Falling in Love with Jesus

 

3^rd Sunday of Lent (Scrutiny)

This is a love story.

This is the story of all of us, but in particular, it is the story of our elect with us today who have been searching, praying, and drawing closer to Jesus these past several months. And that is why we have read these readings today, because we have our elect present. At all the other Masses today we will hear different readings, but the Church says we must read these readings today, for them to hear, because they are nearing the completion of this stage of their faith journey, to enter fully into the life and love of Jesus in his Church through baptism, confirmation and first eucharist at the Easter Vigil.

Many people think that the RCIA program is all about knowledge, all about learning about the Catholic Church, and partly it is. But mostly, it is about falling in love. There are lots of people who have knowledge of the Church and its teachings, but not a lot of us are actually in love with it. There are lots of people who have a rudimentary knowledge of Jesus, but not a lot of us are actually in love with Him. Because knowledge is not enough.

Unless we move beyond just knowledge to love, our faith will never be fulfilled. It is through reason that we understand with the head. It is through prayer and contemplation and worship that we understand with the heart. If all you have is book learning then your faith has no motivation. If all you have is emotion, your faith has no roots. It is like the person Jesus said builds his house on sand. When trials and tribulations blow there is no conviction there to keep it from being torn down.

Just like there are stages of grief, there are stages of love. And the woman at the well goes through all of them. This seems almost like a sparring match, sort of like an old romantic movie. There’s a chemistry between Jesus and the woman, a reaching out, a pushing back, and gradually the woman comes closer to Jesus who is calling her to conversion.

First there is a connection. Sometimes it’s a strong attraction and sometimes it’s tentative. This is followed by a mutual give and take where both people reveal things about themselves over time. This either leads to a stronger attraction and more revelation that leads to knowledge of the other, and a growing sense of trust. Only after trust is established can love truly happen.

The woman at the well came to love Jesus only after he “told me everything I have ever done”. But that was not what turned her heart. Everyone in her village knew her past. It was the fact that even though he had such intimate knowledge of her and her life, he did not judge her for it like her neighbors did. Instead, he offered her eternal life. How liberating that must have felt for someone who felt so ostracized and worthless that she had to go to the well in the middle of the hot day, when no other people were expected to be there! Jesus gave her back her dignity. He spoke to her when he wasn’t supposed to. He conversed with her as an equal, without looking down on her. And he offered her himself, the life-giving water that would change her life forever.

And like anyone who has fallen in love, she ran and told everyone about it. She told her neighbors who had totally ostracized her that she had found the messiah, and she was compelled to bring them to him. How much courage that must have taken! But people in love do great acts of courage without thought sometimes, without considering the consequences.

We are all the woman at the well. We all have a past that includes things we aren’t particularly proud of. We all have sinned and have felt the worthlessness sin can bring. And we have all encountered Jesus in some way or other. Some of us have moved our relationship with him to another level, to the level of trust. Some of us have gone all the way to love. We have fallen in love with Jesus.

This morning we are celebrating the first scrutiny for our elect. There will be two more in the weeks to come. They’re not here to bare their souls to anyone, and we’re not here to scrutinize them. They have been scrutinizing themselves for a long time, and today we’re here to accept them as they are, just as Jesus accepts them for who they are. Just as he accepted the woman at the well.

We will share with them the statement of our beliefs. We will profess once again the truths that have been revealed to us by God himself, the truths that make us Christian, the truths that bind us together, the truths that lead us to love of God and of one another, the truths that lead us to eternal life.

The woman at the well was faithful to her understanding of her beliefs, but that alone would not ensure her salvation. It was not until she had a conversation with her God, one to one, face to face, did she begin to understand. And that conversation was brutal and honest. It brought into the light what had been going on in the darkness. We are all called by Jesus to that conversation. Our elect even more so. But that conversation should not be something to fear; it is necessary to remove the barriers we have set up to loving God. Just as we must move from knowledge to trust to love of God, we need to confront our own selves with all our imperfections, if we can allow ourselves to trust, if we can allow ourselves to be loved.

 

New Beginnings

 

1^st Sunday of Lent

Cycle A

New Beginnings

The season of lent began this week, and we hear today the story of the first lent. Just as Jesus’ 40 days in the desert were his time of preparation for his earthly mission, which would lead to his passion, death and resurrection, so too we spend 40 days in preparation for our experience of that same paschal mystery in our lives today.

The number 40 is very important in the bible. References to it appear 159 times! It symbolizes a time of preparation for something significant, usually for a new beginning. Moses, Elijah and Jesus each fasted in the desert for 40 days. Moses in preparation for receiving the ten commandments, Elijah in preparation for his journey to Mount Horeb to hear the voice of God, and Jesus to prepare for his earthly ministry. The Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years to prepare them for entrance into the promised land. Noah endured 40 days and nights of the flood, which cleansed the world of iniquity and gave creation a new beginning. 40 has always been about new beginnings.

And interestingly, those 40 days or years all have a connection to water. The great flood is obvious. The Israelites passed through the waters of the Red Sea when they escaped slavery in Egypt. Elijah drank miraculous water given him by an angel, that sustained him for his entire trip across the desert. And Christians have always linked the water of these events to the waters of baptism.

In fact, in our baptism rite, the prayer over the water is a beautiful recollection of all the places in scripture that refer to and prefigure baptism. One particularly poignant phrase refers to what we heard from St. Peter today is

O God, who by the outpouring of the flood

foreshadowed regeneration,

so that from the mystery of one and the same

element of water would come an end to vice and a beginning of virtue.

 

It’s important that the gospel for the first Sunday of lent is about Jesus in the desert, because his time there was a direct result of his baptism. Something extraordinary happened to Jesus at his baptism. You know the story. After he was baptized, a voice was heard that said, “You are my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased”, and the spirit descended upon him. A scripture scholar once said he believed that at that moment, Jesus was virtually invaded by the Holy Spirit. Invaded by the Spirit. The Spirit compelled him, drove him, to action. Jesus gave himself over to that spirit, and he could no longer remain a simple carpenter from Nazareth.

When I meditate on this experience, I imagine Jesus needing to wrap his head around what had just happened to him. His hour had come, and he needed a final time with his Father before setting out on his mission. When he left the desert, from that moment on he rushed headlong towards Calvary, proclaiming the Kingdom of God and drawing followers to himself.

The readings today are all connected to baptism because lent itself is all about baptism. Historically, lent has always primarily been a time of preparation for baptism for catechumens – those adults who will be baptized at the Easter Vigil each year. Lent for catechumens is a time set aside for intense prayer, fasting, and study. However, over the centuries lent has become a time for all the baptized to do the same.

Our catechumens who will be baptized at the Easter Vigil have been preparing their whole lives for this event, whether they were aware of it or not. However, for the past several months they have been particularly focused on prayer, study, and preparation for this very special sacrament. Lent for them has a special meaning. During lent they turn inward to discern God’s plan for their lives, both here on earth and in heaven. They have been driven by the Spirit, as it were, out into the desert of lent in preparation for their new mission. I often wish we lifelong Catholics could have the same sense of lent and understanding of baptism that our catechumens have. I wish we had their longing.

We have this image of baptism being a beautiful little ceremony where a family gets together in a lovely church on a Saturday or a Sunday, with a little baby dressed all in white. It is all so pure and clean and hopeful. It is a time of happiness and rejoicing, a new beginning not just for the child but for the family and the entire church. To that child, baptism is all about new life. And it should be.

But there is another aspect to baptism, and that is death. Baptism is the sacrament of renewal, of washing away sin and death and our old way of life. Baptism is about dying to ourselves, to our sinfulness, and rising again to new life.

Jesus’ ministry began with his baptism in the Jordan and ended with his baptism on the cross. When Jesus spoke of baptism he was also referring to his death. When James and John asked Jesus for places of honor in the kingdom of heaven, he asked them, “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?” And St. Paul says in his letter to the Romans, “Are you not aware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Through baptism into his death we were buried with him, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live a new life.”

This is important because for us Christians, life is death and death is life. We understand that death is not the end for us. Jesus’ death on the cross has freed us from death and allows us to share in eternal life. Death for us is not the end but a new beginning. It was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and die so that he could rise again. We also suffer and die and we also have hope in the resurrection.

Jesus understood that his baptism would just be the beginning. He knew what the end would be. He knew what would happen to him when he came out of the desert. But he needed that lent, he needed that time of preparation and clarification of the mission. Just as we do. Because we are also called as disciples to share in that mission. We too can be invaded by the Holy Spirit if we allow ourselves to be. Our baptism allows us to be open to the Spirit, and our baptism charges us with a great commission.

Jesus’ final words to his disciples were “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age”. That is our great commission. That is how we share in the mission of Jesus. That is how the world will be transformed.

Live this lent as if it were your first. Live this lent as if it were your last. Live the commission you received at your baptism. Prepare yourself for your mission as Jesus did. Be open to the Spirit of God. Let it invade you and drive you to great faith and great works.

 

 

Fish Story

 

3^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Word of God Sunday

The Church has proclaimed today, the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time, to be Word of God Sunday. This is a new celebration that Pope Francis instituted only 2 years ago, and the emphasis is on the meaning and importance and celebration of the holy scriptures. Sacred scripture is necessary for our understanding of God and how he has revealed himself to us. St. Paul told Timothy that,

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

It is through scripture that God reveals himself to us in very important and meaningful ways, but the Word of God is not just relegated to the written word. Jesus did not walk around with the scriptures. He studied them and opened his listeners’ hearts and minds to how they applied to him as the Messiah, but he was the scriptures for them, and the word of God lived and preached was the first gospel.

The first books of the New Testament were not written until almost 20 years after Jesus’ ascension into heaven. The first gospel, Mark, wasn’t written until around the year 67, and the other gospels twenty to thirty years after that. Up until that time the word was preached, not read. It was lived by the disciples, and that experience was so deep and effective that the roots of the Church were firmly planted and grew strong. The preaching of Peter that first Pentecost led to over 3000 people being baptized! We hear in the Acts of the Apostles that the apostles dedicated themselves to the preaching of the word and to prayer. According to St. Clement, by the time of the death of the last apostle, the gospel had been preached and churches had been established throughout the entire Roman empire. And the canon of scripture has been handed down to us, unchanged and unbroken, since the 4^th century.

Mark has Jesus starting his public ministry today proclaiming the gospel. The Word of God proclaimed the word of God. The gospel Jesus proclaimed was so compelling and life changing that the apostles left everything, their work, their family, their way of life, to follow him. To them the word of God was not something just captured on a page, it was alive before them. We speak a lot about living the gospel. To the disciples, the gospel was literally living amongst them.

The author of the Letter to the Hebrews says that “Indeed, God’s word is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword. It penetrates and divides soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the reflections and thoughts of the heart.” The word of God is alive. Sacred scripture is not ancient history, it is current reality. It is your reality. It can and should cut you to the bone and reveal your true self to yourself. It should be so compelling that it changes the course of your life. Can you see now how the living word of God, physically present to the apostles, drove them to leave hearth and home and follow him? Has it done the same to you?

I think it is serendipitous that the readings today are about the calling of the apostles. The word of God is always compelling, it always calls us to do something. It always challenges us to change. Jesus didn’t invite Peter, James and John to join a book club. He asked them to follow him in a completely new way of thinking and a new way of life. Jesus’ message was always that the Kingdom of God is at hand, and it was. His was the kingship that was at hand. His message was that God is not just found in some faraway heaven or even just in words on a page. God is found in the most common places, in the most everyday activities, and in the most personally intimate situations.

I do not think it was by accident that Jesus first called fishermen, because the analogy of fishing for men is so perfect for our own call to discipleship. There are many different ways to fish. Sometimes you throw a net to catch as many as you can, and then sort out the good catch from the poor later on. The word of God is broadcast far and wide in many ways, in preaching and teaching, in live gatherings and through mass media, and some people accept it and many do not. It is not up to the fisher to discriminate; it is his or her job to simply spread the net and then let the Holy Spirit haul in the catch of souls.

Sometimes you target a specific fish when fishing. How many here are fly fishers? It is an active activity rather than a passive one. When I bait fish, I cast the line to a place where I think the fish might be and let it sit there a while, hoping to get a bite. I wait for the fish to come to me. Fly fishing is more like hunting. When fly fishing I cast the fly upstream of where I think the fish may be and let the line float back down to that spot. We call it presenting the fly to the fish. I propose the bait to them so that they discover it naturally. I make it their idea, not mine. And if I don’t get a strike immediately, I pull the line and try again. The fish in a stream or lake are constantly moving, searching for food, working in the currents and water temperature changes. Good fishers understand this and go to where the fish are. They understand the everyday life of the fish and constantly correct how they present the fly or the bait.

Effective ministers of the word present the word, as it were, and allow it to flow to where the people are, naturally. And we keep trying, adjusting the message to the everyday life of the people. The word, whether written or spoken, doesn’t change. The gospel is always the gospel, but the way it is presented must remain relevant to each and every recipient. The word of God has little to do with the messenger. It is effective in and of itself. Even the reluctant prophet, such as Jonah today, can change hearts.

We have a wonderful combination of the written and preached word here at Mass, don’t we? The Church has structured the scriptural presentation of the word very deliberately throughout the liturgical year. Every Sunday, every Mass, has specific readings laid out. There are three cycles of readings, A, B, and C, that rotate on a three-year progression. Every three years you will hear the same readings on that specific Sunday. Cycle A focuses on the gospel of Matthew, Cycle B on Mark, and Cycle C on Luke. John is sprinkled throughout each cycle, especially during the Easter season. Three years ago, on the third Sunday in Ordinary Time we had these same readings. But even though we repeat the readings they never get stale or irrelevant.

People have asked me if I every recycle my homilies, and I tell them no, I don’t think I should. Not just because that would be lazy but because while the specific readings haven’t changed, I have. You have. That is one of the amazing geniuses of the Word of God. You can read the same passage today and a year from now and you will get something different out of it each time. It will present to you and continue to call you to conversion where you are in the stream today.

The word is actively alive in your life. How has it changed you?

There is a difference in how we should experience the word here at Mass. I think one of the positives for the changes we’ve had to make due to Covid is the removal of the missalettes from the pews. We really shouldn’t be reading along on our own during the Mass. The word must be proclaimed to the community and received by the community. Reading is a personal internal exercise. Listening is a communal exercise. When you are required to listen to the reading you can be more focused on it and receive it as the gift it truly is.

We oftentimes think that the Mass is only about the Eucharist, but the Liturgy of the Word is just as important. Jesus is truly present in the Mass in four ways – in the Assembly, in the priest, in the Eucharist, and in the Word. Each manifestation of Jesus Christ is necessary and must be present in each and every Mass.

Just as we break the bread and it is given to us, the word is broken open for us to receive as well. Just as we do not take the Eucharist, we receive it, we should not take the word by reading it at Mass but receive it as it is being proclaimed. Jesus did not hand out leaflets, he preached. The apostles received his message, and it was their reception and acceptance of his message that drove them to conversion.

But what truly made the apostles effective ministers of the gospel is that they gave themselves up completely to the mission that Jesus gave them. His first words to him were a call to follow him, to be formed by the living Word of God, to become his friends, to know him and to love him, and to become active partners in the Kingdom of God. They became like him because they shared his life with him, and he with theirs in the most intimate ways. His final words to them upon his ascension were to go and make disciples of all the nations, teaching them everything he had commanded them, presenting the word of God both spoken and written. To guide future generations of believers, us, to also share in the life of Jesus; to know him and to love him and also become active partners in the Kingdom of God. To become living scripture to the world.