Ordinary Time Cycle A

Fifth Sunday of Lent Cycle C

April 3, 2022

Cycle C

Review the Readings

Listen to the Readings

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Isaiah preached to the Jewish exiles in Babylon to give them hope that God would not abandon them. 

He reminded them that God would do that for them exactly what he had done for their ancestors who were in slavery in Egypt;  how he lead them out of their slavery through the Red Sea, destroyed their enemy and then even  took care of them during their journey in the desert.  God was there in difficult times.

 

 

In our difficult times this  reading can gives us encouragement, knowing that God will not abandon us no matter what our situation is.

 

We need to remember that we are on a  journey to the promised eternal life and that journey includes problems and difficulties.

 

It is so easy to ask God to take away all the problems, all the difficulties.   We do not trust God, and we fail to see that these are the very situations which help us to see if we trust God or not.

 

 

 

 

 

We know that Saint Paul suffered many hardships and difficulties and that he truly carried the crosses in his life. He truly believed that they were part of the journey for him to eternal life.

 

We live in a world that wants to teach us that we should never have any serious problems or difficulties.

Yet we know that problems and difficulties will happen to all people, but as Christians we know that they are a part of our journey to eternal life.

 

 

This Gospel  story of the merciful forgiveness for an adulterous woman by Jesus Christ can give us courage when we see our own failures, our own sinfulness.

 

 

God's love, mercy, and forgiveness is always there for us, but the difficulty is that often we are not willing to admit our failures, our sins, and then we will not experience God's forgiveness.

 

 

Lent has been a time when we, through prayer, fasting, alms giving,etc. we have had the opportunity to see our own sinfulness. 

 

Hopefully we have been able to see the times that we were uncharitable, judgmental, impatience, selfish, etc.

 

 

If there are souls in hell it is not because of their sins,

but of their pride in their refusing to see their own sins

and not being able to ask God for forgiveness.

 

 

Fourth Sunday of Lent Cycle C

March 27

Cycle C  Mass without RCIA   Cycle C is what we have been using this year.

Usually one Mass this Sunday will be for Cycle A with the RCIA those to be Baptized at Easter

 

Cycle A Mass with RCIA

Review the Readings Mass with RCIA

 

 

 

 

Cycle C  Mass without RCIA continues below

Review the Reading Mass without RCIA

 

Cycle C Reflection continues below

Fourth Sunday of Lent  

 

Latare Latin for

The liturgical color for this day

can be rose or continue with the Lenten violet

 

 

 

 

My reflection below is on the readings used at Mass without the RCIA Scrutinies or Cycle C

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the first reading  we see that, after being freed from the slavery in Egypt, and after wondering for forty years in the desert  God has brought his people to the land He had promised to give them. 

 

 

 

God has provided food, manna and quail so that each person had just enough.  Now Joshua, the successor of Moses, told them that this would stop now that they were about to enter the Promised Land.

 They were to be given a land flowing with milk and honey.

 

 

 

 

God had kept his promise with the people of the Old Testament, his chosen ones.  He now keeps that same promise made to each of us and brings us to eternal life.

 

 

The people led by Joshua,  were unfaithful and did abandoned God for other gods.  

Aren't we the same at moments when we place trusts into other things rather than in God?

 

 

Yet our God never gave up on the people, and God will never give up on us, no matter how many times we fail.  He wants to bring each of us to the promised land, to eternal life.

 

 

As we listen to the Gospel of Luke  about the prodigal son, it is important for each of us to see ourselves are, at times, like that prodigal son.

And this will  happen again and again  in our lives.  

We are the ones who need to be able to recognize our sins, and like the prodigal son, return to the father who will always embraces us and forgive of us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

God welcomes us with open arms.  We can depend upon his mercy, but we need to be honest in seeing ourselves, at times, as sinners.  We all have a tendency to not want to see ourselves as sinners.  We can so easily judge others as bigger sinners than ourselves, and thus escape seeing our own sins.  We need  to have the courage to be honest with ourselves. This is absolutely necessary to receive God's mercy.  That is partially what the practices of Lent have, hopefully, done for us, shown us our sins and failures more clearly.

 

 

In the second reading,  the converted Jews, (57 A.D)  are being reminded by Paul that they have been called by God and through their baptism; they now have a way to turn from sin and live the Gospel.

 

We are reminded that when we see our own sinfulness;  God is always there for us to heal us.

 

 

 

We can be made new because of all that Christ has gone through for each of us.   Now is a great time to use the sacrament of Penance, so we can experience absolution and know that we are forgiven.

 

Never think that we will stop sinning because we go to confession.  We will stop sinning when we die.  Until then, we need to use this sacrament again and again.  Sometimes we realize that the closer we get to God, the more He lets us recognize our sins.  This was true with many of the saints.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Like the story of the prodigal son, the mercy of God and His pardon are always there  for our asking so we can truly...

 

...Rejoice...Latare!

 

Listen to my  Homily from 2012

 

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Third Sunday of Lent Cycle C

Cycle C

March 20, 2022

 

 

 

 

Review the Readings for Mass without RCIA

Without Catechumens Cycle C is used

 

 

Below if you attend a Mass with RCIA...Catechuments

Cycle A is used

 

Below is for those attending a Mass with those to be baptized at Easter and this will be a Mass with the Scrutinies

 

Click here for...Information on the RCIA Scrutinies for those to be Baptized at Easter 

 

 

Review the Readings at Mass with RCIA

 

My Reflection on Mass Readings with RCIA

 

 

 

 

 

My Reflection below  is for the Mass Readings without RCIA 

 

As we listen to the readings for this Sunday, it is important to place ourselves as the ones being addressed and not just think of what happened as a story of long ago.  

We are the Israelites in the first reading, we are the Corinthians in the second reading, we are the Jews Jesus is talking to in the Gospel.  

 

The readings during Lent are to help each of us look more deeply into our spiritual lives and to grow, not by looking just at our successes,s but more importantly at our failures. That is where real growth begins and it does takes grace and courage to do this.  That is what Lent is for.  Courage!

 

 

 

God calls Moses to lead his people out of the slavery of Egypt.  At last,

 

 

God will answer their pleas throughout generations.  We all know the story that we hear again this Sunday.  Every day God gives us a new Moses, Jesus Christ, to lead us out of our slavery, SIN.  Everyday there is a way to receive mercy and forgiveness that Jesus has gained for each of us.

 

 

 

 

 

But, we need to heed what Saint Paul said in his letter that we hear at the Celebration of the Eucharist this Sunday.  He reminds them and us not to become over confident just because we have been called at our Baptism by God.  He reminds them of how the Israelites, even after being released from the slavery of Egypt, after being taken safely through the water and watching their enemy destroyed, after being feed and care for in their desert journey, they still turned from God to other pagan gods.

 Do we, like the Israelites grumble when things don't go our way?  In a difficult situation or with a difficult person do we doubt that God is there?  

 

Like the Israelites it is so easy for each of us to turn to pagan gods, to idols, e.g. power, money, drugs legal or illegal, sex, etc. to take away the pain and doubt of our having to deal with the struggle or difficult situation, also known as the CROSS.  It can be so easy to just give up, thinking we will never change.

 

But there is hope.  God never gave up on the Israelites and He will not give up on us.

 

 

In the Gospel of Luke we hear Jesus tell the parable of the fig tree.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The owner wants to have the tree cut down because it has not produced figs.

 

 

 

 

  

What about us?

 

Are we producing spiritual fruit, spiritual figs, e.g. making God present to other through our life, not just words but also our actions???

 

We know the story.  The gardener tells the owner to wait a year.  He will fertilize the tree and see if it will begin to produce figs.  God does not give up on any of us.  

He too, is willing to fertilize us and see if we can produce spiritual fruit.

 

 

 

God seems to fertilize us with situations and events in our lives that are not always what we would choose.  Yet, if we think of them as manure from God, that can help us to produce spiritual figs,  (mercy, compassion, understanding, forgiveness, etc.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

So we continue our Lenten journey into the desert of Lent.

Perhaps the disciplines of Prayer, Fasting, and Alms Giving will all be manure to fertilize us and to help us to see more fully where we are spiritually.

Then we will truly experience the resurrection from sin.  Everyday we have that opportunity.  Let us never give up, but always we willing to start again and again.

 

 Today He comes!!!

Listen to my homily from 3rd Sunday 2012 Cycle C

Second Sunday of Lent Cycle C

 

March 13, 2022

Review the Readings

Listen to the Readings

Audio of my homily given years ago while I was active in the parish

How is your Lent going so far?

Lent is that discipline of the Church to help us look at ourselves.  

The request for more praying, fasting or giving up some things, and letting go of something especially money are all ways of helping us to see ourselves spiritually in an honest moment.  

We may make discoveries about ourselves.

It is good  to see that we fail spiritually at times and  do need the help of God, who of course, has great compassion, mercy and love for all of us.  That is what Lent is all about.  We need God not because of our successes but because of our failures and sins.

 

When the struggles in our life appear, as they will for all of us, how do we react?  Do we try to escape the cross, the struggles, the comfortableness.  Do we turn to things that make us feel better in those times of difficulty?

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Reflection on this Sunday's Readings

 

in the the second reading, St. Paul asks in his letter to the Philippians, 

if they are living as enemies of the cross.  

Are they  looking to be without problems and struggles?  

Paul encourages them to look at his life and that of Christ.  

There will be struggles, the cross.  

It is part of our journey to eternal life.  The disciples of Jesus could not believe that He would have to be rejected, suffer, and be crucified a horrible death.  After all was He not the Messiah?

Jesus is well aware of how difficult it will be for them when they will have to face what seems like the loss of Jesus through suffering and death.  For the disciples, that was not the way things were to go.  The cross was disgrace, was failure.  

 

 

Don't we too at times try to escape from the cross, from the struggles and we turn to all kinds of things to take our minds off of the cross, our struggles and difficulties?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We all know the story of the Transfiguration that is proclaimed to us in today's Gospel reading. To help his disciples understand that the cross is part of the way to eternal life, Jesus takes Peter, John, and James up the mountain to pray.  

 

 

 

 

Up on the mountain,  they experience that Jesus is God-messiah as He talks with Moses and Elijah.  They all begin to get a glimmer of  the fact that God has a plan and that includes the Cross, the struggles.  Yet, when they are faced with the reality of the Cross, they all run away from Jesus.

Don't we do the same at times?  When the struggles, the Cross, just seems like just to much to bear, we too run away, or find ways to escape, or perhaps even plea with God to take the cross away.

 

 

The first reading can be a help for us as we come to recognize that in our baptism, God has called us by name just as sure as He called Abram,

(later to be renamed Abraham)and made a covenant with him.

 

 

The way a covenant was made was to split an animal in two and walk through the two halves and say that if the pact, the covenant, was broken by the one who walked through the split animal, the same would happen to the one who broke the covenant.  God walked through, but then placed Abram in a deep sleep so he would not have to walk through.  

 

 The pact covenant that God made was a promise of eternal life. The people in the time of Abraham believed that  having ancestors meant eternal life.  God tell Abram that he will have ancestors more numerous than the stars in the sky.  He will have eternal life.

 

Abram believes that God will do it.  Even as Abram continues on his journey with Sarah his wife who is barren and old, Abram believes. Even in being asked to kill his only son, Issac, Abram believes.  Even in all the struggles of his journey in the desert, never knowing for sure where he is being led, he believes.

 

 

 

 

God has made that same covenant with each of us in our baptism when He called us by name.  He has given us a way to eternal peace, eternal happiness, eternal life.  And when we doubt, when we don't believe, when we fail and sin, He gives each of us a way back.

 

Pray that each of us may be given the grace, the courage to keep going in spite of the difficulties and even in moments the failures and sin.  

It is through the Cross that we will come to the end of our earthly journey and reach eternal life.

 

Give us the courage not to run

when the Cross appears in our lives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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First Sunday of Lent Cycle C

March 6, 2022

 

 

Review the Readings

Listen to the Readings

 

 

A Brief  Reflection on the Journey of Lent

 

 

For some forty days we are asked to make the desert journey into Lent.  Once again we have the opportunity to take the journey seriously, so we can make some spiritual discoveries about ourselves.  Or we can just give up something and miss the whole meaning and opportunity this season brings us.  We never know if we will have the opportunity to take this journey next year or not. 

 

 

 
Jesus goes into the desert to face the same temptations that we experience.  

 

 

 
Being very hungry after forty days of fasting, the devil temps him to not trust God his Father.  The devil says, you are so hungry and you can change the stone into bread.  Why are you struggling?

 The same is true for us when we are uncomfortable.  We are tempted to not trust God in a particular difficult situation.  If we can only be comfortable.  If we can only have what we desire, no matter the cost. 

Jesus, as hungry as He was, says no to the temptation.  He will only trust his Father who knows what is best even in this situation of hunger, suffering, and all that He faces.

 
Next the devil shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and says to him that if He will worship the devil, Jesus can have all this kingdom; He can have anything He wants-power, money, possessions, etc.

 Jesus answers no, because again He recognized that all the things of this world will not guarantee eternal life.  Doing the will of the Father is the way to eternal life.  It is so easy to get caught up in thinking that material things will lead us to eternal peace.

 

 

 
The devil takes Jesus up high above Jerusalem and asks Him why He is suffering.  All He needs to do is jump, and all the people below will see the angels save Him and everyone will know He truly is God.  Make life easy.  Why struggle?

 We are giving the same temptations.  If only people would respect me.  If only they would understand me.  If only.....if only.....etc

 

 Whatever we decide to do for Lent perhaps will show us how weak we are.  If we fail at what we decide to do, don't give up.  Start again.  There will be a great temptation to say, Well, I blew it.  I might as well give up and wait for next year.

 

 

 

 

 

Reflection on the Readings for this Sunday

 

In the first reading, Moses speaks to the people and encourages them not to forget all that God has done for them, giving them freedom from Egypt and slavery, giving them the Promised Land, etc.  He reminds them that they are to be faithful and remember all that God has done.  At times they fail.

The same is true for us today.  We have been given so much, our Baptism; we became a child of God and given eternal life.  We have been called by name to make God present in a world, that today more and more rejects God. 

Saint Paul writes a letter to those new Christians who are so easily influenced by those around them.  He reminds them of the faith they were give.  They were called to trust the Lord.

 

 

The same is for us today.  If we truly believe the words of this letter,  then our lives will become more and more like Christ's, and we will make Him present in the world today through our actions and not just our words.

 

 

 

 

 

So, our journey begins...

Pray that our time in the desert of this Lent will help us by our prayer, fasting, and alms giving to look more deeply into our spiritual selves, our weaknesses, failures and sins, and be ready to experience our resurrection from sin, which is there for us at all times.

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