Crooked Lines

Readings

“I do not accept human praise;
moreover, I know that you do not have the love of God in you.”

There’s a lot about witnesses and testifying in this passage from John’s Gospel.  As we near the closing days of Lent, the tension is rising between Jesus and those who oppose him.  He calls them to task for their lack of belief in John as well as in his Word.

The line that really struck me in Jesus’ condemnations is this one:  “you do not have the love of God in you”.  What a desperate state of affairs that would be.  What else is there of worth, without that?

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Readings

The sick man answered him,
“Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool
when the water is stirred up;
while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me.”
Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.”

Have you rejected Satan?  Have you rejected all his works – all of them?  Have you rejected all his empty promises? I hope so.  I hope we all have.

These are the promises that are made for us at Baptism as infants.  These are the promises we make for ourselves when we are finally able to embrace the Christian faith.  These are the promises we shall renew once more in a few days when we celebrate the Easter mysteries. 

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Readings

After they had completed its days, as they were returning,
the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem,
but his parents did not know it.

Recently I read a story about a mom and dad who attended a big family gathering with al their kids.  Having arrived in different vehicles, they left the same way.  It was not until they had returned home that they realized that one of their kids had remained behind.  Mom thought he was with Dad and Dad thought he was with Mom.  Reading the story, I was reminded that this had happened at least once before, quite some time ago, to a couple who are somewhat more well-known.

It’s interesting that one of the relatively few stories we have of St. Joseph is of he and Mary actually losing track of Jesus.  On the other hand, raising this admittedly unique young man could not have been an easy task.  Who else would find their son in the temple, conversing with and astounding the elders?

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Readings

The homily for this Sunday in audio format is available.

The Sunday bulletin is posted in pdf format, and the bulletin article is available here

Readings

“ . . . is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

Out of all the commandments, he spoke of two.  And the scribe’s response clearly pleased Jesus.  The scribe had responded with understanding, about the relationship between all those sacrifices and the love of God and neighbor.

We are in the Lenten season of grace when we commit ourselves to sacrifice.  Self-denial, along with prayer and charity, is one of the key methods of keeping Lent.  What is the purpose of all this sacrifice if the greatest commandment is about love?

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Readings

I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to.

I have little doubt that Peter did not expect the response he got from Jesus.  I also suspect that had he known what Jesus would say, he would never have asked the question.  Must I forgive as many as seven times?  No, no, two or three times is plenty.  But that’s not what Jesus said.  Seventy times seven is a lot more than three or four or even seven.

And that’s a challenge.  Forgiving is not easy, especially if we feel deeply hurt or betrayed or disappointed.  Fear that we will be hurt again is an obstacle.  So is a desire for revenge, for getting even, for teaching a lesson.  Jesus says that we should forgive.

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Readings

So when Joseph came up to them,
they stripped him of the long tunic he had on;
then they took him and threw him into the cistern,
which was empty and dry.
They then sat down to their meal.

Today’s first reading is one of those times when knowing the “rest of the story” can be helpful in understanding.  We all know that after Joseph was sold into slavery, he ended up in Egypt.  There he overcame his slave status, eventually becoming a man of power and authority in the administration of Pharaoh.   This would allow him to eventually save his family – the same brothers who sold him – from starvation when a famine fell on the entire land.  Good things happened.

It is an article of our faith that God can bring good things even out of unfortunate circumstances.  He can even bring good out of evil and sinful actions.  We prepare during Lent to celebrate the greatest revelation of that power, in God touching the death of Jesus and bringing forth the Resurrection, life from death.  We call this the Paschal Mystery, celebrated during Holy Week, at the Paschal Triduum.

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Readings

And he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me.
Send Lazarus . . .

It was an attitude problem, summed up in two words:  “Send Lazarus”.

The rich man was rich.  The poor man was poor.  Yet this was not the most significant difference between them, nor the reason why the rich man ended up in torment while Lazarus found himself in the bosom of Abraham.

The rich man is told that there exists a great chasm between him and Lazarus, making his request impossible.  But that great chasm was nothing new.  Even in life, there was a great chasm between Lazarus and the rich man, rooted in his attitude toward Lazarus.

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Readings

Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying,
“The scribes and the Pharisees
have taken their seat on the chair of Moses.
Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you,
but do not follow their example.”

A number of times in the course of the Gospels, we find Jesus expressing criticism of the Pharisees and scribes, as we do in today’s passage.  While he often speaks of the things they do or don’t do, at the heart of that criticism is a rejection of their hypocrisy.

What is hypocrisy?  Suppose some claimed that they valued truth in their dealings with others, and believed that it was wrong to lie.  Suppose then that the very next day that person went out and told a lie. Is that person a hypocrite?

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