4th Sunday of Lent Year A - 2017

Today’s Gospel is so rich in symbolism.

One commentary I ready had 10 pages of notes and explanations.

Don’t worry my homily does not have 10 pages.

The mud that Jesus placed on the blind man’s eyes recalls the second creation story in the Book of Genesis.

In that story God created mankind from mud and breathed life into us.

Jesus tells the blind man to wash in the pool of Siloam and the waters in the pool remind us of our baptism.

Baptism is where we received the gift of faith.

Our Baptism is when we became Sons and Daughters of God

When the blind Man washed the mud from his eyes he experiences light and sight or the first time.

His whole world is changed.
Everything is changed for him.

Our Faith should change the way we experience our world

Our Faith like the first sight of the Man born blind should color everything we see and touch.

There are three main characters or groups of characters in the Gospel passage.

Jesus takes the first step toward the blind man and towards broken humanity.

He seeks the blind man out and longs to give him the gift of sight and the light of faith.

God always takes the first step.

Next there is the man born blind.
To be healed he had to respond to Jesus’ request.

Jesus asked him to go and wash in the Pool of Siloam
and that is what he did.

He could have brushed Jesus off,

he could have pushed Jesus away when he approached him,

he could have wiped off the mud with his hand or went home to wash it.

• He did not do any of these things.
• He did what Jesus asked him to do.
• He did it right away.
• He did it without hesitation and his quick and some might say radical response earned him the precious gifts of sight and the even more precious gift of faith.

Sometimes we know what God wants from us and we simply to refuse to do it. Then we wonder why our life has not changed for the better.

The last group of characters were the Pharisees.

In this Gospel they chose to be blind to God’s miraculous presence in the man born blind’s life..

They experienced the power of God, they saw the miracle with their own eyes yet they refused to see or believe.

The Pharisees were dumb founded because such a powerful miracle was performed by a man they thought was a radical sinner who broke the sabbath.

The blind man responded to God’s call and received the gift of faith.

The Pharisees' prejudice and pride kept them from seeing God’s love and God’s miracle.

This Gospel asks us,
challenges us to look at ourselves.

Do we See God's presence in our Live?

or

Are we like the Pharisees who refuse to see God’s love and presence ?

How many miracles have we failed to acknowledge in our lives and the lives of those we love?

What about that .. marriage you thought wouldn’t last?

What about that kid who suddenly turned himself around?

What about that sickness which was discovered in time and healed?

What about the person struggling with an addiction who somehow? finds sobriety after so many relapses?

What about  that long standing argument or fight in your family which seemed to disappear when someone miraculously took the first step toward reconciliation?

What about that moment of peace or experience of beauty which lifts us up and reminds us that we are not alone?

All of us have seen miracle after miracle after miracle after miracle..

Like the man born blind we can chose to SEE the active presence of God in our lives and respond.

Or like the Pharisees we can chose to be blind to it…

The message of this passage is simple

We can choose hope or fear

We can choose light or darkness

We can chose faith or doubt

Let us choose hope Let us chose light let us choose faith

Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time Year A – 2017

May the peace of Christ Reign in our hearts,

In today’s Gospel Jesus speaks to us about the Law and the Prophets,

and he calls us all to a more heartfelt observance of God’s law.

Our observance of the Law has to be more than rote.

It has to be more than going through the motions.

Our observance of the Law has to be more than giving the bare minimum or simply following of letter of the law.

That’s what the scribes and the Pharisees did.

God wants and needs more from us.

God want our lives and our moral conduct to be motivated by a love which goes way beyond the simple letter of the law.

When you love someone you want the best for them.

When you love someone you want to give them the best you have.

A mom who loves her children would never just put a bowl of cheerios on the table for her kids day in and day out and then make herself a warm meal.

Yes, she would be following the letter of the law by “feeding” her children but love would never permit her to do such a thing.

I’ve known lots of Moms and Dad’s including my own who have taken food off their plates because their children were hungry.

They make this sacrifice because that what love demands.

The law, the Ten Commandments are from God

they are given to us because God loves us and they show us the way home.

He didn’t give them to us to take away our fun.

He gave them to us because observing them with love is the best possible choice we can ever make.

Jesus uses three examples he reminds us that…

It’s not enough to avoid murdering someone,

love calls us to love our enemies and do good to those who persecute us.

It’s not enough to be physically faithful to our spouse,

love calls us to treat everyone with respect and reverence and not look lustfully on them.

One kid told me that he felt that looking at women and allowing his imagination to go into overdrive was like cheating in his head.

He felt this way because of his love for his girlfriend.
He understood that love called him to more.

Every human relationship is based on truthfulness

Telling the truth..

If you can’t trust someone to tell the truth then you can’t really be in a relationship with them.

Sometimes we are inclined to take the easy way out and tell a little lie or a little fib.

Both love and the law demand that we tell the truth…

They also demand that we find charitable ways to do so.

Love does would not permit us to use the truth as a sledge hammer or to knock someone over the head with the truth.

We need to find a way to share the truth in charitable and loving way which can change a heart.

Jesus reminds us in the Gospel
“Say yes when you mean yes and no when you mean no.”

No the letter of the law is never enough.

Sadly the scribes and the Pharisees believed that the blind dry observance of the law was enough to be justified.

Jesus wants more from his followers.

Love calls us to more.

When we choose to follow God’s law in a loving way

we choose the path of righteousness and holiness.

Let’s return to the first reading just a moment because it sums everything up beautifully.

“If you choose you can keep the commandments,

they will save you; if you trust in God, you too shall live

Before man are life and death, good and evil,
whichever he chooses shall be given him.”

What are we choosing Life or death, good or evil?

Remember we chose not by what we do but rather by how we love

Amen

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time Year - A - 2017

When John the Baptist was arrested his movement or ministry faded away.

That’s no surprise

After Jesus’ Baptism

John had done everything in his power to direct people to Him

“I must decrease he must increase”

Jesus moves from the Jordan River to the Sea of Galilee which was located on major trade routes and had lots of commerce.

By doing so it would be much easier for Him to spread His message.

People traveling along these trade routes would routinely stop along the journey and spend the night many were happy to listen to the Rabbis as they spent their evenings in the towns by the sea.

If they were moved by what they heard they would gladly recount it to the people of their own towns or regions.

The scholars tell us that Jesus was probably preaching regularly along the Sea of Galilee and that it might have been possible that James, John, Simon and Andrew might have heard him previously or heard of him.

When you read the account it seems like some stranger walked up to them and said come follow me and they did… Maybe maybe not.

What is important is that they followed him.

What do we know about this event and the men Jesus called ?

Obviously it shows us that Jesus made the first move.

This was rather odd because the Rabbis of his time usually waited for disciples to come and find them.

Our God does not just sit by and wait for us to find Him

He actively seeks us out,

hunts us down as you will.

Always respecting our free will God continually knocks

We know that Jesus didn’t pick the holiest people

He did not choose from the priestly class or the religious leaders of his time

Jesus did not pick the smartest people

They were not scholars of the law.

He picked normal people for an extraordinary task

They were fishermen

However when you think about it Fishermen had unique skills for the tasks of discipleship One of the commentaries I read compared the work of Fishermen to the work of Disciples.

A fisherman is patient – he is used to waiting, he knows that if he moves too quickly and pulls on the line he may lose the fish, so he waits

A fisherman preservers he doesn’t give up,

he keeps trying if not here then there.  If he gave up he would never eat or enjoy the fruit of his labor.

A fisherman is Courageous… the boat is always small and the sea is so large.

You have to be courageous to fish

The Sea of Galilee was very shallow and below sea level so it was prone to quick storms as we saw in the Gospe.

A fisherman has the Eye for right moment he knows when to pull up the net for the maximum catch.  Jesus had an eye for the right moment because he discerned the exact moment to call Peter Andrew James and John.

A fisherman has to know the right bait, in other words the type of fish that he is fishing for and what they are looking for, what they like to eat. If you put the wrong bait on the line you will go home with no bait and no fish

A fisherman has to keep himself out of sight he can’t be the attraction the focus of attention. If the fish see him they will swim away.

I think it is also important to note that Jesus didn’t call perfect people

Peter would deny him three times and inadvertently tempt him against the cross.
Jesus was so desperate during that temptation that he said to Peter “Get behind me Satan”

James and John had dreams of grandeur and wanted to sit one thrones next to Jesus in Heaven. Even though Jesus had repeatedly taught that this type of scheming and pridefulness would lead to nothing good.

We hear next to nothing about Andrew  one author said maybe that is because he always took the safer course and was afraid to risk

Even with all of their faults Jesus did not revoke their call,

He refused to give up on them.

What does this all say to us..

God is active in our lives.

If we don’t feel it or see it

Then we are not looking or listening

Just like Jesus fished out his disciples God is desperately trying to fish us out

He uses anything he can our successes our failures our dreams our hopes our feelings our challenges.

Some of my most beautiful moments with God were when I was discouraged or sick or fed up

Or

When I was happy and excited and moved.

God uses everything to bring us to him and inspire us to love one another.

Are we aware that God needs us?

Are we aware that He is active in our lives?

Are people better people because they know us

Are people better people because we were brave enough to call them to more

And our faults and failures  our weaknesses are no excuse from the call of discipleship the Apostles were also a mess and Jesus didn’t give up on them.

Like Jesus said to the first apostles

Come follow me and I will make you fishers of Men.

He tells us the same very thing

Let’s trust Him and

Let’s follow Him

There are so many fish in the sea.

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A - 2017

Reading 1
Responsorial Psalm
Reading 2
Gospel

May the Peace of Christ Reign in our hearts.

When the Angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would bear God’s Son

the first thing she did was run to her dear friend and cousin Elizabeth.

When Mary arrived Elizabeth the mother of John the Baptist promptly proclaimed

“The baby in my womb jumped for joy.”

If you think about it then maybe John the Baptist was really the first person to recognize Jesus

Tradition has it that John and Jesus were somehow related.

They had probably known each other for years.

So in today’s Gospel it almost seems strange when John the Baptist says did didn’t know Jesus.

What we have to conclude is that he wasn’t sure  about the role that Jesus was to play in God’s plan.

When he saw the descent of the Holy Spirit on Jesus in the Jordan

John understood that Jesus was indeed the Son of God

and he began a process of discipleship which every follower of Christ

and every human being is called to follow.

Once he understood who Jesus was

John  began surrender himself,

his will,

his plan,

even his friends and his disciples

to Jesus and God’s will.

John’s generous gift of his life to God and to Jesus

was summed up in a simple phrase  I must decrease he must increase.

The first step in John’s discipleship was to announce to the world

who Jesus was

and how he would bring salvation to the whole world..

To do this he used a simple but profound phrase

“Behold the Lamb of God”

The phrase Lamb of God was very rich for the people of his time and for the early Church

When John’s disciples or the people along the Jordan heard that phrase they would have thought many things.

First of all they would have remembered the Passover, when the Hebrews sprinkled the blood of a lamb on the door of their houses in Egypt to escape the Angel of Death.

And they would have understood that only by following Jesus can we be delivered from from eternal death and enjoy eternal life. Just like the blood of the lamb spared the Israelites from destruction only Jesus the Lamb of God can guide us into heaven.

The second thing that would have popped into the heads of the people hearing that phrase was the sacrificial lambs which were offered as sin offerings every day in the temple.

Some days there were thousands of Lambs offered in atonement for sins..

By calling Jesus the Lamb of God

John was teaching his followers that the ministry of Jesus would include suffering.

That just as the lambs are slain in the temple to atone for sin

Jesus the Lamb of God would lay down his life to atone for our sins.

Many hearing John’s words still believed that the messiah would be a great earthly king

It would take a while for the true nature of Jesus’ ministry to sink in.

The phrase Lamb of God had such an impact on the church that God inspired the writer of the Book of Revelation to use it.

When the Book of Revelation was written during the great persecution of the early church the author of the book referred to Jesus as the victorious lamb.

In the vision which was shared with the author of the Book of Revelation the wounded lamb stands before the throne of God victorious, having conquered death and sin.

The Lamb once slain will live forever

The message to the early infant Church and the message to us is that just as the Lamb  of God  was victorious in the end, we can be assured that good will win, good will triumph even when it doesn’t seem possible.

Now over almost 2000 years later the title Lamb of God should invoke in us the same kind of excitement and wonder.

Because of the Lamb of God our sins are forgiven and we are all challenged to live our lives for others.

The life of John the Baptist also calls us to ministry

The life of John the Baptist calls us to ask ourselves are we really disciples of Christ?

When John had discovered the truth about Jesus his whole life was changed

It no longer centered on his mission or his ministry

or his wants and desires

but rather on following the Lamb of God in loving service of our Brothers and Sisters.

We all need to ask ourselves how much of my life is about what I want and what I need.

Have we said or can we say like John the Baptist

I must decrease He must increase.

Are we willing to put God’s will and the needs of our brothers and sisters first?

That means participating in the life of the Church  above and beyond simply coming to Mass out of habit.

Lamb of God who take away the sins of the world

Have mercy on us.