Third Sunday of Lent (A)

Ex 17:3-7
Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9
Rm 5:1-2, 5-8
Jn 4:5-42 or Jn 4:5-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42

What are you thirsty for? Thirst is what happens when we lack something vital. Water is essential for our physical survival, and our bodies signal us when it's time to drink fluids to stay healthy.

Likewise, water is necessary for our spiritual survival, albeit a different sort of water – the LIVING water, the baptismal water that purifies us for eternal life, the holy water that enables us to have abundant life in Christ now.

The Holy Spirit is the Giver of Life. One of the biblical symbols that represents the presence of God's Spirit is life-giving water. Therefore, we can surmise that Jesus wanted to give the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Samaritan woman. Why? It would still be a while before the Holy Spirit descended at Pentecost.

She needed the truth; the Holy Spirit IS Truth, and Jesus wanted to give her whatever she needed to repent and receive salvation and then share this new life with the people around her.

We only get thirsty when we haven't had enough to drink. Spiritual thirst comes in many forms: loneliness, despair, frustration, self-indulgence – any feeling or behavior that's caused by lacking something we need or want.

And why would we lack anything spiritually? Because, like the woman at the well, we are sinners and need to healing from God as he pours his love into us in all sufficiency.

Reflect & Discuss:

1. In the first reading, why did a physical thirst turn into a sin? How does this still happen today?

2. In Romans 5, grace and hope are mentioned as gifts we receive when we have been “justified by faith” (i.e., when we've repented of our sins and sought forgiveness through Jesus). How do grace and hope quench our thirsts? How do they help us resist sin? How is this a result of God's love being poured into our hearts?

3. The woman at the well eagerly received what Jesus said. Even though he confronted her about her sins, she drank it all in and then, without shame, excitedly told others about her encounter with the Messiah. What need was filled by the truth? What does this teach about how we can help others hear the truth?

Question for the Journey:

What sin or unhealthy habit do you need to overcome so that he is free to quench your thirsts? What will you do this week to hand it over to Christ?

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Hello, I’m Franciscan Father Greg Friedman, and this is the "Sunday Soundbite" for the Third Sunday of Lent.

For my hometown of Cincinnati, the Ohio River is an ever-present reality: the river brings commerce, recreation, drinking water. It also brings destructive floods.

Water is a powerful sign; that's why it's used in Baptism, symbolizing our entry into the life and death of Jesus.

Our Lenten readings today relate to Baptism. We hear a story from Exodus, where the people complain because they have run out of water. God, through Moses, responds with a life-giving stream of water. From John's Gospel we have the drama of Jesus and the woman at the well. The early Church used this story in its Lenten liturgy.

The woman at the well represents a believer who reluctantly comes to faith. She needs Jesus, his insights into her life, and his promise of "living water," to slowly win her over.

But isn't that the way it is for most of us? We need time to be convinced; we face contradictions and faulty choices in our lives. Nevertheless we thirst for what God offers us. And, in the end, when we've tasted new life in Christ, we just have to tell others about it. Believers become apostles.

Our Lenten journey may find us thirsty for living water. Let's listen closely to the Lord's invitation.

Scripture:

•Was it just to have us die here of thirst with our children and our livestock? (Exodus 17:3b)
•Harden not your hearts (Psalm 95:8a)

•For Christ, while we were still helpless, died at the appointed time for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6)

•Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work.” (John 4:34)

Reflection:

•Does every person have a spiritual hunger/thirst that needs to be filled? Does everyone have a longing to know God’s love that must be satisfied?

•If thirst for God’s love is not filled, then is it possible to turn to sinful pursuits in an attempt to fill this hunger?

•Is the food that Jesus speaks of, the spiritual food of doing God’s will?

•Is dying on the cross for unbelievers the ultimate spiritual act?

•Is the spiritual search the need to give and receive eternal love?


It is love which must determine man’s actions, love which must give unity to what is divided. Love is the synthesis of contemplation and action, the meeting point between heaven and earth, between God and man. I have known the satisfaction of unrestrained action and the joy of the contemplative life in the desert, and I repeat again St. Augustine’s words: “Love and do as you will.” Do not worry what you ought to do. Worry about loving. Do not interrogate heaven repeatedly and uselessly saying, “What course of action should I pursue?” Concentrate on loving instead.

Prayer for Church Leaders

Lord Jesus Christ, You gave Saint Peter his name to signify that he was the rock upon which You would build Your Church. I ask him to pray for our pope, bishops, priests, deacons, religious brothers and sisters, ministers, and laity who are in positions of Church leadership.

Help them to grow in holiness, shepherding their flocks in humility and generosity as You did. Teach us to be rocks of faith like Saint Peter. Give us a strong love and a compassionate heart. Protect us from the temptations of legalism, power and status. Anoint us to be servants of Your love, in everything we do.

Saint Peter, pray for us. Amen.

Chair of Peter the Apostle

This feast commemorates Christ’s choosing Peter to sit in his place as the servant-authority of the whole Church (see June 29).

After the “lost weekend” of pain, doubt and self-torment, Peter hears the Good News. Angels at the tomb say to Magdalene, “The Lord has risen! Go, tell his disciples and Peter.” John relates that when he and Peter ran to the tomb, the younger outraced the older, then waited for him. Peter entered, saw the wrappings on the ground, the headpiece rolled up in a place by itself. John saw and believed. But he adds a reminder: “..[T]hey did not yet understand the scripture that he had to rise from the dead” (John 20:9). They went home. There the slowly exploding, impossible idea became reality. Jesus appeared to them as they waited fearfully behind locked doors. “Peace be with you,” he said (John 20:21b), and they rejoiced.

The Pentecost event completed Peter’s experience of the risen Christ. “...[T]hey were all filled with the holy Spirit” (Acts 2:4a) and began to express themselves in foreign tongues and make bold proclamation as the Spirit prompted them.

Only then can Peter fulfill the task Jesus had given him: “... [O]nce you have turned back, you must strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:32). He at once becomes the spokesman for the Twelve about their experience of the Holy Spirit—before the civil authorities who wished to quash their preaching, before the council of Jerusalem, for the community in the problem of Ananias and Sapphira. He is the first to preach the Good News to the Gentiles. The healing power of Jesus in him is well attested: the raising of Tabitha from the dead, the cure of the crippled beggar. People carry the sick into the streets so that when Peter passed his shadow might fall on them.

Even a saint experiences difficulty in Christian living. When Peter stopped eating with Gentile converts because he did not want to wound the sensibilities of Jewish Christians, Paul says, “...I opposed him to his face because he clearly was wrong.... [T]hey were not on the right road in line with the truth of the gospel...” (Galatians 2:11b, 14a).

At the end of John’s Gospel, Jesus says to Peter, “Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go” (John 21:18). What Jesus said indicated the sort of death by which Peter was to glorify God. On Vatican Hill, in Rome, during the reign of Nero, Peter did glorify his Lord with a martyr’s death, probably in the company of many Christians.

Comment:

Like the committee chair, this chair refers to the occupant, not the furniture. Its first occupant stumbled a bit, denying Jesus three times and hesitating to welcome gentiles into the new Church. Some of its later occupants have also stumbled a bit, sometimes even failed scandalously. As individuals, we may sometimes think a particular pope has let us down. Still, the office endures as a sign of the long tradition we cherish and as a focus for the universal Church.

Quote:

Peter described our Christian calling in the opening of his First Letter, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead...” (1 Peter 1:3a).

Second Sunday of Lent (A)

Gn 12:1-4a
Ps 33:4-5, 18-19, 20, 22
2 Tm 1:8b-10
Mt 17:1-9

Atop Mount Tabor, the pure light of Christ was revealed, as seen in next Sunday's Gospel reading. The Father said, "This is my beloved Son; LISTEN TO HIM." The transfiguration is repeated every time we listen to him and allow our faith to be enlightened. However, now it is WE who are transfigured.

During Lent, as we repent of our sinfulness, we let his light consume the darkness within us. Then, the people around us will see Jesus when they look at us. We will shine with him.

By Christ's transfiguration, we are transformed into OUR true identity. What is our true identity? It's our innermost being, which was created in the image of God!

Jesus left his mountaintop experience to enter into his ministry of suffering. When we are transfigured by the light of Christ, we leave our mountaintops to reveal him to the world. Although there is, as the reading from Timothy points out, hardship in sharing the gospel, we are comforted by the fact that after every Calvary there is always an Easter.

First, we have to spend time on the mountain. We need to stay there long enough to pray and receive "the strength that comes from God." Up there, we are prepared, we are encouraged, and we are restored, so that we can deal with the hardships in the valley.

Listen. Can you hear what God's saying about you? It's the same words he spoke about Jesus on Mount Tabor: "This is my beloved child; listen to him/her." Some folks will listen, some will not, but our ability to shine with the love of Jesus is not based on how many will listen to us. We are transfigured because Jesus saved us and has called us to a holy life.

Reflect & Discuss:

1. As you read the passage from Genesis, how does it feel to think that others could "find a blessing in you"? How does Jesus bless others through you?

2. Timothy reminds us of our holiness. Recall a time when you were enlightened by a new understanding of the faith. How did that change your behavior? How did this make you shine like Jesus?

3. In the Gospel story, because the Father was so pleased with his Son, he affirmed him publicly. How do you know when the Father is pleased with you?

Question for the Journey:

Name one area of your life that you would like Jesus to transfigure. What will you do this week to expose it to Jesus' healing light?

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Hello, I’m Franciscan Father Greg Friedman, and this is the "Sunday Soundbite" for the Second Sunday of Lent.

One of the most dramatic scenes in Catholic liturgy comes at the Easter Vigil when adults are baptized, come up out of the water, dripping wet, and after leaving to change re-enter the church in their white baptismal robes.

Now, in my parish, the baptismal moment at the Easter Vigil is a lot less dramatic, but I always like to look at the faces of the newly baptized. There's always a special glow seemingly inside as well as out as these new Christians experience the transformation that comes to them.

Only later, I suspect, do they begin to realize all the implications of that change. Perhaps that's why our liturgy gives us today's first reading, the story of the call of Abraham, to leave his homeland and his family, and set out for a promised land. Abraham's response transformed his whole life. He began a long journey perhaps leading him at times to wonder if he was on the right path.

In Baptism we, too, say yes to God, a choice that transforms our lives, setting us on a journey of faith that continues to this day. As we "journey" through this Lent, let’s recall our baptismal commitment and let it reflect in our words and deeds and even in our faces at times.

Scripture:

•“…All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you.” (Genesis 12:3b)

•Our soul waits for the LORD, who is our help and our shield. (Psalm 33:20)

•…through the appearance of our savior Christ Jesus, who destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. (2 Timothy 1:10)

•…Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them; (Matthew 17:1,2)

•…they saw no one else but Jesus alone. (Matthew 17:8b)

Reflection:

•Why does Jesus bring the disciples to the mountaintop to see Him transformed?

•What is the disciples’ experience of Jesus before and after the transfiguration?

•How does the transfiguration prefigure the crucifixion of Jesus?

•How do you experience Jesus in the transfiguration?

Christ’s humility, which is love, brought him to descend toward the lowly, not because the lowly had some special value, but to look for the one who was lost in order to help raise himself up. Let us therefore avoid indulging ourselves with dreams of grandeur, but rather enter willingly into humble thoughts. The Holy Spirit brings us to understand all these things, and this can break the chains that bind us. The spirit is freedom, and we are still held captive by many bonds that freeze in us the spontaneity of the gift of love. We ask Our Lord to free us a little more from all forms of slavery, so that the gift of ourselves, the gift of love for God and for others, may, according to Christ and his example, develop in us more freely, more spontaneously, and more generously.

First Sunday of Lent (A)

Gn 2:7-9; 3:1-7
Ps 51:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 17
Rm 5:12-19 or 5:12, 17-19
Mt 4:1-11

How do you deal with temptation? That's the personal challenge given to us by the Word of God on the first Sunday of Lent. And so we begin our journey with Jesus, traveling to the holiest place we can reach at this point in our lives.

This Lent is like no other Lent. Last year, you had different needs, different areas of growth, different levels of insight and understanding. Much has happened since then, and all of it is a preparation for what the Lord is going to do in your life now.

What victory do you need this year? What needs to be resurrected? To get there, your path will lead through the cross, into the tomb, and out into God's light where his love provides healing and new life.

During Lent – and every time we make sacrifices and connect our sufferings to the Passion of Christ – we follow Jesus to the cross and to resurrection. This requires accepting and embracing our own crosses, for the Calvary Road is the only way to reach the victorious new life that we yearn to experience.

If we want Easter to be more than just a holiday of pretty eggs, chocolate bunnies and big dinners, we have to make Lent more than just 40 days of enduring an annoying, obligatory sacrifice, eating meatless pizza on Fridays, and going to an occasional extra event at church. If we want to experience the power of resurrection, we have to experience the power of mourning and repenting from our sinfulness. In other words, we have to experience the powerlessness of death – the death of our selfishness, the death of our worldliness, the death of our behaviors that are not Christ-like.

Reflect & Discuss:

1. In the story from Genesis, what did Adam and Eve need to die to (let go of, put aside, reject) in order to resist the Original Sin? Why didn't they?

2. In the reading from Romans, we hear about the abundant grace and the gift of justification that Jesus provided to each of us when he died on the cross. How does this grace and justification give us life? In other words, how does God help us to resist sin?

3. Looking at the Gospel passage, what did Jesus have to die to in the desert so that he could say no to temptation?

Question for the Journey:

Name one thing you can do this week to die to self. How does that make it easier to resist sin? For example, think of good deed you can do that's the opposite of what your selfishness wants you to do.

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Do you recall comedian Flip Wilson's famous phrase: "The devil made me do it!"? That line hits home because human beings often make excuses when we give in to temptation. But in reality, no one "makes" us sin we choose it, just as we freely choose to do good.

Today's Scriptures present Adam and Eve, faced with a choice for good or evil: They choose to reject God and give in to the temptation to "be like God"—in the words of the serpent-tempter.

Another temptation scene comes in the Gospel. This time, Jesus, facing the choice to accomplish his ministry in selfish, power-hungry ways, rejects the temptation and affirms his true identity as God's Son.

Our Christian identity is a choice we affirmed (or which was affirmed for us) at our Baptism. But we must re-affirm that choice again and again in the face of temptation.

It's fitting that the temptation scene in the Gospel is set in the desert. In the Bible, the desert is often a place of testing, of choices. The season of Lent is like a "spiritual desert" where we hope to rediscover our identification with Christ, leading to a renewal of Baptism at Easter. Let our choices this Lent be directed by the example of Jesus in the face of temptation.

Scripture:

•But the serpent said to the woman: “You certainly will not die! No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is evil.” (Genesis 3:4b,5)

•For if by that one person’s transgression the many died, how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one person Jesus Christ overflow for the many. (Romans 5:15)

•Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry. The tempter approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God…” (Matthew 4:1-3a)

Reflection:

•How are you tempted?

•The seven deadly sins are pride, envy, anger, sloth, avarice (greed), gluttony and lust. Is anyone injured by these “deadly sins?”

•How are these sins different from the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes?

•Do these sins deaden the spirit to receive the gifts of God’s love?

For each person the movement away from the threat of enslavement to the capital sins will involve growth in some basic virtues: humility that recognizes God as the basic healer; patience with one’s own gradual but steady journey towards holiness; and compassion for the weakness of others. Although the complex reality that is sin cannot easily be fit into seven specific categories, the survival of capital sins as a spiritual theme points to the presence of patterns of evil that threaten to dissipate life in any age.

Lent- 2008

Today was the celebration of Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent - the next 40 days will be our test as Christians to accept what has come to pass and to transcend all that God
has put on us.

God did not take David away to test our faith, our strength, our love. He took David away because it was his time. Our time will come too, maybe not today or tomorrow, but it will come. Our test now is acceptance, not to question but to give in and to grow in our faith and our love.

It will be hard as we go through this period of Lent without David, it was hard when we went through Christmas and the New Year and it will be hard when Easter comes but acceptance is something we have to pray for.

I thank God for the blessing of David in our lives, though brief, I thank God for the memories and the countless blessings we will receive through our brother's ministering.

Thank you God for the gift of David.

God bless and have a blessed Lenten season all.

Ash Wednesday

Today's Readings:

Joel 2:12-18
Ps 51:3-6, 12-14, 17
2 Cor 5:20 -- 6:2
Matt 6:1-6, 16-18
http://www.usccb.org/nab/020608.shtml

How healing will your Lent be this year?

What victory do you need? What needs to be resurrected?

For Easter to be more than just a day of colored eggs, chocolates and big dinners, Lent needs to be more than just 40 days of obligatory sacri-fices like meatless pizza on Fridays. To experience the power of resurrection, we have to experience the power of mourning and repentance. We have to experience the powerlessness of death: the death of our selfishness, the death of our worldliness, the death of our behaviors that are not Christ-like.

In today's first reading, God beckons: "Return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning." Fasting is powerful only if it improves our self-discipline so that we can resist sin and grow in holiness. We're hypocrites, like Jesus describes in the Gospel reading, if fasting produces no inner changes.

What are you doing for Lent that will promote your spiritual growth? Here's a suggestion: Identify one fault — just one — and choose an activity or an abstinence for the duration of Lent that will help you overcome it.

God is beckoning: "Return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning."

Both the reading from Joel and Psalm 51 remind us that God is merciful toward those who recognize their sinfulness and regret it so much that they're truly motivated to change. Dealing with our need to change can feel overwhelming and shameful, but if we keep our eyes on God's mercy, we feel helped, healed, and resurrected.

By identifying and working on just one sinful tendency (especially one that's been difficult to overcome), choosing one selfish behavior or one fear or one flaw or one unloving habit as our Lenten project, we can give it to Jesus, nail it to his cross, and hear him offer it up to God as he cries out, "Father forgive them ....!" It will die with Jesus, and we'll be resurrected to a new life, a new level of holiness with Jesus.

Today as we receive and wear our ashes, let us do it fully awake and aware of our sinfulness, with the goal of overcoming a significant sin by Easter. Why do we keep the black smudges on our foreheads all day? Not to win the approval or acceptance or admiration of others. It's a sign that we know we need to change! But if we have even a tiny bit of a desire to be noticed, we should do as Jesus said: "When you fast, see to it that you ... wash your face" so that no one but God will know what you are doing.

Wishing everyone a blessed and fruitful season of Lent. May we journey this season sincerely so as to celebrate the glorious resurrection of Jesus with much joy in the coming Easter!

My Hero, My Brother

Good evening all,

Today is 2 months since that dreadful day when David collapsed in Bangkok....time is going so slowly and the pain has not eased. Since that day we have heard countless good things about my dearest brother and it has calmed the tempest in my heart somewhat but it still feels as if my
broken heart will never heal.

I would like to share a story that has helped me to marvel at this man who has touched so many people and still continue to do so daily...

I visited my brother's grave a couple of weeks ago with a dear friend of mind and we shared our quiet reflection at her mother's grave and then David's grave, as we were leaving CCK, we chanced upon someone who was reading the papers under a tree and she said that this man was someone I should meet.

We approached him and we were introduced and I explained to him that I needed to have my brother's tombstone constructed in a couple of months time. He has his own company and he constructed my friend's mother's beautiful tombstone. As we were talking he asked me who my brother was and I told him Fr David and he said he knew him! It was so amazing....he said this priest was so nice and he was the one they always called when they needed a priest to say the funeral rites at the grave and he would never say no. He was also at my brother's funeral and he said he had never seen so many people attend a funeral at the cemetery before. Needless to say, we will be using him to construct David's tombstone....

I really don't know how long this pain will cease to be and today my little one James asked me why God was so cruel to take Uncle David away...I have asked myself that too sometimes but then my faith in our Lord brings me back to what's real and inevitable, I answered my son in a way that I have had so many people tell me..God needed him more than we did and we had to let him go.

Rest in peace dear David and ease this pain in our hearts.

Love always,
Dad, Mummy, Michael, Robert and Christine