Reflections on the Gospel Reading for the Day

Just as the Father gives life, so does his Son.

The words of today’s Gospel from John is an answer to Jesus’ healing of the man at the pool of Bethesda we read yesterday. The issue at hand for those who are incensed by Jesus’ healing is that he has done so on the Sabbath. Jesus does not help his case with his critics though. For he says he healed on the Sabbath because he was directed to do so by his Father: “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes” (Jn 5:21). Jesus does not make concessions with those who oppose his actions of healing. He clearly states the truth about who he is, the Lord of the Sabbath. Those that did not believe Jesus was who he said he was, believed that he was a blasphemer of the highest order and the reason why they plot to kill him.

So too in our own age, there are many ways to express our understanding and belief about who Jesus was in his time and is today. If you haven’t thought about Jesus beyond his name in a while, about who he really is and why he is relevant to our lives, then allow St. Athanasius, the bishop of Alexandria, who lived from 297 to 373 AD, to offer a point to ponder today. Athanasius held firmly to and taught with conviction that Jesus is, “the Son of God [who] became man so that we might become God” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 480). This statement is an acknowledgment that we cannot be saved on our own merits, through our own will power, and discipline alone. We become the fullness, we actualize who we are created to be, through our participation in the divinity of Jesus the Christ.

The reality that Jesus, fully human, is at the same time the second Person of the Holy Trinity, became one with us in our humanity so that we can become one with him in his divinity is something worth meditating upon and praying about. There is much writing and discussion about how many people are leaving the Church, while at the same time so many are still hungry, starving, for a deeper, more intimate relationship with God. This is true for those who leave as well as those who remain whether either could or would articulate it in that way. Could it be that we have forgotten the foundation not only of our faith, but that we are followers of Jesus Christ?

By returning periodically to the words of St. Athanasius, meditating upon and praying with them, we just might remember who and whose we are. In this way, we will not have to face what lies before us this day alone. Jesus who healed the crippled man at the pool of Bethesda, is reaching out his hand to us today as well. He is inviting us to take his hand and allow him to lead us to experience his healing touch and divinity which we crave to experience.

————————————————————————–

Painting by Greg Olsen

Mass readings for Wednesday, April 2, 2025

Jesus is willing to come close to us, do we want to be healed?

Has there ever been a time when you were picked last for the team, whether on the playground, P.E., or gym class? I remember being on both sides, being picked last, and picking others to join and having to pick someone last. I preferred being chosen last rather than having to be in the situation to choose a classmate last. In our Gospel reading today, Jesus comes upon a man who has experienced an even worse situation.

This man had been in need of healing for thirty-eight years. Apparently, there was a limited time to get into the waters of the pool at Bethesda to experience the healing properties that it afforded, for each time the water stirred, while the man moved to get closer to and enter the water, “someone else [got] down there before” him. This is worse than getting picked last, as he doesn’t in a sense even make the team!

But with Jesus, the last shall become first. Key ingredients are belief, faith, and a willingness to be healed. Jesus does not impose, even in the case of healing, Jesus invites. He asks the sick man, “Do you want to be well?” When the man in need of healing explains the limitations he has experienced in the past regarding getting to the pool, Jesus does not hesitate. Jesus commands him to rise, pick up his mat and walk. The man is no longer the one picked over, the one ignored, the one unseen. The sick man encounters Jesus and is healed by his word.

Jesus approaches us in the same way that he encountered the sick man by the pool of Bethesda in today’s Gospel. Jesus meets us in our need, where we are, no matter our station in life. He does not leave us on the outside looking in, he does not leave us wondering if we are loved or if we belong. He does not only come to encounter us but if we are willing, to forgive, heal, and empower us to be about the mission given to us by his Father. Jesus gives meaning and purpose to our lives. Each and every one of us is a gift from God and has been graced with something to contribute to others, something unique to help make the kingdom of God a reality.

I invite you to enter a place of silence and stillness, without and within. Settle into a place with no or little distractions, breathe in deep and exhale a few times, one deep breath for each person of the Trinity, and then close your eyes. See your self as you are in your present seated position, breathing, experiencing your shoulders relaxing, and just being still. Then notice Jesus walking toward you as he did with the man at the pool of Bethesda.

Jesus is present, right here and right now, for you. There are no boundaries, no limitations, only those you impose on your self. You are no longer misunderstood, left out, or picked last. Jesus is present. Embrace the moment of knowing that you are loved, heard, and that you belong in the kingdom of God. The important question to answer is, “Do you want to be well?”

————————————————————————-

Painting: close up of Head of Christ by Rembrandt

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, April, 1, 2025

Jesus has come to heal, do we believe?

We hear often in the Gospels how those who believed in Jesus received healings, exorcisms, and were forgiven of their sins. We have also read accounts such as from the Gospel of Matthew that he “did not work many mighty deeds” in Nazareth “because of their lack of faith” (Mt 13:58).

In today’s Gospel account from John, Jesus speaks to a royal official whose son is close to death. Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.” The man believed what Jesus said to him and left (Jn 4:50). On his way home to his son the man is met by the slaves from his household and they told him that his son would live and when they compared notes, they realized the healing occurred at the moment Jesus spoke and the man believed.

What do faith and belief have to do with Jesus being active in our lives? The way of the Gospel, the good news, is all about invitation and acceptance. Jesus enters our world, our reality, gently and humbly. He came as a poor infant, completely dependent on Mary and Joseph for his very survival. He would live the majority of his life in the obscure village of Nazareth most likely working as a day laborer. When he begins his public ministry he does so by inviting people to be a part of his life, to enter into a relationship with him and his Father. People are free to say, “no” or to say, “yes” to that invitation.

Faith is trusting that what Jesus says is true and that he is who he says he is. Belief is the act of our will that aligns with our faith, our trust in him. Jesus invited the man to believe that his son was healed and the man believed and walked away with full confidence that his son would be healed. Belief is followed by an affirmative act of the will. I can believe my car will run, but unless I get in it and turn the key, I am not going anywhere.

This miracle was not just for the man and his son. As with each miracle, Jesus is teaching a lesson to those present. The preliminary statement to the people of Galilee is, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe” (John 4:48). This was a challenge to the man and to those present. The father believed Jesus and went on his way. Did the people who were seeking signs believe as the father did? Because this father did, his son was healed.

Jesus is fully human and fully divine. He has come to show us the promise of the life his and our Father wants to give to us. Jesus, the first born of the new creation, is collaborating with his Father: “To set right a world that has gone wrong” (Barron, 92). Jesus comes into our lives each day to show us a new way, a better way. Are we willing to walk the path of this new way with him and believe as did this man seeking a healing for his son?

Just as the sun rose this morning, Jesus is present to each and every one of us. Just as Jesus was present for this man and his son, so he is present to us as our divine healer, teacher, and savior. May we trust in Jesus with everything, may we thank him for everything, and may we surrender everything to Jesus who became one with us in our humanity so that we can become one with him in his divinity.

——————————————————————————–

Painting: “I am one with the Father” by Greg Collins

Barron, Bishop Robert. Lenten Gospel Reflections. Word on Fire, 2020.

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, March 31, 2025

May we realize where we are lost and return to our Father.

In today’s Gospel from Luke we encounter the well known parable of the Prodigal Son. With the parables it is important not to skip over who Jesus is talking to, just so we can dive into the parable itself. Jesus is speaking to tax collectors and sinners. They are drawn to him. The Pharisees and scribes are also present. They are drawn to him also, but are not celebrating but complaining.

With these two groups now focused on Jesus, he shares his parable. Three main characters are present in the telling, the younger son, the father, and the older son. The younger son represents the tax collectors and sinners. They have embraced the sin of Adam and Eve in taking for themselves that which God would have freely given to them. They have squandered their inheritance and separated themselves from the relationship and love of God. Yet, as the son realized, and the tax collectors and sinners are coming to see in Jesus, all that the material life offers is limited, and it does not fully satisfy. They, like the younger son who returned from the “distant country”, are prepared to come home.

The wonderful light and joy of the parable is that: “While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion.” The father then did the unthinkable as: “He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him” (Lk 15:20). The father never held a grudge, but also never gave up or stopped looking for a sign that his son would return. His racing to meet his son showed the outpouring of love and mercy that this father had for his son. This uncharacteristic action would also certainly draw attention to himself, and take the focus away from the wagging of tongues that would have certainly begun regarding his son’s return.

In covering the son with a robe and placing a ring on his finger, the father showed his forgiveness, and restored the bond and covenant that was broken. He still considered him his son. The party that began was a celebration of this fact. As the festivities continue, the parable turns to the older son, and again, the father goes out to meet him. The elder son meets his father with anger. Filled with not only self righteousness, but also revealing that even though he remained with the father he did so with no love or joy. He too was looking for more from the father than the greatest gift he offered him, which was his relationship, his love.

The parable of the Prodigal Son ends with an invitation to all those who had gathered around to listen to Jesus. The tax collectors and sinners were invited to come home to their father, to turn away from their pursuit of the empty and false substitutes of wealth, power, pleasure, and honor. They were invited to be born again from their life of death, to be embraced as the children of God that they were, embrace their relationship, and restore their covenant with him.

The Pharisees and scribes also were invited as was the elder son. They were invited to turn away from judgment and instead celebrate the return of those who were willing to repent, to turn away from sin and to turn back to God and come home. Those who had been lost had now been found. In doing so, they would realize that they too were lost, and separated from the loving relationship of God.

We are loved by our God and Father, more than we can ever mess up. God loves us as his daughters and sons, even when we are lost in our sin. Who do we identify with in this parable? Are we willing to recognize that the God of Jesus Christ has always been watching for us, always reaching out for us, always running out to meet us, welcome us as we are, and urging us to come home to be with him? God is running to meet us and embrace us. Will we run away from him or run to him? God could also be inviting us to come in and celebrate with those who have been lost and now have been found. Will we choose our pride and judgment or will we like Jesus be willing to draw close and be part of the family?

Painting: Rembrandt’s “Return of the Prodigal Son”

The Mass readings for Sunday, March 30, 2025

Jesus, reveal to us our sins so that we can confess them and be free!

It is much easier to find fault in others, and in some cases, the act of doing so has become entertainment in the private as well as the public sector. Gossip has a seductive allure and can be consuming. Judging others is also a way to justify and or project our own inappropriate behavior onto others. We may even place ourselves in a false sense of exalted pride. Have we ever, not just stated, but, thought or prayed something along the same lines as the Pharisee in today’s Gospel? “O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity — greedy, dishonest, adulterous — or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income…” (Lk 18:11-12).

To pray any part of this prayer stunts the growth in our spiritual life because we are focused on ourselves instead of emptying ourselves before God. Anytime we rationalize, cover over, deny, or completely ignore our sinful behavior we create and support habits of selfishness. Left unchecked, we can become enslaved to them. Lent is a time for healing and transformation. To be able to heal from sinful attitudes and actions that have become habits, we first must be able to acknowledge and identify them.

Over time, reading more and more lives of the saints, I have come to understand that their recognition and their confession of their sinfulness was not just pious platitudes, but true presentations that they were growing closer in their relationship with Jesus. A simple example can help express where they are coming from.

When we drive our car while it is dark we don’t give much thought to the cleanliness of our windshield because we can see fine. Yet as the headlights from an oncoming car illuminate our windshield we can see how dirty in actuality it is. This can be evident in our spiritual life as well. The more we remain in our own darkness of denial or lack of slowing down to examine, we feel we are fine, all is right with the world. The closer we grow in our relationship with Jesus though, the more his light shines in our darkness, and reveals to us our sin.

Jesus invites us to resist the prayer of the Pharisee who prays comparing himself to someone else, who refuses to acknowledge his own sinful actions and instead emphasizes that we are to follow the honest humility of the tax collector, who did “not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner’” (Lk 18:13). Now, Jesus is not saying this is the only way we pray. We have the opportunity to worship and praise the Lord joyfully, we can seek his help in praying for others through intercessory prayer or for ourselves in petitionary prayer, we can also sit in quiet meditation during adoration or out among God’s wonder of creation. Each prayer has its time and place and each type of experience of prayer helps us to grow and deepen our relationship with Jesus and each other. The key to our prayer is a lifting up of our heart and mind to God.

True humility is brought about by being willing to see who we are from God’s eyes. If we are to set a standard to live up to and if we are to compare ourselves to anyone, let it be Jesus. A daily examination of conscience is a healthy practice and discipline. When we invite Jesus to shine his light of love into the darkness of our fear and anxiety, we will see our sins. Jesus does not do so to shame and condemn us, but so that we can experience our sorrow and confess them so that we can experience God’s forgiveness, love, and mercy. Denying or refusing to look at our sins separates ourselves from God and each other.

One prayer I have found helpful over the last few years is the Jesus Prayer. It is very simple. Sit in a comfortable space, take a few deep inhalations and exhalations, then as you take the next breath in recite, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God,” and then as you breathe out say, “Have mercy on me a sinner.” You are breathing in the light of Christ and you are breathing out the darkness of your sin.

Traditional prayer ropes exist from the Eastern Orthodox tradition. They are made of wool, usually black, and have ten decades of ten beads. The bottom can also have a fringe representing the mercy of God wiping away our tears of sorrow. If you have neither a rosary or a prayer rope, you have your fingers. Start with a set of ten Jesus Prayer recitations each day so to embrace the light of Jesus that he may dispel the darkness of your sins, identify and confess them, and experience God’s love and forgiveness so that you may experience freedom from them!

—————————————————————————————

Photo: Praying the Jesus Prayer can free us from the gates of sin that enslave us.

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, March 29, 2025

Meditating on God’s word helps our will to be more conformed to his will.

Jesus recognized that the scribe, who asked him about which commandment was the greatest, “answered with understanding,” and then he said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God” (Mk 12:34). What is it that the scribe understood?

The scribe understood that God “is One and that there is no other”. God is the true source of our being, our very existence. We have been created with an innate desire to be one with him. This is the longing we all feel in the depths of our soul, this is why nothing that is finite or material will ever fully satisfy us, and why we are always wanting more. This is as true for the mystic as it is for the atheist and everyone in between.

God is “One and no other” also means that we are not God, we are his created beings. God is not just one being among many, not even the supreme being. This orientation is important and foundational. We can only see from our limited perspective. What we think or believe we might need, may in fact not be truly good or beneficial for us, the shimmer may be just an apparent good, a distraction, a temptation, that will lead us away from the authentic fulfillment and meaning of life that we seek. God will guide us away from any unhealthy want, he will lead us away from temptation when we are willing to seek his guidance over and above our own. God will give us what we truly need, he will lead us to that which is, in reality, true, good, and beautiful.

Once we come to believe that God is God and we are his created beings, then we can take the next step and surrender: “to love him with all [our] heart, with all [our] soul, with all [our] mind, and with all [our] strength”. God wants all of us. We are to give all aspects of our lives to him. In our surrender to God and his will, we become capable of receiving his love and so are able to better love him in return. We all long to be loved and to love. Experiencing the love of God helps us to unconditionally love “our neighbor as our self” because through our surrender to his will we allow God to love others through us.

An interesting addition that Jesus adds to his presentation of the great commandment, is that in quoting Deuteronomy 6:4-5, he adds to the original. Along with love God with our whole heart, soul, and strength, he adds to love God with all our mind. This insert helps us to understand how we can live out this commandment.  We are to pray, to lift up our hearts and our minds to God. We can do this best when we meditate on his word daily. When we think about and continue to return to his word often we bring ourselves back into his presence and in his presence, we see better how we can give of ourselves fully to him and will be moved to love others.

As we surrender all of ourselves to God and love him in return, we will better love others (see Leviticus 19:18) as Jesus also commanded. To love God is like any other relationship. We need to spend quality time with God in stillness, be present One on one, as well as come to an awareness of God’s nearness in our daily activities. We are to resist compartmentalizing God and instead seek his presence in everything we do and through everyone we encounter.

Each of us, though prone to sin and wounded by our sin, are still not destroyed. God loves us as we are, and when we are repentant: willing to be contrite, confess, and follow through on our penance, God forgives our sins, he heals our wounds, and he transforms us. We need to stop running away from him and start running to him. One way we can do this is to love our neighbor as our self, for if we cannot love those we can see how can we love God who we can’t? Going out of ourselves and giving to another helps us to build relationships because time spent with each other breaks down the walls of separation that keep us at a distance.

Jesus’ arms are wide open before us in our neighbor. May we surrender all our heart, soul, mind, and strength into his loving embrace, receive his love and love him in return, and be willing to love our neighbor and our selves in the same way. When we understand this commandment, loving God, our neighbor and ourselves right, the other commandments will be something we will do naturally. As we enter into this practice, we too will hear Jesus say to us, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

—————————————————————————-

Photo: Some quiet time in our sanctuary meditating, praying, and contemplating on God’s word.

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, March 28, 2025

We need to be willing to see each other beyond surface judgments.

In the Gospel reading today, Jesus is accused of being an agent of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, because he was exorcising a demon from a man that was mute. Jesus addressed the critique and showed the polarizing nature of the onlookers who were unwilling to see the healing before them for what it was. Jesus then stated the obvious: “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste and house will fall against house” (Lk 11:17).

If Jesus was an agent of the prince of demons, he was not a very good one. Satan seeks to sow discord and division. Jesus seeks to bring about unity. Now it is true, that five verses later in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is recorded as saying: “Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division” (Lk 12:51). Anyone feeling a bit confused? Welcome to the wonderful world of the Bible!

To understand Scripture, we need to understand the context of the whole of Scripture, not just isolated verses. Throughout the ministry of Jesus, he seeks the unity that all may be one as he and the Father are one (cf. John 17:21), yet he has consistently experienced those that rejected his message and healings as witnessed in today’s Gospel account. Because of their hardness of heart, they are unwilling to acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God and so there must be a reason for how he performs exorcisms and miracles.

The reason is that Jesus drives out demons, “by the finger of God” (Luke 11:20). His listeners would have picked up on this referential term, for the Pharaoh’s magicians and sorcerers made this same statement when they could no longer produce the effects of Moses and Aaron’s plagues after their infesting the land with gnats (Exodus 8:19). So just as Moses and Aaron were operating through the will, the finger of God, so too was Jesus.

In so doing, Jesus demands a choice. Then and now. We need to decide if we are either going to be for him or against him (cf. Lk 11:23). The division Jesus is talking about results from those who choose not to recognize that Jesus is who he says he is and reject him and those who accept him for who he is and follow him. This choice continues to cause division within households, families, and friends even today.

The greater take away from this verse and Jesus’ teachings as a whole, is that when we are unified, embracing the gift of our diversity, we are stronger than when we are divided by limiting ourselves to mere labels. In our modern context, labels, such as liberal and conservative are not helpful, whether they are being used in a political or religious context. Life is not as black and white as many would like it to be. It is certainly easier to cast labels, but interactions with people and developing relationships are much more nuanced. We are not mere cardboard cut outs, or caricatures.

To better understand the essence of who we are as human beings demands greater time and experience of each other than an outward appearance or isolated statement may portray. Many more of us, if we shake off any label for a moment, could honestly admit to believing in and supporting issues that are important to us from both sides of the so called left or right.

Many times, once we have cast a label, we believe that we have “defined” the person. They are classified in their box and tied up in a neat and pretty bow, and woe to the person who resists being boxed and bowed. I remember reading from one of the books from the tracker, Tom Brown, Jr., in which he described how many people when seeing a bird, such as a blue jay, robin, or crow, are often satisfied with the label, the naming of it, and move on from that sighting self-satisfied. They think that in that simple identification they now have come to understand all that there is to know about that particular species of bird. So much of the essence of one of God’s amazing creatures is missed by such a simplistic and limiting classification!

Unfortunately, we do the same with each other. We can prejudge others, as did some of the crowd who said that Jesus cast out this demon because he was in league with Beelzebub instead of through the power of God. We can also falsely believe we know everything there is to know about a person or group we prejudge. This is a very limiting and divisive approach. Jesus invites us to encounter people, to spend time, get to know one another, and break bread with each other just as Jesus did. In spending time with one another and being open to dialogue, the caricatures can be filled in with some substance and we can come to know a little better the person beyond the prejudgment.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it may very well be a duck, but the duck is also so much more than its classification. This is much truer for us as human beings as well.

———————————————————————————

Photo: Spending quiet time with Jesus helps us to know him and to better see others as he sees them.

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, March 27, 2025

We really can learn and put Jesus’ teachings into practice, but only with his help.

Jesus not only tells his disciples that he has not come to abolish but to fulfill the law, he constantly teaches how this is true, models how to put his teachings into practice, and empowers them to do so. This elaboration on the law and the prophets, the entirety of Jewish scripture, is highlighted well in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. This is evident in his Beatitudes with one example being, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”, and another example from his Six Antithesis show the building on the Torah more vividly: “You have heard that it was said ‘an eye for an eye,’ but I say to you offer no resistance to one who is evil”. Jesus clearly begins with quoting the law, “You have heard that is was said”, and then offers his elaboration by stating with authority, “But I say to you”.

If we seriously take the time to read through Jesus’ teachings, we will see quickly how challenging they are. Jesus is not lowering the bar of discipline for his followers, but instead, raising it. Jesus is not putting heavy burdens on us for burden’s sake, he seeks to make us holy, to guide us to be restored to our original glory that God has intended from the beginning. He himself lives what he preaches, but Jesus is no ordinary teacher or mentor. The principles that he teaches, forgiving seventy-seven times, loving our enemy, giving up all to follow him, seemed impossible to his disciples then and to us today as well.

At face value, we may think that many of Jesus’ teachings are not possible to put into practice or very practical in our day and age. This is why many people do not follow in the tradition and walk away. Attempting to do so with our willpower alone may lead to coming up short each time, and feeling more frustrated, and/or not wanting to even put in the time and effort to do so. Jesus does not expect nor desire us to accomplish living as his followers on our own efforts. Much to the opposite. We are to yolk ourselves with him and be open to the transforming power and love of the Holy Spirit acting through us. This happens when we daily invite Jesus into our lives and are humble enough to follow his lead and to ask for his help in putting into practice what he requires of us.

We become a disciple of Jesus when we are willing to study his life, learn and put his teachings into practice, and surrender ourselves to his will through prayer, discipline, worship, service, and participation in the sacraments. Ultimately though, it is nothing we do, other than ask for his help, open our hearts and minds to and allow Jesus to live his life in and through us. As we are transformed and see that with Jesus all things are possible, we are transformed by his love and conformed to his life such that we can say with Paul, it is no longer I who live but Jesus who lives in me (cf. Galatians 2:20).

The path of faith is not a sprint or a one-time event, but a marathon, a life-long journey. Each one of us can be assured that Jesus is with us for the long haul, every step of the way. No matter what trials or challenges arise, we can meet them with Jesus. We need to resist focusing on the temptations, refuse to make decisions from a fearful or reactive state, and instead lean into Jesus and on each other. We will not only make healthier decisions, we will grow stronger and closer to God and one another, no matter what arises.

————————————————————————–

Photo: View coming out of our hall after leading Tuesday night Bible study. God’s word is indeed alive!

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, March 26, 2025

Mary, the model of faith, can help us to grow in our faith.

Why celebrate the Annunciation at the beginning of the third week of Lent? Simple math. If we celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25, it is logical to celebrate his conception nine months earlier on March 25.

Gabriel, an angel, a messenger of God, a spiritual being, interacts with a human being; though Mary is not the first one to experience such an encounter. There are personal encounters with God and his messengers throughout the Bible. This is how the God of Israel, the God of Jesus Christ acts, person to person, through invitation, either directly himself or indirectly through one of his angels.

We can read such encounters going back to Genesis. God invited Abraham to be the father of a people that God would call to be his own. This reality would come to be with the birth of Isaac, while Sarah, like Elizabeth, was well past child-bearing years. Jacob would wrestle all night with an angel and become the father of the twelve tribes of Israel, during the time of the Judges the mother of Sampson, and Hannah, the mother of Samuel, both barren women would encounter angels bearing the message that each would give birth to those who would grow to lead the people Israel in their time of need. Moses, the judges, David, and the prophets all would hear and answer God’s invitation. Zechariah had an encounter in the temple and his wife Elizabeth, also barren and older, would give birth to John the Baptist. God has communicated and reached out to his created beings in history, at specific times and in specific places.

With Mary, this announcement and encounter was different, for, at this appointed time, the Son of God himself would become, while remaining fully divine, a human being in the womb of Mary. The God who is. Period. Full stop. He is not a being, not a human, or even a supreme being. Infinite Act of Existence, the Sheer Act of to Be, at the appointed time was sent to take on flesh. This is the message that Mary receives, and we can understand why she might be “troubled”. Mary, the model of discipleship, pondered what this might mean as Gabriel said to her:

“Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God” (Lk 1:30).

Mary, who knew the arch of salvation history as briefly sketched above, knew of the encounters God had with his people, her ancestors. She knew of the promised coming of the Messiah as she and Joseph were both of the line of David. She would now be the bridge between heaven and earth, the bridge between the old and the new covenant, the bridge between a people lost and a people to be found. Mary in her fiat, her “yes,” would become Theotokos, the God-bearer.

This is a solemnity that we celebrate each year because the Son of God has been born to us because Mary said “yes.” Yet, her yes is not in isolation. It was made possible by so many who had gone before her. Joachim and Anna, Mary’s parents who provided care and guidance, as well as the many named above and not named throughout the Biblical tradition who said, “yes” to God and played a part in making this moment possible. Mary is not alone in the Annunciation, not alone in this definitive moment. This is the distinctive feature of Judaism and Christianity: We cannot save ourselves. We are not God. Our very life as created beings is a gift from God and we are in need of constant help and support from God and one another (cf. Lohfink, 254).

God invites us, not just today as we celebrate the feast day of the Annunciation, but every day. Each day is a day to ponder, to wonder, to be still, to be silent, to be in awe. The Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, loves us so much more than we can ever imagine, more than we can ever even begin to conceive, that he became one with us in our humanity so that we can become one with him in his divinity. Us, you reading this, me writing this, and each unique person taking a breath on this earth.

No matter how much we have messed up, no matter how distant we feel we may be from him, no matter how confused, overwhelmed, disillusioned, Jesus, is present for and with us. The question is not whether we are worthy to play a part in salvation history, for none of us are worthy. The question is, “Are we willing?”

Are we willing to trust as Mary did even when we may not understand God’s will for our lives. Mary’s answer to her invitation was: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38). We too are called to participate in God’s invitation. What will our response be?
——————————————

Painting: Some quiet time with Mary, Holy Cross Catholic Church, Vero Beach, FL.

Lohfink, Gerhard. No Irrelevant Jesus: On Jesus and the Church Today. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2014.

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, March 25, 2025

Would we accept Jesus reaching out to those we consider “Gentiles” – other?

The people in Jesus’ hometown synagogue in Nazareth are incensed, rise up to drive him out of town, “and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong” (Lk 4:29). What got Jesus’ hometown crowd so twisted and contorted? Not only did he stand up earlier in this account of Luke and proclaim that he, the carpenter, was the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah, but it was to the widow of Zarephath that Elijah came and Naaman the Syrian that Elisha healed.

All three of these points may be a big ho-hum to us, but they were a big deal to his people. Being a carpenter, more likely a simple day laborer, was not high on the social status ladder even in a poor town like Nazareth. The gospel writers even show the sensitivity of this. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is mentioned in this scene as  “the carpenter” (6:3), in Matthew, “the carpenter’s son” (13:39), and in today’s Gospel of Luke, “Joseph’s son” (4:22). By the time we get to Luke’s account, Jesus is not even associated with the trade of carpenter, how could someone of such simple and humble means assert the mantle of a prophet, let alone the Messiah?

Jesus does not go quietly in the night as the people’s wonder at his words turn to doubt and consternation. Jesus instead gives two seemingly obscure examples of people who receive God’s blessings. There were many widows and lepers in Israel, but it was to the widow of Zarephath that Elijah came and from Elisha that Naaman the Syrian received healing. The significance of these two people was that they were Gentiles, they were other, they were not part of the chosen people. Jesus is aligning himself in the prophetic tradition of Isaiah with the universal promise of God’s salvation that would also go out to the Gentile world. Jesus is invoking a choice that will consistently ripple throughout the remainder of his public ministry. People will either embrace his universal ministry or they will oppose it.

Jesus said to his own people, from his hometown, “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place” (Lk 4:24). We may look and wonder why Jesus would say such a thing and why after speaking of the widow of Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian that these same people were “filled with fury” and sought to throw him headlong out of town. One concrete reason is that Gentiles had been oppressing the Jewish people for generations. Beginning with the slavery they experienced in Egypt, the conquering of the ten northern tribes of Israel by the Assyrians, the Babylonians decimated the remaining southern tribes, exiled, and destroyed the Temple. After their return from exile, they suffered the occupying power of the Greeks, and during the time of Jesus’ preaching, the Romans. The hope of most Jews was that the Messiah would come to evoke a military uprising and overthrow their Roman occupiers.

Jesus’ hometown crowd was none too happy with Jesus’ universal message. We might too quickly judge them, but if we resist domesticating Jesus and allow ourselves to hear his words echoed today from our podiums and ambos, might we feel some of the same angst that the people of Nazareth felt? Who might we not be willing to welcome into the universal invitation of salvation that Jesus is still inviting us to experience in our day?

Would we embrace his message or begin to cross our arms and seethe? Would we too want to rise up and reject Jesus outright? If we are humble this Lent, we can walk up to Jesus and ask him to heal us of our own prejudices and biases, we can come to realize what gifts he has given us, and ask him to show us what ways we can bring glad tidings to those in our families, parishes, and communities. The choice is ours. Will we be an obstacle to Jesus’ healing or welcome the Holy Spirit to fall afresh upon us?

Photo: Jesus in the synagogue of Nazareth from Jesus of Nazareth, Franco Zeffirelli film, 1977

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, March 24, 2025