There’s a lot going on in today’s readings, lots of important details, but at this time of year it’s hard for me to not to just think about going fishing.
Today we celebrate the love Jesus has for you and me. A love that’s stronger than death. A love that enabled Jesus not just to accept, but to embrace the cross to save us.
Tonight we celebrate that Jesus Christ is truly risen from the dead. For nearly two thousand years, this belief has been proclaimed, defended, and celebrated by the Church – that after a cruel death by crucifixion with betrayal by those closest to Him, Jesus has been raised from the dead by the power of the eternal Father.
I’ve been thinking and praying about what to preach about this weekend for awhile now. Our Monday night bible study has been focused on the passion of Jesus, and I’ve been reading that book, it is called No Greater Love: A Biblical Walk Through Christ’s Passion by Dr. Edward Sri.
In our first reading today, we heard the prophet Isaiah speak the words of the Lord, “Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; see, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? In the desert I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers.”
I was at Mazzuchelli the other day talking to an eighth grade class and a young lady asked me this question, “do bad things happen to people as a punishment for their sins?” It was an insightful question, but because we were running out of time, I gave the simple answer. I told her and the rest of the class no, we do not believe bad things happen as a punishment, as tempting as it may be to think that.
Today we celebrate the Transfiguration. I find it somewhat difficult to preach on the Transfiguration, it always comes up on this second Sunday of Lent, but it has its own Feast Day, August 6th. So twice a year, and whenever I set out to preach on it, I wonder, “what can I say that I haven’t already said? That my people haven’t already heard…”
So Jesus is in the desert for 40 days, eating nothing, and obviously at the end of that, “he was hungry” so it makes sense that the first temptation that the devil throws at Him is to use his power as the Son of God to make food, to make bread out of stones.
A few years ago my siblings and I planted some fruit trees at my parents house. We grew up on a small 10 acre farm, so we have plenty of room for fruit trees, and we planted three apple trees.
The readings we just heard are challenging to say the least. There is really a lot going on there, especially in the Gospel. Jesus has been healing many people, healing them of their diseases, casting out unclean spirits, and now they are gathered there to listen.
In the opening prayer, the “Collect” that is given to us by the Church, we prayed, “Be my protector, O Lord…” And this seems to go perfect with these readings for today.
I have been preaching this month, really a little longer than that, to help prepare everyone for this Parish Mission which is essentially starting next weekend. Fr. Greg Bramlage, who is from Texas, will be here with his team, the Missionaries of the New Evangelization, so he will be preaching at all of the Masses next weekend.
The other night I watched a new animated movie called “Encanto.” My sister told me that I had to watch it, so I trusted her judgment and watched it, despite that being out of the norm for me to watch anything that isn’t sports, but, actually, I really enjoyed it.
The Gospel account we just heard is thought to be the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, the first miracle of His mission. Pope Benedict XVI said, “Christ's entire mission is summed up in this: to baptize us in the Holy Spirit, to free us from the slavery of death and "to open heaven to us."” I talked about this last weekend, baptizing in the Holy Spirit, and I talked about the Spiritual Gifts that the Spirit brings during this baptism, and here this weekend we have a reading talking about these specific gifts of the Spirit.
Today we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord and we heard how the Lord was baptized, but there is another way to look at this: the Baptism of the Lord, the Baptism Jesus performed, was different from John’s baptism with water.
Usually I like to focus on the Gospel, but I want to focus mostly on that second reading today. We are right in the middle of five weeks of reading the letter of St. James. It is a really great letter, and I encourage you to read it if you have some time later today. It is only five chapters, but it is five power packed chapters.
Often in the Gospels we hear people coming to Jesus in need of healing, crying out to him in boldness and trust, and often we hear those words of Jesus, “go, your faith has healed you.”
In Pope Francis’ book entitled, “The Name of God is Mercy,” he highlights the challenge facing pastors and people today when discussing the reality of sin and God’s merciful forgiveness.
So if you have ever shopped for a bible, you are probably aware that there are many different versions out there, the NAB, RSV, KJV, NIV... many different versions. One version that I find interesting is the Jefferson Bible. Thomas Jefferson, our 3rd President, took scissors to his bible and cut out all of the miracles of Jesus, all of the stuff he couldn’t personally believe from the Gospels, including the Resurrection and the Ascension, again, miracles, and pasted what was left into a new book, known as the Jefferson Bible.
So I went on retreat last week, just got back yesterday afternoon in time for confessions. I spent the week at a Benedcitine Abbey. It was a great week, I prayed a lot, I slept a lot, and I even read a whole book. Only about 100 pages, but a big accomplishment for me, I can hardly ever find time to read.