Today begins “Holy Week.” The Lord wants this week to be unlike any other week in our lives — a week of grace, sorrow, repentance, and love. The week begins with the praises of Palm Sunday, changes into the screams of the crucifixion, and ends with the dead silence of the tomb. Throughout the week, we hear the sounds of crying, whipping, hammering, and blaspheming. The sounds of Holy Week are piercing and thunderous. “Jesus cried out in a loud voice, and then gave up His spirit. Suddenly the curtain of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth quaked, boulders split, tombs opened” (Mt 27:50-52).

Eventually the roar subsides, and it’s our turn to join the choir. What sound will we make? Will we be sound asleep? (Mt 26:43) Or will we betray Jesus with a quiet kiss? Will we cry: “Crucify Him”? (Mt 27:23) Or will we make an act of faith and say: “Clearly this was the Son of God”? (Mt 27:54) 

The Lord God will give us a well-trained tongue to speak to the crucified Jesus a word that will proclaim His Resurrection and His divinity (see Is 50:4). Dare to hear the sounds of Holy Week. Make the sounds of loving praise and faith-filled commitment. Jesus listens for you. ”

The world is divided into two groups: those who know they’re spiritually blind and ask for and receive sight from Jesus, and others who refuse to admit they’re blind and are even blind to being blind (Is 29:9). Jesus said: “I came into this world to divide it, to make the sightless see and the seeing blind” (Jn 9:39). Many take offense at being called blind. “Some of the Pharisees around Him picked this up, saying, ‘You are not calling us blind, are You?’ To which Jesus replied: ‘If you were blind there would be no sin in that. “But we see,” you say, and your sin remains’ ” (Jn 9:40-41).

We were born spiritually blind. We inherited this from our first parents Adam and Eve. Our sight was restored when we were reborn in the waters of Baptism. Nevertheless, we continue to have eye problems because of our sins, which originally caused our spiritual blindness (see Catechism of the Catholic Church, 588, 1791). We keep bumping into things, crashing into brick walls, and having terrible accidents. What does it take to wake us up to reality?

We must confess our sins, and Jesus will again restore our spiritual vision. “Awake, O sleeper, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light” (Eph 5:14). “So the man went off and washed, and came back able to see” (Jn 9:7).  ”

The Samaritan woman gradually learns more about Jesus and what he offers her. Her journey reflects our own journey of faith. The dialogue begins with Jesus seeking a drink and then offering ‘living water’ to the woman. Water gives life. The ‘living water’ given by Jesus points to eternal life. As the dialogue continues it is established that Jesus is not only a prophet, but the Messiah. The woman’s eyes are gradually opening, enough for her to go and tell her townspeople. At the end they too come to believe, not simply due to her testimony but because they have themselves heard the preaching of Jesus.

 

It’s an appropriate time to restore in our own personal lives the motif of water. In Pennsylvania we have an abundance, even cleaning the local waters from industrial contamination.  However people who have well water can find it undrinkable because of fracking. In Flint Michigan it’s been years for people to drink from the tap. We witness the Hoover Dam drying up, likewise the west coast feeling the effects of lack of rain.  People in third world countries are walking miles to find consumable water. Jesus‘ word and example hits home by our need to drink in who he is and how he changes our life.    ~ Fr. Matt

 

 

We Christians do not run from hardship; we bear it and embrace it. We walk toward the Cross, not away from it. We do not shrink from trials in fear. Thus, the Lord commands in today’s Gospel reading: “Get up! Do not be afraid” (Mt 17:7).

We bear hardship for the sake of the gospel (2 Tm 1:8) in order to spread the Good News. Our Lenten hardships, indeed all our hardships, are for the upbuilding of the Kingdom of God and we bear them purposefully for the sake of the gospel (Acts 14:22).

We bear hardship with the strength that comes from God (2 Tm 1:8). The joy of the Lord must be our strength (Nm 8:10). In Him Who is the Source of our strength, we have strength for everything (Phil 4:13). We don’t bear hardship in our own stoic strength, or with human strength, for even the strongest of us humans are weak. But His grace is sufficient (2 Cor 12:9).

We walk through the cross, through the hardship, to transfigured glory (Mt 17:2) even while here on earth. “Christ suffered in the flesh; therefore, arm yourselves with His same mentality” (1 Pt 4:1). So bear the hardship (see Col 1:24).

 

“LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION”

God does not tempt (Jas 1:13). Rather, the tug and lure of our own sinful nature is what leads us to temptation (Jas 4:1ff; see also Heb 4:15; 2:18). Temptations often occur during Lent. Temptation can strengthen us, much like a drill sergeant toughens the troops for battle. We might wonder where God is during our temptations. The Lord is “with us” while we are tempted (Mt 1:23; 28:20). 

The devil wants us to forget that God loves us. But Satan is a liar (Jn 8:44). He lies about God’s character (see Gn 3:4-5). Jesus did not engage Satan in conversation, and likewise we must never do that. Like Jesus, we must tell the evil one to leave: “Away with you, Satan!” (Mt 4:10)

Satan often lures us with the promise of things that are not his to give. His promises are “empty promises.” What Satan really has to give us are chains that bind, not something to free us or give us new, joyful life. Adam and Eve did not hide from God until after they sinned (Gn 3:6-8). After we succumb to temptation, Satan turns from making empty promises to accusing (Rv 12:10), and then to condemning.

Jesus was tempted at the end of his forty-day fast (Mt 4:2), when He was nearing the finish line of His race. Likewise, it is often when the victory is the closest that the temptations come. God is near, ever at our side. Call upon Him in time of temptation. ”

There are two ways of life, and God has given us freedom to make our own choice. “Before man are life and death, whichever he chooses shall be given him” (Sir 15:17). Yet He gives us every instruction needed to say “Yes” to God’s way and “No” to Satan’s way. So the Church leads us to pray with the psalmist in today’s psalm response, “Instruct me” (Ps 119:33). We need to beg the Lord for His instruction because we have been entrusted with the power to choose.

There is no neutrality in this choice. So it is important to instruct those under our spiritual care before letting them make that choice. This applies particularly to our children. The world will instruct people via Satan, and will do so loudly and with pressure. We Christians must likewise instruct these people, and do so with the loving heart of the Good Shepherd (see Mt 11:29). As you instruct, do so with love.

We have the freedom to choose our own eternal destruction. We have the freedom to choose eternal joy and to have influence in the salvation of our loved ones by our life of trust in God. The Lord declares: “I have today set before you life and prosperity, death and doom…Choose life” (Dt 30:15, 19). ”

Jesus said that happiness is:

1)      deciding to be materially poor, at least in some areas of our lives (see Mt 5:3),

2)      sorrowing for our sins (see Mt 5:4),

3)      humbling ourselves by taking the lowest places (see Mt 5:5; Lk 14:10),

4)      desiring holiness more than pleasure, comfort, or prestige (see Mt 5:6),

5)      giving up our rights in order to show others mercy (see Mt 5:7),

6)      making the Lord the only Desire of our hearts (Mt 5:8),

7)      making peace by shedding our own blood rather than that of our enemies (see Mt 5:9; Heb 12:4; Col 1:20), and

8)      being persecuted, insulted, and slandered as Jesus was (Mt 5:10-11).

Most people, even many Christians, think that Jesus’ ideas on happiness are absurd (see 1 Cor 1:27). However, the happiest people throughout history have been the humble and lowly remnant who have had the faith to live the Beatitudes (see Zep 3:12). Will you make up your own “Beatitudes” only to find out later that you messed up your life and that Jesus knew more about life and happiness than you did? Or will you live Jesus’ Beatitudes and find out later how wise you were?

 

Today we begin our reading of the story of the ministry of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, which will take us until the end of the liturgical year. We hear the evangelist’s summary of Jesus’ message: ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.’ Matthew precedes this with a quotation from the Hebrew Scriptures, which he declares to be fulfilled. Jesus brings light not only to Israel but to the nations too, to all those who ‘live in darkness’.

From the very start he calls disciples. They leave everything at once to follow Jesus. The message of Jesus and his very personality invite them to take this risk. They accompanied him as he ‘went round the whole of Galilee’. This is the first location for the preaching of the good news and for the healings of Jesus, the place where the gospel is warmly welcomed. We will hear more about these activities in the weeks to come.

 

Despite the fact that we have now re-entered the ‘ordinary time’ of the liturgical year, there is something of a reluctance to leave the Christmas season behind. The first reading, just like last Sunday, is taken from the ‘songs of the servant’ in the book of Isaiah. This time we hear that the servant is to bring light and salvation ‘to the ends of the earth’. There is a clear echo here of the feast of the Epiphany and the people of the earth seeking the light of God. Furthermore, the gospel reading today is taken from the first chapter of John. We shall have to wait until next week to begin listening to the account of Jesus’ ministry found in the Gospel of Matthew, the gospel laid down to be read this year.

The Gospel of John, known also as the ‘Fourth Gospel’, contains in its first chapter the magnificent ‘prologue’, read at Christmas, which begins with the mighty words ‘In the beginning was the Word.’ There follows a portrayal of John the Baptist, which differs in many ways from his presentation in other gospels. As shown in today’s gospel, for this evangelist John the Baptist is above all a witness. There is no detailed presentation of the baptism of Christ. Rather, the Baptist proclaims the abiding presence of the Spirit with Jesus. This evangelist is not interested in the self-abasement of Jesus in accepting baptism from John, but focuses on the witness to Jesus given by the Baptist.

In this gospel reading John points out Jesus with the words: ‘There is the Lamb of God!’ These words recall the Passover lamb, slaughtered at the exodus from Egypt and year by year in the Jewish Passover feast. As the blood of the lamb was a sign of salvation for the Jews in Egypt, so the blood of Christ brings God’s salvation and freedom to those who accept him.