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Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent (4/5/2025)
Sisters and brothers in Christ, in the first reading, we hear how the Prophet Jeremiah "entrusted [his] cause" to the Lord completely because our Lord and God is a "just Judge, searcher of mind and heart." How about us? Do we entrust our cause to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, trusting in him completely with our lives, our very being?
This certainly can be a challenge for us because we do not want to lose control of our lives. We are not ready to say to Jesus: "Jesus, take the wheel" (like in the Carrie Underwood song). There is a deeper spiritual question for us here. Do we trust in God? Do we trust that Jesus is who he says he is, the Son God and the Son of Man? "C.S. Lewis rightly observed: Jesus is either liar, lunatic, or Lord "(https://www.wordonfire.org/articles/barron/what-precisely-is-the-gospel/).
We hear in today's Gospel that the chief priests and Pharisees did not trust Jesus. They did not believe that he is the Christ, and they sought to convince others of the same, saying, "Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?" Trust entails a personal relationship and, so for us, as we continue with our Lenten journey, as we pray, fast, and give alms, let us pray for the gift of faith to trust in God and believe in Jesus Christ our Lord. It is as Jesus said, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me" (John 14:1).
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Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent (4/4/2025)
Sisters and brothers in Christ, in his homily on today's Gospel, Fr. Doug reflected that nothing happened to our Lord Jesus Christ that he did not allow to happen to him. For instance, "they tried to arrest him, but no one laid a hand upon him, because his hour had not yet come." They were able to arrest him in the Garden because he allowed it to happen. They were able to nail him to the Cross because he allowed it to happen.
Jesus endured his Passion out of obedience to his Father (Philippians 2:8). His Father allowed his Son die on the Cross out of love for us (John 3:16). For these reasons, our path to salvation is through the Cross of Christ who, as he hung of the Cross, as the Father to forgive us, gives his Mother Mary to us as our Mother, and his Blood and water came forth from his side to purify us.
As we move ever closer to Holy Week and Jesus' Passion, may our continued practice of the Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving give us the courage to follow God's will for us in our lives, even if it means temporal suffering. May we walk the way of the Cross with Christ in faith, not fear, because our salvation awaits us at the end of our journey.
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Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent (4/3/2025)
Sisters and brothers in Christ, for a year and a half, I helped Fr. Charlie lead the Knights of Columbus Council with our Cor meetings on the "Into the Breach" series, which is based on an Apostolic Exhortation written by Bishop Olmsted (Diocese of Phoenix). Essentially, Bishop Olmsted called men to have courage and conviction of faith to go into the breach to stand up for the family and be the men, husbands, fathers, and models of authentic masculinity that God has called them to be.
In today's first reading, we hear that Moses went into the breach on behalf of the people of God "to turn back His destructive wrath." The Israelites had "become depraved. . . making for themselves a molten calf and worshiping it," and so God threatened that his wrath "blaze up against them to consume them." Our Jesus Christ also stood in the breach for us on the Cross and said to God, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).
We are indeed "stiff-necked" people. Thankfully, we have powerful intercessors in heaven and prayerful ones on earth to stand in the breach for us. At the same time, our Lord Jesus Christ calls us to conversion every day, to turn away from our destructive path and return to God. As we continue with our Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, let us give praise to God for relenting in His wrath (as justify as He is), give thanks to our Lord Jesus Christ for interceding for us, and ask for the courage to go into the breach for our loved ones. Jesus, I trust in you.
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Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent (4/2/2025)
Sisters and brothers in Christ, as Fr. Doug reflected this morning in his homily, today's Gospel is a reminder to us that it was God who prayed for us in the garden of Gethsemane. It was God who was betrayed by His own people. It was God who was scourged that the pillar. It was God who reserved the crown of thorns on His head. It was God who carried the Cross to Calvary. It was God who was nailed to the Cross. It was God who died on the Cross. It was the Blood of God that was spilled on the Cross for our salvation because He loves us.
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the Way to the Father. He is the Word of God sent to speak the Truth of God to us. Jesus is the path to abundant Life, here and now and in eternal life. Jesus teaches us prayer, humility, and obedience to our Father in heaven. From Saint Paul's Letter to the Philippians (2:6-8):
"[Jesus], though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross."
As we continue on our Lenten journey, may our practice of the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving help us to believe even more deeply what we profess at Mass - "I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father." - as we move ever closer to Holy Week and the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent (4/1/2025)
Sisters and brothers in Christ, in today’s Gospel, we hear the story of a man who has been ill for 38 years. He tries to get into the pool of Bethesda when the water is stirred up but others always beat him to it. However, he never lost faith or hope and kept trying and trying every day for 38 years.
From the man, we learn the power of perseverance in faith when our hope is in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, especially in our prayer and spiritual life. God will answer our prayers but on His time and according to His divine will, not ours. This is hard for us to accept and it oftentimes leads us to say to God: " If you're not going to hear my prayers and answer me, then I am not going to listen to you anymore." And so we turn our backs on God.
We can learn from the man with the illness for 38 years. He never lost faith. He never lost hope. Which means that, he has a deep love for God and trust in Him. His prayer was answered because Jesus came and asked him, "Do you want to be well?" As we continue through Lent with our practice of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, let us ask God for the strength and devotion to persevere in faith, never lose hope, and love God above all.
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Homily for Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent (Year C - 3/31/2025), preached at the 6:30 Daily Mass:
Good morning. In the Letter to the Hebrews, we get this insight into what faith is. The author writes: “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen. . .” And, then, the author gives examples of people who responded in faith: “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; he went out, not knowing where he was to go. . . By faith Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was ready to offer his only son. . . By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; he chose to be ill-treated along with the people of God rather than enjoy the fleeting pleasure of sin.” (Hebrews 11:1, 14, 17, 24-25).
In today’s Gospel, we witness the faith of “the royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, who was near death. Jesus said to him, ‘You may go; your son will live.’” By faith, the royal official “believed what Jesus said to him and left.” Jesus healed his son and, as a result, not only did he believe but “his whole household came to believe.” He had faith the size of a mustard seed that could move a mountain (Matthew 17:20). The question for us is, how is our faith? When we pray “Jesus, I trust in you,” do we truly believe that we can trust God with all our heart, mind, and soul? Or how about this prayer: “O Jesus, I surrender myself to You, take care of everything!”? The royal official certainly surrendered himself to our Lord Jesus Christ and trusted that Jesus would take care of his son.
What about us? How is our faith? Do we trust that God desires what is best for us in our lives? This is what the Lord God said, in today’s first reading from the Prophet Isaiah: “The things of the past shall not be remembered or come to mind. Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happiness. . .” God does not want us to dwell on our past hurts and wounds and be bound by them. Rather, He desires that we turn to Him in faith so that He can pour His grace into our hearts and help us overcome the challenges and difficulties in our lives. He wants to wipe away our tears and heal us of our afflictions because he created us to be a joy and a delight. And so, as we continue with our practice of the Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving but, more importantly, as we approach the Altar of the Lord and receive Him in the Most Holy Eucharist, let us beg God for the gift of faith so that we can believe in Jesus as the royal official believed in him. God is trustworthy and He is certainly worthy of our faith, belief, and trust.
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Below is my homily for Fourth Sunday of Lent (Year C - 3/30/2025), preached at the 12:00:
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