March 2017

IV Sunday of Lent (“A”) – March 26, 2017

Frackville, From the Pastor /

In the ancient Jewish world, blindness was not just a physical ailment. In popular thought it carried a terrible stigma. This arose from a false interpretation of the Law of Moses, which stated that people who were blind or lame could not fight in the army of God’s people. There was good reason for this: soldiers who cannot move fast or see the enemy are not going to be much help to their comrades. However, an extreme interpretation of the rule concluded wrongly that anyone who could not fight in God’s army could never enter God’s kingdom. The next step was to class them as sinners, and that in turn led them being refused word and reduced to begging. Jesus denies that the man’s blindness was caused by anyone’s sin: on the contrary, this man will make God’s works visible. This passage is long and complicated, but we hear of a formerly blind man – notice how briefly the miracle itself is described: over and done with in a couple of sentences – who becomes increasingly full of life and who very soon teaches the Pharisees the ways of God. They become more obsessed about how a sinner could possibly open the eyes of a man born blind. They furiously insist that they are disciples of Moses.

There is another aspect to this light/darkness scenario, exemplified by the parents of the blind man. They’re asked if this is their son, if he was born blind and, if so, how he can now see. They reply “yes” to the first two questions, but refuse to comment on his new sight. “He is old enough: let him speak for himself,” they say, because they fear being expelled from the synagogue if they are perceived to be followers of Jesus. In the Gospels people either accept Jesus as the light, or they reject Him, remaining in darkness. There is no middle road. Later, Jesus will insist that there is only one sign for those who claim to be His disciples, who follow His light: they love one another in the same way that He loved us.

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III Sunday of Lent (“A”) – March 19, 2017

From the Pastor /

We don’t know her name, but the Samaritan woman in today’s Gospel has the longest conversation recorded between Jesus and any person. It was noon on a hot day. Jesus, tired from traveling, chose a rest stop – Jacob’s well, outside the town of Sychar – while waiting for His disciples to fetch food. The woman who joined Him at the well was an outcast, looked down upon by her own people. She came alone to draw water from the community well when, during biblical times, drawing water and chatting at the well was the social highpoint of many women’s day. But this woman was ostracized and marked as immoral woman living openly with the sixth in a series of men. Jews weren’t supposed to speak to Samaritans. Men weren’t permitted to address women without their husbands present. Jesus was willing to ignore the rules, but the woman reminded Him. She focused on the laws of respectable society; Jesus focused on grace. To this woman Jesus revealed that He was the Messiah, offering the living water. She forgot about her own need to fetch water, and ran to tell others about Jesus. She became a powerful evangelist.

The story of the woman at the well teaches us that God loves every one of us, especially those of us who feel ourselves undervalued and even worthless.

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I Sunday of Lent (“A”) – March 5, 2017

From the Pastor /

The story of the Fall, which we heard in today’s 1st reading, endlessly fascinates us because it is also the story of Everyman and Everywoman, of each one of us. We are like our first Adam and Eva, who chose to go against God and to be satisfied by eating fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The effects of sin bring about the downfall of others. The result are disastrous; the relationship with God is broken, their own relationship is damaged and they feel shame. They find it hard to look at each other, and will need to work for their living and experience the suffering of hard labor and toil. Remarkably God doesn’t not forget them and is abundant to them because God wants them to find a way back into God’s love. God is always planting new seeds in our hearts. The Lord forgives us when we return to Him in the sacrament of reconciliation and our hearts are cleansed.

Lent is about the expansion of the heart so that it becomes more loving and generous. First, prayer opens the heart and helps us to listen to God’s word. Second, the invitation to fast expands our hearts so that we become more aware of the ways that we so often focus on satisfying our own needs and desires rather than being willing to open our hearts to our neighbor. Fasting can make us more grateful for what we have received and more generous to others in their need. Third, we can develop our Lenten exercises by giving to others, especially through almsgiving and charitable works. By the end of Lent, with plenty of exercise, our spiritual heart will be in better shape and more ready to resist temptation and place its trust in God.

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