christianity

With Jesus no one is last.

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, as we heard in yesterday’s account and also along with belief and faith, is there a willingness to be healed. Jesus 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. He 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 comes close and 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, a beloved daughter or son, and we have been graced with something to contribute, something unique to help make the kingdom of God a reality.

May we enter a place of silence and stillness, without and within. Breathe intentional and slow, settle into a rhytm with no or little distractions, breathe in deep and exhale a few times more, one deep breath for each person of the Trinity, and then close our eyes. How do we see ourselves in our present moment, what is happening, what are we experiencing? As we take a few more breathes, notice Jesus walking toward us.

Jesus is present, right here and right now, for each of us if we are willing to be still long enough to engage with him. There are no boundaries, no limitations, only those we impose on ourselves. We are no longer misunderstood, left out, or picked last. Jesus has come close to be with us in this moment, to embrace us, and help us to really know that we are loved, heard, and we belong in the kingdom of God.

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Painting:”Do you want to be well?” If yes, then continue to breathe, receive, rest, and abide in God’s love.

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, March 17, 2026

Jesus has come to heal and help to transform our minds and our hearts.

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, and he comes to each one of us intentionally, gently, and humbly. He came as a poor infant, completely dependent on Mary and Joseph for his very survival. He lived the majority of his life in the obscure village of Nazareth most likely working as a day laborer. When he began his public ministry he did 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. He 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 let go of our defense mechanisms, our comfort zones, stepping out of daily survival mode and instead walk the path of this new way with Jesus? Do we believe, as did this man seeking a healing for his son?

Just as the sun rises each day, Jesus comes to us to set our minds and our hearts on the right path, toward our forgiveness, healing, and freedom. Just as Jesus was present for this man and his son, he is present to each of us as our divine healer, teacher, and savior. We experience that truth the more we believe in and choose to seek his help and guidance with each thought, word, and deed and in every situation. May we trust in Jesus with everything, may we thank him for everything, and when we sin, let us seek his forgiveness and begin again.

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Painting: Jesus meets us where we are and as we are to provide healing for ourselves and those we intercede for.

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

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, March 16, 2026

Are we willing to stay with Jesus as did the woman at the well and the man born blind?

As with last week, when the Samaritan women encounters Jesus, we again see this week an account of a transformation with the man born blind from birth. In both cases, neither are seeking Jesus or a healing, Jesus waits for the woman at the well and sees the man as he “passed by”. Both are open to encounter Jesus and are willing to be led by him. For the man born blind, Jesus, spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and smeared the clay on his eyes, and said to him, “Go wash in the Pool of Siloam” (Jn 9:6-7).

To us, this would appear to be a bizarre way to heal. Imagine going into the optometrist and as he is checking an eye ailment and he says wait a minute, I have just what you need. He takes out bowl of dirt, spits profusely and begins to make some mud. How long are you going to remain in the chair? 

In Jewish tradition, and found recorded in the Dead Sea Scrolls, the account was that God when forming Adam out of the earth, also spit into the earth. The moisture needed to kneed the dry earth. Those knowing this account would have understood what Jesus was doing here. He was acting as God did in the creation of the first man. He was forming a new man, to be part of a new creation (Pitre).  

Jesus also helps our modern sensibilities by asking the man to wash his face in the “Pool of Siloam”, he was healed and his sight was restored. He then returned to his neighbors and they noticed that not only was he no longer begging but that he could see. They then asked him how this came to be and the man shared about his encounter with this man who healed him. Because of this miracle, they then brought him before the Pharisees.

Because this healing happened on the Sabbath, they wanted to understand what had happened with this man and although the man did not name Jesus, because he did not know who he was, the Pharisees suspected if not outright knew. This was not the first healing on the Sabbath. Some were hoping to gather information to make a case against Jesus. Unfortunately for them, this man would only share that Jesus healed him, confirm that he was born blind, and wonderfully the man asked if they would like to be Jesus’ disciples!

When he was thrown out by the Pharisees. Now ostracized for being healed and telling the truth, he was alone. Jesus came to him again, and as the conversation deepened, as with the woman at the well, his faith as with her’s grew. He first believed Jesus to be just a man, then he presented him as a prophet, and came to believe that he was sent by God, he was the Son of Man, and finally proclaimed him as Lord!

Would that we could have the same healing of our spiritual blindness as the man did with his physical that opened him up to his spiritual healing, such that we could see the depth of our own hunger deep within for God and the needs of those around us. Are we able to see Jesus as this man born blind or do we see him as some of the Pharisees, in a distorted way based on our own places within ourselves that are wounded and/or hardened and callused?

Allowing Jesus to come close will help us to regain a greater appreciation for him and each other. We will recognize how fragile our lives really are when we let down our guard, and place our trust not in our own self-reliance, but in Jesus. In facing our fears, even of death, resisting to run away or deny the fear, but instead embrace our feasr with Jesus, we will come out on the other side freed from those feats and appreciating the gift of our humanity. 

In allowing ourselves to encounter Jesus, may we be willing to allow him to remind us of who and whose we are. We are beloved daughters and sons, baptized in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We belong to our loving God and Father. This is the foundational truth of our identity. Nothing can shake that truth as long as we allow ourselves to savor and allow that reality to move from our minds, to our hearts, and acknowledge it in the very depth of our souls. This truth helps us to realize that death does not have the final answer and we need not fear even death. 

The man born blind was grateful for the gift of receiving his sight, so much so that he came to believe and worship the one who healed him. When we allow ourselves some time with Jesus, may we grow more deeply committed to living as his disciple, be freed from our fears, and experience the love of God in such a way that we know him and breathe, receive, rest, and abide in who we are. 

Photo: Jesus is the light of the world and whoever follows him will have the light of life.

Pitre, Brant. Mass Readings Explained Year A, Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year A

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, March 15, 2026

Jesus shows us the love of his Father so we can receive and love him and each other in return.

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, the foundation of 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 well as for the atheist and everyone in between. We hunger and thirst for the living God. And even more wonderful of a truth is that God hungers and thirsts for communion with us!

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 – relationship with himself, which when we come to put God first, will help us to properly order everyone and everything else in our lives.

Once we come to believe that God is God and we aren’t. We can experience that we are not just created beings. When we are baptized, we become his beloved daughters and sons. Accepting this filial relationship then we can take the next step: “to love him with all [our] heart, with all [our] soul, with all [our] mind, and with all [our] strength”. God hungers and thirsts for all of us. We are to give all 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 and depend upon him as Father. We do this best when we meditate on his living word daily. When we think about and return to his word often, we rest in his presence and in his presence, we experience healing, 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). To do so, 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 every thought, word, action and through everyone we encounter.

Each of us, though prone to sin and wounded by our sin, are still not destroyed by sin. God loves us as we are, and when we are humble enough to be repentant: to be contrite, confess, and follow through on our penance, God forgives our sins, heals our wounds, and transforms us. No need to run away from him. Instead, let us run to him. Loving our neighbor as our self helps us to run to Jesus, for if we cannot love those we can see how can we love his Father, our Father, 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. 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 and put this commandment into practice, 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.”

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Photo: Some quiet time to meditate, pray, and contemplate God’s living word during Morning Prayer.

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, March 13, 2026

In coming to know Jesus as a person, we can better know ourselves and each other.

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 and discipleship!

To understand Scripture, we need to understand the context of the whole of Scripture, not just isolated verses. To be a disciple, we need to know and trust Jesus, even when we hear something that does not upon first hearing make sense. 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 as well as not acknowledged the source of his healings and exorcisms as witnessed in today’s Gospel account. Because of their hardness of their hearts, some among the witnessing crowd were 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 following the will of God, 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, even among those on both sides that say they are following Jesus!

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, curving in upon ourselves. 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. That stated, I am also not stating in a reductionist way that there is no objective truths. There is. The foundational truth of reality is that Jesus is the Son of God and we are his beloved daughters and sons. If we can begin from that truth, we will be off to a better start I our dialogue.

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 and majesty 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, 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 sharing experiences, 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 created in the image and likeness of God.

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

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, March 12, 2026

Jesus calls us to attain greater heights. Choosing him and asking for his help, we will attain them.

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 a deeper implementation 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. Instead, he is 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 him and walk away. Attempting to do so with our willpower alone will lead to coming up short each time, 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 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 grow in our discipleship of Jesus when we 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 see and experience 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 of healing. 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, we can meet them with Jesus. Resist the temptations, refuse to make decisions from a fearful or reactive state, and let us instead lean into Jesus and on each other. In breathing, receiving, resting, and abiding in the love of God, we will not only make healthier decisions, we will grow in our intimacy with God and one another, no matter what arises.

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Photo: Blessed to lead a retreat for the administrators and principals of the Diocese of Palm Beach today. Some quiet time breathing and praying with Jesus in the chapel at Our Lady of Florida Retreat Center before the first session. Very thankful for Jesus’ help in the preparation and presentation, not possible without him.

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, March 11, 2026

Are we filled with fury or with peace with Jesus’ invitation of repentance for all?

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 kin. 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.

A concrete reason why his people “were all filled with fury” at the message of a universal invitation from Jesus 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 decimation the remaining southern tribes, their exile, and destruction of the Temple. After their return, they suffered the occupying power of the Greeks, and now 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 crush their Roman occupiers. They were not seeking the repentance of their oppressors. Instead, much like Jonah, they sought divine vengeance.

Jesus’ hometown crowd was none too happy with Jesus’ universal invitation. 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, breathe deeply and receive his love and invitation for us to love those who we have not wanted to. The we too can bring glad tidings to those in our families, parishes, and communities. The choice is ours. Will we oppose Jesus’ invitation of repentance and healing or welcome and promote his invitation?

Photo: Jesus has been sent “to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19). May we join in his mission!

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, October, 9 2026

Jesus comes to show and lead us away from that which prevents us from receiving his love.

Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know” (Jn 4:31-32).

The disciples of Jesus had just returned with some food, but Jesus was already filled from his encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. Though one of the longest readings we will experience during Mass, save the Passion narrative, it is one of the most powerful.

From the beginning of this retelling, Jesus again does not recognize social taboos. He engages in a dialogue with a woman alone at the well at noon, she, who is also a Samaritan. None of these three details are in any way minor. Devout Jewish men did not speak with women alone in public, and they surely did not engage in discussions with Samaritans male or female. The subtle detail that the woman is by herself at the well around noon, may well be missed by us who do not frequent many wells.

The most common time to gather water would be the early morning or evening when it was cooler. This would also be an opportunity for social interaction with others doing the same. Coming at noon would increase the likelihood that she would be alone.

Jesus picks up on the fact that this woman is alone when he asks her, “Go call your husband and come back” (Jn 4:16). From the beginning of the conversation that Jesus initiates to the time she heads back to her village, Jesus engages her and leads her to a higher level. He does not judge her but loves her. He meets her where she is, engages her as she is, but seeks more. The blessing is that she is willing to follow his lead. By the end of the conversation, she has gone into her town with the courage of any of the earliest martyrs.

This woman, who came to the well at noon to avoid being seen, now left to return to the people of her village to proclaim that she had encountered the Messiah, a Jewish man. Her witness must have been powerful, for the people who most likely had judged her and made certain that she was kept at a distance, listened to her. They came to see Jesus, a Jewish man, because of her testimony, and then they encountered Jesus for themselves and believed.

Jesus entered the Samaritan woman’s life through her door but she went out of his door. That she was living in a state of sin did not prevent Jesus from coming to meet her alone in that very moment. We can see three other encounters of a man and woman meeting at a well in the Old Testament and each encounter ends in marriage: Abraham sent his slave to get his son, Isaac, a wife and he found Rebekah at a spring (Genesis 24), Jacob met Rachel, (Genesis 29:9-14), and Moses met Zipporah (Exodus 2:16-22) at wells.

This betrothal imagery of Jesus alone with the Samaritan woman that John is recording for us reveals the divine wedding of heaven and earth. Jesus is the bridegroom and the Samaritan woman, half Jewish and half Gentile, represents the Church. Jesus came to this woman and met her in her sinfulness, her isolation, and her thirst. He loved her, and led her with his tender chords of love to acknowledge what was preventing her from experiencing the love of God the Father.

Jesus seeks to encounter us in the same way. He doesn’t love us when we become perfect. He loves us as we are right now in our imperfections and sins. The problem with our sin is, not that God does not love us, for he does. The problem is that we are not free to experience his love for us until we, as did this woman, acknowledge where we have fallen short of the glory of God, what and who we are placing before God. When we do that, we open ourselves up to receive the love of the Holy Spirit. Then we, like this woman, can share the love we have received!

Evangelization of the Good News is not about Bible-thumping and condemnation. Proclaiming the Gospel is about engaging in and building relationships, being present, and allowing God to touch others through us. This happens when we too are willing to repent and allow ourselves to be loved by Jesus and allow him to flow through us like a spring of living water. Then we too will be able to experience the satisfaction and fulfillment Jesus experienced with his encounter with the Samaritan woman who was lost but had now been found.

Painting: The sins of the Samaritan woman do not prevent Jesus from loving her, they prevent her from being able to more freely receive and return his love.

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, March 8, 2026

Will we give to God his share? Will we receive his Son when he comes?

A foundational quality of a good leader, political or religious, would be that they seek the best interest of those they serve. Hopefully, they also seek to be good stewards. Unfortunately, self-interest is a tremendous temptation. For how long are they willing to approach the position as one who is willing to serve instead of being served? Another important attribute in a leader is their openness to critique and guidance when they are in need to hear it.

Jesus in today’s parable presents a landowner who turns his vineyard over to tenant farmers. They are to oversee the crops to bring about a productive yield of grapes come harvest time. A mutually decided upon part of the harvest would then be offered to the landowner. Unfortunately: “When vintage time drew near, he [the owner] sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce. But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned” (Mt 21:34-35). Eventually, the owner sends his own son, and the tenants kill him.

Jesus offered this parable as a mirror to the “tenants” of his time, the chief priests and elders. The vineyard is an image used to represent Israel. Clearly, the owner is God, and the tenant farmers are those in leadership positions overseeing the care of Israel. We do not know which leaders hearing this parable took it to heart and changed their minds and repented from their self-centered focus. We do know that there were those who carried out exactly what Jesus laid out in the parable. They persecuted, beat, and killed the prophets, and would do the same to Jesus.

Jesus offered this parable hoping to soften the hearts of the leaders who were seeking to arrest him. He was hoping that they would repent, like Isaiah and the prophets had sought to influence the generations before him. Most of the leaders that Jesus shared this parable with unfortunately did not receive Jesus’ message, as was highlighted vividly when Jesus asked what the owner ought to do to with the wicked tenants. The chief priests and the elders did not show any mercy at all but instead, called for the death of the unfaithful tenant farmers. In refusing to repent and condemn those in the parable, they heaped punishment upon themselves.

Jesus said, “the kingdom of God will be taken from you and be given to a people that will produce its fruit.” The parable was not just for the chief priests and the elders, nor just for his disciples then, but also is for us today. All of us are stewards awaiting the return of the Son of the Land Owner. May we have eyes to see and ears to hear so that we may resist the temptation of the unfaithful tenant farmers. Let us not grasp at but instead receive and be grateful for what God has given us, resist the deadly sins of envy and greed, receive with hospitality his Son, and be generous as God is with us.

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Photo: 6th century, Eastern Orthodox icon of Jesus. Grateful for his life, teachings, love, and guidance.

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, March 6, 2026

Almsgiving helps us to tap into the source of God’s love and service.

The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) is well worth the read. Jesus challenges us through parables such as these. For the people of his time, those who had wealth and status in society did so, it was believed for the most part, because they were blessed by God. And likewise, those who were poor, were so because of God’s punishment. When the rich man and the beggar, Lazarus, die, I am sure Jesus paused to allow his listeners to imagine what would happen to these two men and to give their presumptions some time to ferment. Many would not have predicted what happened next.

Lazarus was taken up “by angels to the bosom of Abraham” (Lk 16:22). The rich man found himself suffering from the torment of flames, such that he was parched, begging just for a drop of water from Lazarus (cf. Lk 16:23-24). Abraham, the model of faith and father of Judaism, was not sitting with the rich man, who must have always been seated at the highest places in his day. Now that seat, at the bosom of Abraham, was offered to Lazarus. There was no hope at this moment for the rich man to cross over because of the wide chasm that separated them. An ironic subtlety was afoot as well in Jesus’ telling of the parable to the Pharisees. Lazarus the poor beggar is named, whereas, the rich man is not. Some biblical scholars, based on the context of this exchange with Jesus and the Pharisees, believe that Jesus was alluding to the rich man to be Herod Antipas and indirectly calling out the Pharisees for their close association with Herod, especially regarding the death of John the Baptist.

This state of suffering and separation for this rich man because of the uncrossable chasm, is a revelation of the life he lived prior to his death. He walked over or by Lazarus day after day not giving him even a second look. Lazarus would have been grateful even for the mere scraps that fell from the rich man’s table, just as the rich man now sought just a drop of water from the finger of Lazarus. The rich man committed the root offense from which sprouts much of our sin; he failed to bother, to care, to love his brother, to will his good. He failed to come close to Lazarus who was in need.

Jesus’ parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, echoes very closely Matthew 25:40, “whatever you did for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.” How we treat each other matters. Failing to care, to reach out to those in need around us is sinful. We, probably like those who first heard this parable, experience time and again, a wicked mind storm that swirls with reasons, rationalizations, and justifications as to why we do not reach out to help. The majority, if any, are not valid. We are invited to give and to love joyfully from a natural, not a hesitant disposition, to provide aid and support.

Almsgiving is one of the three pillars of Lent and the practice helps us to heal our relationship with others. The first step is to be aware of those who are in need. This can be in our own home! Second, when we see someone in need and we feel the wind and the waves of our mind surging with reasons of why not to help, it is important to take a breath and call on Jesus. In that moment of pause, may we allow our eyes to adjust so that we can see the person before us as a human being, as a brother or sister with dignity, value, and worth.

What we are to seek in each moment of encounter is the guidance of Jesus and our willingness to allow him to work through us. May we be willing to be present and allow the Holy Spirit to happen in whatever form or act of kindness we are directed. We can do this best when we are daily entering into God’s word and allowing the Old and New Testament readings, especially these Lenten readings, to shape and transform us. When we trust “in the Lord”, we will be “like a tree planted beside the waters” (Jeremiah 17:7-8).

Almsgiving is the sharing of this spring flowing from the love of Jesus and helps us to grow in compassion and generosity. This flow will never run dry as long as we seek to be nourished by God’s word and his laws that teach us how to love one another. If not sure where to begin, we can pause and listen to Mary and do the same as she directed the servants at the wedding feast to: “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5).

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Photo credit: When St. Mother Teresa picked up the first man dying in the street she began to put into action her call within a call to serve the poorest of the poor. How and who is God calling us to serve?

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, March 5, 2026