February 2018

II Sunday of Lent (“B”) – February 25, 2018

Frackville, From the Pastor /

The voice figures prominently in today’s reading. In the first reading, the voice of God seems to be asking if not the impossible, then the inhuman. Isaac – was the child God promised so that Abraham could become the founding father of “a great nation.” With relief, we discover that in fact the point of the story is the very opposite to what it appears to be on the surface: whereas human sacrifice was commonplace in the ancient Near East, what is revealed is that God does not want human sacrifice. The voice of God takes center stage at the transfiguration that Jesus’ identity as God’s own beloved Son – a truth that literally makes Jesus glow. As Jesus descends the mountain, He starts to help His disciples to understand the meaning of His sonship: that He will be faithful and obedient to His Father, even to the point of having to give up His life.

As Christians, we believe that the transfiguration is not merely a past event but an ongoing reality. God’s voice continues to be at work in our world today, and in our lives. We need to learn how to listen and perceive at more than just a superficial level. That takes time and practice and commitment. When we do listen in prayer – when we are able to step outside our own expectations and preconceptions and focus – we find that God’s voice continues to be creative and transformative. By making time each day quietly to open ourselves to the presence of God, we make room for God to affirm our dignity as God’s beloved sons and daughters. Being children of the loving Father is something that shines out from our lives – because we have learn to listen to the voice.

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I Sunday of Lent (“B”) – February 18, 2018

Frackville, From the Pastor /

St. Mark begins his Gospel with a flurry of witnesses to the truth of Jesus and His mission among us. In his account there are no details of the individual temptations Jesus undergoes. There is a sense of urgency and power. The Spirit, who has descended on Him in the form of a dove at His baptism, immediately drives Him into the wilderness. This desert is not just a place of individual testing. It is where the battle takes place between the powers of good and evil. Throughout His public life of preaching and healing, Jesus will appear as a strong and active person, very much in charge of His destiny. As He begins His public career, we gain a hint of this possibility, as He begins His proclamation at the very point His precursor John, another witness, has been arrested. Jesus now becomes his own witness. The time has come for all the prophecies to be fulfilled.

We live out the battle between good and evil against the wider landscape of our world and society. We also fight the same battle within ourselves. In solitude we learn to identify the true sources of evil both in ourselves and in our world. As we become more significant we become more free to focus directly on what needs changing, again either in ourselves or in our outer world. The journey into the wilderness with its experience of solitude begins our Lenten journey. It equips us to repent and believe the Good News and to proclaim the kingdom of God in our own lives. Fasting, almsgiving and prayer are the three practices we are advised to use as we attempt this mixture of purification and growth in ourselves. They are not ends in themselves but the means whereby we become more open to the life of the Spirit working in and through us.

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Quinquagesima Sunday (“B”) – February 11, 2018

Frackville, From the Pastor /

In last Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus was surrounded by disciples and healed many sick people. When He tried to find space on His own, Jesus’ disciples tracked Him down. As today’s passage opens, Jesus is alone, in an unidentified town. Under the law, a leper was forbidden to approach anyone, but this one approaches Jesus. Perhaps he thinks he has nothing to lose: he’s already as good as dead. Hoe comes up to Jesus, drops to his knees and says, “If you want to, cure me.” St. Mark says Jesus felt sorry for him. Many things happen in this story. First, the man to be declared free from leprosy, tells him to go and show himself to the priest, making the offering prescribed by Moses as evidence of his recovery. Jesus tells this man to say nothing about this to anyone, but jest as the visible testimony of his cure was evident so now is his verbal acknowledgment of Jesus’ power testimony of God’s work. Jesus, however, now has to stay outside the town, where there are no others. The one who cleansed the leper takes the place of the one he cleansed.

This miracle is about one person, but it has universal application. Jesus takes on the isolated condition of the former leper who is restored to fuller humanity. On the cross, full role reversal takes place. Jesus pays the penalty for all sin: He exchanges places with us by dying for us. We become more fully human by Jesus’ death because He has destroyed what makes us less human. Here’s the question this story poses for us: if the totally innocent Jesus took on the entire burden of our sin in His outreach to us, can we ever excuse failing to reach out to a brother or sister who is dehumanized by exclusion, persecution, marginalization? We can’t. Who are the equivalent of lepers in our community? How might we reach out to them?

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Sexagesima Sunday (“B”) – February 4, 2018

Frackville, From the Pastor /

Job, in today’s first reading, doesn’t seem able to pray with hope. He is feeling the misery of the world. He is pessimistic about life. And when we turn to the Gospel we see how the crowds who suffer like Job are drawn out of their despair by the healing touch of Jesus. Our Savior has announced the kingdom of healing sick people and casting out devils from those who are possessed. He has come to preach a message of hope to a suffering world. Much of St. Mark’s Gospel is taken up with Jesus’ miracles of healing because this is what a wounded world demands. But Jesus does not want to be seen just as a wonder-worker. His healing goes deeper. He forgives sin and heals spiritual sickness.

In a society which highly values those who are young, healthy and rich, the acknowledgment of sickness and even death is not always welcome. The Bible tells us that we are mortal and gives us permission to lament our suffering just as Job did. Jesus confronts the misery of the world head-on. He makes the healing of sick people central to His ministry. Optimism is a feeling that things will get better, but Christian hope is rooted in a person who has triumphed over death. In the light of that hope we can pray to God for healing in many ways… And today we are fed with the bread of life in Holy Communion. But we are also healed, by care in our homes through the loving concern of our fellow Christians.

Sexagesima Sunday (“B”) – February 4, 2018 Read More »