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Saturday of the Second Sunday of Lent (3/22)
Sisters and brothers in Christ, in today's Gospel, we hear the familiar story of the prodigal son. At the core of this parable is the love of the Father who allowed the youngest son (of his own freewill) to turn his back on him and live a life that He did not want his son to live. . . "[the son] hired himself out to one of the local citizens who sent him to his farm to tend the swine. And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any."
Our Father in heaven gives us freewill to choose to come and follow him or turn our back on Him. Throughout our lives, we have many opportunities to turn away from a life of sin and temptations and return to our Father, through his Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, by the grace of the Holy Spirit. However, like the prodigal son, it is up to us to come to our sense and return to our Father in heaven who wants to give us the best of everything.
This Lent, through our practice of the Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving give us the wisdom and courage to come to our senses and turn way from the path that we are on if it is leading us away from the love and mercy of our heavenly Father.
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Friday of the Second Sunday of Lent (3/21)
Sisters and brothers in Christ, our Lord and Savior entrusted to us, among other things, the deposit of faith and calls us to bear fruit in spreading the Good News to the ends of the earth. Our mission of evangelization starts at home with our families, the domestic churches.
Even in the busyness of life, as parents we have to find a way to get our children to Sunday Mass. I know of a father whose son had a baseball tournament an hour away from home. Although he had work, etc., he made the 1-hour drive so that he can take his son to Sunday Mass. The father prioritized God and Church and so taught his son to put God first, even in the busyness of life.
This Lent, may our practice of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving help us to prioritize God first in our lives, and so give Him praise and honor. When we do, our children will do the same, and our labor in God’s vineyard will bear much fruit.
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Thursday of the Second Sunday of Lent (3/20)
Sisters and brothers in Christ, the first reading, from the Prophet Jeremiah, gives us a beautiful image of what life can be like for us if we have a robust prayer life and spirituality that are rooted in faith in Father, hope and trust in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and animated by love that comes from the Holy Spirit.
"Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose hope is the LORD.
He is like a tree planted beside the waters
that stretches out its roots to the stream:
It fears not the heat when it comes,
its leaves stay green;
In the year of drought it shows no distress,
but still bears fruit."
We see this in the story of the rich man and Lazarus in the Gospel reading. The rich man "seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the LORD." In death, he is far from God as in life. On the other hand, Lazarus trusted in God even though he had nothing in life. In death, he is in the presence of God whom he loved in life.
As we continue our journey this Lent, may the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, help us build a robust prayer life and spirituality that will help us grow closer to God in this life and in eternal life.
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Wednesday of the Second Sunday of Lent (3/19)
Sisters and brothers in Christ, today is the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
On this Solemnity, Holy Mother Church gives us two Gospel readings to reflect on the life of Saint Joseph. The first Gospel option is the Annunciation of Saint Joseph in which the Angel Gabriel appeared to him in a dream and told him to take Mary, who was pregnant with baby Jesus through the Holy Spirit. In obedience to the Father, he abandoned all his plans to become the foster father of Jesus and protector and provider for Jesus and Mary.
“Why was St. Matthew so keen to note Joseph’s trust in the words received from the messenger of God, if not to invite us to imitate this same loving trust?” (Pope Benedict XVI).
In the second Gospel option, we see Saint Joseph's quiet strength after he and Mary realized that the child Jesus was not part of the caravan returning home. Saint Joseph did not panic nor did he get upset. He looked for Jesus with Mary, consoled and comforted her, and then, when they found Jesus, he led them back home.
Saint Joseph was a man of few words but his actions spoke volumes. He loved Jesus and Mary and dedicated his life to being an example of holiness for Jesus, who "went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them."
“If St. Joseph was so engaged, heart and soul, in protecting and providing for that little family in Nazareth, don’t you think that now in Heaven, he is the same loving guardian of the whole Church, of all of its members, as he was of its head on earth?” (Venerable Pope Pius XII).
St. Joseph, pray for us.
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Tuesday of the Second Sunday of Lent (3/18)
Sisters and brothers in Christ, we have many opportunities in our lifetime to turn away from Satan and the path that leads to sin and temptation and death and turn to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that leads to eternal Life.
Jesus gave this chance to Judas Iscariot, in today's Gospel:
Jesus answered,
"It is the one to whom I hand the morsel after I have dipped it."
So he dipped the morsel and took it and handed it to Judas,
son of Simon the Iscariot.
After Judas took the morsel, Satan entered him.
Judas had many opportunities to turn away from the path of sin and temptations but, the moment he took the morsel from Jesus, he committed to betraying Jesus and Satan entered him.
And so, Jesus asks us the same question that he asked Simon Peter: "Will you lay down your life for me?" Are we willing to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily, and come and follow our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? As we continue on this Lenten journey, let us ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen us against the lures and snares of the Devil through the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving lest we become like Judas and betray God’s love for us.
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Second Sunday of Lent (3/16)
Sisters and brothers in Christ, in today's Gospel, Jesus is transfigured - "his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white" - before Peter, John, and James. Moses, who represented the law, and Elijah, who represented the prophets, were with him.
Jesus is the fulfillment of the law and prophets, and he spoke to Moses and Elijah of the "exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem." Unlike the exodus that Moses led to free the people of slavery to Pharaoh, leading them to the Promise Land, the exodus that Jesus leads is from slavery to sin and temptations and leading us to eternal life in heaven.
When we come to Mass to pray and receive the Eucharist, we get a foretaste of the heavenly banquet that God has prepared for us. Jesus gives us his Body and Blood as true food and true drink and, in doing so, revealed to us his glory, in the same way that he reveled to Peter, John, and James his glory at the Transfiguration. For our part, we must be like the apostles, who "had been overcome by sleep, but becoming fully awake," we too must awaken from our own slumber and be transformed by God's glory revealed in the Eucharist.
The Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are meant to prepare our hearts for the glory of God in Jesus' glorious Resurrection, which we celebrate at Easter. May our practice of the Lenten disciplines awaken us from our slumber, open our hearts to receive our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, and so he can break our bounds of slavery to sin and temptations and be freed to love God and love others.
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