We Would Like to See Jesus - 5th Sunday in Lent Year B

A presidential election year brings with it the long list of promises candidates make. Each candidate in the primary goes to Puerto Rico promising them statehood, a promise made every four years for decades, and one that continues to go unfulfilled. We are also provided with the promise of reducing our dependence on foreign oil, reducing the budget deficit, making government smaller, cutting taxes, and the list goes on. While it is easy to criticize politicians for their failures in promise keeping, we might pause to reflect on the promises we make to one another. How many promises do we make to our children that go unmet? How often do we resolve to end a particular bad habit or sinful behavior, only to find ourselves at reconciliation for the same fault in a short time? The readings today, however, remind us that God is the ultimate promise keeper, the one who never disappoints.

The promise is made in the first reading from the prophet Jeremiah: God will make a new covenant with us, one that will be written on our hearts and not on stone. In this covenant God will forgive our sins and remember them no longer, and what is more remarkable is that we will not need to teach our relatives and friends how to know the Lord (don't tell that to your DRE!). Up to this point the covenant relationship between God and Israel had been one of master and servant. While this relationship has many advantages (e.g. a clear law to be followed, a deep respect for the majesty of God, a proper understanding of our role as creatures), nevertheless the exclusive use of this type of relationship overlooked the other aspects of the infinite God, especially those related to love and a more intimate relationship with God. This new covenant promised to the people would be a covenant of love.

The book of Hebrews is an entire reflection on the new covanant of Jesus. By focusing on the priesthood of Jesus and the virtue of faith that befits this new covenant, the writer of this letter points out that Jesus is the example of how to live the new covenant. Not only does God proclaim the new covenant in the ministry of Jesus, but also Jesus himself shows us how to live the new covenant in the death he dies for the sake of all. The death of Jesus becomes the source of our salvation not only in the act itself, but also in the fact that it is the example for us to follow as disciples of the Lord Jesus. This obedience is not to a written law, but to an impulse of love made perfect by the sufferings we endure for God and for others. Consequently, there will be a multitude of different ways for that love to be made manifest in our words and deeds since it is fundamentally relational and a response to the love Christ had for us.

Lest we think that this new covenant is radically individualistic, the Gospel text today reminds us that we can only find Jesus in the context of the community of the Church. The Greeks who came looking for Jesus inquire of Philip, one of the twelve, and Philip in turn asks Andrew. Andrew then asks Jesus and the meeting takes place. In this personal encounter with Jesus, he tells the Greek visitors that whoever wishes to serve him must follow him in his death and resurrection. Jesus alludes to the master-servant relationship mentioned earlier, but instead of that relationship being defined in terms of obedience to written laws, Jesus defines it as an imitation of his life and death. In this respect we really do not need to be instructed in the tenets of the new covenant as had been the case in the old. Discipleship is not about memorizing laws and tenets, but it is rather a matter of love in imitating the life of the Master. That imitation, of course, will be different for every life just as each will be different from that of Jesus in its particulars. We are no longer in the first century Palestine and the world is very different in many respects from the world of that time. Yet, the universal call to love and service remains constant, and the manner in which we incarnate that love in the world will be an authentic response to the needs of our day, just as it was in the life and ministry of Jesus.

Love is always a challenge, for it always involves a death to our own selves and the self-interest that the world proclaims as the way to happiness, a false promise that is illusory. As we seek to overcome illusion with genuine faith, we pray together: "Let us pray for the courage to embrace the world in the name of Christ. Father in heaven, the love of your Son led him to accept the suffering of the cross that his brothes might glory in new life. Change our selfishness into self-giving. Help us to embrace the world you have given us, that we may transform the darkness of its pain into the life and joy of Easter. Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen."

The Prophetic Imagination - 4th Sunday of Lent Year B

The image of the prophet in most people's minds is not entirely accurate or flattering. Very often we picture a man in tattered clothes, long hair and beard, and a wild look in his eyes. He brings a message of doom unless the people change their ways. Many people in the modern age who would like to don the prophet's mantle carry about a dour message of doom: economic collapse, environmental disaster, catastrophic social ills. Such folks often carry an element of truth in their message, but most people ignore the truth contained therein because the packaging is so unappealing. Today the readings provide us with a more complete picture of the prophet that contains hope and joy.

The first and second book of Chronicles are both historical books in the Old Testament, but even in their pages we find the historical record of the words and deeds of prophets. In this particular passage we find the reasons for the Babylonian captivity: the people of Israel worshipped idols and they committed gross injustices against the poor. God sent prophets, but the people mocked them and continued in thier profligate living. The time of captivity was not pleasant, and no one knew how long it would last or how it would end. Odds makers of the day would have been hard pressed to predict that King Cyrus, the ruthless leader of Persia, would be the instrument God would use to liberate the chosen people of Israel and to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem. It takes great imagination and faith to see salvation and restoration can come from unlikely sources.

Paul provides another glimpse into the prophetic imagination by stressing the point that our salvation does not come from our own efforts but rather it comes from the action of God. In our prayers we may say to God that we have faith that God can and should liberate us from our sins and injustices, but in reality we place a great deal of stock on our own efforts to accomplish that feat. We convince ourselves that it is our action of contrition that brings about God's mercy, or that our project will free us from oppression and injustice. The prophetic imagination leads us to see God at work in the midst of his people - all of his people, not just some - and that God is the initiator of the work, not us. We are merely instruments in the hand of God.

We often expect great religious leaders to be the ones who would see God's will and enact it in their lives and the lives of their people. However, the Gospel text shows Nicodemus, a leader within the Sanhedrin, was unable to see God present in the life and ministry of Jesus. Jesus' words to Nicodemus are a shock to the religious leader: God doesn't come to bring condemnation to the world - God's message is one of salvation for all people! Prophets may indeed condemn, and sometimes such is necessary. However, if the prophet does not ultimately have a message of hope and salvation, then the prophet is not fulfilling his vocation. At this point in the Gospel, Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night, and so he is unable to see the ultimate truth of Jesus the Lord. However, Nicodemus will eventually obtain the prophetic imagination, for he will come to faith when it matters most - at the cross.

This past week I had the privilege of experiencing a session of SPRED - Special Religious Development. This program is religious formation for young people and adults with special developmental needs. Most of these kids are outcasts in their schools. They often complain of being bullied for being different, but at church they feel safe, welcomed, accepted, and loved. We talked about confirmation in the session, as some of them are preparing to receive the sacrament this year. We practiced the ritual, felt the oil, and shared the symbols of our faith. Many in our culture would consider these kids as unproductive and a drain on our economy and resources. Some in our culture would think it better that they not have been born. And yet the people of God proclaim in word and deed that these young people are children of God who have much to offer. Indeed, they are vehicles of salvation for us: the love and joy within these young people can enkindle within us the prophetic imagination that leads us to see the dignity of each and every human being.

As we seek to become authentic prophets in fulfilling our baptismal call, we seek the help of God to develop the prophetic imagination that enables us to see God among us in word, sacrament, and one another. "Let us pray that by growing in love this Lenten season we may bring the peace of Christ to our world. God our Father, your Word, Jesus Christ, spoke peace to a sinful world and brought mankind the gift of reconciliation by the suffering and death he endured. Teach us, the people who bear his name, to follow the example he gave us: may our faith, hope, and charity turn hatred to love, conflict to peace, death to eternal life. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen."

Signs of the Times - 3rd Sunday of Lent Year B

Signs come in many different shapes, sizes, colors, and they all have different meanings. Traffic signs, for example, direct us to do something in order to avoid danger or harm to ourselves and others. Merchant signs tell us the name of the shop and what a person might expect to find for purchase in various stores. In the realm of religion we encounter similar signs - commands to do or not do something, church signs indicating the particular faith tradition expressed therein. However, we also use the term 'sign' to refer to an event, person, or object that represents something else or someone else. Such a sign points to a deeper reality than itself. In today's readings we encounter all these types of signs.

The first reading relates the giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses and the people of Israel. These commandments are just a part of a larger law God gave to the people. The law for Israel was a sign in two respects. First, the commandments were a sign that gave them a direction in how to live their lices as the chosen people of God. The law marked them out as a special people called to live in a way that was different than other nations. The people had a unique identity because of this law. However, the law was also a sign of God's love for this particular people. Even today in Jewish liturgy of synagogue has as its climax the procession of the Torah scroll among the people, and the people venerate the Torah with a kiss. The law remains the unique gift of God to the people of Israel and a sign of his love for them.

Paul uses the term sign in the sense of identifying for us the unique position of Jesus in salvation history and the cross as the fundamental sign of Christian faith. In preaching the cross of Jesus, Paul notes that it is a scandal to the Jewish people and a stumbling block for the Greeks. In Jewish theology, the humiliation of crucifixion could only mean that God did not favor that person, that the person suffering such humiliation could only be considered a great sinner. To suggest, as Christians do, that Jesus and his cross is the fundamental victory over sin and death is scandalous to the Jewish mind. At the same time, the Greek world exalted the strong man, the warrior as the paradigm of virtue. Virtue consisted of strength and domination over others. The cross as a symbol of faith was unprecedented for a pagan mind that saw the warrior as the example of virtue. The cross represents for them weakness, defeat, and shame. How could such things represent authentic spirituality and theology?

Jesus, however, provides the answer to these riddles in the account of the cleansing of the Temple. All four gospels recount this event, but only John places it at the beginning of Jesus' public ministry; it did not appear suddenly at the end. This statement of Jesus has many important dimensions. First, it represents a defense of justice in calling attention to the scandalous theft of the poor that moneychangers often undertook in the Temple precinct itself. To cause such a ruckus was a shock to many. Second, the gospel writer points to the fact that the Temple was the symbol within Judaism of God's presence among his people. Now that Jesus is present, God among us, the symbol of the Temple no longer serves a valid function. Jesus has come to replace the Temple and to fulfill its original meaning and purpose.

The rejection of Jesus by many people during his lifetime and thereafter is not that surprising. People constantly confuse the symbol with the reality that the symbol signifies. The people of Israel clung to the Temple as the symbol of God's presence, overlooking the actual presence of Emanuel, God with us, in the person of Jesus. Many people flock to see alleged appearances of Mary in far off places or on breakfast pastries in U.S. diners. If those events lead to real faith, it is only because the person recognized the deeper reality underneath the sign. Sadly, many people do not see the deeper reality of God among us in these events and so they cling to the event and symbol while neglecting the presence of God in their midst.

During Lent we seek to overcome the sin that blinds us to the reality of God among us, the sin that has us idolizing the symbol while neglecting the real presence of God in the world. As we seek repentance and look for true sight to see what we ought, we pray: "Let us pray to the Father and ask him to form a new heart within us. God of all compassion, Father of all goodness, to heal the wounds our sins and selfishness bring upon us you bid us turn to fasting, prayer, and sharing with our brothers. We acknowledge our sinfulness, our guilt is ever before us: when our weakness causes discouragement, let your compassion fill us with hope and lead us through a Lent of repentance to the beauty of Easter joy. Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen."