Exploring the Word

5 Apr 2015

Solemnity of the Resurrection of the Lord (Easter Sunday), Cycle B

A new day dawns

NEW LIFE IS always something of a mystery. Take a look into the face of a newborn, and you hardly have words to express what you see. A life so delicate, unspoiled, full of possibility and grace: what worlds are contained in every new child! New life is a promise, a sign of hope, and certainly a reason to rejoice and be grateful. The whole world seems born again in the event of a new life.

29 Mar 2015

Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, Cycle B

Supporting roles to play

They are everywhere in the familiar account of the Passion. People whose names we don’t know but who play their part in the greatest story ever told. There are the major figures too: Peter and Judas, Caiaphas and Pilate, Simon the Cyrene and Barabbas the criminal, the Marys at the cross and tomb, as well as Joseph of Arimathea. If we were to create a Passion diorama to match the Christmas crèche, we’d surely include characters like these in the scene.

22 Mar 2015

Fifth Sunday of Lent, Cycle B

Who wants to suffer?

We have a word for people who enjoy suffering, and it’s not a flattering term: masochists. Some outsiders to Christianity might peek into our churches, see the man on the cross at the center of our faith, and view us believers as folks belonging to this negative category. Why else would we value the suffering of one man, even a God-man, so much? There are other shades of Christianity, in fact, that have banished the image of the crucifix. Some theologies go so far as to declare that Jesus suffered 2,000 years ago precisely so the rest of us don’t have to. While it’s obvious that suffering hasn’t departed human history, some religious notions prefer to pretend it away as a done deal for people of faith. Good luck with that.

15 Mar 2015

Fourth Sunday of Lent, Cycle B

Ways of darkness, ways of light

Grief is an emotion too heavy for the heart to bear without breaking. We hear it masterfully captured in Psalm 137, as the exiled Israelites mourn the loss of home, custom, language, and religion in Babylon. This is a real, historical event that takes place in the center of the Old Testament. It’s almost useless to read Genesis through Jeremiah without appreciating how the promised land is both won and lost by God’s cherished people. All the Hebrew books of the Bible backwards and forwards must be read in light of a people who once walked so far from the path prescribed for them that they lost their coveted (and covenanted) land completely. How could we sing a song of the LORD in a foreign land? Even God seems beyond reach to this sorrowing displaced community. Some of us remember how singer Don McLean caught the spirit of this lament in the song “Babylon,” on the American Pie album back in 1972: “We lay down and wept, and wept, for thee Zion.”

8 Mar 2015

Third Sunday of Lent, Cycle B

In the territory of Lent, many of us take on practices aimed at improving our character. We exercise greater generosity and pray more. We reflect daily on scripture or contemplate our own moral landscape. We take up reading meant to edify or clarify. We clear a place for the Holy Spirit to plant some seeds.

1 Mar 2015

Second Sunday of Lent, Cycle B

Get ready for transformation

Seeing familiar things differently is not easy. This is no more evident than in family relationships. Your spouse is changing, as are you. Yet you expect the dynamic between you to remain the same as always. A renegotiation of terms may feel like a betrayal. Babies become toddlers, and children become teenagers and then adults. But the parents’ vision of them may be frozen at a more primitive and dependent stage. In the same way, parents are the ones who are there for us, reliable as rocks. Until the time that they become elderly and frail, and unexpectedly dependent on us to care for them.

22 Feb 2015

First Sunday of Lent, Cycle B

So here we are, back inside the season of Lent once more. For many Catholics, Lent is the one period each year where spiritual growth and development really gain momentum. Maybe it’s because we pray more diligently, perhaps attending daily Mass, saying the Rosary more faithfully, taking up the Liturgy of the Hours or special devotions available at the parish. Maybe it’s because we can be more mindful of the responsibility to give alms, to assist those who are disadvantaged through local volunteer efforts at shelters, food pantries, or literacy programs. Maybe it’s because we dare to fast, surrendering our privileged options at the table each Friday or perhaps for the whole 40 days. We may also fast from other kinds of privileges, limiting the hours surrendered to amusements or distractions to focus on relationships with our loved ones or with God.

15 Feb 2015

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

It’s worth noting: We’ve spent five weeks already in chapter one of Mark’s gospel. So far, Jesus cast out a man’s demon, healed a woman’s fever, and then took on a whole village’s suffering. Now Jesus is confronted by a leper, or at least a man who endures an ailment disfiguring enough to make people afraid of catching what he’s got. This fellow suffers in two directions: physically and also socially. Science tells us that skin is the largest organ of the body. It’s also the only organ people can see. So unlike a heart condition or stomach ailment, when your skin is sick, it’s pretty obvious.

8 Feb 2015

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Beyond the threshold of misery

No one knows suffering firsthand like Job does. He’s humanity’s Sufferer-in-Chief. In the story, he loses his worldly wealth, his children, and his bodily health in a single day. Plus he has to contend with a less-than-supportive spouse and friends who are worse than no friends at all. Finally, there is God’s relentless silence. It’s tough to be Job. Contrary to the platitude, Job is not patient at all about this. He laments bitterly, wishes for death sincerely, and cries to heaven for justice. 

1 Feb 2015

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Don’t wait, don’t hesitate

Why do we have four gospels instead of one? Not to confirm the record, as is often said, but to exploit the advantage of four unique perspectives on the Jesus story. Mark’s take on Jesus is the first written down and closest to the period it describes: about 30 years after the fact.