1st Sunday of Lent, February 17th, 2013

Deut 26:4-10; Rom 10:8-12; Luke 4:1-12

Temptation is a universal human experience. Had Jesus not been tempted, he would not really have been human. So we are presented today, on this first Sunday of Lent, with a story of Jesus being tempted. The first temptation he faces attempts to divide his heart between love of God and craving to satisfy his physical needs. The second one to compromise his devotion to God for the sake of the world’s wealth and power. And the third one to demand from God protection of his life while deliberately placing himself in danger. What today’s gospel tells us is that Jesus was fully human and he knew very well what it meant to be tempted. 

          We live in the world filled with temptations. But many of us are confused about what those temptations are. Some of them are presented to us as very good things, when in reality they harm us, harm our relationship with God and with others. Some things are not bad in themselves but become bad for us because of the way we use them. 

          This ugly display put in the midst of our sanctuary is to help us to ask some of the questions related to that topic. It is a conversational piece, do not be afraid to come closer and to look at it after or before the mass. For example, this display includes  a cassock. Probably some of you have never seen a priest in a cassock in your whole life. At least not until today. The cassock in itself is not a bad thing. For centuries it was a symbol of dedication and sacrifice. It has been worn by men who are to dedicate their lives to the service of God and His people. But also it has become for many a symbol of abuse and excessive clericalism.

          Our world is filled with a lot of confusion. There are many confused people in it who do not distinguish proverbial left from right.  And the church like the rest of the world seems to be falling into the state of confusion, too, following the way of operations of the world.

         

          The last year one of the very progressive cardinals, an Italian Jesuit, Carlo Maria Martini,  died. He was perceived by many as the possible future pope. Just before his death Cardinal Martini was interviewed and asked some questions. Let me share with you some of those questions and some of those answers given by him:

"How do you see the situation of the church?

The church is tired, in the Europe of well-being and in America. Our culture has become old, our churches and our religious houses are big and empty, the bureaucratic apparatus of the church grows, our rites and our dress are pompous. Do these things, however, express what we are today? ... Well-being weighs on us. We find ourselves like the rich young man who went away sad when Jesus called him to be his disciple.

Who can help the church today?

Father Karl Rahner often used the image of the embers hidden under the ash. I see in the church today so much ash under the embers that often I'm hit with a sense of impotence. How can we liberate the embers from the ash, to reinvigorate the fires of love? For the first thing, we have to seek out these embers. Where are the individuals full of generosity, like the Good Samaritan? Who have faith like the Roman centurion? Who are enthusiastic like John the Baptist? Who dare the new, like Paul? Who are faithful like Mary Magdalene? 

What do you do personally?

The church is 200 years behind the times. Why doesn't it stir? Are we afraid? Is it fear rather than courage? In any event, the faith is the foundation of the church. Faith, trust, courage. I'm old and sick, and I depend on the help of others. Good people around me make me feel their love. This love is stronger than the sentiment of distrust that I feel every now and then with regard to the church in Europe. Only love defeats exhaustion. God is love. Now I have a question for you: What can you do for the church?"

          This question has been answered in the most unexpected and shocking ways by our pope Benedict XVI this past Monday. There is a lot of speculations and talk now in media what it means, what it means for the church. I am personally trying to make sense out of it, as the rest of you do. I am not sure what will follow, but I have no reason not to believe the words of our pope spoken this past Monday who resigned because he recognized that he did not have enough strength to carry on the Petrine ministry

          We live in a very confused world and that confusion is present in our church. Perhaps this Lenten season instead of giving up candy or chocolate, or limiting out times on a computer or a phone or in front of TV, we could find some extra time to have some additional conversations with God, to look deeper inside of our hearts, to ask God what we need to do to be less confused. 

Let me share with you some practical suggestions:

1. Start coming to church on time. Do not be late. Your every weekend 5-10 minutes arrival creates some unnecessary detraction.  

2. Participate fully in our Eucharistic celebration. Sing your heart out. Pray the prayers like you mean it. Let other people hear your voice. 

3. Come to the Stations of the Cross which is offered here in our Church each Friday at 7 pm. There is also a simple meal offered before hand at 6 pm that evening. Be touched by the mystery of Christ's suffering.

4. Come to our church 30 minutes before the mass. Before each mass, during this Year of Faith and during Lenten season, we pray the rosary. This rosary is mainly offered the conversion of hearts of St. Mary's community. 

          Perhaps this Lenten season will help us to be less confused, to resist more the temptations which we face, and to answer the question which Cardinal Martini paused to all of us at the end of the interview with him: What can you do for the church?  And I would add: for your local St. Mary's church and community?

5th Sunday of Ordinary Time, February 10, 2013

Isaiah 6:1-2, 3-8; 1 Cor 15:1-11; Luke 5:1-11

          Things were changing dramatically for a while. Tiglath-pilser III, the ruler of Assyria, adopted a policy of territorial expansion and looked to states in the west. Local states were not only forced to pay tribute but they were incorporated as the provinces of the empire. In 738 BCE the kingdom of Israel became a vassal state and about five years later was divided up into provinces of Dor, Megido, Gilead, and Samaria. At the end the Northern kingdom of Israel disintegrated politically.

In the southern kingdom of Judah, King Ahaz was trying to ally himself politically to defend his land against Assyrian expansion but to no avail.  King Ahaz  was first forced to paid tribute to Assyria, and then to become its vassal in 733 BCE.

It was during these times, very insecure and violent times, when Isaiah lived. Then one day on the feast of Yom Kippur, as stipulated in the Law, Isaiah went to the Temple and mediated before God on behalf of his country men and women. As we have heard in today’s first reading he was in the Holy of the Holies, that sacred area of the temple where the Ark of the Covenant was. There Isaiah the high priest received the vision which turned his life upside down and caused him to become Isaiah the prophet. He let go safety and security of his life to respond to God’s request and his new life mission as a prophet.

And what was the Isaiah’s new mission?

This unfortunately is missing from today’s reading but it can be easily found in the Bible. God asked Isaiah to:

“Go and say to this people: Listen carefully, but you shall not understand! Look intently, but you shall know nothing!

You are to make the heart of this people sluggish, to dull their ears and close their eyes;  Else their eyes will see, their ears hear, their heart understand, and they will turn and be healed.”

Prophet Isaiah’s was commissioned by God to prevent repentance and healing of His people. Let me repeat it again prophet Isaiah’s commission was to prevent repentance and healing of God’s people so God’s judgment of the people for their social injustices and unacceptable worship might have been administered.

In the eyes of Isaiah, the Assyrian king was an instrument of God’s justice which was to be used to purify the God’s people, and his commission was not to be fulfilled until the land of his country was to be completely destroyed, not just cities and houses but also those who lived in them as well. Isaiah received this horrible commission from God and he accepted it letting go safety and security of his life. 

In today’s gospel Peter, James and John, are also asked to let go safety and security of their lives and their profession as fishermen. They have done nothing to warrant or merit Jesus' call to them. They are not called because of their qualifications, character or potential. And their call, not like the call of Isaiah the Prophet, does not come in a holy place (the temple or a synagogue) but in the midst of their daily work.  They are to call others to follow Christ. 

Paul, from whose letter to the Corinthians we also heard this Sunday, is asked by Jesus to let go of his vocation as a Pharisee and to become his apostle. Paul becomes the ambassador of the Gospel of Christ to all, those who are Jewish, Greek, Roman, men, women, free and slaves. 

Aren't you afraid that God might ask you to let go safety and security of your life to be commissioned to do his work in different ways? Regardless of who you are: pope, bishop, priest, religious, student, mother, father, child, married, widowed or single. Would you be willing to live on the Edge for Christ and his Gospel?

Once St. Teresa of Avila said: "Christ has no body but yours, no hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes with which he looks with compassion to the world." 

Aren't you afraid the God might ask you? And your whole life might be turned upside down? I am.