Urban Hermit at 3156 Doyle Street, Toledo, OH 43608-2006 US - Sundays, Year B

Genesis 9:8-15—I am now establishing my covenant with you.

Psalm 25:  Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth, to those who keep your covenant.

1 Peter 3:18-22—Put to death in the flesh, Christ was brought to life in the Spirit.

Mark 1:12-15—Repent, and believe in the gospel.

Dear People of God,

We are on the journey.  Sometimes I ask myself if I can do, or not do, something for 40 seconds or 40 minutes, let alone 40 days.  In contrast to the suffering and sacrifice of so many on this planet, my petty givings-up pale and fade away.  In these first few days on the porch of the Lenten season, as I ask myself what prayer, fasting, and almsgiving will bring me closer to God by the time Easter rolls around, I am struck by the fact that I am a spoiled, self-satisfied first-world person.  Perhaps it would be worth the effort to peel away some of those layers of complacency.

Our first reading tells us that God has established the covenant with us, and we know it's not the first time.  At the creation, after the flood, in Jesus—God continues to communicate faithfulness.  At our Baptism, our first Eucharist, our Confirmation, each Lent—God continues to communicate faithfulness.  We, on the other hand, continue to communicate infidelity.  In our second reading Peter explains that the method for communicating fidelity is to imitate Christ, put to death in the flesh and brought to life in the Spirit.  Mark relates Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom:  "Repent and believe in the gospel!"  We are to turn our lives around and follow Jesus.

If I imagine myself at the end of Lent—or at the end of life—and ask myself whether I am close to being what God wants, the picture gets clearer.  From that imagined perspective it becomes easier to pinpoint the areas of my life that call out for change, and it becomes easier to see the path for this Lenten season. 

As we go about this week, let's be conscious of the daily steps we're taking.  Let's ask ourselves if these steps are straight on the path God wants us to follow. 

2^nd Sunday of Lent (B):  Listen

Genesis 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18—Here I am!

Psalm 116:  I will walk in the presence of the Lord in the land of the living.

Romans 8:31b-34—If God is for us, who can be against us?

Mark 9:2-10—This is my beloved Son.  Listen to him.

Dear People of God,

If we have strayed from our devotional practices during the past year, Lent calls us back.  In today's readings we're reminded that listening is the quintessential prayer stance.  The reading from Genesis shows us Abraham listening and therefore able to hear God's call to him.  Again, when Abraham is about to slaughter his son, he still listens and is thus able to hear the voice of God calling him away from the sacrifice.  Even in his joy at the sparing of his only son, Abraham still listens to the voice of God and hears the covenant promise.

In the gospel pericope from Mark the instruction is clear:  "This is my beloved Son.  Listen to him."  The apostles heard the voice, having been opened to listening by the transfiguration of Jesus and the appearance of Elijah and Moses.  Even Peter, through his eagerness to set up a permanent place on the mountain, hears the voice of God calling for attentiveness to the Son.

What if Abraham had not been listening?  What if the disciples had not heard?  What happens if we do not listen?  Over and over, God speaks to us in the silent times of our lives, yet too often we let ourselves be distracted by our own preoccupations with the duties of setting up a permanent place for ourselves, by the worries and complaints at the path God has put us on, by the failure to listen to those who would intercede for us.

"If God is for us," Paul writes to the Romans, "who can be against us?"  God has always been on our side, from the moment of the creation of the cosmos through the moment of our own conception to this present moment.  God has been so much on our side that the balance is tipped in our favor by none other than the Christ, "who indeed intercedes for us."  

As we go about this week, let's listen.  Let's place ourselves in the way of prayer so that, when God speaks the Word to us, we will be able to hear it clearly.

3^rd Sunday of Lent (B):  Rout the Moneychangers

Exodus 20:1-17—I, the Lord, am your God.

Psalm 19:  Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.

2 Corinthians 1:22-25—For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

John 2:13-25—While he was in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, many began to believe in his name when they saw the signs he was doing.  But Jesus would not trust himself to them because he knew them all, and did not need any one to testify about human nature.  He himself understood it well.

Dear People of God,

How easy it is for us to worship strange gods!  We pat ourselves on the back because we don't honor the golden effigies of strong animals or forces of nature, at the same time gluing our eyes hour after hour to television images.  Temples of the Holy Spirit, we bow down to electronic violence and titillation.  We congratulate ourselves for putting a few dollars in the collection envelope at Mass only to put the bulk of our wealth in bigger cars and bigger houses and bigger vacations.  Our culture is a culture of excess, and we think ourselves holy if we limit ourselves to moderate excessiveness!

The commandments set forth in today's first reading from Exodus outline the direction we are to take in this life:  reverence for God and neighbor and self. Still, it is not easy to measure ourselves by that yardstick, and Jesus knew well how difficult it would be.  He knew human nature, as detailed in the pericope from John's gospel that is presented to us today.  The people believed in Jesus because of the signs he worked, not because of the message he spoke.  Nor have the people of God changed since the time of Moses, when their short memories allowed them to worship the golden calf as soon as Moses went up the mountain.  In the time of Jesus the people of God looked for wonders and ignored the wonder of God among them; in our time we do the same.  Human nature struggles to focus on the one, true God.  As Paul puts it, "the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom." 

Fortunately for us, "the weakness of God is stronger than human strength" as well.  No matter how strong we are in our straying toward the other gods in our world, God is stronger.  When, with God's help, we look beyond the signs and wonders to the kingdom of God in our midst, we see no longer the stumbling block, no longer the foolishness, but the sign and wisdom of Christ crucified.  It is through that crucifixion that our Lenten journey takes us.  We are called to go past the moneychangers and through the marketplace to the wisdom of Christ himself, crucified and risen.  In the keeping of the commandments we open ourselves to that journey.

This third week of Lent is a good time to pay special attention to our examination of conscience.  Am I really following the spirit of the commandments in giving reverence to God, my neighbor, and my self?  I can tell by looking at how I spend my time and energy.  It's not too late; there's still time to rout the moneychangers from the temple of the Spirit.

4^th Sunday of Lent (B):  Makers of Peace

2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23—In those days, all the princes of Judah, the priests, and the people added infidelity to infidelity, practicing all the abominations of the nations and polluting the Lord's temple.

Psalm 137:  Let my tongue be silenced if I ever forget you!

Ephesians 2:4-10—By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast.

John 3:14-21—This is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil.  

Dear People of God,

Has anything changed?  The chronicle of infidelity to God's word echoes down the centuries to us, and it seems that the U.S. attack on Iraq is but the latest chapter.   The Pope, with many other leaders of the world's religions, has strongly condemned the war as immoral.  A third of the people of the United States stand opposed to the attacks.  Is it a comment on the effectiveness of our religious leaders or on the morality of church members that the percentage favoring the war is slightly higher among churchgoers than among the unchurched? 

Indeed it would seem that, as a people, we prefer darkness to light.  The wicked things we do under the guise of democracy and freedom will be exposed, whether we like it or not.  So the question of the day must be asked:  How may we live the truth so that our works "may be clearly seen as done in God"?  The model we have held up for us, just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, is the Christ lifted up on the cross, doer of good works, maker of peace.

As we go about this fourth week of Lent, let's focus on doing our works in God, living the truth that has been revealed to us in Christ.  The times call us to radical conversion, and for us who would make peace that means a countercultural stance of nonviolence and non-consumption.  Personally, that means less driving, less electricity, a lower thermostat setting in the house.  It means choosing locally grown produce over trucked-in goods, and it means patching the old clothes instead of buying new ones.  It means practicing prayer instead of argument. 

5^th Sunday of Lent (B):  Called to Servanthood

Jeremiah 31:31-34—I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts.  I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Psalm 51:  Create a clean heart in me, O God.

Hebrews 5:7-9—Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered, and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.

John 12:20-33—Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be.  The Father will honor whoever serves me.

Dear People of God,

It is clear that we are called to serve.  The new covenant is written within the people of God, written upon our hearts.  It is a promise that we will be the people of God, the promise of eternal salvation through following Jesus by serving.

Life brings suffering.  There's no need to create it by setting up artificial sacrifices, as we were wont to do in the pre-Vatican II days, those penances of Lent.  We only need to shoulder the suffering that comes to us and to those whose paths we cross.  Jesus learned obedience from what he suffered, not from something he created to suffer.  The suffering will come to us if we maintain our integrity in the face of the world around us.

So set out to serve others, and the suffering will come.  Family will criticize the choice of service over career ladder.  Friends will walk away from our championing of unpopular issues:  peace in the face of war, opposition to capital punishment, forgiveness of our enemies, our preferential option for the poor.  In time, too, the suffering of knowledge of impending death will come upon those we love, and upon us.

In today's gospel from John, Jesus reminds us that the wheat grain must die to produce fruit.  It is a telling parable of our lives.  We give up ourselves in service, one small act, one moment, at a time.  It is thus that we give up our lives, one day at a time.  We are not called to greatness but to service, yet through that service we will find ourselves honored for eternal life.

Passion (Palm) Sunday (B):  The Master Has Need of You

Procession:  Mark 11:1-10—If anyone should say to you, "Why are you doing this?" reply, "The Master has need of it."

Isaiah 50:4-7—The Lord God is my help; therefore I am not disgraced.

Philippians 2:6-11—He humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Psalm 22:  My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?

Mark 14:1-15:47—When he was in Bethany reclining at table in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of perfumed oil, costly genuine spikenard.  She broke the alabaster jar and poured it on his head.  There were some who were indignant.  "Why has there been this waste of perfumed oil?  It could have been sold for more than three hundred days' wages and the money given to the poor."  They were infuriated with her.

Dear People of God,

With today's liturgy we step into Holy Week, prepared to head up to Jerusalem for the Passover meal.  Significantly, Judas' final betrayal finds its source in the meal Jesus shares at the home of Simon the leper, the meal at which the unnamed woman anoints his head with precious perfumed oil.  As Mark tells us, some of the banquet attendees are infuriated.  The stated reason for their fury is the need of the poor, but the action that prompts their fury is the woman's pouring the oil over Jesus' head.

In a society where women are property, this woman has expensive oil in an expensive jar, and she makes the decision to use it extravagantly.  In a society where women are excluded from religious ceremony and religious leadership, this woman performs the anointing of priest, prophet, and king.  Is it any wonder that they were upset with her? 

Judas runs off to betray Jesus after he hears Jesus' defense of this woman's actions.  Judas' idea of the Messianic rule is political power, not an anointing to powerlessness by a woman.  He runs off, perhaps hoping to force Jesus to step into a show of force that will bring the kind of kingdom that Judas wants.

Earlier, as Jesus gave his disciples instructions on preparing for the Passover meal, he told them how to answer objections.  Tell them the Master has need of it, he said.  Those words open the way for them to do all that Jesus needs to have done.  The same words can defend the actions of the woman who anoints Jesus.  He says that she has done a good thing for him, something he has need of.

In our lives we are sometimes challenged by people who think we should use our talents in ways other than the ways in which we believe God has called us to use them.  Why don't we get a higher paying job?  Climb the corporate ladder?  Get a new car, an SUV?  Wear fashionable clothes?  Take an expensive vacation, a cruise?  Retire early and spend all our time having fun?  The truly radical nature of the Christian commitment is difficult for members of a consumerist society to embrace.  We need to ask ourselves if the Master has need of what we are doing right now.  In these final few days of Lent, we are called to examine our life choices in the light of this gospel question:  "Why are you doing this?"

God bless!