Saturday, March 16, 2024

The Mystery of the Cross: Dying Gives Life!

 

Homily for the 5th Sunday of Lent, March 17, 2024. Gospel of St. John 12:20-33. Theme: The Mystery of the Cross: Dying Gives Life! 

 Today's Gospel is about an ordinary encounter between Jesus and some Greeks who have come to see him, most likely because they have heard about his wondrous powers. But it turns into an occasion for Christ to teach them what it means to follow him as a disciple. I think that their simple request, "We would like to see Jesus," expresses a desire or at least a curiosity that is within all of us. For who among us doesn’t want to seek and then find the awesome presence of the miracle-working Christ in our lives? 

 These Gentile seekers, like so many others, were most likely hoping for a miracle or an answer to some perplexing question in their lives. We do not know any details whatsoever about their meeting with him, but I am guessing that the Lord’s words about death, burial and new life were not what they expected to hear. Perhaps like them, you have heard things about Jesus that have both intrigued you and perplexed you at the same time? Perhaps, like these Greeks, his words about dying and rising repel you but at the same time mysteriously attract you and you want to know more? What does he really mean? 

 Jesus speaks of a grain of wheat falling to the ground and dying in order to bear much fruit. That illustration would have made sense to his listeners whose daily lives were intimately tied to the earth and its natural cycles. But then he continues on and seems to start talking in riddles. He uses this growth process of wheat as a metaphor about following him, about hating one’s life in order to end up really finding it and living it into eternity! In other words, Jesus was saying that just as the grain-seed must undergo a process of death and burial in order to bring forth new life, so too we, his disciples, must let go of our old ways and bury them as dead and gone if we want to become more fully alive and transformed in Christ. 

 This “death of the ego” is what “hating one’s life” means in biblical language. It doesn’t mean despising our human existence as we might think it means in modern English! This on-going process of “hating one’s life”, that is, of eradicating selfishness and following Jesus’ example, is not easy but neither is it optional for the person who seeks to be a Christian in truth and just not in name. And just as the seed, once buried in the earth, eventually bursts forth into new life, so will we also begin to burst forth with new life in Christ as we put ourselves aside and humbly surrender to the teachings of his Gospel. 

 Following Jesus requires this radical reordering of our priorities. We must “fall to the ground and die”, so to speak, to our self-focused plans and our stubborn insistence in living life on our own terms. Our innermost desire to see Jesus and be with him overrides our lesser desires and gives us the willingness to let go of anything that is an obstacle to developing and cherishing our relationship with Christ. When we die to self and bury the grain-seed of our pretenses and pride (which so often are really ways of hiding fear and insecurity) it brings something new and beautiful to life within us. 

 It breaks open our hard outer shell and releases new life in the Holy Spirit, whom we first received at Baptism and in a deeper outpouring at Confirmation. The Spirit waters the buried seed and soon enough signs of budding life begin to slowly blossom and bloom into Christian virtue and holiness. We won’t see this development happening right away, but our growth will be steady so long as we keep tilling the soil of our lives with humility, surrender and trust in Christ. 

 Ultimately, when all is said and done, Jesus' words to the Greeks and to us today point to the cross, which is always at the center of Christian life and spirituality. He speaks of his own impending death as the culmination of his mission on earth, of it being the ultimate act of sacrificial love. As we continue our journey through this season of Lent, we are called to walk with Jesus on the road to Calvary. He asks us to embrace the cross out of love and not to run away from it, for it is the instrument of God’s transforming grace. 

 So, let’s respond wholeheartedly to the invitation to follow him that Jesus offers us today. Let’s be willing to let go of our old selves, to die to our old desires, and to embrace a new life that God offers us in Christ. He promises to be with us every step of the way and assures us that, in exchange for losing our lives for his sake, he will transform them into lives that exist with him forever.





Saturday, March 9, 2024

Rejoice! You Are Saved by Grace Through Faith!

 

Homily for the 4th Sunday of Lent, March 10, 2024. Reading: Ephesians 2:4-10/ Theme: Rejoice! You Are Saved by Grace Through Faith! 

 One short 8-word-phrase from today’s second reading was a hot button issue back in the 16th century. It caused a volatile, and at times even violent, conflict among Catholics and the new phenomenon of emerging Protestantism. I suppose such a passionate debate shouldn’t be all that surprising because those 8 words ,“by grace you have been saved through faith”, deal with one of the most vital questions of Christianity: how are human beings saved? In other words, how is a person freed from the spiritual alienation from God that is caused by sin and leads to eternal death and put into a right relationship with God that leads to eternal life? 

 The Protestant reformers erroneously argued that the Church had corrupted the meaning of this verse by teaching that people could earn salvation by doing religious works. In response, Catholic leadership condemned the Protestant position as heretical, pointing out that Jesus called for a personal response to His invitation to salvation. Both sides were so adamant on proving the others wrong that neither stopped to really listen to what the other was saying. And sadly this led to the scandal of a hostile division of Christianity that caused a bleeding rupture in the Mystical Body of Christ which is still an open wound in the Church today. 

 Fortunately, by the mid-20th century both sides of the conflict began to walk together on a pathway towards reconciliation. For the first time in nearly 400 years, the Catholic hierarchy was willing to listen instead of argue and because of this openness prompted by Vatican II many Protestant leaders became willing to engage in mutual dialogue. Both sides sent representatives to theological meetings and it was discovered that, while differences remained, there was a significant amount of common ground on this fundamental Christian teaching after all. In an extremely simplified form here is what that all-important 8-word-phrase “by grace you have been saved through faith” means: 

By grace... means that salvation is a totally free and unmerited gift from God. And while we cannot and do not earn it in any way, shape or form, we obviously do have to respond to God’s invitation to accept salvation in one way or another. How we respond is still a matter of debate, but all agree that even our response is made possible by the grace of God because we cannot save ourselves. It is something beyond our limited finite human capabilities. 

You have been saved...in Biblical language, the word "salvation" has the same root word as "healing". To be saved means to be healed. Healed of what? Of sin and its effects on us, such as a tendency towards selfishness and its ultimate consequence of spiritual death. So the words "you have been saved" can also be understood as "you have been healed from your terminal sin-sickness and can live a spiritually healthy life here and hereafter." Both Catholics and Protestants agree that this healing is only possible through Christ and that it is a necessary supernatural remedy for our sin-affected human condition. 

Through faith...whenever we encounter the word "faith" in the Bible it can and should be understood as "trust" because they are both the same word in biblical language. To trust (or believe) in Christ means to wholeheartedly turn to Him as Savior and to have confidence both in what He has said (the Gospel) and what He has done for us (the Passion and Resurrection). A difference that remains between the two sides is that we Catholics hold that the ministry of the Church established by Jesus Christ is a non-negotiable part of our relationship with Him. Protestants, on the other hand, vary on this role of the Church depending upon their denomination’s particular interpretation of Christianity. 

 But when all is said and done, does salvation-grace “work”? Or to put it better, can we see tangible evidence that salvation-grace truly overrides the selfishness of sick-sickness in the human person and enables them to become more like Jesus Christ? Well as we say, the “proof is in the pudding”! All we need to do is look at the lives of those who “by grace have been saved through faith” and have embraced Jesus and his Gospel wholeheartedly. They can be found in all branches of Christianity. We can see in their lives how sin and its influence becomes neutralized and the grace of God takes its place through their deep relationship with Jesus Christ. 

 By grace through faith these heroic Christians put their own well-being on the back burner, so to speak, and modeled their lives after the pattern of Jesus in so many different ways. They cared for the sick despite danger to themselves even in the midst of contagious epidemics. They stood up for the rights and dignity of the poor and oppressed in the face of death-threats and violent opposition. They proclaimed the primacy of God and His Law in civic life above the tyrannical rule of politics and economics. And many of them gave the ultimate witness to the transforming power of salvation-grace-by-faith in the shedding of their blood, the offering up of their lives for the sake of Christ and on behalf of others. 

 This inner transformation of the human person, which is the fruit of being saved by grace through faith, is precisely what the Gospel is about today. Jesus is reminding us that He, the Crucified Savior, is the remedy for sin-sickness and that the salvation-grace He won for us by His Cross and Resurrection is the only sure cure. He assures us that He comes to each one of us out of a motivation of love as our merciful Savior not as a condemning Judge. He gives eternal life in place of spiritual death to anyone who will turn to Him in faith, that is, in trust. Today’s Gospel contains such a consoling and comforting message that it’s no wonder a passage from it has become the most quoted verse of the New Testament, if not of the entire Bible: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (John 3:16)





Sunday, March 3, 2024

Cleansing Our Temples

 

Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Lent, March 3, 2024. Gospel of St. John 2:13-25. Theme: Cleansing Our Temples 

 In today’s Gospel we see that Jesus, like tens of thousands of other Jews, has come to the Holy City of Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, the greatest of all holy days in the Jewish Liturgical Year. You see, every Jewish family that was able to make this pilgrimage was obligated to offer an animal to the priests of the Temple as a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God. But since the pilgrims came from long distances it was impractical to bring animals with them so they needed to buy them once they arrived in the Holy City. And since they came from all over the Roman Empire, their money had to be exchanged for acceptable local currency. So, they became a captive market for both the animal merchants and the bankers, providing both groups with a lucrative business opportunity! 

 The vast majority of the pilgrims were poor but they had carefully set aside whatever they could spare, sometimes for years, in order to fulfill their religious duty and make this special journey. However, their precious funds were quickly used up due to inflated exchange rates and exorbitant animal purchase prices. Their sincere piety and religious devotion made them easy prey for the buyers and the sellers of the Temple. It might help us better appreciate their predicament by putting it into a scenario we can relate to as Catholics. 

 Imagine for a moment that you arrive at the parish for Christmas or Easter Mass and there are "sacramental merchants" all set up in the plaza in front of the church. They inform you that if you would like to receive Holy Communion you’ll need to buy a host and since Holy Communion is at the heart of your worship you go ahead and make the purchase. But because the sellers have a captive market, the price soars to $10 a host instead of its value of less than a penny! Then, after you make your way through the front doors you encounter "missalette merchants" selling worship aids and song books in the vestibule. So you fork over some more cash and then begin to look for a seat. That’s when the ushers rush up and inform you that you can stand in the back for free or purchase a seat in a pew. Get the idea? God’s House had become a den of greed and was being used to take advantage of their religious observances. 

 It was this abuse of faith and of the poor that made righteous anger swell up within the heart of Jesus. He acted with a whirlwind of zeal for the glory of His Father and marched straight to the check-out desks with a whip in hand. He flipped over the tables and coins jingled and rolled all over the floor. Dove cages toppled. Feathers flew in the air. And the noise of frightened farm animals echoed off the walls. The Gospel tells us that the Lord’s motivation for this reaction is found in the Old Testament prophecy about the Messiah which said, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” 

 The temple-cleansing that Christ carried out was not only a condemnation of corrupt religion, but it also speaks to the corruption of religion in a way that strikes much closer to home. The cleansing of the Temple should remind us that we ourselves have become temples of God by Baptism and that we, too, stand in need of purification. We need to ask ourselves if zeal for God’s House, which we are, consumes us as it consumed Jesus? Zeal means a burning motivation or a dynamic desire and so I think this Gospel ask us to consider if we are willing to be like Jesus and cast out the merchants of sin and the money-changers of selfishness, so to speak, that we have allowed to invade our temples, lessening our dignity and spiritual beauty as God’s dwelling places. 

 Like the buyers and the sellers in the temple, have we given other things and priorities the primacy of place that rightfully belongs to God? Have we overextended ourselves and our daily schedules to such a degree that we have little to no time remaining for prayer, or spiritual reading or service to those in need? Have we allowed things into the temple of our lives that diminish God’s Presence within us or work against our growing in true religious devotion? Perhaps there are sinful behaviors or negative tendencies that we have always known needed to go, but have put off doing so? Maybe there are resentments that need to be healed or grudges that need the cleansing power of forgiveness so that God’s Presence can more fully shine through us? And if our missteps have been serious, have we brought these things to Jesus in the Sacrament of Reconciliation so that we can be put back into a right relationship with God and others? 

 During Lent the liturgy intentionally places today’s Gospel before us so that we might be encouraged to open up our hearts to the cleansing action of Jesus Christ. Lent is a time for us to be zealous and eager to overturn the tables of sin and chase out the merchants of selfishness that we have allowed to set up shop within us. It’s a time to be dramatic and decisive in becoming more serious about our relationship with Christ, allowing Him to purify us and restore us so that we can shine once again as holy temples of God and ultimately receive His Easter gift of resurrection and eternal life.





Thursday, February 15, 2024

Learning Transfiguration Prayer

 

Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Lent, February 25, 2024. Gospel: Mark 9:2-10. Theme: Learning Transfiguration Prayer 

 In our 2,000-year heritage of Christian spirituality, the Transfiguration of Jesus, which we hear in today’s gospel, has often been considered as a lesson in what it means to have a prayerful experience of God. Spending time in prayer is all about personal intimacy with Jesus, about coming to know Him as He really is, and in the process getting to know ourselves as we really are. This is something that Peter, James and John experienced. They went away with Jesus up the mountain and gazed upon His true glory, resting in His divinely transformed presence. 

 During this experience, Jesus’ true inner self, His divinity, began to shine through the flesh of His humanity. It changed His appearance; it revealed His secret identity so to speak. The disciples were caught up in this awesome revelation and when it was over, the Father’s voice directed them to listen to Jesus because He is the Beloved Son. They returned to regular life re-energized in their relationship with Christ which had been deepened, personalized, strengthened by this experience. 

 The Transfiguration story gives us a very good description of the type of Christian prayer that is called meditation. It’s also known by other names such as prayer of the heart, contemplation or sometimes just pondering. And it’s very different, worlds apart really, from the types of meditation we often hear about today such as yoga-mindfulness or Hindu transcendentalism. These eastern forms of meditation encourage us to empty our minds, to get in touch with our inner-energy and to focus on ourselves. 

 But Christian meditation is the polar opposite. It’s not about focusing on oneself or trying to be empty inside. It’s all about focusing on God and growing in our love and awareness of Him in our lives. It’s not about being empty, but about being filled up with grace, with the light, truth and peace of Christ. Christian meditation is an important way for God to become more present, more real, more meaningful and more personal in our everyday lives. By reflecting on the Transfiguration experience of Peter, James and John, we can learn the three basic steps that make-up the prayer form of meditation. 

 The first step is solitude. We see that Jesus brought the disciples up a mountain, away from the hustle and bustle of daily life. This teaches us that we need to intentionally take time to find someplace where we can be alone and undisturbed for prayer. We need to get away from the many distractions that life throws at us, so that we can devote quality time to our relationship with God. 

 The second step is to be with Jesus. We do not go to our isolated place alone. We go with Jesus and we can do this by taking up the gospels through which he is always present for us. We chose a story and imagine Jesus and the details which the story presents to our minds. We take our time with it. We ponder it. In this step, we are like those three apostles looking at the transfigured Jesus and taking it all in. We permit the image of Christ it presents to us to penetrate our minds and hearts. 

 Lastly, the third step is speaking with Jesus. We ask him to show us what he wants us to learn from this experience. We obey the words of God the Father and listen to his Beloved Son speaking to the ears of our heart. His words might come to us as an idea or an image that enters into our minds. We respond to Jesus like Peter did, sharing with Him our thoughts, feelings and insights into what we have encountered in our time of solitude with him. 

 Then, after our meditation, we return to our daily duties, treasuring this prayerful experience of Jesus in our hearts, just as Peter, James and John did when coming down off that mountain. If we practice meditation regularly, we will become more aware of the presence of God living within us by grace and faith. We will become more aware of the beautiful truth that we are called to a divine romance, so to speak, with God who is love. This will lead us to experience a personal transfiguration in our own lives as we gradually grow, day by day, to become the beloved sons and daughters of God that we were created to be.



Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Hope Beyond All Hope

 

Homily for the First Sunday of Lent, February 18, 2024. Readings: Genesis 9:8-15; 2 Peter 3:18-22; Gospel of St. Mark 1:12-15. Theme: Hope Beyond All Hope 

 All three of today’s readings carry the hopeful theme of receiving a second chance, making a fresh start, turning our lives around. We heard the Old Testament story of Noah and his family escaping the Great Flood and receiving a second chance at life on planet Earth. Then in the second reading from St. Peter we are told that baptism connects us with Christ’s death and resurrection, and like the wood of Noah’s Ark, the wood of the cross gives us a second chance at living right with God. Lastly, Jesus proclaims the time of fulfillment, meaning he is going to open the gates to the Kingdom of God for all who repent and believe in the gospel. 

 “Repenting” means turning our lives around, turning away from ourselves and towards God. “Believing in the gospel” means trusting in Christ as the one and only Savior, who can make us brand new persons from the inside out. This sounds almost too good to be true for a lot of people, especially to those who think that what they have done in the past cannot be repaired and what they have made out of their lives is beyond redemption. But in the second reading St. Peter assures us that anyone who truly turns to Christ can claim a clear conscience and live a new life. This hope-filled truth of Scripture was the inspiration behind the unbelievable story of the Dominican Sisters of Bethany. They are living proof that repenting and believing in the gospel is a sure way to a fresh start, a second chance, a turning around of one’s life. 

 In 1864, a young Dominican priest named Fr. Lataste was send to give a series of religious talks in a notorious women’s prison in France. He accepted this assignment admitting that he shared in the social attitude and prejudices towards these female prisoners, and thinking it was a useless endeavor to preach a retreat to over 400 inmates who had been prostitutes, drug addicts, thieves and murderers. But something came over him soon after he stepped past the gates and began to really look at the women in their poverty and reality. The words of Christ began to ring in the ears of his heart and echo in his mind, “Now is the time…now if the fulfillment...repent…believe ... I have come to heal the sick, to restore the sinners…” 

 As the retreat moved on Fr. Lataste found himself deeply moved with compassion and mercy, and began calling the inmates his sisters. He told them that the moment they freely chose to claim a clean conscience through confession and then embrace the grace of their baptism with a new spirit, their lives, even as prisoners, would assume a new value. He concluded his several days of retreat with these words, “Whatever may have been your past, do not any longer consider yourselves inmates. You can choose to be people consecrated to God just like the Sisters are...” He assured them that they could turn their lives over to the service and praise God even in prison, just as much as nuns do in the seclusion of their monasteries, because what God looks at is the love and sincerity of the heart, not our external surroundings. 

 The retreat, which Fr. Lataste had originally thought would be “useless and a waste of time”, was an extraordinary success! The inmates, until then rejected and despised women, had suddenly discovered how precious they were in the eyes of God. They had been rehabilitated by his tender mercy. And as a result, several women, after they were released from prison, came to see him. Together, they started a now worldwide religious community called the “Dominican Sisters of Bethany”. It was the first time ever that a religious community was started by ex-convicts and Fr. Lataste had to fight long and hard for its right to exist. 

 To give them a real chance for a totally fresh start, Fr. Lataste made a rule that the membership would include both women who had been in prison and those who had not. This would allow those “with a past” to truly blend in and leave the details of their former lives behind them. If you go today to a monastery of these Sisters, you’ll have no clue as to who is who. Last names are not used in Bethany nor is one’s past ever discussed for good reason. Everything about their community life is structured to assure privacy and support fresh starts, remembering that Fr. Lataste had said, “God does not ask us what we have been; he looks only at what we are today.” 

 This is the very same message of hope that Jesus proclaims to us today. He is calling us seemingly respectable people out of other types of prisons besides those made of brick and mortar. These are the prisons of addiction, of a life of selfishness, lust and greed. The prison of a destructive existence that seems to spiral into hopelessness but which looks so good and normal to others from the outside. Anyone and everyone, no matter who they are, what they are, or where they are, can experience liberation from the inside out by having their slate wiped clean through the mercy of Jesus. And in Christ, anyone and everyone can find hope beyond all hope, simply by starting with the words of the Gospel that we heard proclaimed to each one of us today, “The time of fulfillment is at hand. The Kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe in the Gospel.”

A Community of Dominican Sisters of Bethany Today


Friday, February 2, 2024

We Are All Fixer-Uppers

 


No audio version of my homily is available this week. Only printed form below.


Homily for the 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Feb. 4, 2024. Gospel of St. Mark 1:29-39.  Theme: We’re All Fixer-Uppers 
 
I have to confess that I am a big fan of the many fixer-upper shows on TV these days.  It always amazes me how someone can look beyond the mess and destruction of a totally run-down house and see its future possibility. I enjoy watching the transformation through the various stages of renovation – demolition day, re-wiring, reinforcing weak foundations to make them sound and solid again. And then in the end I marvel at a house that has been totally renewed and restored to the beauty it originally possessed.
 
You know, it seems to me that this can be a good way to look at the healing mission of Jesus, because the truth is that we’re all fixer-uppers. We may not all be in the same dilapidated condition but we all need saving and restoring. Some of us might be like rundown shacks that need our relationship with God and others completely rebuilt from the foundation up. Others might require extensive structural repair due to having been so terribly mistreated and neglected. And then there are those who simply need some spiritual cleaning and refurbishing to make them shine.  But all of us, without exception, need some kind of work to be done so that we can be made new, transformed from the inside out.
 
Jesus looks beyond the mess and even destruction we may have made in our lives and sees the possibilities within us.  He has a burning desire to restore us to what we were always meant to be: holy and happy children of God. That’s why He came into our world as one of us: to heal what is sick, to drive out what is evil, and to fix what is broken. That’s what our Gospel today is all about. That’s why we call it Good News!  So, I think the big question would be:  How do we cooperate with Jesus in this task of repairing and restoring us? Well, like any fixer-upper job we need two fundamental things: a plan or blueprint to follow, and the right tools to get the job done. And Jesus provides both of these for us.
 
We find the blueprint in the example of Jesus himself. His words, his attitude, his actions, his relationships… are all what we are meant to be like as Christians.  This is why frequent and thoughtful reading of the gospels is so vital for us. We simply cannot get to know Jesus and absorb his attitude and behavior in any other way.  This is precisely what St. Paul did in his many letters in the New Testament.  He explains and applies Christ-like living to our everyday situations, so his writings should also be part of our regular spiritual reading and reflection.

But head knowledge is not enough to bring about a change in us. No matter how many times a contractor looks at a blueprint, the house is going to remain in its sorry state until he gets going with the actual work of making the blueprint become a reality. The same is true for us. We need to allow Jesus, the Master Carpenter from Nazareth, to get on with the job of rebuilding us. We have to permit Him to work on us by letting go of our self-sufficiency and by ceasing to cling to our usual ways of thinking and acting. We have to open up the door of our lives to Him, allow Him to enter and grant Him access to every part of us.  

And once we let Him in, the first spiritual tool we need to use is that of repentance. Through our sincere sorrow for selfishness and sin in our lives we can allow His grace to haul away the spiritual junk and debris that has accumulated within us. Then as trash gets cleared away the renovation can begin. We can move forward with the hard task of rebuilding by using such additional tools as prayer, practicing the Beatitudes, spiritual reading, acts of self-denial, and works of mercy for the sake of others.
 
But the most powerful spiritual tool we have at our disposal is our relationship with Christ in the Eucharist.  Holy Communion received with a real desire to become one with Jesus will shore up the weak spots in the foundation of our relationship with God and our neighbor.  Frequent and faith-filled reception of the Lord's Body and Blood will make the framework of our lives more sound and solid.  The more we open our hearts to the power of His Presence within us, the more we will persevere in taking on a new way of thinking, a new way of looking at life, a new way of loving that shows we are being restored, renewed and transformed.
 
It was precisely with all this in mind that we decided to offer the parish  Lent With The Chosen as a spiritual program for Lent. If we spend this Lent seriously following the blueprint of Jesus that we see in the episodes of The Chosen and reflect on in the 40 Days With Jesus book that goes along with it, then when Easter comes around we just might be in for a pleasant surprise. We just might begin to see that what was once an old fixer-upper has been refurbished and restored,  repaired and transformed into a Living Temple of God.  The joy of Easter will be ours as we hope to see fulfilled in us the glorious promise of becoming what we were originally meant to be.



Sunday, January 28, 2024

A Powerful Savior or Just a Beige Jesus?

 

Homily for the 4th Sunday of Ordinary Time, January 28, 2024. Gospel of St. Mark 1:21-28. Theme: A Powerful Savior or Just a Beige Jesus? 

 Believe it or not, Ash Wednesday is just 2 weeks away, so it's a good time for us to begin thinking about what we will do for Lent. And today’s gospel is a good one to help us do this because like the possessed man we each need to be freed from forces that disrupt our relationship with God and one another. Not in the same way as him, of course, for he was actually possessed by demons, but we can still become targets of their temptations. Unclean spirits of greed, lust, and anger, of envy, pride and selfishness can enslave us and prevent us from living the kind of life that we were created to live. And so, like the possessed man, we too stand in need of a Power greater than ourselves, the Power of Jesus Christ, to set us free from the inside out. 

 In the gospel we saw that as soon as Jesus entered the scene, without even saying a word, the demon within the man cried out and began to cringe and weaken. Then at the simple command of Jesus, the hellish forces were utterly destroyed and cast out. This happened simply and solely by the power of His Presence, a power that was able to calm storms, open the eyes of the blind, heal the sick, and expel demons. People rushed to Him from everywhere. They just couldn’t get enough of Him! So, what happened over the centuries that turned this once impossible-to-ignore Messiah into just a “beige Jesus” in the minds of so many people? How did this Savior Whom everyone wanted to see and touch end up becoming Someone Whom people nowadays can so easily dismiss? 

 God’s Word in Hebrews 13:8 says that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever” which means that He hasn't changed. He is still, in 2024, a Presence that radiates Divine Power that can bring about miracles and transform lives. And His Presence is still among us in many ways, most especially in the Eucharist that we adore and receive. So what happened? The only answer is that we Christians are the ones who have changed throughout the centuries and as a result we have bequeathed a “Beige Jesus” to the world today. But Lent can be an opportunity for each one of us to turn this around and begin to believe more expectantly in the Power of Jesus to work miracles and transform lives today! 

 You see, back in the time of the Gospels people had deep trust and hopeful expectation in their hearts that Jesus could and would come to their assistance. They truly believed that life-changing miracles could and would happen by turning to the Power of His Presence. And so they risked being with Him and following Him as the Messiah even if it meant rejection by their Jewish peers. And as Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire, even under threat of death, Christians were still willing to take a risk on Jesus. They were confident that the Risen Lord would continue to show this Power through His disciples because He said He would. And they believed Him. This wasn’t simply a matter of wishful hoping or the power of positive thinking, They truly believed and completely expected that Jesus would do what He said He would do. It was an expectant faith rooted in a deep personal relationship with Christ and nurtured within the community of a dynamic Christianity. 

 However after the 4th century things began to change. There was no longer any risk in following Jesus because Christianity had become the preferred religion of the Empire. More and more important people became Christians, often as a way of climbing the social ladder and within a relatively short amount of time Christianity became a religion of the status quo, more a matter of culture and convenience than of personal conviction and heartfelt conversion. A personal relationship with Jesus and the willingness to take a risk on Him were no longer the fuel of faith for so many and as a result the bright light of Christ began to flicker, to slowly fade here and there. And this is where we start to see the gradual emergence of a “beige Jesus” and the rise of a cultural Catholicism that is nothing more than a lukewarm Christianity of the status quo. And quite honestly it’s still very much with us today. 

 But the Risen Christ promised that He would be with us always. And so expectant faith in the Power of Jesus expressed in a risk-taking Christianity lived on in those whom we have come to call the saints. They put vibrant color back into Christ and blazing fire back into their Christianity. This is why they get our attention and why their lives are so alluring and fascinating to us. They never stopped trusting, they never stopped believing and they never stopped expecting miracles and life-changing transformations! But there’s a big mistake that we often make about the saints. We too easily think of them as exceptions and not the rule. But the truth is that they were what we all are supposed to be. They only seem extraordinary to us because we ourselves too often settle for the “beige Jesus” of lukewarm Christianity. The saints, however, refused to give in to this attitude. They took risks by daring to be different and by opening up their hearts to the Power of Jesus Christ to still work miracles and still transform lives. And in return Jesus never ever let them down. 

 And this brings me full circle back to where I started with the topic of Lent because it’s a special time for deepening our faith and transforming our lives. It’s our annual invitation to get reacquainted with the real Jesus and to recommit to a real Christianity in our lives. It’s a time to take seriously our baptismal call to holiness. To help support and encourage you in this spiritual growth, we are offering a very special Lenten program this year called “Lent With The Chosen”. Those who participate will have a small book of short Gospel reflections for daily use and then once a week on Wednesday evenings we’ll all come together in the hall to watch an hour-long episode of The Chosen, which is an award-winning series that is definitely a remedy for banishing the idea of a “beige Jesus”. 

 You can get an idea of what The Chosen is like by coming to our Pasta Dinner on Feb 10 where we will be showing the first episode of the series. At that time I will also explain a bit more about this special Lenten program. The opportunity to sign up to participate will be coming to you via Flocknotes, so if you don’t presently get Flocknotes, be sure to contact me or the parish office to be put on the Flocknotes list.