The Efficacious Desert Experience, First Sunday of Lent–Year B

My Sisters and Brothers:

     On this First Sunday of Lent, we hear in the Gospel the story of Jesus’ journey into the desert.  It tells us that immediately after his baptism, “the Spirit drove him out into the desert” (see Mark 1:9-15).  It’s interesting to note that Jesus embraced this “desert experience” so very soon after that exceptional meeting with John the Baptist at the Jordan River, but before the beginning of his public ministry.  The same Spirit who had just “descended upon Jesus like a dove” then took him to that barren place where he was able to spend time in preparation for the things to come.  There, he had time for prayer and fasting, and he was even subjected to the temptations of the evil one.

  We believe the forty days Jesus spent in the desert, and what he endured there, serve as a model for us, and as a reminder of our own need for times of renewal and preparation (like this season of Lent that has begun for us anew).  I believe we can only fully understand the significance of Jesus’ desert experience, and its meaning for us, from the perspective of its correlation to his baptism by St. John, and to the eventual beginning of his outreach and ministry to others.  We could say that everything changed for Jesus after he received his baptism . . . and even though he was the Son of God and could do marvelous things, it was not always “easy” for him.  He, like us, had to suffer the temptations of the world and had to pass through challenging periods in order to achieve what he was called to do.

     The fact that Jesus faced temptations in the desert immediately after his baptism is a sign for us of the challenges, and even the struggles, that we too will have as committed, baptized people of faith.  When we accept our responsibilities as baptized Christians, then we will also at times have to pass through “the desert.”  As we begin this season of Lent, we unite ourselves to Jesus in a special way, and we begin our own kind of symbolic and spiritual forty days in the desert.

     We are asked during these days to reflect more deeply upon the significance of our own baptisms; we are asked to practice our faith more devoutly, to pray more fervently, to do penance, and to do works of charity.  During Lent we may face the temptation to reject the opportunity we have for spiritual renewal (and if we do so, then we will surely miss this opportunity we now have to strengthen our faith).

     Our Gospel today tells us that once Jesus completed his time in the desert, that he began to proclaim to all who heard him that “the time of fulfillment had arrived . . . and the Kingdom of God was at hand . . . ,” and the people were admonished “to repent, and to believe in the gospel.”  His message is as vital for us today as it was for those people who lived in Palestine two-thousand years ago!

     May this season of Lent be a time of renewal for those of us who have professed faith in the Lord Jesus and who have been baptized!  During these days, may we be truly renewed again as we strive, like Jesus, to be who and what we are called to be, and as we hope to respond faithfully to our common calling as sons and daughters of our loving Father in heaven!

     My friends, as we look forward to the fulfillment of our own baptisms, and as we anticipate the joy of Easter, may we have a good and holy Lent.  May this holy season, this “desert experience,” be efficacious for each one of us!

Praise God!  Friar Timothy

 

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Jesus and the "Untouchable" Man with Leprosy, the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time–Year B

My Sisters and Brothers:

     In today’s Scripture readings from the Old Testament book of Leviticus (see chapter 13:1-2, 44-46), and from the Gospel of Mark (see chapter 1:40-45), we hear something about the terrible disease of leprosy.  Throughout all of history, most people with leprosy have been nearly completely rejected by their families and their communities, and they’ve been made to live totally apart from everyone.  It’s been thought such people were severely unclean, and they’ve been considered so afflicted because of some type of sinfulness.  People with leprosy have almost always been treated as complete outcasts and this was certainly true in the time of Jesus.

     However, in today’s Gospel we see that Jesus had great compassion for those with leprosy, and that he accepted them with care and love, and that he cured them.  I believe his compassion for people with leprosy was a kind of paradigm for the way in which he treated all of the “needy people” he encountered.  This was especially true for him and regarding those who might have been classified in some way or another as “sinful and stricken.”  Jesus reached out to the sinners, to the sick, to the unfortunate, and to the poor, and he affirmed their human dignity.  Jesus made it clear to others that such people were to be treated as equals within both spiritual and secular communities.

     In the Gospel, Jesus was moved with great pity when the man with leprosy asked him for a cure.  Not only did he cure the man, but in doing so he also reached out and touched him.  – He touched him. –   This part of the story is very significant for us who are Christians.  Jesus could have just made the decision to cure the man, and the healing could have been done without any physical contact.  Let’s remember again that in those days, people who had leprosy were considered to be extremely unclean, impure, and certainly “untouchable.”  The commonly held belief was that if someone touched an impure person, then they themselves would have become defiled as well.  In the Gospel, Jesus actually reached out and touched the man, and he made demonstrable physical contact with someone who was considered to be “untouchable.”  The people who saw this action were surely shocked, amazed, and perhaps even scandalized.

     Why did the Son of God and the Lord of the Universe do this?  I believe it was because he wanted to show others, and to prove without a doubt by his own actions, that our God has unconditional love for each and every one of his children.  For our God, there are no “untouchable people!”

     Reflecting upon this, the questions we might ask ourselves are as follows: “Do we believe that Jesus reaches out to us with love, and that he desires to heal us of our own sins, sicknesses and pains?”  And “are we ourselves able to love, and to reach out to people in our communities, those who might be considered to be unclean, impure and/or untouchable?”

     I hope that each one of us may follow the example of Jesus, and that we can reach out and metaphorically “touch others” who are in most need of our forgiveness, our compassion, our love and our concern.  Let’s each do this with the unconditional love of God, a love with no limits!

Praise God!  Friar Timothy

 

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Moving Beyond Drudgery, Difficulties and Fears, the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time–Year B

My Sisters and Brothers:

      In our first reading today we hear Job say “is not a person’s life on earth a drudgery?” and “my days . . . come to an end without hope” (see Job 7:1-4, 6-7).  He had been a man of wealth and stature, and he had lost it all, including his family, and then he had succumbed to a terrible skin disease.  For this reason, it’s possible that others would have thought that he had leprosy, and this would have made him an outcast and an untouchable.  All the wealth and stature in the world could not buy a respectable place in society for a person with leprosy.  We might certainly understand why he had been tempted to come to such dreadful conclusions.  However, and in spite of all of his difficulties, Job eventually comes to terms with his lot in life.  He recovers his trust in God and actually is strengthened by his experience of loss and suffering.

     It’s interesting that in our Gospel today Simon's mother-in-law is also presented as one who had been nearly ruined because of misfortune and sickness.  Jesus, who had caught the attention of the people in Capernaum because of his preaching and many healing acts, goes to her and heals her.  The Gospel tells us that once she is cured, she gets right up in order to show hospitality to those who had gathered in her house (see Mark 1:29-39).  Perhaps, like Job, she realized the things that really mattered in life were not the difficulties or demands placed on a person, but rather in giving thanks and praise to God in all things.

     How do we do that?  Are we like Job who at first lamented his very existence and then claimed that all his days would come to an end without hope?  Do we say with him that life is nothing but a drudgery?  I can think of many modern reasons why we may be tempted to despair like Job: most obvious at this moment in history is our experience during this pandemic; also there is violence in our world and even on our own streets; our young people are becoming addicted to drugs and to other terrible habits; we must lock our doors behind multiple locks and we still do not feel safe in our own homes; we turn on the television and are bombarded with messages that we really do not want to hear; we walk down the street and we hear small children using vulgar language that we would never dream of using ourselves . . . and the list goes on!  And all of this can tend to make us think that our world is falling apart right before our eyes, and that there is nothing that we can do about it.  So we might be tempted to despair!

     Like Job, and like the mother-in-law of Simon, let us instead move beyond our difficulties and our fears, and may we then come to a knowledge and understanding of God’s power over all things.  As Christians, we believe that Jesus is the Lord of the Universe and that he has authority and dominion over all things.  Let us believe this with all of our minds and hearts.  Through faith, we can conclude, as eventually Job was able to do, that somehow even the difficulties of this life can somehow make us aware of the great presence of God in all things.

     Our faith allows our weakness to give us strength!  It is actually through the trials and challenges of our lives that we are able to grow.  Let us encourage one another with the message of our faith!

Praise God!  Friar Timothy

 

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We've Always Done It That Way, the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time–Year B

My Sisters and Brothers:

     Today’s Gospel tells us that “the people were astonished at Jesus’ teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes of old.”  It also tells us that “the people were amazed and asked one another, what is this, a new teaching?” (See Mark 1:21-28).

     The questions that comes to my mind this week as I reflect on the Scripture readings is: What was this “new teaching,” and what did it truly mean for the disciples of Jesus “to acknowledge the authority of Jesus over all aspects of their lives?”  It seems to me the message and authority of Jesus was not only meant to be “new” in the first century in that small synagogue in that remote little town of Capernaum, but that it must somehow be “renewed” even in our own time and place.  Isn’t it true, that without constant renewal, we can easily become complacent about our values, about our ways of living, about our obligations towards others, and even about our faith?

     Perhaps such was the situation with those “spiritual people” whom Jesus encountered in that synagogue in Capernuam. There is no doubt in my mind that the message and ministry of Jesus was absolutely radical for those people and in that time and place.  In today’s Gospel, Jesus speaks with authority, and then he reaches out to the “possessed man” (i.e., a person in great need), and he brings him back to wholeness and health!  In saying what he said, and in doing what he did, Jesus “broke the rules” and no doubt started a movement that truly could only be understood as a “religious revolution.”

     This fresh new message, and this new way of doing things, especially his radical approach to serving the needy, characterized the entire life and ministry of Jesus.  He constantly preached the Good News of God’s Kingdom for those who needed to hear the message the most, and he always and in many ways, responded to the needs of the poor, the sick, the sinners, “the possessed,” and the outcasts.

     As we reflect on today’s Gospel, might we also consider moving away from any complacency that we have acquired over the years, and might we as well attempt to renew even our contemporary approach to the radical teaching and example of Jesus Christ?   The scribes who are mentioned in our Gospel today were probably fond of saying things like “we have always done it that way, and there is no need to change.”  Unlike those who say such things, even those among us today, may we be like those people in Capernaum who recognized the authority of Jesus, who were astonished and amazed by his teaching, and who then embraced the new way of life he offered to them.

     In our desire to be obedient to the message and ministry of Jesus, may we never become complacent!  As good Catholic Christians, and as we continually strive to be authentically renewed in our faith, may we always enthusiastically serve others, especially those who are most in need!

Praise God!  Friar Timothy

 

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