Cycle C

2nd Sunday of Lent, Cycle C

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In today’s First Reading the Lord rewards Abram’s faith that the promise he had already made regarding Abram’s descendants would be fulfilled. This faith was seen as righteousness: it showed that Abram was pleasing to God, a thought St. Paul would later develop in his letters. We are those descendants, because we call Abram (later renamed Abraham by the Lord) our father in faith. The Lord also promised Abram that the land he was dwelling in would be his; his nomadic existence would one day end and he’d have a place he could truly call home. Abram asked how he would know and the Lord instructed him to prepare the ceremony for establishing a covenant. In Abram’s time, two people entering into covenant would walk between sacrificed animals that had been split in half as a way of saying they’d bring the same fate upon themselves if they broke the covenant. In this moment of salvation history this insight into God’s relationship with those who have faith is something murky, even terrifying. Abram didn’t even have to make the walk; the Lord offered freely to enter into the covenant, and it was a disproportionate act of generosity on his part. Abram persevered in his faith and God’s promises were fulfilled.

In a mysterious way, when covenants with God were broken left and right throughout salvation history, the Lord did take the punishment upon himself, sparing his people, to the point that the Son shed his bled to establish a new and everlasting covenant. In today’s Second Reading Paul laments those who have become enemies of the Cross of Christ and chosen comfort over the difficult path of renunciation that true glory requires. He reminds us that we are citizens of Heaven and that is where we should be headed. The Cross is the way, there are no detours, no shortcuts. The Lord in today’s Gospel is preparing his disciples for the trials of faith they’re about to endure when he is handed over in Jerusalem to suffer his Passion. They have an experience of God in great contrast from Abram’s experience: from something vague and confusing to something blindingly insightful, so much so that the confusion and fright comes from trying to process it all. On the mountaintop they see Christ in his glory; his divinity shines through. They see two of the greatest holy men of their salvation history flanking him: Elijah and Moses, who speak of what Our Lord must endure. They receive a revelation of the Trinity: the Son in his divinity, the Holy Spirit in the cloud overshadowing them, and the Father speaking from the cloud. It is all still veiled in mystery, but it’s like a light along a dark road that encourages you to keep moving forward.

We still have many weeks of Lent before Our Lord’s Passion and Glory. Let’s continue along the path of the Cross through contemplating these mysteries and living our Lenten resolutions well, knowing it is the only path to the fulfillment of God’s promises.

Readings: Genesis 15:5–12, 17–18; Psalm 27:1, 7–9, 13–14; Philippians 3:17–4:1; Luke 9:28b–36. See also Transfiguration of the Lord, Cycle B and 2nd Week of Advent, Saturday.

1st Sunday of Lent, Cycle C

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Lent is forty days long (symbolically speaking) because we imitate Christ going into the desert at the start of his public ministry for forty days of prayer, fasting, and temptation. Every year we go into the desert with Our Lord. We can have the attitude of rolling our eyes and saying to ourselves, “here we go again.” Why do we have to remember these mysteries over and over again? We remember and relive this mysteries in order to go beyond spiritual monotony and attain spiritual profundity.

In today’s First Reading Moses tells the Israelites how to present the first fruits as gifts from God, remembering how long they wandered in the desert. We have only just started, and we have many fruits to present to Our Lord: five days of fresh Lenten effort. Maybe for some of us our stomach has started to grumble, like Jesus’ after forty days of fasting. Maybe we’re not feeling the pinch yet, so we need to keep making an effort. The grumbling stomachs will come at one point or another. Whenever the Israelites in the desert had a hard time, the first bad thing they wished for was to return to the fleshpots of Egypt. We give up sweets and our mind is on the ice cream parlor.

However, in today’s Second Reading St. Paul reminds us that the word is near us. It’s not just a spoken word: it is the Word made flesh. Jesus is with us during our first days in the desert trying not to think of the dessert, and St. Paul reminds us we must have him on our lips and in our heart. All we have to do is call upon him and we will be saved from falling into temptation. It can seem that Jesus’s word is spiritually monotonous. Our stomachs grumble, we turn to him for an encouraging word, and he says the same things, over and over: Man shall not live by bread alone, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve, You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test. We ask the Holy Spirit and it says go into into the desert for forty days. We turn to Mary for advice, and she just says, “Do whatever he tells you.” Arrrgh.

Congratulations, you are praying and fasting. The desert is dry. You look around and there’s lots of sand and sun, but no beach. Wild animals are looking at you wondering if you taste like chicken, but you’re following the Holy Spirit’s promptings, listening to Our Lord, asking Mary’s advice. Good job. The monotony reflects the fact that, for a part of you, this is not what you want, but the better part of you knows it is what you need. There is life in the desert. God led the Israelites around there for forty years (not days, years) so that he could spend quality time with them, away from the distractions, and away from the dangers. The Israelites weren’t just attached to those fleshpots in Egypt; the gods of Egypt had started to appeal to them as well.

So if you’re not feeling the grumbling yet, or the spiritual monotony is starting, it’s time to analyze the fleshpots for which the fallen part of you is longing, but do it with the Lord’s word in your lips and in your heart. Whatever stone you’d rather be bread, whatever empire of ego you’d like to sell out God for, whatever sign you expect him to show to prove himself to you, look at it through the lens of Jesus’ words. It will be like putting on your glasses to take in the panorama after just having a fuzzy view. Through his words you will go beyond the monotony and start attaining profundity. Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to really help us use this time in the desert to go deeper.

Readings: Deuteronomy 26:4–10; Psalm 91:1–2, 10–15; Romans 10:8–13; Luke 4:1–13.

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5th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

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All three readings today share one common thread: an experience of God’s majesty and power, a call to mission and conversion, and the need for God’s grace and encouragement to change and to accept the invitation. Throughout the Old Testament a basic principle was that anyone who looked upon the Lord would die. Isaiah in today’s First Reading experiences a vision of God’s glory and thinks he’s about to die, and die as a sinner. The Lord sends the angel to purify him and then invites him to be his prophet.

Paul in today’s Second Reading recalls the core of the Gospel: that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. When he recalls his own encounter with the Risen Lord on the road to Damascus he also recalls his unworthiness to be commissioned as an apostle, but by God’s grace he’s made capable of carrying out his mission. Lastly, upon seeing the miraculous catch of fish that makes him go from calling Jesus “Master” to calling him “Lord,” Peter acknowledges his sinfulness and unworthiness for what Our Lord is asking him. Our Lord gives him the grace of expressing his confidence in him, a confidence that we know later was tested, but in end, by Our Lord’s grace, merited.

Not every believer is called to be an apostle or prophet, but every believer can expect a deeper experience of Our Lord if it is sought. Many simple don’t look. It may not involve visions or great miracles or revelations, but it will be a moment of realizing that God is somebody, somebody amazing, and somebody who loves you. You may feel like a tiny speck in his presence, but he will give you the grace to be great in his eyes. Seek him out and you will find him, knowing that he is seeking you as well, just as he sought Isaiah, Peter, and Paul.

Readings: Isaiah 6:1–2a, 3–8; Psalm 138:1–5, 7–8; 1 Corinthians 15:1–11; Luke 5:1–11. See also 22nd Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday and 1st Week in Ordinary Time, Monday.

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

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Today’s readings remind us of the importance of the Word of God in our lives. In today’s Gospel Luke explains to Theophilus that he sought to check and compile all concerning Jesus that had been written or handed down by other “ministers of the word.” Ezra in today’s First Reading, as part of a liturgical assembly in honor of the dedication of the newly rebuilt Temple in Israel, reads the law for hours to the people in order to help them to renew the covenant: it was probably the first five books of the Old Testament. The Israelites found their identity in the words of the Law, just as we find it in the Bible today, especially in the Gospel, but without discarding what’s been handed down to us in the Old Testament.

Our Lord too in today’s Gospel reads from the prophets, but presents something new, something that represents his Incarnation and mission and sheds light on all the Word of God: he has come to fulfill everything promised through the prophets, and to give meaning to the history of salvation lived until that moment and passed along through oral and written traditions until being compiled into what we call the Bible today. Without God’s Word we’d soon lose our identity and our way in a world plagued by ignorance, confusion, and evil.

Just like Ezra, Paul, and Jesus himself the Lord blesses us with people who conserve and interpret what God has said to us throughout salvation history. Let’s pray for all ministers of God’s Word today, and for the grace to be faithful witnesses to that Word as well.

Readings: Nehemiah 8:2–4a, 5–6, 8–10; Psalm 19:8–10, 15; 1 Corinthians 12:12–30; Luke 1:1–4, 4:14–21. See also 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B and 22nd Week in Ordinary Time, Monday.

2nd Sunday Ordinary Time, Cycle C

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What starts in today’s Gospel with Our Lord attending a wedding banquet turns into a sign that the Lord’s courtship with Israel has begun in earnest. The transformation of the water into wine is the first sign Our Lord performs in John’s Gospel. John doesn’t speak of miracles as much as he speaks of signs: each sign is an opportunity for Israel to put her faith in the Lord. As today’s First Reading reminds us, nuptial symbolism is very strong in the mind of Israel as the way to understand the joy her salvation will bring. For Isaiah, any checkered past of Israel, any past disgrace will be swept away by the Lord not only wedding himself to her by way of concession, but with the delight of young fiancees in love. That wedding is definitively consummated between him and the Church, with the wedding banquet awaiting us in Heaven.

Wedding celebrations in Jesus’ time were prolonged affairs with abundant wine to represent the joy of the wedding and also the future joy of when the Lord would be wed to his spouse Israel. When it seems today that the joy is going to prematurely run out, Our Lord through transforming the water into wine not only extends the joy, but makes it an even greater joy. All the things we enjoy in life that are good and holy for us will experience a similar transformation. The huge jars of water represent penance, conversion, purification, and baptism, everything that shows our contrition for our checkered past and our desire to change. Our Lord takes that penance and purification and converts it into pure joy, just as he turns the water into fine wine.

Our Lord envisions his relationship with us, whether as Church or as individuals, as one of intimate and joyful love. If we want to be captivated and purified by him in order to achieve a greater joy let’s follow the Blessed Mother’s advice today to do whatever he tells us.

Readings: Isaiah 62:1–5; Psalm 96:1–3, 7–10; 1 Corinthians 12:4–11; John 2:1–11.