;">In</span> the desolation of Babylon, as the Jewish exiles waited without expectation for relief, Isaiah prophesied, </span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">See, the earlier things have come to pass,</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">new ones I now declare;</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">Before they spring forth</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">I announce them to you.</span></div></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">They recalled their past servitude in Egypt and their escape through the Red Sea; they remembered the sojourn in the desert and the Lord's providing for them through all those desperate years. But they also knew the shameful history of their ancestors who, despite God's promises of complete security and superabundance, feared their enemies and hoarded their wealth against the poor, needy, and aliens. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">In Babylon they were desperate again, and the LORD seemed to have abandoned them. Their nation was gone and their holy city razed to the ground. Their future would be dissolution among the senseless religions and inane cultures of the earth. There would be no history of God's mercy. It would be as if Moses had never led them out of Egypt, or God provided water from the rock, manna, and quail. David's victories, Solomon's temple, Hezekiah's reforms, Jeremiah's prophecies: all would be lost -- psalms, stories, proverbs -- as if they never happened. How many thousands of other cultures and cities have disappeared without a trace? </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">But through Isaiah God promised the exiles, "...the earlier things have come to pass, new ones I now declare. Before they spring forth, I announce them to you."</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">In Holy Week, we remember <i>the hopes and fears of all the years are met</i> in Jesus's arrival in Jerusalem. </span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">Here is my servant whom I uphold,<br /></span><span style="background-color: white;">my chosen one with whom I am pleased,</span></span></div></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">The new things declared are found in the man who arrived in Jerusalem several centuries after Isaiah, riding a colt, the foal of an ass. A silent prophet recognized him in Bethesda. While his disciples and friends were feting him with a banquet Mary, the sister of Lazarus and Martha, slipped into the room, </span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">...with 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.</span></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">Only Jesus knew what it meant, that new things were about to occur. The woman acted with a compelling intuition like that of the magus who presented myrrh to the mysterious child in Bethlehem. It was necessary; it was good. The events of the following days would prove its prescient wisdom. The man was born to die for our sins. His hour of new things had come; he would not flee from it. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">From the throne of his crucifixion, he will announce the coming of his kingdom, "See, I make all things new!" </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/revelation/21?5=">Rev 21:5</a>)</span> </p><p></p>Fr Ken Bartsch, OFM Convhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353992638651871015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2746463302909872934.post-36839622395798884242024-03-24T00:00:00.119-04:002024-03-24T00:00:00.240-04:00Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion<p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NIJ9UJ9izsA/U0BRO2QmgTI/AAAAAAAARBA/FPABzUtSLfU/s1000/Palm%2BSunday.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NIJ9UJ9izsA/U0BRO2QmgTI/AAAAAAAARBA/FPABzUtSLfU/w400-h400/Palm%2BSunday.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032424.cfm"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;">Lectionary: 37 and 38</span></a><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">...he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready. Make the preparations for us there.”<br />The disciples then went off, entered the city, and found it just as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: #fce5cd; color: #351c75; font-size: x-large;">T</span>he Cenacle where the Lord celebrated his last Passover was apparently a banquet room, available to Jewish pilgrims who came three times a year to attend the major festivals. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">The room was "furnished and ready" for the Lord's coming. Saint Mark's inclusion of this detail signals the preparation every Christian should make in anticipation of the Lord's arrival. The same room will witness his appearance to the unprepared disciples on the following Sunday evening. But these preparations were not the only ones made in God's Holy City for the events of that week. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">The irony of a city with dual purposes goes far beyond the prepared Cenacle. Jerusalem had been the holy city of God for more than a thousand years. It had witnessed the building of Solomon's temple, its reconstruction after the exile, and King Herod's remodeling. The city had suffered the approach, siege, occupation, and withdrawal of several empires as they breached and then rebuilt its walls. It was the once-and-future capital of David's once-and-future kingdom. It was always God's holy city, even when governed in Abraham's time by the priest-king Melchizedek. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">We often remember the betrayal of Jesus's disciples: Judas, Peter's denials, and the disappearance of his followers. Their treachery is sharpened by the memory of their sworn vows of personal fidelity to him. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">But we should contemplate also the irony of Jerusalem's failure to greet its long awaited Messiah, Lord, and Savior. This disappointing history gives context to the failure of his few apostles and disciples; it places the city's critical moment in human history between the Garden of Eden and the Last Judgement. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">Jerusalem had enjoyed the Lord God's governance for over a thousand years, since the day David and his army took the fortress of Salem and renamed it Jerusalem. God's rule was both merciful and just; it was never arbitrary or erratic. It was always patiently demanding, "I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other god before you!" The Lord would not abide evil. Rather, he continually demanded that Jerusalem return his love and reflect his merciful holiness to the greatest and the least.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">It had all the resources to do so. They had only to trust in God's providence. Each year they should celebrate three festivals; they were like three Thanksgivings a year. Throughout the year they proved their religious faith in the Lord's dependability by the practice of tithing. And then, their banquets were shared</span><span style="font-family: Lora;"> with the poorest, neediest, and strangest aliens. For "God provides;" there is </span><i style="font-family: Lora;">always more where that came from</i><span style="font-family: Lora;">. Nor should there be any judgments of who is </span><i style="font-family: Lora;">worthy</i><span style="font-family: Lora;"> or </span><i style="font-family: Lora;">unworthy; </i><span style="font-family: Lora;">their faith told them no one is worthy of such love. If the stockpiles were exhausted, they should feel no anxiety for God's abundance is inexhaustible. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">It is supremely ironic that the Holy City built on a hill called Zion, was most gracious to its Lord and Savior when he arrived, and expelled him to Golgotha Hill a few days later. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">And yet, what should we expect? We know the story; and we knew its outcome for we know ourselves. Can anyone blame Jerusalem or its adopted heir, the Church, for its failure to welcome the Lord? </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">When I was young I was astonished by the evil I found within my own thoughts, impulses, and desires. I thought I was better than that. Today I am more surprised by the kindness I've shown to others in past years; I am not surprised by my history of sin, nor especially surprised by anyone else's. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">As Genesis tells the story, when the LORD came upon Adam and Eve and found them shamefaced in their nakedness, he spat out his disappointment with evident disgust, "You are dirt and to dirt you shall return." He might have added, </span><span style="font-family: Lora;">"What was I expecting? What did I expect?" he might have said. "Was I such a fool as to expect gratitude from dirt?" </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">But the LORD relented and provided <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/genesis/3?21">clothing</a> to them. And then he gave an assurance that evil would one day be defeated. </span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">I will put enmity between you and the woman,</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">and between your offspring and hers;</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">They will strike at your head,</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">while you strike at their heel. <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Genesis 3:15 see the <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/genesis/3?15=#01003015">footnotes</a>)</span></span></div></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">In the sad stories of sinful Jerusalem, faithless disciples, peccant Church, and wicked humanity we hear the story of God's inexhaustible, patient love. The story would not be a history -- it would be <i>a tale told by an idiot</i> -- if God's mercy does not prevail in the end. He will provide guidance through suffering and healing through reassurance. We will find within our hearts compassion for one another through the horrors we share and the burdens we carry together. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">We will learn kindness and know that it is the kindness of God. As we own the enormity of our sins; and then confess and atone for them, we will measure the superabundant, boundless dimensions of God’s patient love. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"></span></p>Fr Ken Bartsch, OFM Convhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353992638651871015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2746463302909872934.post-14330011720078106292024-03-23T00:00:00.189-04:002024-03-23T00:00:00.242-04:00Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1JxMspMTyM0/U0ARgqiQLlI/AAAAAAAARAw/06td-Q86uQc/s1000/Saturday+Lent+5.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1JxMspMTyM0/U0ARgqiQLlI/AAAAAAAARAw/06td-Q86uQc/w400-h400/Saturday+Lent+5.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032324.cfm"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;">Lectionary: 256</span></a><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">Many of the Jews who had come to Mary</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.3px;" /><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">and seen what Jesus had done began to believe in him.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.3px;" /><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">But some of them went to the Pharisees</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.3px;" /><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">and told them what Jesus had done.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="background-color: #b45f06; font-size: x-large;">O</span><span style="background-color: white;">n this last day before Holy Week, the Church gives us this transitional story from Saint John's Book of Signs to his Book of Glory. We have seen the last and greatest of his signs, the raising of Lazarus. As the long awaited </span><i style="background-color: white;">hour</i><span style="background-color: white;"> arrives we shall see his glory. </span></span></span></p><span style="font-family: Lora;">We are moving into apocalyptic time. Some people religiously acknowledge the demands of apocalyptic time even in our quotidian world: Jews light candles as the Sabbath arrives and attend synagogue; Christians celebrate their faith on Saturday evening or Sunday morning. We <i>keep holy the sabbath</i> and remember that our finite lives and measured hours will come to an end as the Day who is our End takes his seat upon the throne. </span><div><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Lora;">Apocalyptic time brings an irretrievable decision of great consequence. Today's gospel tells us that many Jews, seeing Lazarus stumble out of his grave, believed in Jesus even as others hotfooted into Jerusalem to report that, "He's back, and you won't believe what he has done now!" The crowd that had been united around Lazarus's sealed tomb was split in two when he broke out of it. Each decision, for or against the Lord, was final.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Lora;">Holy Week, with its memories of Jesus arrival in Jerusalem, his celebration of the Pasch with his disciples, his arrest, trial, torture, and crucifixion, makes demands upon all Christians. If these observances mean nothing to us; if they do not interrupt our routine daily and weekly practices we should not suppose we belong to God's people. As Saint James said, "Show me your faith without works and I'll show you the faith that underlies my works!" </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><span style="font-family: Lora;"><div style="text-align: left;">...You believe that God is one. You do well. Even the demons believe that and tremble. Do you want proof, you ignoramus, that faith without works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by the works. Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called “the friend of God.” See how a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/james/2?18"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(James 2:18-24)</span></a></div></span></div></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">The Lord's disciples live in earthly time and mark eternal time. We are in this world but not of it. Holy Week marks the difference and everyone -- good and bad alike -- knows it. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"> </span></p>Fr Ken Bartsch, OFM Convhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353992638651871015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2746463302909872934.post-1465876061060623882024-03-22T00:00:00.177-04:002024-03-22T00:00:00.288-04:00Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qWN3q-1HrZw/Uz71Vnl9gXI/AAAAAAAARAg/0d1QHqFoFd0/s1000/Friday+Lent+5.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qWN3q-1HrZw/Uz71Vnl9gXI/AAAAAAAARAg/0d1QHqFoFd0/s320/Friday+Lent+5.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032224.cfm"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;">Lectionary: 255</span></a><div><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">If I do not perform my Father’s works, do not believe me;</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.3px;" /><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.3px;" /><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">believe the works, so that you may realize and understand</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.3px;" /><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”</span></span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: #6fa8dc; font-size: x-large;">T</span>he tenth chapter of Saint John repeats many of the arguments of the fifth chapter. Again we hear of the Lord's work which is the work of his Father. Again we hear of the credentials which he presents and his opponents refuse to accept. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Lora;">But the tenth chapter is more intense as the crisis of God's presence in Jesus approaches its climax. Something must give; a man must die to satisfy his enemies. The next and final chapter of John's Book of Signs will tell us of Lazarus called from the grave and its consequence -- the decision to have Jesus crucified, if necessary during the Pasch. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Lora;">The death of the Lord should put an end to his announcement that the Kingdom of God is near. We should hear nothing more of that. We should be left forever in the hopelessness of a dead religion which has nothing to say to powerful persons, regardless of their burden upon society and their arbitrary, sanctimonious, cruel regime.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Lora;">But truth does not die so easily. It is not an idle <i>something</i> in an alternate reality without import or meaning. More than weighing upon our consciousness, it forces itself upon us, intruding and sabotaging the corrupt structures humans build against it. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Lora;">Nor does it meekly submit to evil. If this or that agent of truth is silenced, others will speak up. If all are suppressed, it will erupt from the divisions within evil itself -- that kingdom which must turn against itself. For the wicked can only form alliances to oppose the truth. Witness the Sanhedrin conspiring with <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/23?12">Pontius Pilate and Herod</a>. (Politics makes strange bedfellows.) </span><span style="font-family: Lora;">But when they appear victorious they must turn upon one another, like the armies who marched against Jerusalem when </span><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/2chronicles/20" style="font-family: Lora;">Jehoshaphat</a><span style="font-family: Lora;"> was king. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Lora;">Our Gospels tell us that evil will have its day. The enemies of God can only leave the world in hopeless darkness. The faithful seem to have no reasonable foundation for their hope or faith. They often have only their love for one another to keep them together. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Lora;">However, the Word of the Lord endures. He will meet us on the way -- out of town if necessary -- to give us a sure sign and everlasting proof of his mercy. </span></div>Fr Ken Bartsch, OFM Convhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353992638651871015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2746463302909872934.post-11815599842260720292024-03-21T00:00:00.193-04:002024-03-21T00:00:00.158-04:00Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ce_CwZx_OjY/Uz70sdwPSdI/AAAAAAAARAY/OvzKVWrkyGY/s1000/Thursday%2BLent%2B5.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ce_CwZx_OjY/Uz70sdwPSdI/AAAAAAAARAY/OvzKVWrkyGY/s320/Thursday%2BLent%2B5.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032124.cfm"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;">Lectionary: 254</span></a><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">“Amen, amen, I say to you,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.3px;" /><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">whoever keeps my word will never see death.”</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="background-color: #c27ba0; font-size: x-large;"><i>No</i></span><span style="background-color: white;"><i> one experiences death</i>. It's been said, for experience is a memory of something, and if there is such a memory there is no one to share it with the living. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">How does one choose death? And when must I make that fateful, fatal decision?</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">I witnessed the death of patients in the VA as a chaplain; and more immediately,</span><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">in the past year, with the passing</span><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;"> of several friends and close relatives. I guess that's to be expected of advancing years; I attend more funerals than baptisms. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">Each of my loved ones approached death differently. Not all welcomed it; some did not accept it; one took matters into his own hand. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">With healthier friends and family, we asked, "How will I approach my death? Will I be ready? Will I welcome it? Will I be terrified or resigned? Perhaps, I'll be eager to give myself to the Lord as I approach that gateway. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">Jesus predicates his teaching on death with his strongest language; they sound almost like an oath, "<i>Amen, Amen, I say to you</i>,</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora; letter-spacing: 0.3px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Lora; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">whoever keeps my word will never see death.”</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">His opponents wonder if a young man can know anything of death. But they know only about bodily death, when people cease to breathe, move, or care, when the dying are clearly no longer present. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">They know nothing of that dying which remains present and engaged. They cannot imagine a death which radiates God's glory, which confidently announces God's mercy, compassion, infinite patience, and deep sympathy for our frail human nature. They have never seen the truth of death; they've seen only those who failed to die when their bodies failed to breathe. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">This young man who seems to know nothing of life will show the world the truth and beauty of surrendering to a God who is infinitely worthy of our life. Upon his death, a Roman centurion who was deeply familiar with death declared, "Truly, this man was the Son of God." </span></p>Fr Ken Bartsch, OFM Convhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353992638651871015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2746463302909872934.post-45353015119016718032024-03-20T00:00:00.212-04:002024-03-20T00:00:00.148-04:00Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DdRtlZusKTM/UzyqveJc6SI/AAAAAAAAQ_c/5oH_7N7hhxQ/s1000/Wednesday%2BLent%2B5.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DdRtlZusKTM/UzyqveJc6SI/AAAAAAAAQ_c/5oH_7N7hhxQ/s320/Wednesday%2BLent%2B5.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032024.cfm"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;">Lectionary: 253</span></a><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: #d0e0e3; color: #2b00fe; font-size: x-large;">A</span><span style="background-color: white;"> Veteran friend of mine in the VA hospital had visited Germany and admired much about the country. "But" he said, "they don't enjoy the freedom we have in this country."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">Everything he said about this European ally sounded both good and better than our life in the United States. Their cities are clean; the trains run on time; their transportation systems serve the poor and elderly as well as commuting shoppers and </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora;">workers</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora;">; people are seen walking at all hours of the day and night. But he insisted. "They're not as free as we are." </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">Eventually, as I got to know the man, I realized he was talking about <i>guns</i>. Germany does not permit many people to own, much less carry, guns. His freedom is the so-called right to own, collect, carry, and use firearms; and he had many. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">Freedom is what we give to one another. And if no one gives you freedom, you cannot have it. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">As a VA hospital chaplain, I worked hand in glove with many nurses. All were friendly, courteous, and helpful. Some were delighted when I visited their floor; they would greet me with enthusiastic full-body hugs. And I was always glad to receive their affection; and <i>gave as well as I got!</i> Others were just as gracious, but didn't offer the same freedom. They might give me a shoulder hug, or fist bump, or a friendly greeting. And I was grateful for everything. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">But I don't think I ever <i>took liberties</i> with the nursing staff, counselors, or therapists. I received as much freedom as they gave me; and I offered the freedom of my friendship, concern, and bodily contact insofar as they would accept it -- and no more. Nor did anyone ever want more than I could or should give. I was fortunate in that regard. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">Freedom is what we give to one another. We cannot -- and dare not -- take liberties with one another. At least, not without an apology, careful explanation, and reassurance that this will not happen again. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">The Lord gives us the freedom of God's children. Saint John says it more precisely, "to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God." <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/1?12"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(John 1: 12)</span></a></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">Although most Christians are adopted into the family of Abraham, our freedom is as complete as the "descendants of Abraham." We may call God "Our Father." We may ask for whatever we need in his service. We may rest in his love with the assurance of everlasting salvation. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">Obviously, this is not a freedom that lacks discipline or impulse control. If Jesus comes to serve he is not a slave genie who prostrates and declares, "Your wish is my command." </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">Ours is the freedom of One who takes delight in obeying his Father even as the Holy Spirit drives him toward Jerusalem and Calvary. We serve an obedient God. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">Like my gun-toting friend, the Lord's opponents in today's gospel believed they were free because they did what they wanted to do. They did not recognize their bondage to their own wills. There is no worse slavery, none more subtle and hard to escape. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">In the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, we find our deepest understanding of freedom. When the Father expresses himself perfectly, he pours his divinity entirely and without reservation into the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us. When the Son returns in love to the Father, his entire life, from conception to passion and death, is a surrender to the Father. Their love is the Holy Spirit whose being is also consumed -- "consummated" -- by love for the Father and the Son. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">The freedom of the Christian is found within the life of the Trinity, as Jesus says,</span></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live. </span><span style="font-family: Lora;">On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you. <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/14?19"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(John 14:19-20)</span></a></span></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p> </p>Fr Ken Bartsch, OFM Convhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353992638651871015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2746463302909872934.post-90215380330179257782024-03-19T00:00:00.245-04:002024-03-19T00:00:00.368-04:00Solemnity of Saint Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Znl_dPg5y7g/UyDV-rhyBhI/AAAAAAAAQ2k/8HM-iWZXmd4/s889/Saint%2BJoseph%2BHusband%2B.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;"><img border="0" data-original-height="822" data-original-width="889" height="296" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Znl_dPg5y7g/UyDV-rhyBhI/AAAAAAAAQ2k/8HM-iWZXmd4/s320/Saint%2BJoseph%2BHusband%2B.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031924.cfm"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;">Lectionary: 543</span></a><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">“Joseph, son of David,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.3px;" /><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.3px;" /><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">For it is through the Holy Spirit</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.3px;" /><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">that this child has been conceived in her.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="background-color: #d5a6bd; font-size: x-large;">J</span><span style="background-color: white;">oseph of Bethlehem was certainly delighted to find himself betrothed to the lovely Mary of Galilee. If he knew little about her, she was young, attractive, pleasant, and of a respectable family. We can only imagine his dismay when he learned she had a </span><i style="background-color: white;">past</i><span style="background-color: white;">. There was more to her than met the eye, but that would become too apparent soon enough. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">He was suddenly afraid to take Mary into his home.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">If he was the first to face this dilemma, he was not the last. Even in the fourth century, as the bishops approached Nicea, many refused to accept Mary into their relationship with the Lord. She was the mother of Jesus, they were willing to grant, but that made little difference to them. She had done her part in bearing Jesus of Nazareth, they supposed, now let her disappear into the past and be forgotten. They could not accept and would not use her title, <i>Theotokos</i> -- the Mother of God. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">And they had their reservations about Jesus. He was a good man, like many others. A saint! He had been possessed by the Son of God, but was not himself the Son of God. He too had done his part in manfully bearing God's Presence within him even to Calvary. He certainly cooperated fully and completely with God's plan of salvation for the human race. A hero! </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">But not God. He was a man who'd been used by God to show his fellows the way of salvation. Act as Jesus acted and you too will be saved. An extraordinary man, a role model, an example! But not God. God had gone as far as God could go -- as God <i>should</i> ever go -- in using the man to demonstrate the way we should live. But God had neither suffered on Calvary, nor died on a cross, nor been buried in a grave. Nor would he descend into hell. Jesus might have, but not God. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">We can only imagine their consternation when they were shouted down by the roar of most bishops attending the Council of Nicea, and voted into obscurity. They must have suffered disgust when they heard the spontaneous festivity of the city celebrating Mary's new title -- Mother of God! -- throughout the night. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">But there are still many who are afraid to take Mary the Mother of God into their homes -- because she still comes with a past. Her past now includes all the sins of the Church that God her Son gave her with his dying breath. Those children, despite their sins, heard and obeyed his command, "Behold your mother." </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">They include <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/lady-of-guadalupe-virgin-marys-new-symbolism-for-gangs-and-commerce">drug-dealing Mexican drug dealers</a> with their images of Our Lady of Guadalupe; and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/06/vatican-fights-to-free-virgin-mary-from-mafia#:~:text=The%20association%20of%20Mary%20with,family%2C%20knows%20and%20understands%20this.">Italian mafia</a> who demand that images of Santa Maria di Polsi bow before the home of their crime boss. The Church denounces these abuses of her image, but that matters little to those who shun the company of sinners. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">To belong to Jesus we must belong to the sinful Church which loves the Lord and his Mother. We approach the altar through the narrow doors of the baptismal font and confession box. Idealists abandon their ideals and</span><span style="font-family: Lora;"> purists, </span><span style="font-family: Lora;">their purity when they enter the Church to greet its people </span><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/romans/16?16" style="font-family: Lora;">with a holy kiss</a><span style="font-family: Lora;">. We might not like the people we meet in Church; we might hold grudges against former spouses, adulterous in-laws, and shady neighbors. But there they are, and here we are, together in Joseph's house.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">Everyone has a past. If you love someone without knowing their past you love only an image of your ideal self. If we know little of Saint Joseph's past, we can admire the way he accepted Mary's and ours. True, he hesitated for a moment. But he never looked back as he fled his home and career in Bethlehem to take her and her son into Egypt. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">Saint Joseph knew <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/106?6">Psalm 106</a> like everyone of his fellow Jews, and would pray with them, "We have sinned; we and our fathers have sinned." And by that prayer, he became a saint. </span></p>Fr Ken Bartsch, OFM Convhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353992638651871015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2746463302909872934.post-75865565590347703272024-03-18T00:00:00.223-04:002024-03-18T00:00:00.257-04:00Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jlJ8QRUKz98/UztklaRRnzI/AAAAAAAAQ_A/b7ZyI2WsDkA/s1000/Monday+Lent+5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jlJ8QRUKz98/UztklaRRnzI/AAAAAAAAQ_A/b7ZyI2WsDkA/s320/Monday+Lent+5.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031824.cfm"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;">Lectionary: 251</span></a><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.3px;" /><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="background-color: #ff00fe; font-size: x-large;">T</span><span style="background-color: white;">his terrifying story ended with a sigh of relief touched with humor. The enemies went away one by one. The Lord had given them permission to stone the woman, with only one proviso -- that the one who had not sinned should cast the first stone. The rest of the sinful pack could proceed in their bloody game with abandon. </span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">Apparently none would claim innocence of sin before the rest of his brothers. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">Suddenly alone in the street with the woman, the Lord sent her home. With no one to condemn her, there was no need for a trial or condemnation. Jesus had said to Nicodemus, he had not come to condemn anyone; why would he do so now? Her innocence was again presumed. As to the man with whom she'd committed the sin -- if there was such a man -- he had already escaped the <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/leviticus/20?10">sentence</a> of death, but he'd not heard the kind words of Jesus. His guilt remained. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">What do we make of the story? Interestingly, "Generative AI" offers this self-contradicting analysis of adultery in the United States: </span><br /></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p></p><div style="text-align: left;">As of 2022, adultery is a criminal offense in 16 states. However, prosecution for adultery is rare because many adultery laws are considered archaic. Adultery is defined as a married person having sexual intercourse with someone other than their spouse. It can be punishable by a fine or even jail time. Adultery is a crime in most of the United States and occurs in most American marriages. However, states' anti-adultery laws are rarely enforced. Some states with anti-adultery laws include: Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi. Adultery can also subject you to court-martial in the United States military.</div><p></p></blockquote><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">An </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unenforced_law" style="font-family: Lora; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">unenforceable</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora; letter-spacing: 0.3px;"> law is no law. </span><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">Apparently, police, prosecutors, and judges have assumed the same attitude, "Neither do I condemn you." </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">The Catholic Church believes that adultery is a serious sin. It is a violation of the covenant between a husband and wife; it is sacrilegious because the marriage covenant reflects the Covenant of God with his people. We cannot conceive of God abandoning his Church. We attend Mass and receive the Eucharist with the assurance that the Lord gathers us into his Real Presence. So long as two or more pray together, he is with them; in fact, he called them together. Upon this rock he builds his Church and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. </span></span></p><span style="font-family: Lora;">If we had to trace the origin of much of the waywardness of American society to its origin we might point to adultery. There is the most obvious form of illicit liaisons between consenting adults; there are the more subtle forms of spouses failure to be with one another. Alcoholism comes between many couples, as do preoccupations with work, leisure, and family. </span><div><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Lora;">Every faithful couple struggles to maintain their awareness of their marriage, keeping it ahead of every other concern. They make decisions together; and when they must decide separately, they talk it through. They shape their lives around their needs for togetherness and separation; and no two marriages are alike because every married individual is unique. </span><div><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Lora;">But, as the scriptures attest, there is nothing new about adultery. It's been around forever. And the Lord continues to withhold his punishing hand as he leads us by the hand into every deeper union with him, </span></div></div>Fr Ken Bartsch, OFM Convhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353992638651871015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2746463302909872934.post-68773069741848408462024-03-17T00:00:00.126-04:002024-03-17T09:14:11.059-04:00Fifth Sunday of Lent<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RmHVLbGVPP0/UzW900cE0cI/AAAAAAAAQ-s/ptZ0qFsHHZo/s1000/Sunday+Lent+5.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RmHVLbGVPP0/UzW900cE0cI/AAAAAAAAQ-s/ptZ0qFsHHZo/w400-h400/Sunday+Lent+5.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><span><span style="font-family: Lora;"> </span><span style="font-family: Lora;"><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031724-YearB.cfm">Lectionary Year B Readings</a></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031724-YearB.cfm">“</a>I am troubled now. Yet what should I say?</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.3px;" /><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">‘Father, save me from this hour’?</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.3px;" /><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.3px;" /><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">Father, glorify your name.”</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="background-color: #9fc5e8; font-size: x-large;">J</span><span style="background-color: white;">ohn</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">the Evangelist recalls only a brief moment when Jesus suffered any human hesitation as he approached the hour of his death. The synoptic gospels -- Mathew, Mark, and Luke -- give us more detailed accounts of the Lord's Agony in the Garden. He fell to the ground at the thought of what was about to happen; he sweated blood as he realized he would be dead by this time tomorrow. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">But Saint John's Jesus reflects serene, presidential confidence from his first appearance in the Jordan River through his passion and death, and into his Easter appearances. In today's gospel, as the shadow of anxiety passes over the Lord, he immediately settles his soul with the prayer he has taught us, "Hallowed be thy name." It's virtually the same as "Glorify thy name." </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">His mission and ours is to give glory to God. From the moment God spoke to Abraham, eighteen centuries before Gabriel spoke to Mary, the mission of God's people has been to glorify God's name. Other people may know something about God. The Greek philosophers, for instance, supposed there should be a supreme being; but they had no name since he never spoke to them or revealed his name to them. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">Our hallowing of God’s name, in obedience to the Lord's Prayer, begins with our reverence for the word God; and continues with our straightforward, direct language. Christians have no need to swear, as Jesus taught us:</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">...you have heard that it was said to your ancestors, ‘Do not take a false oath, but make good to the Lord all that you vow. But I say…. Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">Our hallowing the name of God the Father, the holy name of Jesus his son, and the Holy Spirit goes beyond not abusing the words. As God's holy people we bless God’s name when we speak of the wonders God has done for us. We are blessed in so many ways, and we must practice that attitude of gratitude. There are a billion obvious things for which we thank God from our birth – especially because of the parents who welcomed and did not abort us. To our food, shelter, security, education and opportunities And our health – such as it is. Everyone who has ever visited or stayed in a hospital knows there’s someone worse off than me. We thank God for our health, our breathing, and our being human. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">We also remember the miracles when he healed us from the hurts we’ve suffered – especially those things that have been done to us. They are manifold, ranging from unintended insults to the cruelest, most deliberate crimes. By the Grace of God, and because we obey him, we learn to let them go. No regrets, no resentments, God delivered me from that place, that hurt, those people, and I have no need to go back. Praise God for that! </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">We hallow God's name by our cheerful generosity to others. If we are not generous, if our behavior is uncivil; our attitudes, cynical; and our thoughts, self-absorbed, then we dishonor God’s name. For the world is watching, and they know we are God’s people and are told to be holy as he is holy. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">During Lent we approach the Sacrament of Penance to celebrate God’s mercy. The confession of our sins also glorifies God’s name. Like our fathers and mothers from ancient times, we remember and own their sins and ours; and that the Lord persistently, consistently, repeatedly forgives us for pretty much the same sins time after time after time. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">Our life stories must become gospel stories, like the story of Jesus’s passion, death, and resurrection. If our gospels are different from his, it’s only in that they include the sins we have committed, while he is without sin.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">In today’s gospel, Jesus reminds us, “It was for this purpose that I came to this hour.” He must glorify God’s name by his passion and death. He would betray his mission if he blamed anyone for his death; he would not save us if he condemned the Jews, or the Romans, or anyone else for what happened that day; as He said,</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">Every time we say “forgive us our sins,” we admit to anyone in earshot that we have sinned, and thereby we Glorify the God who stands with us in our guilt, shame, and remorse. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">That prayer is a sure sign of God’s mercy. It shows that the Holy Spirit still lives in our hearts; he still calls us together; his words still find utterance on our tongues, and God’s Holy Name is still glorified in us. </span></span></p><div><br /></div><p></p>Fr Ken Bartsch, OFM Convhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353992638651871015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2746463302909872934.post-40818241925001903402024-03-16T00:00:00.122-04:002024-03-16T00:00:00.137-04:00Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DwVubkGvtSQ/UzW4bWcm7AI/AAAAAAAAQ-c/sBJaDPLfg3g/s1000/Saturday+Lent+4.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DwVubkGvtSQ/UzW4bWcm7AI/AAAAAAAAQ-c/sBJaDPLfg3g/w400-h400/Saturday+Lent+4.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031624.cfm"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;"> Lectionary: 249</span></a><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">But, you, O LORD of hosts, O just Judge,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">searcher of mind and heart,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Let me witness the vengeance you take on them,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">for to you I have entrusted my cause!</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: #d0a287; color: #6b5440; font-size: x-large;">S</span><span style="background-color: white;">everal years ago, when I was younger and more adventurous, I was riding my bicycle on a reasonably wide and very straight country road. There was ample room with a wide berm for two lanes of traffic. But as I pedaled, wearing no more protection than a t-shirt and shorts, a car full of teenagers swerved out of their lane to pass within inches of my handlebars. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">I was astonished and angry at the whole group -- I could see some turning around to look back at me as the car passed -- and I cursed them. And then I remembered there was a severe curve about a mile up the road and hoped they'd miss the turn. I went further; I said a prayer that the driver would lose control and the car would flip over. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">That's how I felt about their threat to me, and I said it aloud. All the saints and angels heard me say it in the presence of God. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">But then, as the calm of the open highway returned to my soul, I considered that there was only one person driving the car; and he or she had made the foolish, impulsive decision to terrify me. Not all the riders had wanted him to do that, though they might have said nothing in protest. They probably have parents and relatives who would be grieved at the accident, and would never know about the threat I'd suffered. I began to repent of my prayer. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">I decided to let the Lord choose and exact whatever revenge he should take for what I'd suffered. He would be my champion and defender, and the judge of all. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora;">When I got to that treacherous curve there was no evidence of an accident, and I was relieved. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora;">I've often heard that anger is a sin. I don't believe that. We witness God's wrath in the Old and New Testaments, and we often read about the anger of the prophets and saints, and the avenging angels. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora;">If we don't get angry enough to do something, an awful lot of things never change. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora;">Anger may cause me to sin, and for that I am responsible. But I might, in sheer joy, throw a hammer through a window. Elation doesn't make it right; it's just as sinful whether I was mad, sad, or glad when I threw the hammer. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora;">In today's first reading, we hear Jeremiah's prayer for revenge. We was not a powerful warrior. He seems like a rather smallish fellow, very lonely with his mission, and respected only as an unpopular prophet. When he was abused he felt hurt and angry and wanted revenge. What could be more natural than that? </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora;">And so he prayed that the Lord would judge between him and his enemies. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora;">God's people, following the example of Jesus, the prophets, martyrs, and saints, let the Lord be our protecting shepherd. He leads us away from danger and, when necessary drives away the wicked thief, wolf, bear, and lion. If he allows us to suffer, it is with him. And the saints call that a <i>privilege</i>. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></p>Fr Ken Bartsch, OFM Convhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353992638651871015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2746463302909872934.post-82424146525160522922024-03-15T00:00:00.001-04:002024-03-15T00:00:00.138-04:00Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Skkahnjd0j4/UzWxsooL32I/AAAAAAAAQ-M/EQURdozvgdg/s1000/Friday+Lent+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Skkahnjd0j4/UzWxsooL32I/AAAAAAAAQ-M/EQURdozvgdg/w400-h400/Friday+Lent+4.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031524.cfm"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;">Lectionary: 248</span></a><p></p><div><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">"Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us;</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">he sets himself against our doings,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Reproaches us for transgressions of the law</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">and charges us with violations of our training.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">He professes to have knowledge of God</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">and styles himself a child of the LORD.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">To us he is the censure of our thoughts;</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">merely to see him is a hardship for us....</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: #783f04; color: #6fa8dc; font-size: x-large;">W</span><span style="background-color: white;">isdom in toda</span>y's first reading describes the world's reaction against the people of God. Because they represent the Presence of God in the world, they are obnoxious. Which is to say, the world despises God, and those wh<span style="background-color: white;">o love the Lord have a peculiar relationship with the world around them. We live in this place but are not of this place. We love our home although our home hates us. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">We consider that dilemma especially within the season of Lent. Our musing begins with <i>world</i>, a word often used in the Gospel of John: <br />Most often, the world is that place which the Lord loves and has come to save. </span></span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><p style="color: #440000; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">For God so loved the <span class="search">world</span> that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the <span class="search">world</span> to condemn the <span class="search">world</span>, but in order that the <span class="search">world</span> might be saved through him. <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/3?16"><span style="font-size: x-small;">John 3:16-17</span></a></span></p></div></blockquote><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">But the world is also ignorant of God and responds with hostility. </span></span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;"><div>‘If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world—therefore the world hates you. <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/5?18"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(John 15:18-19)</span></a></div></span></span></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="color: #440000;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">And when he comes, he will prove the <span class="search">world</span> wrong about sin and righteousness and judgement... <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/16?8"><span style="font-size: x-small;">John 16:8</span></a></span></p><p style="color: #440000;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">...about judgement, because the ruler of this <span class="search">world</span> has been condemned. <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/16?11"><span style="font-size: x-small;">John 16:11</span></a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="color: #440000;">Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the</span><span style="color: #440000;"> </span><span class="search" style="color: #440000;">world</span><span style="color: #440000;"> </span><span style="color: #440000;">will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy.</span> <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/16?20"><span style="font-size: x-small;">John 16:20</span></a></span></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">In his most famous work, <a href="https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/models-of-the-church_avery-dulles/252239/item/4327640/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=shopping_everything_else_customer_acquisition&utm_adgroup=&utm_term=&utm_content=593719077582&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAloavBhBOEiwAbtAJO604jhhpRWeK4ZduSMYL7wYOLR9GxyEyQCqw96vgNXPQBRYPuS7xWhoCZjAQAvD_BwE#idiq=4327640&edition=2380124">Models of the Church</a>, Father Avery Dulles described four different ways that Christian churches typically respond to the world. He offered the study as an ecumenical way for the various denominations to understand and find agreement with each other. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">The first and fourth are extremes; the first is entirely comfortable in the world and readily recognizes and endorses its best values; the fourth is as hostile to the world as the world seems to be hostile to it. There are two types of church between them, which Father Dulles also described. The second strives to find its comfortable place in the world despite knowing there are intractable problems with that posture. The third is more suspicious of the world, knowing that the world cannot survive the judgment and wrath of God. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">As I recall from reading the book over fifty years ago, Dulles appointed the Anglican churches as those most comfortable in the world. He cited the statues of Washington and Lincoln in the Washington Cathedral. Washington attended the church though his beliefs were essentially deist; Lincoln had read and could quote the Bible, but did not often attend Christian services. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">Their opposites, some fundamentalist churches loudly denounce the values of the world, and insist that their faithful never participate in worldly pleasures like athletics, the arts, dances, and card games. They should never smoke, drink, curse, or cuss; although they might quarrel and feud with abandon, especially when they suspect infidelity in their congregations.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">Amish and Mennonites might be those churches which maintain a bemused distance from the world without loudly condemning it. Some encourage their youth to cautiously explore the world and thereby discover the wisdom of their pious elders who have tasted its delights and found them insipid. Hopefully, the youth return to the fold and raise their children within their traditional religious communities.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">And finally, Catholics and mainline denominations -- which comprised the vast majority when Father Dulles produced his book -- live in the world but remind their faithful to practice a healthy skepticism toward its values. (As I recall, today's Evangelicals were hardly a blip on the religious radar screen in 1974, when the book was published.)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">Lent, I believe, is especially that time when our penitential practices must separate -- if not isolate -- us from the world around us. We might not go out to as many restaurants; we might select religious reading over entertainment; we might serve the church more actively by working the fish fries; and so forth. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">The Liturgy of the Hours offers a mature, traditional, and familiar practice of faith. It is recommended by its spiritual solidarity with hundreds of thousands who read the same prayers in many of the world's languages. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">In the end, in the apocalyptic moment when the Lord judges all the nations, we cannot expect much sympathy for our trials from the world and its peoples. They will maintain their culture of death with abhorrent practices like abortion, euthanasia, and capital punishment to the end. They will continue to oppress minorities and exploit children while neglecting the elderly. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">They understand only power, and must despise both the weak and those who renounce the pursuit of power. They cannot stand a crucified god; the very notion is absurd to them. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">Lent calls us to restore and revive our faith in the Crucified who was raised up for our salvation. Lent reminds us that we expect this world to end in a cataclysm of failure and disappointment, as we are delivered into eternal bliss. </span></p>Fr Ken Bartsch, OFM Convhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353992638651871015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2746463302909872934.post-32865912040199622692024-03-14T00:00:00.211-04:002024-03-14T00:00:00.133-04:00Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-601WiaDUb74/UzLYH3s184I/AAAAAAAAQ98/zXlmzBxV-QI/s1000/Thursday%2BLent%2B4.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-601WiaDUb74/UzLYH3s184I/AAAAAAAAQ98/zXlmzBxV-QI/s320/Thursday%2BLent%2B4.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031424.cfm"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;">Lectionary: 247</span></a><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">The LORD said to Moses,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"I see how stiff-necked this people is.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Let me alone, then,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">that my wrath may blaze up against them to consume them.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Then I will make of you a great nation."</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">But Moses implored the LORD, his God, saying,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"Why, O LORD, should your wrath blaze up against your own people....</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: #9fc5e8; font-size: x-large;">M</span><span style="background-color: white;">oses's conversation with the Lord about the people they are leading through the wilderness is a study in frustration. They go back and forth between them. One complains while the other condoles; and then the other threatens to give it up while the other reassures. </span><i style="background-color: white;">These people</i><span style="background-color: white;"> are not easy to deal with!</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora;">But let me digress for a moment: </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora;">As I read the wonderful selections of the patristics each morning in our liturgical Office of Readings, I find that the great bishops of the early church often failed to connect </span><i style="font-family: Lora;">these people</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora;"> -- the Old Testament grumblers, complainers, and traitors -- with the New Testament church. In other words, they left the implication that the Jews were sinfully ignorant of God's mercy, but we Christians </span><i style="font-family: Lora;">get it</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora;">. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">We don't. Our magisterium -- that spiritual church that is securely guided by the Holy Spirit -- gets it but we don't. We are still the sinful children of our Old and New Testament ancestors. <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/4?22">Salvation is from the Jews</a> and Christians who think they are superior to Jews of the new or old covenant are in mortal danger. Enough said! (for the moment.) <br /><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora;">Jesus is the new Moses who, like his ancestor, intercedes continually before the Father for his sinful Church. As we hear the LORD's complaint in today's selection from Exodus we should tremble with fear for our Church, our nation, and ourselves. Can anyone do atonement for our sins? Can the crucifixion and death of one man close the breach that has opened through the walls of our holy city; can it purify the streets, shops, and homes of this bewildered center of the earth?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">In today's gospel we watch the Lord stand strong before his opponents. He argues reasonably against their irrational opposition. He is insists that they have the credible testimony of first, John the Baptist; second, the works of God which he has done and they have seen; and finally, the scriptures. These <i>witnesses</i> acknowledge the authority of Jesus. </span></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">"But you do not want to come to me to have life." </span></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">We have no excuse for our refusal to trust him with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">As we approach Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and Easter we recognize our failure even to observe the practices of Lent. Many of our good intentions have been compromised; some of them never got off the ground! Nor has the world paused to admire our Lenten observance. They noticed the hilarity of <i>Mardi Gras</i>; they might have taken part in it. But Lent is a wash; it's not on the calendar. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">And so we begin again, two weeks before Holy Thursday, to walk with the Lord as he atones for our sins, the sins of our ancestors, and the appalling criminality of the human race. Can one man's prayer be heard before the just anger of God; can one man's death atone for so much?</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">Yes, if he is the Son of God. We hope and pray and believe that he is. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></p><p><br /></p>Fr Ken Bartsch, OFM Convhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353992638651871015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2746463302909872934.post-10928346801421136912024-03-13T00:00:00.214-04:002024-03-13T11:31:45.561-04:00Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent <p><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031324.cfm"></a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HV0ZVVP1K6o/UzLPCBO8yhI/AAAAAAAAQ9s/bG-f1ThrD9M/s1000/Wednesday%2BLent%2B4.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HV0ZVVP1K6o/UzLPCBO8yhI/AAAAAAAAQ9s/bG-f1ThrD9M/w400-h400/Wednesday%2BLent%2B4.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: Lora;"><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031324.cfm">Lectionary: 246</a></span><div><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">"My Father is at work until now, so I am at work."</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">For this reason they tried all the more to kill him,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">because he not only broke the sabbath</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">but he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: #a2c4c9; font-size: x-large;">S</span>aint John Henry Newman was probably influenced by Darwin's doctrine of evolution when he showed how </span><span style="font-family: Lora;">the doctrines of the church survive through innumerable obstacles and heretical challenges. In a sense, they survived because they fit our experience of the Lord and his Gospel.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">Today's gospel suggests that it was Jesus's opponents who first recognized his equality with God the Father. The evangelists, both those who wrote and those who preached, would work with that principle as they announced the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord to the world. The teaching didn't fit Greek notions of a supreme being, but the Lord's relationship as the Only Begotten Son of God was too solidly anchored in every writing of the New Testament to be denied. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">In today's gospel from John 5, Jesus describes his work as identical to the Father's. </span><span style="font-family: Lora;">When he speaks of the authority to judge he has received from the Father, we should remember the two judgment seats as described in John 19. First there is the </span><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/19/13" style="font-family: Lora;">seat</a><span style="font-family: Lora;"> on which Pilate placed him while the mobs shouted for his crucifixion. Although he is our divine judge and savior, in that moment the mobs judged him while Pilate washed his hands of the whole business. And then there was the cross, which was a throne of pain. Although the Lord is both innocent and helpless, those who </span><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/3?19" style="font-family: Lora;">prefer the darkness</a><span style="font-family: Lora;"> condemn him and thereby bring condemnation on themselves. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">When we speak of doctrines like Trinity and Incarnation our conversation can become pretentious and erudite. Such notions seem like grand ideas for late night, college dorm conversations but irrelevant in the "real world." It helps to remember we're speaking of existential matters like condemnation and death. Our beliefs would be more palatable to God's enemies if we didn't insist on the divinity of Jesus, the Trinity, and the Eucharist. But they would not be worth dying for either. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">Jesus calls us to be obedient children of God because he is the Obedient Son of God; he invites us to serve because he came not to be served but to serve. Our life begins not in the distant past when our mothers bore us, but in this moment as we serve the Living God. He summons us to worship God within the same House of the Holy Spirit which unites the Father and the Son in mutual love. </span></p></div>Fr Ken Bartsch, OFM Convhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353992638651871015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2746463302909872934.post-39694701383182199972024-03-12T00:00:00.247-04:002024-03-12T00:00:00.147-04:00Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuZLyZF-2ID5Gtl3A-w6TksTS-E70dg8BDxbSxuU2An9R6-AF8Hz2of_9caShHvTvDeNQlkMONqo8ZEA_cY2Yjiy-LpLBcBq1IJaBDGpuHZrMSvq7Cg3h-0ScvADM48HgsewBoe8K0MmN1/s600/Tuesday+Lent+4.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="400" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuZLyZF-2ID5Gtl3A-w6TksTS-E70dg8BDxbSxuU2An9R6-AF8Hz2of_9caShHvTvDeNQlkMONqo8ZEA_cY2Yjiy-LpLBcBq1IJaBDGpuHZrMSvq7Cg3h-0ScvADM48HgsewBoe8K0MmN1/w266-h400/Tuesday+Lent+4.jpg" width="266" /></span></a></div><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031224.cfm"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;">Lectionary: 245</span></a><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">After this Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"Look, you are well; do not sin any more,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">so that nothing worse may happen to you."</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The man went and told the Jews</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">that Jesus was the one who had made him well.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Therefore, the Jews began to persecute Jesus</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">because he did this on a sabbath.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: #20124d; color: #3d85c6; font-size: x-large;">It's</span><span style="background-color: white;"> hard to like this character in the Gospel of John. Despite his sitting by the pool of Bethesda for thirty-eight years waiting for a cure, he answered indifferently when the Lord asked, "Do you want to be well?" </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">After he was cured, he was accosted by Jews who challenged his new freedom, "</span>"It is the sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat." But he answered indifferently, "The man who made me well told me, 'Take up your mat and walk.'" </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">He used the Lord's miraculous words to deflect attention from his own decision to obey the Lord and walk. He gave a witness of sorts, as he told the Jews he'd been cured by Jesus, -- he spoke the holy name -- but apparently wants no part in the story. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">He would not speak boldly of himself, his decision to walk upright and freely, and of the <i>power</i> he'd been given. We first heard of that power in the prologue, </span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">...those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision but of God. (John 1:12-13)</span></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">In John 9 we meet another disabled man, a blind man, apparently an adult son living with his parents. When the same opponents of Jesus disbelieve his story of the Lord's mercy, he challenges their authority to teach. </span><span style="font-family: Lora;">Despite his blindness, he clearly </span><span style="font-family: Lora;">sees</span><span style="font-family: Lora;"> </span><span style="font-family: Lora;">the Lordship of Christ; and is not afraid to stand with Jesus against the opposition.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">In the first chapter of John, when two of the Baptist's disciples follow Jesus and ask him, "Where do you live?" He replies, "Come and see." </span><span style="font-family: Lora;">But they will see more than the house where he lived with Mary. They will see their lives transformed and their freedom unexpectedly restored. I say </span><i style="font-family: Lora;">unexpected</i><span style="font-family: Lora;"> because they never knew they were shackled until he set them free. And then, because they have witnessed great things in their life, they will give </span><span style="font-family: Lora;">witness</span><span style="font-family: Lora; font-style: italic;"> </span><span style="font-family: Lora;">to the great things God has done for them. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">One of those disciples is unnamed in chapter one, but given a name in the closing chapters, "the one whom Jesus loved." </span><span style="font-family: Lora;">He is us, and we are those beloved disciples who give testimony to the Lord about the wonderful things he has done for us. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">As we see in John 5, not everyone accepts the invitation. They might speak of Jesus but they don't see themselves in his gospel. They might parrot the evangelists, but they will not enjoy evangelical freedom. </span><span style="font-family: Lora;">Like the crippled old man, they disappear without a trace.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">Lent again challenges us to rise to the freedom which we are given. We might find ourselves <i>free from,</i> but if we don't exercise our <i>freedom to </i>speak the truth in the face of opposition, we are useless in God's sight. We risk the dreadful curse of Revelation 3:16 </span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">"So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth."</span></p></blockquote><p><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #363936; font-size: 20px;"><br /></span></p>Fr Ken Bartsch, OFM Convhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353992638651871015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2746463302909872934.post-51354146074855468422024-03-11T00:00:00.176-04:002024-03-11T00:00:00.143-04:00Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WfAgK9sHZ-0/Uy93IkncK6I/AAAAAAAAQ9I/KVW3Za6Ue9o/s1000/Monday+Lent+4.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WfAgK9sHZ-0/Uy93IkncK6I/AAAAAAAAQ9I/KVW3Za6Ue9o/s320/Monday+Lent+4.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031124.cfm"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;">Lectionary: 244</span></a><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.”</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: #ff8800; color: #cc0000; font-size: x-large;">O</span><span style="background-color: white;">ur weekday gospel readings throughout the rest of Lent will be taken from the Gospel of Saint John. This document has always had a particularly high place in the liturgy of the Church. It describes a Savior who is clearly human and transparently </span><span style="background-color: white;">divine. He knows who he is and what he is about. With great confidence Saint John's <i>Jesus</i> approaches Jerusalem; he is presider, priest, master of ceremonies, and sacrificial lamb on the altar of his cross. As he says, "No one takes my life from me. Freely I lay it down, and freely I take it up again."</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">In today's gospel we're given direct instruction as to how we should conduct ourselves during Lent, "...the man believed in what Jesus said to him." </span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">We do not require a sign of the Lord; we have heard his word. We have seen enough to know he comes from God and is returning to God. When he speaks we set our doubts, hesitation, reluctance, and fear aside. As Thomas said, "Let us go to die with him."</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">The prophet Isaiah also inspires confidence as we hear the LORD's words, </span></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">Lo, I am about to create new heavens</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">and a new earth;</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">The things of the past shall not be remembered</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">or come to mind.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happiness</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">in what I create....<span style="background-color: white;"> </span></span></div></blockquote><p><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">The new heaven and earth begin with the Resurrection of Jesus. Easter morning is resplendent with the Glory of God. We have the memory of his Transfiguration to sustain us through the apparently grim days of Lent, the hopeless darkness of Good Friday, and the silence of Holy Saturday. We will watch and wait and expect something new, unforeseen, and unimaginable. </span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">Isaiah speaks repeatedly of the new things that are to come to pass: </span></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">Isaiah 42.9:<br />See, the former things have come to pass,<br /> and <span style="color: red;">new</span> <span style="color: red;">things</span> I now declare;<br />before they spring forth,<br /> I tell you of them.</span></blockquote><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">Isaiah 43.19:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">I am about to do a <span style="color: red;">new thing</span>;</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"> now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">I will make a way in the wilderness</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"> and rivers in the desert.</span></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">Isaiah 48.6:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">You have heard; now see all this;</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"> and will you not declare it?</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">From this time forward I make you hear <span style="color: red;">new things</span>,</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"> hidden things that you have not known.</span></div></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">In fact, the same Hebrew prophet coined our favorite expression:</span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"> </span><span style="font-family: Lora;">How beautiful upon the mountains<br /></span><span style="font-family: Lora;">are the feet of the messenger who announces peace,<br /></span><span style="font-family: Lora;">who brings <span style="color: red;">good news</span>,<br /></span><span style="font-family: Lora;">who announces salvation,<br /></span><span style="font-family: Lora;">who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’<br /></span><span style="font-family: Lora;"> Isaiah 52.7:</span><br style="font-family: Lora;" /><span style="font-family: Lora;"></span></div></blockquote><p> </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">The spirit of the Lord God is upon me,<br /></span><span style="font-family: Lora;">because the Lord has anointed me;<br /></span><span style="font-family: Lora;">he has sent me to bring <span style="color: red;">good news</span> to the oppressed,<br /></span><span style="font-family: Lora;">to bind up the broken-hearted,<br /></span><span style="font-family: Lora;">to proclaim liberty to the captives,<br /></span><span style="font-family: Lora;">and release to the prisoners;</span></div></blockquote><span style="font-family: Lora;"> <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Isaiah 61.1</span><br style="font-family: Lora;" /><p> <span style="font-family: Lora;">As we read the daily news we see nothing new. The same old wars, violence, poverty, crime, corruption -- and they call it </span><i style="font-family: Lora;">news</i><span style="font-family: Lora;">? There is more sickness and death. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">But our hearts, minds, and lives are undergoing renewal during this season of Lent. The Lord has told us, and because he said so, we believe. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">We have only to watch, wait, and expect. </span></p>Fr Ken Bartsch, OFM Convhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353992638651871015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2746463302909872934.post-28640438429265019912024-03-10T00:00:00.006-05:002024-03-10T00:00:00.234-05:00Fourth Sunday of Lent Year B <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUQ_-9k9GTd13_lXnxmvomPa84n6QW5kEBqvsI_kH4Ku7Jn-hyRVZyFL0OnRc_1QCxGJXSbiyjsfNG5tBjYBm8vrzE0kUIV5gpCE_PzkrU_cgA5SROiQyn9BzfCJieSXk0TsNHjhWNaxDTQ3ZsVJx-o8rh2lc2TncoqoHfPKqz4dzMFt7SoXXU-q0Vxg_Q/s2011/53551334530_4c6764df8c_k.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1531" data-original-width="2011" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUQ_-9k9GTd13_lXnxmvomPa84n6QW5kEBqvsI_kH4Ku7Jn-hyRVZyFL0OnRc_1QCxGJXSbiyjsfNG5tBjYBm8vrzE0kUIV5gpCE_PzkrU_cgA5SROiQyn9BzfCJieSXk0TsNHjhWNaxDTQ3ZsVJx-o8rh2lc2TncoqoHfPKqz4dzMFt7SoXXU-q0Vxg_Q/w400-h305/53551334530_4c6764df8c_k.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031024-YearB.cfm"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;">Lectionary: 32</span></a><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">For by grace you have been saved through faith, </span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.3px;" /><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; </span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.3px;" /><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">it is not from works, so no one may boast.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.3px;" /><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works </span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.3px;" /><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">that God has prepared in advance,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.3px;" /><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">that we should live in them.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: #d07a0a; color: white; font-size: x-large;">I</span><span style="background-color: white;">f you get a good cue stick and spend many hours studying and learning the different uses of the cue, break cue, and jump cue; and an instructor helps you eliminate the bad habits and learn better methods of topspin, backspin, side spin, and throw; along with </span><i style="background-color: white;">masse</i><span style="background-color: white;">, carom, stun, and roll; and the different ways to break the rack; </span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">and how to execute safeties,</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora; letter-spacing: 0.3px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">and you spend many days practicing alone, and more evenings competing against superior players, you might be finally ready someday to <i>play</i> the game of pool. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">Because it all comes down to that graceful, playful contact of the felt tip as you direct spinning velocity into the white ball. Nor does the accomplished player complain of their many hours spent in learning the craft; although their study, research, and practice never cease. </span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">The following of Christ is something like that. Saint Paul insists that </span></span><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">we are saved <i>by grace</i>, and</span></span><span style="font-family: Lora; letter-spacing: 0.3px;"> not by our effort. </span><span style="font-family: Lora; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">He will go on to say, "W</span><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">ork out your salvation with fear and trembling." </span></span><span style="font-family: Lora; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">But it's not work at all, </span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">"</span><span style="font-family: Lora; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">For God is the one who, for his good purpose, works in you both to desire and to work." </span></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: Lora; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">And you'll know you're getting it right when you "</span><span style="font-family: Lora; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">Do everything without grumbling or questioning, </span><span style="font-family: Lora; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">that you may be blameless and innocent."</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">We study the lives of the saints to learn how they practiced faith until they acquired that spirit which renders the work as no work at all. Saint Maximilian Kolbe, after suffering tuberculosis for many years, and surviving sanitariums, was the last to die in a group of Poles whom the Nazis selected to die of starvation. In the days and weeks that he waited for death he heard confessions, consoled the grieving, the sick, and the dying, led his fellow prisoners in song, and praised God continually. And said never a word against his captors. Who finally gave up as he still hung on after several weeks, and injected him with carbolic acid. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">He made the impossible look easy, which is typical of saints. "With love the impossible is easy; without love, even the simplest chores are impossible. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">We are rounding the horn of Laetare Sunday. Our weekday gospels are directing our attention into the depths of Saint John's gospel of which it's been said, "A mouse may wade across it; an elephant may drown in it." As we've grown accustomed to our Lenten prayers and fasting, and perhaps our charitable works, we're learning to relax in our prayers as the light of dawn penetrates the dark watery depths of our souls. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora; letter-spacing: 0.3px;">Today's gospel urges us to see the Son of Man lifted up before our eyes; we will see our salvation coming as we gaze upon him. This is not work; this is grace. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">Despite our Lenten sacrifices no one can claim to deserve this grace or mercy. In fact we pray that we <u>don't</u> get what we deserve, for we've heard of God's wrath in today's account from the Second Book of Chronicles. We pray that the LORD will spare us in the Name of Jesus who <i>loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.</i> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/ephesians/5?2">(Ephesians 5:2)</a></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;"><br /></span></span></p><p></p>Fr Ken Bartsch, OFM Convhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353992638651871015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2746463302909872934.post-16238779200405890972024-03-09T00:00:00.186-05:002024-03-09T00:00:00.142-05:00Saturday of the Third Week of Lent <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZV-deFmp1NE/Uy2lqoqxO4I/AAAAAAAAQ8g/M4WXSvBxCSw/s1000/Saturday+Lent+3.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZV-deFmp1NE/Uy2lqoqxO4I/AAAAAAAAQ8g/M4WXSvBxCSw/s320/Saturday+Lent+3.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030924.cfm"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;">Lectionary: 242</span></a><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">...for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: #c27ba0; font-size: x-large;">I</span><span style="background-color: white;"> am certainly not an anthropologist, nor have I traveled widely. In fact, my experience is pretty limited. But I'd say that everyone recognizes vanity, and nearly everyone admires true humility. Anyone can recognize the truth of Jesus's parable about the Pharisee and the tax collector. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora;">Vanity fools no one but itself with its pretense of humility. In fact, we call false humility <i>pretentiousness</i>. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora;">That universally recognized virtue, however, at its best, is only a shadow of the humility of God. "Look at the humility of God!" Saint Francis said, as he spoke to his friars. The Saint of Assisi was universally recognized and acclaimed for his humility. He must have heard himself praised for that so often he grew sick of it. He lived in one of those <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilded_Age"><i>gilded</i> eras</a> when the wealthy make a show of their privileges, pleasures, power, and security. Everyone can see they are emperors with no clothes, but they see only one another in their contest of mutual admiration. Francis, though he was widely known and admired, made no claim to any privilege or entitlement, saw himself through God's eye, and was grateful for every little thing. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora;">"Look at the humility of God!" il Poverello said as he remembered Bethlehem, pondered the Eucharist, and contemplated Calvary. A lamb among goats sent him into tears; it reminded him of Jesus among his enemies. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">People might reply, "Sure, but Jesus was God nonetheless, even on the cross, and he didn't have to feel the pain." He felt more than the pain, if that's humanly possible. He felt the hatred and contempt of those who tormented him; and the betrayal of those who had claimed to love him. He felt the utter isolation of one abandoned by God and despised by his people. He felt the failure and futility of his mission. As his tormentors scourged him and mocked his helplessness, every reason to expect deliverance or redemption disappeared. There was no hope. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">On that black day, the Lord knew, as many Jews knew in Nazi concentration camps, that no help was coming. The world didn't care. No one would lift a finger. His last, despairing cry echoed off a leaden sky. Without hope there can be no pretense of righteousness or authority. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">Nor would it pass. His pain and humiliation would stop only in the silence of death when one can sense neither thought nor feeling for there is no one to sense anything. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">T.S. Eliot had a clue, </span></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love,</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">Whisper of running streams, and winter lightning.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">The wild thyme unseen and the wild strawberry,</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">The laughter in the garden, echoed ecstasy</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">Not lost, but requiring, pointing to the agony</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">Of death and birth.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span> </span><span> </span><i>T. S. Eliot, East Coker</i></span></div></blockquote><p> </p>Fr Ken Bartsch, OFM Convhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353992638651871015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2746463302909872934.post-30588964151453060652024-03-08T00:00:00.243-05:002024-03-08T11:20:03.083-05:00Friday of the Third Week of Lent <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZV-deFmp1NE/Uy2lqoqxO4I/AAAAAAAAQ8g/M4WXSvBxCSw/s1000/Saturday+Lent+3.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZV-deFmp1NE/Uy2lqoqxO4I/AAAAAAAAQ8g/M4WXSvBxCSw/s320/Saturday+Lent+3.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030924.cfm"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;">Lectionary: 242</span></a><div><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #363936; font-size: 20px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #363936;">Return, O Israel, to the LORD, your God;</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #363936;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #363936;">you have collapsed through your guilt.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #363936;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #363936;">Take with you words,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #363936;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #363936;">and return to the LORD;</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #363936;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #363936;">Say to him, "Forgive all iniquity,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #363936;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #363936;">and receive what is good, that we may render</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #363936;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #363936;">as offerings the bullocks from our stalls.</span></span><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: #ff00fe; font-size: x-large;">A</span><span style="background-color: white;">s we travel with Jesus to Jerusalem and Calvary, he does penance with us. Like King David, his ancestor and author of <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/ps/51?2">Psalm 51</a>, Jesus practices the virtue. He takes upon himself our guilt and shame and leads us in that "Way" which Saint Paul first persecuted and then preached. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">It is a practice of grief and relief, sorrow and joy, and regret and gratitude for the sins of our past and the grace of our life in Christ. It is an embrace of that foolish waywardness we share with humankind. The Lord walks the distance with us for <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/hebrews/2?11">"He is not ashamed to call us his sisters and brothers</a> as we do penance with him. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">A highly individualistic society teaches its children to isolate themselves from one another. I am sometimes called to celebrate a mass for small children and I watch them scrunch into the pews, sitting shoulder to shoulder. When one squirms they all squirm. They like and need to feel their bodies all bunched together. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">But at some point our children become ashamed of their bodies and start to isolate and distance themselves. I watch the friars -- adult American men -- assemble in chapel for Morning Prayer. No two to a pew; if there's only two in the chapel, we're on opposite sides. No unseemly relationships here! </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">But we remember how Jesus waded into, and disappeared in, a crowd. He was baptized by John the Baptist, as Saint Mark tells the story, apparently without anyone's noticing his presence. When an angry mob moved to hurl him over a cliff, he faded into the crowd and walked away. Saint John says he went up to Jerusalem and heard them asking one another, "<a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/7?10">Do you think he'll come?</a>" He felt no compulsive need to stand out or stand apart, but he quietly goes with us as we practice penance. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">Penance teaches us that no one is saved alone. Those who isolate themselves from the Church, thinking they don't need our companionship, wander into the wilderness and are lost. I think of it like the Hebrews as they escaped Egypt. Some might have said, "I know where this is going!" and moved ahead of Moses toward Palestine. Others wanted to go back to the old, assured way of bondage in Egypt. They missed their fleshpots.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">Both groups were lost because they separated themselves from God's chosen people. There is no better Way to live because we do it as one people, as God's holy people. <br /><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora;">We need one another; and Christians in particular need their fellow Christians. It does matter if you go to Church; you've not found a better way. There is no better way than the Way of the Lord. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">And so we embrace one another, bear with one another, <span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/colossians/3?13=">Colossians 3:13</a> & <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/ephesians/4?2">Ephesians 4:2</a>), </span>carry one another, and pray for one another. </span></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">And yet I do write a new commandment to you, which holds true in him and among you, for the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">Whoever says he is in the light, yet hates his brother, is still in the darkness.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">Whoever loves his brother remains in the light, and there is nothing in him to cause a fall.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">Whoever hates his brother is in darkness; he walks in darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">I am writing to you, children, because your sins have been forgiven for his name’s sake. <span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1john/2?8">(1 John 2:8-12)</a></span></span></div></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></p></div>Fr Ken Bartsch, OFM Convhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353992638651871015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2746463302909872934.post-30449902288625419932024-03-07T00:00:00.186-05:002024-03-07T00:00:00.137-05:00Thursday of the Third Week of Lent <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LiBhV2YW5I0/UyxG1BOnNLI/AAAAAAAAQ8A/87aHbO94eLU/s1000/Thursday%2BLent%2B3.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LiBhV2YW5I0/UyxG1BOnNLI/AAAAAAAAQ8A/87aHbO94eLU/w400-h400/Thursday%2BLent%2B3.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030724.cfm"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;"> Lectionary: 240</span></a><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">This is what I commanded my people:</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Listen to my voice;</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">then I will be your God and you shall be my people.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Walk in all the ways that I command you,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">so that you may prosper.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">"</span><span style="background-color: #783f04; color: #f9cb9c; font-size: x-large;">L</span><span style="background-color: white;">isten to my voice!" is a clear, straightforward command. It would be impossible to ignore but throw up absurd obstacles like, "Maybe you don't exist." </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">The real question is, "Do you believe in Truth? Is there any such thing? Is it important? Do you love the Truth? How much are you willing to pay, or sacrifice, for the Truth? </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">Does Truth speak to you? Or does it remain aloof and silent, saying nothing, never presenting or promoting itself?</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">Scientists seek the truth as if it speaks reluctantly. They continually suspect their own beliefs and assumptions. They look for hidden assumptions, both true and false, as they critique their own and the work of their colleagues. But sometimes their intuitions suspect something else; that perhaps the truth may be found if they pay attention to a hunch. And they wonder, "Did that come like a gift from the truth?"</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">Pontius Pilate hit the nail on the head when he sneered, "What is truth?" He had his own answer, that there is no such thing. Or if it does it does not speak; and neither commands nor deserves respect. The Roman felt with all his superiors and colleagues that he could ignore the truth, and dispose of the Ambassador of Truth who stood before him. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">Yes, Truth speaks to us, sometimes loudly, insistently, and persistently. It comes with angry revolutionists -- called "terrorists" -- who react to the violence of poverty with more violence. It comes in the form of droughts, fires, and massive hurricanes; and the resulting mass migrations of millions of people. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">It comes to us from out of the past, by way of our Catholic tradition; and it speaks to us with a prophetic voice today. And in language we understand. And so we either retreat to pusillanimous stupidity and say, "I'm not sure that God exists," or we listen and obey. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">Jeremiah says of today's disbelief in the first reading:</span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">But they obeyed not, nor did they pay heed.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">They walked in the hardness of their evil hearts</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">and turned their backs, not their faces, to me.</span></div></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">Disbelief in God will never be an excuse for not listening to God. It risks the loss of God's mercy. For the Truth does not wait forever. </span></p><p><br /></p>Fr Ken Bartsch, OFM Convhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353992638651871015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2746463302909872934.post-12268544148928665812024-03-06T00:00:00.148-05:002024-03-06T00:00:00.251-05:00Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hCdLadUm7dY/UyukRMsWLrI/AAAAAAAAQ7w/V2M5TKwov_4/s1000/Wednesday%2BLent%2B3.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hCdLadUm7dY/UyukRMsWLrI/AAAAAAAAQ7w/V2M5TKwov_4/w400-h400/Wednesday%2BLent%2B3.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030624.cfm"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;">Lectionary: 239</span></a><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">will pass from the law,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">until all things have taken place."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;"><i>"<span style="font-size: x-large;">Da</span> capo!" </i>a conductor might say to his orchestra. "from the top," meaning, "Start over!" or, "Let's try again from the beginning." They might do this because the . musicians got it right and must lock that sound into place. Or because there are still some rough, unfamiliar places that need smoothing out. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">We'd sometimes like to start our life <i>da capo</i>, all over again. But no river can be crossed twice. Time passes, that moment is past and this moment is now, and we're in a different place. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">The quarrel of conservatives and liberals concerns where we're going, and whether we can or should return to our beginnings. Can we start over? Can we try again to get it right? Should we restore the past as we remember it, or should we attempt an ideal possibility? </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora;">Why can't we just forgive and forget the troubles of the past and begin as if nothing ever happened?</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lora;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">When the Spirit of God moves us, we can forgive; but we forgive because we do not forget. Should we forget, there is nothing to forgive. But nothing is really forgotten. It happened; it remains there in the past, in God's eternal presence, and it's there between us.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">The Lord Jesus did not come to reform but to fulfill, and fulfillment begins where we are, not where we might have been in someone's ideal past. Nor does fulfillment go where it <i>should</i> go for no one really knows what the Kingdom of God must take us. The Spirit of God works within the present situation, and improvement follows. But our descendants will wonder why we didn't do a better job of it. They will not remember the obstacles that were overcome with such effort and sacrifice. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">We can admit with the psalmist that "we have sinned, we and our fathers have sinned" but we cannot judge our ancestors; and we pray that, from their place in eternity, they do not judge us. Rather, we pray that God will guide in this moment, and give us occasional tastes of the fullness which is surely coming. </span></span></p>Fr Ken Bartsch, OFM Convhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353992638651871015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2746463302909872934.post-47197409539021936732024-03-05T00:00:00.300-05:002024-03-05T00:00:00.442-05:00Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhow-Q-HO0yfmwqlAzJqapSxR6I-SVBkc7t6m0WWy9b8rE86aWiXHiTNgZMzIUVrg5YIf1gAIqhElfg7nvIBRS-KarybTdOcml7V6BdSIziqWCnvr0fTOez5IVO1e1gxhaBb20uhXH6cahW/s1600/Lent+Tuesday+3.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhow-Q-HO0yfmwqlAzJqapSxR6I-SVBkc7t6m0WWy9b8rE86aWiXHiTNgZMzIUVrg5YIf1gAIqhElfg7nvIBRS-KarybTdOcml7V6BdSIziqWCnvr0fTOez5IVO1e1gxhaBb20uhXH6cahW/w266-h400/Lent+Tuesday+3.jpg" width="266" /></span></a></div><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030524.cfm"><span style="color: black; font-family: Lora;">Lectionary: 238</span></a><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: white;">Do not take away your mercy from us,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">for the sake of Abraham, your beloved,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Isaac your servant, and Israel your holy one,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">To whom you promised to multiply their offspring</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">like the stars of heaven,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">or the sand on the shore of the sea.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">For we are reduced, O Lord, beyond any other nation,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">brought low everywhere in the world this day</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: white;">because of our sins.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">"<i><span style="background-color: black; color: #9fc5e8; font-size: x-large;">S</span>omewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good</i>," Liesl sang with her young lover. If her logic is built on an unsound foundation, it's a nice sentiment. We often hear that God, or karma, or luck rewards good deeds, and punishes bad deeds. So our good fortune is a reward for past behavior, and our good deeds should pay off someday. There's even a mythical scorecard of good and bad deeds kept somewhere in eternity, heaven, or the North Pole.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">But our religious tradition gives us another story. God has a fondness for the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Almost four millennia after the Patriarch, you'd think he may have forgotten that; especially given the persistent infidelity of those peoples, both physical and spiritual. Haven't his innumerable descendants forgotten it by now? But his word is everlasting, and continues to raise up a faithful people to make known his holiness -- even <i>from these very stones, </i>if that's what it takes. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">Because God is merciful we can be <i>reduced beyond any other nation, and brought low everywhere in the world because of our sins</i>. There is no reason that should not happen. If prosperity, security, and comfort do not spawn in us a grateful awareness of God's sovereign right to our love and worship, then perhaps the memory of former blessings with the recollection of ancient promises can bring us around. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">We might say that we once knew a God who favored our ancestors because they loved and worshiped the Lord through the worst of times. Because we too face hardship with little hope of relief, we might also turn to the Lord of our Forebears and seek his mercy. Is it possible that, despite our gimcrack technological wizardry, they knew some things we should never have forgotten? </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">Many people today study their genetic history, finding their roots in foreign lands; and some of them research these ancient stories, often beginning with their own parents and grandparents. They find faith amid hardship. They learn how their kin of recent centuries suffered segregation because of their nationality. They knew violence, insanity, sickness, and poverty and were sustained only by an unsophisticated faith in God. Their ancestors prayed to patron saints and guardian angels even as they contributed hard-earned pennies to build monumental churches, cathedrals, and basilicas. They took pride in these sanctuaries rather than in their own homes, automobiles, or horse drawn carriages. They knew the worth of a dollar and the majesty of their religion. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Lora;">Meeting our ancestors we remember their sins and their faith, and we return with them to the Lord. </span></p><p><br /></p>Fr Ken Bartsch, OFM Convhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353992638651871015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2746463302909872934.post-79608349898941338522024-03-04T00:00:00.210-05:002024-03-04T00:00:00.238-05:00Monday of the Third Week of Lent <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggdU_9DJB2neo1WgyRQFeKC333huOc3sXQSEcoyJMO7i2Gmf-F4ixO9M9pqeQbfxQyRoDQP8VOc7QAqrb5Uo4pXjyjxd3S4393Uqh3rgppJ5SPPvhyphenhyphen5F5wimEvXerofWL8w2gz2g3cn00G/s1600/Monday+Lent+3.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1427" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggdU_9DJB2neo1WgyRQFeKC333huOc3sXQSEcoyJMO7i2Gmf-F4ixO9M9pqeQbfxQyRoDQP8VOc7QAqrb5Uo4pXjyjxd3S4393Uqh3rgppJ5SPPvhyphenhyphen5F5wimEvXerofWL8w2gz2g3cn00G/s320/Monday+Lent+3.jpg" width="285" /></span></a></div><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030424.cfm"><span style="font-family: Lora;">Lectionary: 237</span></a><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">Athirst is my soul for the living God.<br />When shall I go and behold the face of God?<br />As the hind longs for the running waters,<br />so my soul longs for you, O God.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"><span style="background-color: #0b5394; color: white; font-size: x-large;">T</span>oday's responsorial psalm calls our attention to the baptismal signs in the story of Naaman the Leper. He was reluctant to obey the prophet's instruction that he should bathe in the Jordan River. First, he expected the man to come rushing out of his hovel and greet the foreign dignitary with every form of obsequious gesture. And then he expected some mystic rites and magical words to wave away his skin disease. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">When the prophet didn't bother to come out of his hut, but sent word that he should wade into the muddy Jordan River, the great commander of armies refused. He had to think about it first, and about all the trouble he and his soldiers had gone to in their trip from Assyria. So he finally went down, washed, and was healed. How about that? </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">Our sacraments are like that, especially since we conduct them in familiar languages. (By the way, Rome permitted Americans to celebrate baptisms, weddings, and graveside services in the vernacular several years before the great changes of the Second Vatican Council.) </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">Our sacramental signs are common materials like the muddy Jordan river: water, bread, wine, and olive oil. They're accompanied by routine gestures like blessings with the sign of the cross, and familiar words of prayer. The presiders ordinarily dress in liturgical vestments, but the <i>priestly people</i> wear clothes to fit the occasion and the season. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">As Saint Paul said, "We walk by faith and not by sight." We pay attention to the Word -- the readings and prayers -- and we sense God's presence as we celebrate our sacraments. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;">The story of Naaman recalls our baptism and the challenge faith represents in a distracted world. Rabbi Heschel, reflecting on his Jewish faith, wrote,</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lora;"> </span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><div><span style="font-family: Lora;">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." </span></div></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><div><span style="font-family: Lora;">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.</span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><span style="font-family: Lora;">In faith an individual commits everything to the Absoluteness of God. But the Absolute is cruel; it demands all. <span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>(Abraham Joshua Heschel, A Passion for Truth, Jewish Lights Publishing, 1995, page 112)</i></span></span></div></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><div><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Lora;">As we participate in the fasting, almsgiving, and prayers of Lent, we sharpen our attentiveness. We want to hone that ability to recognize God's absolute presence -- Your Presence! -- in our daily life; in a foreign river as well as the strange ideas of a slave girl. No one truly lives if they cannot sense God's spirit. They may be powerful people, like the Syrian general, but their life is more the Egyptian pharaoh's -- foolish, without purpose or direction. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Lora;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Lora;">We know that You are with us, attentive, concerned, and caring. You never forget us although we often forget you. You do not hide yourself although we'd sometimes like to hide from you. </span><span style="font-family: Lora;">We practice</span><i style="font-family: Lora;"> </i><span style="font-family: Lora;">gratitude</span><span style="font-family: Lora;"> -- <i>Eucharist </i>-- for your loving kindness as you turn us away from sin and back to mercy.</span></div></div>Fr Ken Bartsch, OFM Convhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353992638651871015noreply@blogger.com0