2nd Sunday of Lent, Year A

After six days Jesus took Simon Peter with James and his brother John and let them up a high mountain, where he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun and his clothing became white as light.

This Gospel, taken from Matthew 19:1-9, shows Jesus on his journey toward his suffering and death in Jerusalem. “His full adherence to God’s will,” said Pope Francis in 2015, “renders his humanity transparent to the glory of God, who is love.” Here is more of his talk:

Transfiguration, Alexandr Ivanov (1824)

Jesus thus reveals Himself as the perfect icon of the Father, the radiance of his glory. He is the fulfillment of revelation; that is why beside Him appear transfigured, Moses and Elijah appear; they represent the Law and the Prophets, so as to signify that everything finishes and begins in Jesus, in his passion and in his glory. 

Their instructions for the disciples and for us is this: “Listen to Him!” Listen to Jesus. He is the Savior: follow Him. To listen to Christ, in fact, entails taking up the logic of his Pascal Mystery, setting out on the journey with Him to make of oneself a gift of love to others, in docile obedience to the will of God, with an attitude of detachment from worldly things and of interior freedom. One must, in other words, be willing to “lose one’s very life” (cf. Mk 8:35), by giving it up so that all men might be saved: thus, we will meet in eternal happiness. The path to Jesus always leads us to happiness, don’t forget it! Jesus’ way always leads us to happiness. There will always be a cross, trials in the middle, but at the end we are always led to happiness. Jesus does not deceive us, He promised us happiness and will give it to us if we follow His ways.

With Peter, James and John we too climb the Mount of the Transfiguration today and stop in contemplation of the face of Jesus to retrieve the message and translate it into our lives; for we too can be transfigured by Love. In reality, love is capable of transfiguring everything. Love transfigures all!

1st Sunday of Lent, Year A

This first Sunday of Lent, as we begin our journey to the Paschal Mystery of Christ's Passion, Death and Resurrection, the Church gives us as the Gospel Matthew's account of Our Lord's temptation by the devil at the beginning of his public ministry. Here are some words on Luke's temptation account by Pope Francis:

Ash Wednesday, Year A

As we enter the time of Lent, we would like to share the message of Pope Francis given this Ash Wednesday, 2017. The full text is well worth reading and meditating on in the coming days.

All the faithful people are summoned to come and worship their God, “for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” (Joel 2:13).

We too want to take up this appeal; we want to return to the merciful heart of the Father. In this season of grace that begins today, we once again turn our eyes to his mercy. Lent is a path: it leads to the triumph of mercy over all that would crush us or reduce us to something unworthy of our dignity as God’s children. Lent is the road leading from slavery to freedom, from suffering to joy, from death to life. The mark of the ashes with which we set out reminds us of our origin: we were taken from the earth, we are made of dust. True, yet we are dust in the loving hands of God, who has breathed his spirit of life upon each one of us, and still wants to do so. He wants to keep giving us that breath of life that saves us from every other type of breath: the stifling asphyxia brought on by our selfishness, the stifling asphyxia generated by petty ambition and silent indifference – an asphyxia that smothers the spirit, narrows our horizons and slows the beating of our hearts....

Lent is the time to start breathing again. It is the time to open our hearts to the breath of the One capable of turning our dust into humanity. It is not the time to rend our garments before the evil all around us, but instead to make room in our life for all the good we are able to do. It is a time to set aside everything that isolates us, encloses us and paralyzes us. Lent is a time of compassion, when, with the Psalmist, we can say: “Restore to us the joy of your salvation, sustain in us a willing spirit”, so that by our lives we may declare your praise (cf. Ps 51:12.15), and our dust – by the power of your breath of life - may become a “dust of love.”

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

In today's gospel (Matthew 5:17-37), Jesus has strong words about anger and forgiveness: Whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. St. John Chrysostom, who pulled no punches in his homilies, has these powerful words to say, that sound suprisingly modern:

Crucifixion, drawing by St. John of the Cross

Christ gave his life for you, and do you hold a grudge against your fellow servant? How then can you approach the table of peace? Your Master did not refuse to undergo every kind of suffering for you, and will you not even forgo your anger? Why is this, when love is the root, the wellspring and the mother of every blessing?

If you refuse to forgive your neighbor’s offence your heavenly Father will not forgive your sins either. What does your conscience say when you repeat the words: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, and the rest? Christ went so far as to offer his blood for the salvation of those who shed it. What could you do that would equal that? If you refuse to forgive your enemy you harm not him but yourself.... 

Listen to the Lord’s words: If you are bringing your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and first go and be reconciled with your brother. Then come and offer your gift. What do you mean? Am I really to leave my gift, my offering there? Yes, he says, because this sacrifice is offered in order that you may live in peace with your brother. So if the attainment of peace with your neighbor is the object of the sacrifice and you fail to make peace, even if you share in the sacrifice your lack of peace will make this sharing fruitless. Before all else therefore make peace, for the sake of which the sacrifice is offered. Then you will really benefit from it.

5th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A

In a continuation of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells his disciples, You are the salt of the earth (Matthew 5: 13-16). Here are some words on this Scripture passage from Jean Mouroux's book, “The Christian Experience”:

Sermon on the Mount, Fra Angelico

This love of the neighbor means means bearing witness. Being a Christian means serving as Christ served, and with Christ. Christ’s essential service is the bringing of truth, salvation, joy. Christians must take part in this service, and this they do by bearing witness. There are two images that express one aspect of this Christian function. First, You are the salt of the earth. Like salt, Christians act by contact. The power of purity and faithfulness and charity that is in them elevates their life, saves it from egoism, and gradually delivers it up into God’s hands; it gives a spiritual savor to all their actions and makes them an agent of purification and preservation. 

Then, You are the light of the world. Like light, Christians act by presence. The light of faith, which produces every kind of good work dissipates prejudices, lightens the way, leads to God. It comes and awakens that power of desire and admiration and “graceful” action that slumbers in every Christian soul, and thus, by its mere presence, it causes us to glorify God. This gospel affirmation is complementary to another. We must never act so as to be noticed by human beings, but only to please God. The purer the intention, the deeper the inwardness of our acts, the more direct and detached will be our search for God and his kingdom—and the more will our light shine before all.

4th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A

Matthew tells us in the gospel this morning that Jesus went up onto a mountain and taught his disciples (Matthew 5:1-12). The Sermon on the Mount, as it's called, records his words: Blessed are the poor in spirit ... Blessed are the meek ... the merciful ... the pure in heart.... In one of this morning's long readings at Vigils, we hear part of a homily by St. Chromatius on this gospel:

Sermon on the Mount, Carl Bloch (detail)

Blessed are the peacemakers; they shall be called the children of God. You can see how great the merit of peacemakers is, when they are no longer called servants but children of God. This reward is fully justified, since the lover of peace loves Christ, the author of peace, to whom Paul the Apostle even gives ‘peace’ as a name: He is our peace, he says. Someone who does not love peace goes in pursuit of discord, for he loves its author, the devil. In the beginning the devil caused discord between God and the human race by leading the first man to violate God’s precept. The reason why the Son of God came down from heaven was to condemn the devil, the author of discord, and to make peace between God and the human race by reconciling its members to God and making God propitious to them.

We must therefore become peacemakers so that we may deserve to be called children of God. Without peace, we lose the name not only of children but even of servants, since the apostle says to us: Love peace, for without it none of us can be pleasing to God.

3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A

In today's Gospel (Matthew 4: 12-23), Jesus sees Simon Peter and Andrew fishing and says to them: “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” And “immediately they left their nets and followed him.” How amazing is that, and how much can we learn from their example? You have heard how, at a single command, St. Gregory the Great tells his congregation,

Calling of St. Peter and St. Andrew
ca. 1160, Sant Pere de Rodes monastery

Peter and Andrew left their nets and followed our Redeemer. They had not yet seen him work one miracle, or heard any mention of an eternal reward, and yet one word from the Lord was enough to make them forget all their possessions.

....But the perhaps someone is saying to himself: How much did these two fishermen give up at the Lord’s bidding? They had practically nothing! That maybe so, but in this matter what counts is motive rather than wealth. Those who keep nothing back for themselves give up much; those who abandon all they have, even if it is very little, give up a great deal. We, on the other hand, are possessive about the things we have and covetously try to obtain those we do not have. Peter and Andrew gave up a great deal because they gave up even the desire to possess anything.

Therefore let none of us who see other people giving up great possessions say to ourselves: I should like to imitate people like these who have such contempt for the world, but I have nothing to give up. You give up much if you give up the desire to possess. The Lord looks at your heart, not your fortune; he considers the love that prompts your offering, not its amount.