Lent

Dec 16 2024

The Greatest Virtue

If somebody were to ask you what your greatest virtue is, what would you say? A virtue is a habit of doing good, according to Thomas Aquinas. A virtue is something you are able to do because you have been graced by God. And being graced means being gifted. So another way of asking this question is: what is the greatest gift you have been given? You might immediately answer, “Love,” as St. Paul himself writes in his Letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 12:31 — 13:13).

Now, love has many faces: patience, kindness, and compassion, to name a few. But I would propose that the greatest expression of this gift—and the most difficult one to carry out—is forgiveness. The story of the prodigal son is really the story of a father prodigal in forgiveness for his children. This father speaks to us of our merciful God, always ready to forgive. And this story was Jesus’ answer to why he hung out with sinners.

During this season when we are preparing to renew our baptismal promises, we would do well to examine how well we are living out the virtues given to us at baptism; we call them theological virtues: faith, hope, and love. In this season, when we often turn to the sacrament of reconciliation to ask forgiveness from the Father who continues to reconcile the world to himself through Christ, it is also good to ask how are we doing as forgivers, as agents of reconciliation.

Consider/Discuss

Is there someone who needs your forgiveness?
Is there someone from whom you need to ask forgiveness?

Responding to the Word

Loving Lord, when we look at the cross, we see the love of the Father embodied in your saving death for our salvation. Because of your death and resurrection, we are part of a new creation, reconciled to the Father. Make us your worthy ambassadors, able to embody your merciful love.

Dec 16 2024

Scripture Study for

The first reading recounts the first celebration of Passover in the land. The story suggests that the people have just crossed the Jordan. However, mention of cakes and parched grain implies that they had been settled long enough to produce a harvest. Though the feast identified is Passover, there is no mention of the required lamb. Instead, there is a reference to unleavened cakes, suggesting the feast of Unleavened Bread. Whenever Passover was celebrated, it commemorated the Exodus from Egypt. The present story probably grew out of a celebration that combined the festivals of Passover and Unleavened Bread. Paul focuses on the reconciliation that puts an end to any enmity with God. He uses the notion of a replacement sacrifice in his explanation of how God’s reconciliation is accomplished. Though he was innocent, Christ became the sin offering for the guilty. Joined to Christ, believers now share in the righteousness of Christ, and through Christ, in the righteousness of God. Having himself been reconciled with God, Paul becomes the agent through whom God works in the lives of others. All of this God has graciously accomplished for sinners through the magnanimous sacrifice of Christ. This is the good news that Paul preaches.

Jesus singles out two groups of people, tax-collectors and sinners. To eat with such people was thought to somehow share life with them. The Pharisees and scribes, those who dealt with the Law and the things of God, criticized Jesus for the company he kept. Jesus saw this association as opening the reign of God to all. The parable illustrates the mercy that God shows to repentant sinners. It also contrasts God’s openness with the closed-mindedness of those who consider themselves faithful. Jesus is really contrasting the compassion of God with the mean-spiritedness of the Pharisees and scribes. Like the elder brother, they lack compassion and they seem to resent the fact that God is merciful toward sinners who repent.

Dec 13 2024

Our Thirsty God

There are a number of thirsty people in our readings today: the Israelites out in the desert, grumbling about the lack of water and wondering why they ever left Egypt; the woman of Samaria, who has gone to the well to draw water for herself and her companion at home; and Jesus, traveling through Samaritan territory with his disciples.

The thirst of the Israelites was physical. Once again disheartened, they were grumbling that Moses had taken them out in the desert to die. It must have gotten serious because we are told that Moses himself feared for his life. God’s response is dramatic: “Take your staff, go over to that rock and strike it.” And the water flowed.

The nameless woman is shown to be thirsty on several levels. Physically, yes, but her thirst is on far deeper levels—for companionship (five husbands and now living with yet another person!) and for communion with God. Jesus promises her that people will worship God in Spirit and in truth. Indeed, the Father seeks such people.

Is it possible the one most thirsty is God? The Father thirsts for all of us to draw closer, to live fully the life that only God can give, that life celebrated on Easter, made possible by the dying and rising of Jesus. Those to be baptized enter into divine life at baptism, but all believers continue to be satisfied by the life-giving water that is Jesus.

Consider/Discuss

What are you thirsting for?
Do you approach God as one who can satisfy your deepest thirst?

Responding to the Word

Risen Lord, you came to bring us life-giving water. Such water poured over us at our baptism. We pray for those who will soon enter into this water and become sons and daughters of the Father, co-heirs with you. Strengthen them, enlighten them, guide them, encourage them, in these final days of preparation.

Dec 13 2024

Scripture Study for

The miracle of water from the rock is God’s response to the people’s rebellion in the wilderness. Moses’ authority is under direct attack. Nonetheless, just as God delivered the people from the bondage of Egypt through the leadership of Moses, so now, again through the actions of Moses, God provides for their needs. Moses is instructed to employ the staff he used to perform the signs and wonders that surrounded the liberation from Egypt. When he strikes the rock, life-giving water flows forth. This is but another example of God’s boundless and compassionate love for sinners.

The justification of the Romans is based on the righteousness that originates in God, a righteousness that gives and sustains life, security, and well-being. According to Paul, we have no right to this relationship with God. It has been given to us, won for us by the Lord Jesus Christ. We did not deserve it. We were sinners, alienated from God, when Christ died for us and gained access for us to the grace that places us in right relationship with God. The prodigious quantity of God’s graciousness is beyond our comprehension. It is poured out like water, life-giving, enriching, and overflowing.

The living water metaphor about which Jesus and the Samaritan woman con verse has a long and rich history in the religious tradition of Israel, where it is seen as a principle of spiritual life. Jesus’ unexplained knowledge of the woman’s marital situation prompts her to call him a prophet and to launch into another discussion about the proper place to worship God. Here too Jesus moves the conversation away from what is merely perceptible to the level of deep spiritual meaning, from a discussion of the place of worship to one that characterizes the manner of worship. The word of salvation comes to the Samaritan village through a woman, it takes root in the hearts of these despised and marginalized people, and it grows into a great harvest.

Dec 13 2024

Seize the Day—Now

Carpe diem was one of the phrases you’d learn if you studied Latin in high school. It means “Seize the day.” For a high school student it seemed to offer a permit to act impulsively. Speaking as someone more than fifty years away from that time, it offers an inducement to act wisely—now.

Moses is told by a voice from a burning bush that the God of his ancestors wanted him to go back down to Egypt, from which he had fled after murdering an Egyptian. All Moses was given at this encounter was an obscure name for God, and a proposed plan to rescue the Israelite slaves and lead them to a new land. Not a very attractive offer for one peacefully tending sheep, but Moses seized the day, hearing the call to act—now.

Jesus calls on his fellow Jews to seize the day by repenting. Life is short. People die tragically without deserving it. Look to your own life, he tells them. God has given you these days, so bear fruit—now.

Paul calls on the Corinthian to seize the day. Not just our actions but even our desires can mislead us. So don’t be complacent, a word that means sedating your spirit by being overly pleased with yourself. Turn to God—now.

Baptism lays a foundation, giving us the Spirit and the virtues of faith, hope, and love. In a month we are going to renew our baptismal promises on Easter, confirming our desire to seize the day, every day, as an opportunity to grow closer to God—now.

Consider/Discuss

Have you “settled in” to being a Catholic? Have you become a “couch Catholic,” not overly exerting yourself in living out of your faith?
This coming week brings us to Lent’s mid-point. Is anything happening on the conversion/turn-to-the-Lord front?

Responding to the Word

Lord, teach us to number our days and realize how quickly life passes, days into weeks into months into years. Rouse our spirits and teach us how to work with your Spirit to make fruitful the gifts you have given to us for the good of others. Move us to act wisely.