Saturday of the Third Week of Lent
Hosea 6:1-6  +  Luke 18:9-14

“… for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled ….”

Jesus cautions us in this morning’s Gospel passage.  Even as we pray to God, our words of thanks can easily turn in on ourselves.  The Pharisee did not give thanks to God for the gifts God have given him.  The Pharisee did not give thanks to God for the good that the Pharisee had been able to do for others.  The Pharisee gave thanks for himself, because in his own eyes he was “not like the rest of men.”

In the person of the tax collector, Jesus is teaching us of the primacy that humility plays in the spiritual life.  Before the tax collector can give thanks, he knows he must first beat his breast and ask pardon from God.  Unlike the Pharisee, the tax collector realizes that he is just like “the rest of men”.  In humility he pleads God for mercy.

Through this parable, Jesus is teaching us a basic lesson about the spiritual life.  In his own person, however, he teaches us something even more important.  Jesus himself was not at first “like the rest of men”.  Rather, “for us men and for our salvation / he came down from heaven: / by the power of the Holy Spirit / he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.”  Before he came down from heaven he was true God; after the Annunciation, He was both true God and true man.

Before we give God thanks for our salvation, we plead to Him for mercy.  But before we plead to God for mercy, we give Him thanks for having sent His sent to become human, to show us how to be humble.

The Fourth Sunday of Lent [C]
Joshua 5:9,10-12  +  2 Corinthians 5:17-21  +  Luke 15:1-3,11-32

“But now we must celebrate and rejoice ….”

St. Thomas More wrote a work titled The Sadness of Christ in the Tower of London while awaiting execution.  In this work, he meditates on the agony of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

St. Thomas More’s most striking question in this work concerns a contrast.  He contrasts the range of emotions that Jesus experienced during His Passion against the experience of many of the Church’s martyrs as they faced martyrdom.  Those holy martyrs joyfully rushed to their deaths, eager to be torn to pieces by lions or the like.

Jesus, on the other hand, felt “the most bitter feelings of sadness, fear and weariness in His mind”, St. Thomas More wrote.  Given this contrast, Jesus appears much weaker than the martyrs.  But how could Jesus—our Lord and our God—be less holy than His own saints?

The answer, of course, is that Jesus was not less holy than His saints.  The problem lies in our falling into the trap of thinking that feelings make one weak, or that some feelings are superior to others.  This trap is set for us all the time by movies and advertisements that present a false picture of human nature.

One falsehood that’s often presented about human life is that we’re meant always to pursue pleasure, and always to flee from suffering.  This is false.  In fact, to think that you’re always meant to pursue pleasure, and always to turn away from suffering, is a poison.  The Crucifix is its antidote.

Nonetheless, many people use this so-called “pleasure principle” to guide the decisions of their adult lives.  A famous example would be the Prodigal Son in today’s Gospel passage.  The difference between the Prodigal Son and so many of us today is that the son at last came to his senses.

Reflect back, then, on the contrast between Jesus in His Passion and those joyful martyrs.  The martyrs might seem more virtuous or holy than Jesus because of the positive emotions they experienced in the face of death.

But here you need to ask two questions.  Why did the martyrs experience joy in the face of death?  In turn, why did Jesus experience such seemingly negative emotions—and to such a profound degree—in the face of His death, so much so that He sweat blood?

Those joyful martyrs were given an extraordinary gift of grace.  Like all gifts that are given to saints, it was not given them only for their own sakes.  Their ultimate reward would come after death, not as they faced death.  Their gift of joy was given them so that their joy might inspire others who could see in their joy their faith in the power of Jesus over death.

So given that those martyrs received extraordinary grace, what can we say about Jesus’ sorrowful Passion?  Why did Jesus experience such “bitter feelings of sadness, fear and weariness in His mind”?

In the writings of the Church’s saints about Jesus, there’s an old saying:  “What was not assumed, was not redeemed.”  In the early Church there were heretics who promoted the false belief that Jesus was not a real human being, and the false belief that He had some human qualities but not a full human nature.

These heretics asked:  what would Jesus need with a human mind when He had divine, omniscient Intelligence?  What would Jesus need with a human will when he possessed the divine, omnipotent Will?  What need at all would He have to experience “negative” emotions?

To the contrary, the Church declared that Jesus had a full and complete human nature:  He possessed a human mind, will, intellect, and experienced the full range of emotions.  Had he not possessed these elements of human nature, they would not have been redeemed through His death and Resurrection.

Jesus could have chosen to experience the same joy as those martyrs who rushed to their deaths.  But Jesus chose instead to experience the emotions that you and I, poor ordinary sinners, feel when experiencing betrayal, torments, and suffering of all sorts.  Jesus chose to identify with us by experiencing our weakness.

The graces of Christ’s Passion, death and Resurrection are manifold.  They not only have the power to aim and order our earthly lives towards Heaven.  They also have the power to bring about order within us.  The graces of Jesus’ Passion, death and Resurrection are the wellspring of every true and lasting joy in life.

Thursday of the Third Week of Lent
Jeremiah 7:23-28  +  Luke 11:14-23

“… whoever does not gather with me scatters.”

Unity is one of the four marks of the Church.  When we recite the Apostles’ Creed, we profess that the Church that Jesus founded is one, holy, catholic and apostolic.  Today’s Gospel passage speaks about the general sense of unity in an intriguing way, yet also in a way that we can apply to the life of the Church.

Jesus’ words today are intriguing because He directly contrasts His own followers and those who follow Satan.  Jesus rhetorically asks:  “if Satan is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?”  If you’ve ever pondered the course of salvation history, you might have puzzled over why God has given to Satan such great reign over mankind.  Why does God allow Satan to exist at all, much less to have such sway over human lives and human history?

We may not know until the end of time all the reasons for God’s providential allowance of evil within this world.  Nonetheless, Satan and his legions are divided, for it’s in the very nature of evil and those who serve evil to be self-centered and incapable of working towards unity in any lasting manner.  God is one, and those who serve God and sacrifice themselves for His holy will will become, by His grace, united to Him.

Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent
Deuteronomy 4:1,5-9  +  Matthew 5:17-19

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.”

Within today’s scriptures there is a tension between divine revelation and the human will.  In the First Reading, Moses declares, on the one hand, that divine revelation is given to us by God and must be accepted as is.  On the other hand, Moses advises the people to take care not to forget what they have seen with their own eyes and heard with their own ears.  Neither the Revelation of God which comes from Him nor our human experience of God is unimportant.

But for us who aspire to serve faithfully as His disciples, Jesus, as a faith-filled Jew, declares in today’s Gospel passage that everything we need to know has already been revealed.  At times if we feel bored, it is because we are tired and have stopped to rest, while the world has moved on.  If we feel that every day we are staring into the same old face of existence—that the world has ground to a halt—then it is surely we who have stopped moving.

When we follow God’s commands, we are not only like little children who are obeying their Father’s Word.  The commandments and other forms of God’s divine revelation are also a source of wisdom for us, offering insight into the mysteries of human life.  Whether we understand God’s ways completely or not, when we follow God’s commands, we become more like Him who gave them to us, because what God is describing in giving us His commandments is a description of Himself.  He is always faithful to those with whom He has made a covenant.  He is always merciful to those who call upon His Holy Name.

The Annunciation of the Lord
Isaiah 7:10-14;8:10  +  Hebrews 10:4-10  +  Luke 1:26-38

… the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel ….

In the person of Jesus Christ, God and man are united.  This is the good news that Saint Gabriel came to announce to Mary:  that she would bear in her womb the one through whom all human beings could find eternal life.  The profundity of this news overwhelmed Mary, and made her fearful.  What would this mean for her life?

Throughout the world and throughout history, human beings have sought to find meaning in their lives in many ways.  Similarly, human beings have always searched for love in their lives.  We know that there are many different things which people in the world call love, but Jesus Christ and the Church He established upon this earth clearly teach us that there is only one real type of love.  It is that love which over many years would lead Mary to Calvary.  Only this real love is strong enough to destroy death.

If Mary had understood the fullness of her vocation, she would likely have feared the annunciation of Saint Gabriel even more than she did.  Both the Annunciation and its consummation on Calvary are sacred events which call us to consider how God expects us to accept the Holy Spirit in humble submission to the will of God.  Mary is the greatest disciple of Our Lord.  Beyond her questions she says “Fiat”:  “let it be done unto me according to your word”.  She accepts the fullness of the Holy Spirit and bears the Body of Christ.  She is the model for us who strive faithfully to say, “Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.”

Those who have received the gifts of the Holy Spirit in Baptism and have had them strengthened in Confirmation turn to Mary, asking her intercession during their journey towards Calvary, and asking for perseverance to pray beneath the Cross.  As each of us shares in the offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, may we be transformed in mind and heart, in order to bear the real love of Christ in the world:  in the midst of those around us who are seeking God more deeply in their lives, or who do not yet know Him.

Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent
Daniel 3:25,34-43  +  Matthew 18:21-35

“So will your heavenly father do to you, unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.”

The Church, in which we share in the Body of Christ, is our truest home.  By right, we should feel most at home in church, because it is there that we celebrate the source of all forgiveness.  At the altar, the Church celebrates the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross.  When the priest speaks in the name of Christ, speaking those words that Christ spoke at the Last Supper, we leave our normal home in time and space and are taken into that home where forgiveness was first given by the God-man.  We are transported into the presence of Christ’s eternal sacrifice:  the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, the Sacrifice which is the reason we can be forgiven.

But in our home within the Church, we find not only forgiveness.  In the Church, when we share in the Eucharist we are giving thanks not only for the forgiveness wrought by Christ’s Sacrifice on the Cross.  We also give thanks for the fact that when we share fully in this sacrament, we receive not only a share in Christ’s forgiveness.  We receive a share in the life of Christ himself.  We receive not only the Forgiver’s forgiveness; we receive the Forgiver.

To receive forgiveness is to be restored to our former self.  But to receive the Forgiver means not simply that we’re restored to our former self, but that we’re raised from our state of sinfulness to a share in the life of the Forgiver’s Self.  We share in the life of Christ, and so are given the power to forgive others as Christ offers forgiveness:  to all persons, in all circumstances, for ever.

Monday of the Third Week of Lent
II Kings 5:1-15  +  Luke 4:24-30

Then will I go in to the altar of God ….

Today’s Responsorial Psalm joins together parts of two consecutive psalms.  Both psalms are short:  Psalm 42 is twelve verses long, while Psalm 43 is only five verses.  Within these two psalms is a repeated sentence.  At the midpoint and the end of Psalm 42 and at the end of Psalm 43 the psalmist cries for what he seeks:  “Wait for God, for I shall again praise him, / my savior and my God.”  That these psalms are next to each other in the psalter and that they share this sentence suggests that we ought to pray them together.  That’s what today’s Responsorial does, although in a very abbreviated manner.

That thrice-repeated sentence—“Wait for God, for I shall again praise him, / my savior and my God”—gives this combined psalm (42-43) a hopeful character.  However, when we pray the entirety of both psalms, it’s clear that they form a lament.  While the psalmist is hopeful for what he seeks, he hopes amidst desolation.  This combination of hope and desolation makes these psalms fitting for Lent.

In the first half of today’s Responsorial, the predominant image is the psalmist’s thirst.  It is a thirst “for the living God”.  This thirst becomes our focus since it’s repeated within the refrain of today’s Responsorial.  The psalmist plaintively yet hopefully asks for what he seeks:  “When shall I go and behold the face of God?”

The second half of today’s Responsorial focuses upon God and how He will bring to pass what the psalmist hopes for.  The psalmist makes a hopeful plea to God:  “Send forth your light and your fidelity”.  God’s light and fidelity are the source of the psalmist’s hope, even amidst his desolation.  God’s light and fidelity are what will lead the seeker to God’s “holy mountain”, God’s “dwelling place”.

That is the place where the seeker shall “behold the face of God”.  There the seeker shall, in the last verse of the Responsorial, “go in to the altar of God, [and] give [Him] thanks upon the harp”.  This end, this goal of praise in His presence would be carried out by the psalmist upon the harp.  Christians, however, have a two-fold hope that differs from the psalmist.  The Christian hopes finally to see God face-to-face in Heaven in what the Church calls “the Beatific Vision”.  Yet even on earth the faithful Christian encounters God through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.  The words of these psalms make a fitting and beautiful meditation before Holy Mass begins, helping the Christian pilgrim to see what He seeks in Christ’s self-oblation upon the altar of God.

St. Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary
II Sam 7:4-5,12-14,16  +  Rom 4:13,16-18,22  +  Mt 1:16,18-21,24 [or Lk 2:41-51]

“Forever will I confirm your posterity ….”

In the midst of our ascent to Calvary, we pause to take a deep breath and sing of “the favors of the Lord”.  Like King David, we dare to chant that “through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness”.  On this feast of Saint Joseph, the husband of Mary, all of our readings draw our minds to the enduring nature of the covenant between the Lord and His People.

On a day-to-day basis, most of us have difficulty even remembering the small things that we promise to do for others.  Of course, all of the small promises that we make are concrete examples of the promises by which we have consecrated our lives to the Lord:  first in baptism, and then—many of us—by means of more specific vows or promises.

This promise of oneself—this faithful handing over of one’s own earthly life to another—is the greatest covenant we can establish as individuals.  It is by this that we become more than individuals.  As such, we bow in homage before the Lord who wishes to make this covenant with every human person.

It is specifically as the spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary that we honor Saint Joseph today.  Today, in a manner of speaking, is a Marian feast.  It is the spousal nature of Joseph’s life that mirrors in his earthly life the enduring fidelity of the Lord.  From his place in Heaven, St. Joseph is the patron of the universal Church, that instrument through which the Lord wishes to make a covenant with each member of the human race, making each person a member of His divine Son’s Body.  It is the Church that proclaims to the world yet converted the faithfulness of the Lord, and it is to the Church that the Lord promises that He will strengthen us in all our trials.

The life of Saint Joseph is one of silent fidelity to the Lord.  We have in Scripture no words of St. Joseph recorded.  Even the words that are spoken by others to St. Joseph are words that measure by measure call for ever-growing trust in the Lord’s plan.  Step-by-step:  that’s the only way to reach Heaven.  As we continue to step up the path to Calvary, let us pray that Saint Joseph’s spousal trust and fidelity will be our own.

Friday of the Second Week of Lent
Genesis 37:3-4,12-13,17-28  +  Matthew 21:33-43,45-46

“… the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.”

The person who lives within his emotions acts only according to those emotions.  When a person’s emotions are the only norm of human behavior, any action is justifi­able, even selling one’s own brother for twenty pieces of silver.  Or thirty.

The Church, on the other hand, teaches us that as human beings we are created in the image and likeness of God, and that even though this image has been distorted by Original Sin, it is supposed to be at the center of the human soul, which is at the center of the human person.

The norm for Christian behavior is the Will of God, which we discern in our lives more clearly—most especially during the holy season of Lent—when we give ourselves to God in prayer, when we abandon our own will in penance, and when we give ourselves to others in charity.  If the Will of God is to have an abiding presence within our human soul—in order to animate all of our thoughts, words, and actions—we must cultivate a place in our souls for the Holy Spirit to take root and bear fruit.  We cannot take credit for these fruits; we do not claim them as our own.  When God asks us to make a return to Him for all the good He has done for us, we do so immediately and humbly, recognizing that He is the harvest master, and we are his servants.

The landowner’s son in today’s Gospel passage is obviously a symbol of Christ, the Son of God rejected by those to whom he came, those who were his own.  At the heart of Christ’s life was the Will of God.  We need today to meditate upon the truth that we see and receive in Christ:  that we exist because of the sheer love that God has for us, and that this love is expressed most perfectly in the sacrifice Christ offers us from the Cross.