During this season of Lent we meditate on the Passion and Death of Jesus for our salvation. What do we learn from his embracing the cross of suffering? First of all, we recognize his sublime humility. He submitted to the cruel tortures, mockeries, insults and indignities without uttering a cry of retaliation. From the betrayal kiss of Judas, the scourging and crowing of thorns, the buffets, the mockery of a trial, the false accusations, and the inhumanity of crucifixion. He suffered all humbly, because there was something greater to be achieved, our salvation. How often we retaliate at the slightest indignity or affront, rather than silently accepting it, knowing the truth of who we are and what we have done. Lord, help me to learn how to imitate your humility.

 

Homily Third Sunday of Lent Year B

 

Reading 1: On the First Sunday of Lent we heard about the covenant which God made with Noah after the flood and the sign of that covenant was the rainbow. Last Sunday we heard the test that God put Abraham through by asking him to be obedient to their covenant by sacrificing Isaac his son. The obedience of Abraham to his relationship to God spared his son.  Today, we see the covenant that God made with the Israelites in the desert during their exodus from slavery in Egypt.

 

The Commandments were the way the people would reflect their relationship with God through obedience. The first three focus primarily on God.  The first Commandment acknowledges the oneness of God, who had delivered then versus the many humanly created gods of the pagans. Commandments two and three reflect the holiness of God and the need to reflect this through worship. The last seven commandments deal with right relationship with each other. Love of God and love of neighbor.

 

Though the people confirmed their acceptance of their relationship with God and one another and offered sacrifice to seal their covenant with God, we know it took them 40 years of wandering in the desert before they could truly affirm their relationship. They were a rebellious, stiff-neck people, who were still self-centered rather than other-centered. They complained continually and did not trust God but sought rather to do things their way.

 

St Augustine described sin as being caved in on oneself. Sin closes us in on ourselves whereas love draws us out of ourselves. As long as they remained in that state of rebellion and disobedience, they were not ready to enter the land of promise and the joy of freedom.

 

Gospel: On the First Sunday of Lent we reflected on the temptations of Jesus. He came to confront Satan and to restore right relationship with the Father, who loves us. Last Sunday, we reflected on the Transfiguration, when Jesus was prepared for his upcoming death on the cross for our sake. He experienced the glory that he had before his becoming man and the glory he would experience again in his resurrected body. At the same time the Transfiguration was also meant to be a grace for the three disciples, preparing them for Jesus’ passion and death on the cross. They were told to listen to him.

 

Today, we see where Jesus’ focus is on, namely, restoring the right relationship between the people and God. Though they had entered into a covenant with God, they were not faithful to it. Like us they made their own human adaptations and gave it their own interpretations. The Temple was the sacred place of God’s presence among his people. It was a place of worship and praise. In time, for human reasons and some personal benefits, it became also a place of commerce.

 

Jesus by his actions showed the zeal we should have for the Lord. “My Father’s house is a house of worship.” The response of the religious leaders, who had sanctioned the commercial activities, was to demand the source of Jesus’ authority. What sign supports Jesus’ actions?  Jesus pointed to his upcoming death on the cross and the resurrection. These will be the sign to the people who he really was, the Messiah. It would demonstrate his zeal for the Father, by doing his will and being obedient even to the death on the cross.

 

How zealot are we for God? How zealot are we in the discipline of Lent? How zealot are we in seeking the Lord’s will in our life?

 

Reading 2: On the first Sunday of Lent we were reminded that Jesus suffered and died for our sins and brought back to life by the Spirit. We experience salvation through the waters of baptism as Noah was saved by water. Last Sunday, we were reminded that if God did not spare his own son but allowed him to give his life for us because of his great love, what more can God do to show us the depth of his love. Today, we heard that a central mystery of our faith is Christ crucified. This sign of the Father’s love was a stumbling block to the Jews, who sought signs and to the Greeks, who accepted what was rational. For a man to die on a cross was foolishness. It does not make sense rationally.

 

How can the death of a man on the cross be anything but weakness? Where is the victory? Paul said the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. For Jesus didn’t just die but he rose from the deal. By these events he saved us from eternal destruction. We have been reconciled back to God. We now have access to eternal life with God, when before we were doomed to eternal alienation by virtue of our sins. Praise God for his mercy and love.

 By his sacred Blood we have been redeemed. Now united with him and restored, we are nourished and strengthened by his Blood in the gift of Eucharist. In the Old Testament, blood was a sign of life. In the Eucharist,  his Blood is a sharing in the Divine Life of God. We are renewed, refreshed and revived by the Blood of Jesus. This is not ordinary blood, it is the Blood of the Incarnate God. When we drink his Blood from the sacred chalice, we are doing what he himself told us at the Last Supper. As his sacred Body feeds us spiritually, so his sacred Blood, uniting us in faith and in reality to the One, True God. Through the sharing in his Blood, we are anticipating and longing for the eternal banquet that awaits us in glory. For it is by his Blood that the gates are heaven are once more open to those united with him on earth.

 Third Sunday of Lent: Gospel B

Since the Passover of the Jews was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 

· This is the first of three Passovers that John mentions in his Gospel. The other two are found in Jn 6:4 and 13:1.

He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves as well as the money-changers seated there. He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables, and to those who sold doves he said, "Take these out of here, and stop making my Father's house a marketplace." His disciples recalled the words of scripture, "Zeal for your house will consume me." 

· In the synoptic Gospels of Matthew and Mark the cleansing of the Temple by Jesus takes place at the end of his ministry just prior to his passion. But for John it fits better theologically here. It sets the stage for his ministry.

· The sheep and oxen and doves were the animals offered in sacrifice in the Temple. The doves were what the poor could afford. Recall that this was what Joseph and Mary could afford when they presented Jesus in the Temple. (Lk 2:24)

· “Zeal for your house…” Look up Ps 69:10.

· When have we felt such zeal for God’s glory?

· Do we feel at times the same is happening in our churches today?

At this the Jews answered and said to him, "What sign can you show us for doing this?" Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up." The Jews said, "This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?" But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 

· This is one of the charges that will be hurled against Jesus during his trial before the leaders.

· How often do we look for signs, when God is looking for response to the signs he has already given us of his love?

· The greatest and final sign of Jesus’ true identity is his death and resurrection. But even this will not be enough for some.

Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they came to believe the scripture and the word Jesus had spoken. 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 anyone to testify about human nature. He himself understood it well.

· Even though many people believed in him, their faith would be shaken by his arrest and death. Even the apostles faltered at the time of his death. Only the fact of the resurrection restored them.

· How strong is our faith in Jesus? Where have we faltered in our journey?

· Our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. What needs to be cleansed within us so that God may be better glorified?

 We have been saved by the Blood of the Lamb. Let us reflect on this mystery. Why did Jesus shed his blood as part of our salvation? First of all, we are cleansed and washed from the defilement of sin, which we have incurred through our disobedience to the will of God. The people of the Old Testament splashed blood on the lentils of their doors, so that the angel of death would pass over them and not enter. The priests would sprinkle blood upon them to ritually purify them. But their sins remained. Our sins are removed from us, not because of anything we did, but what Jesus did in our name. By his blood we are redeemed and set free. Because of who Jesus is and what he has done for is, his blood is sacred.

"Jesus’ command, “Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate,” is a command to participate in the compassion of God himself. He requires us to unmask the illusion of our competitive selfhood, to give up clinging to our imaginary distinctions as sources of identity, and to be taken up into the same intimacy with God which he himself knows. This is the mystery of the Christian life: to receive a new self, a new identity, which depends not on what we can achieve, but on what we are willing to receive. This new self is our participation in the divine life in and through Christ. Jesus wants us to belong to God as he belongs to God; he wants us to be children of God as he is a child of God; he wants us to let go of the old life, which is so full of fears and doubts, and to receive the new life, the life of God himself. In and through Christ we receive a new identity that enables us to say, “I am not the esteem I can collect through competition, but the love I have freely received from God.” It allows us to say with Paul, “I live now not with my own life but with the life of Christ who lives in me.” (Gal. 2:20) Henri Nouwen

Dying to the old self and rising with a new self is one of the goals of Lent. That is the image of the seed falling into the ground, dying and producing something new. That is the image of the pruning of the vine. The old barren branches are cut off, so that new growth can occur. What is in you that is the old self, the self of sin and unrepentance? Is what you are doing for Lent addressing the roots of the old self? By the grace of God, what new life is beginning to bud forth in you? Are you more compassionate, more forgiving, more considerate, more loving, more patience, more other-centered? Pray for the grace to die to the old and to rise with a new self image, one in harmony with Christ.

 Lent is a time for something to die and something to rise. It is a time of new life. The old leaven of sin is to be destroyed, so that the new leaven can bring new life. It is no wonder that Lent begins in winter and ends in spring. We see the barren trees sprout new leaves. If we are truly to experience new life at Easter with the Risen Christ, the sin that makes us barren and fruitless needs to be put to death, so that new life may burst forth. If this is not our focus during this season of grace, our Easter will be interiorly barren. Our renewal of Baptismal promises will be mere lip service. There will not have been a transformation. It is still early to make Lent what it is meant to be.