Welcome
These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.
Monday, Week V, Lent (Passiontide)
Thus was innocent blood spared that day. (Dn 13:1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62)
Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more." (Jn 8:1-11)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031824.cfm
The long story of Susanna and the Elders ends with the statement that innocent blood was spared that day. Well, the gospel tells a quite different story where the guilty walks free. Perhaps Jesus is just too soft on crime.
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Sunday, Week V, Lent
“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life . . . And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” He said this indicating the kind of death he would die. (Jn 12:20-33)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031724-YearB.cfm
The hour has come to be glorified, to die, to be lifted up. As we enter into this last part of Lent, the Cross becomes ever more present to us. The Paschal Mystery, dying and rising with Christ, is the center of our faith which we celebrate in Eucharist. It is the essence of the Sacraments. It is the pattern of our lives.
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Saturday of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Lent, March 16
Some in the crowd who heard these words of Jesus said, "This is truly the Prophet." Others said, "This is the Christ." But others said, "The Christ will not come from Galilee, will he? Does not Scripture say that the Christ will be of David's family and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?" So a division occurred in the crowd because of him. (Jn 7:40-53)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031624.cfm
The Fourth Gospel has no interest in Bethlehem nor in tracing David’s offspring through all the generations. Instead the gospel addresses the issue of where Jesus is from by declaring that Jesus comes from God (Jn 1:10). And to those who believe in his name, he has given the “power to become the children of God” (Jn 1:12). What is essential according to the Fourth Gospel is that we be born “from above” (Jn 3:3). And the Mother of Jesus tells us: "Do whatever he tells you" (Jn 2:5).
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Friday, Week IV, Lent
So they tried to arrest him, but no one laid a hand upon him, because his hour had not yet come. (Jn 7:1-2, 10, 25-30)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031524.cfm
What is this “hour” that the gospel speaks of? It is the hour of his glorification . . . the hour of his Passion when he is lifted up on the Cross and God’s redeeming love is revealed.
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Thursday, Week IV, Lent
“Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, and how you swore to them by your own self, saying, 'I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.’” (Ex 32:7-14)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031424.cfm
This scene is somewhat humorous, Moses having to remind God of the promises to the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Israel (Jacob). God remembers and relents. Perhaps we too need to remember.
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Wednesday, Week IV, Lent
But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me." Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you. (Is 49:8-15)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031324.cfm
Sometimes we overlook some of the most radical images of God that the Scriptures offer us. Today’s image of God as the tender, nursing mother is a prime example. Folks wanted to kill Jesus because as today’s gospel says: he “called God his own father, making himself equal to God.” Imagine what would have happened if Jesus had called God his own father AND mother!
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Tuesday, Week IV, Lent
The angel brought me, Ezekiel, back to the entrance of the temple of the LORD, and I saw water flowing out from beneath the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the façade of the temple was toward the east; the water flowed down from the right side of the temple, south of the altar. (Ezekiel 47: 1-9, 12)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031224.cfm
The vision of the prophet Ezekiel of the water flowing from the temple is the source of the famous Easter chant, Vidi Aquam. At the great feast of Easter as we renew the promises of our baptism, may we touch again the water flowing from the sanctuary and find healing.
