Justice on Earth

Monday of Holy Week

Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one with whom I am pleased, upon whom I have put my Spirit; he shall bring forth justice to the nations, not crying out, not shouting, not making his voice heard in the street. A bruised reed he shall not break, and a smoldering wick he shall not quench, until he establishes justice on the earth; the coastlands will wait for his teaching.  Isaiah 42:1-3

Then Judas the Iscariot, one of his disciples, and the one who would betray him, said, “Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days’ wages and given to the poor?” He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief and held the money bag and used to steal the contributions. John 12:4-6

Piety

I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORD in the land of the living.  Psalm 27:13

Study

We encounter Mary and Martha many times in the Good News.  In addition to the two stories in John’s Gospel, there is the story related only in Luke when Jesus visits them and Martha is doing all the serving.  When Martha complains, Jesus says, “There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” (Luke 10:42)

How happy Mary must have been when Jesus visits her today.  Her brother was dead and Jesus brought him back from the dead.  So Mary has chosen the better way again today when she anoints the feet of Jesus.   Yet, her actions are not met with universal acceptance.  This time, it is Judas, not Martha, who complains to the Lord about what Mary is doing.

However, we should not forget that burying the dead is counted among the corporal works of mercy.  “[Mary] has anticipated anointing my body for burial.” (Mark 14:8B) It might have been more acceptable to sell the perfume to get money to feed the poor.  Just as if it might have been more acceptable on Palm Sunday for Jesus to rebuke those who called him King. 

However, if we have learned anything in the five weeks of Lent, it might include that the Good News is not about doing what is popular or going along with the crowd.

Action

How will you show your counter-cultural love of the Lord in the land of the living? What is the most unpopular thing you have ever done to serve the Lord?

They Proclaimed; The Hour Came

Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion

They proclaimed: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He said in reply, “I tell you, if they keep silent, the stones will cry out!” Luke 19:38-40

Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  Philippians 2:6-8

When the hour came, he took his place at table with the apostles. Luke 22:14

Piety

It was now about noon and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon because of an eclipse of the sun. Then the veil of the temple was torn down the middle. Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit”; and when he had said this he breathed his last.  Luke 23:44-46

Study

Many attribute a certain poetic construction to the Gospel of John.  Luke, however, is not to be outdone in complex and revealing construction of the narrative of Jesus’ life and execution.  For example, the Jews of the day would be intricately familiar with the words of the Psalms they have memorized in their minds and hearts.  Words like Psalm 118: 26.  They would have sensed something changed when they heard: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”

Only in Luke’s Good News is Jesus explicitly given the title king when he enters Jerusalem in triumph. Luke has inserted this title into the words of Psalm 118.  “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD.”  HE becomes King by affirmation.

Jesus is thereby acclaimed as king with words spoken by the human crowd that hearken back to the words spoken by the angel to Mary at the Annunciation:  “He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke 1:32-33).

The entry into Jerusalem also signifies that Jesus is the one who comes.  That was the very question on the minds of John the Baptist’s disciples at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry: When the men came to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?’”  Luke 7:20

These careful phrases reinforce elements of the story that Luke has set down earlier.  Just like the words: “Peace in heaven and glory to God in the highest” echo the announcement of the angels at the birth of Jesus. 

While these critical elements reinforce the earlier narrative, the action takes a remarkable turn when the Pharisees confront Jesus. Throughout Luke’s story up to this point, every time Jesus performs miracles and signs, he instructs people to keep quiet.  Don’t tell anyone except the rabbi in the temple.  After healings, Jesus rebuked them and did not allow them to speak. 

When Jesus cleansed the leper, it was another case of keeping this under the cover of secrecy.  Then he ordered him not to tell anyone, but “Go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed;^* that will be proof for them.” (Luke 5:15)

Not today.  As Jesus enters Jerusalem to the cheers of the adoring crowd, the Pharisees want Jesus to rebuke those proclaiming his kingship.  Jesus refuses.  No longer does he want to avoid the confrontation with the rulers of Israel and Rome.  The time has come to proclaim what only the angels would sing at his birth. The time has come for the salvation to be accomplished here in Jerusalem.

Then, the hour came.

It was now about noon and darkness came over the whole land
until three in the afternoon because of an eclipse of the sun. Then the veil of the temple was torn down the middle. Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit”; and when he had said this he breathed his last.  Luke 23:44-46

A ministry that began when the Spirit descended upon Jesus in the desert ends as the spirit departs.  A ministry proclaimed that the spirit has anointed them in the desert, ends as the spirit ascends from the cross.  Jesus shows his heavenly authority by commanding the spirit into the hands of the Father.  Only He has final say over what happens.  Despite the arrest, the trial, the thorns, the nails, and the swords, the authorities tried to show their power over Jesus.  In the end, they had no power over Jesus or his spirit.   

Action

How has your Lenten preparation proceeded?  There remains one week left to fill your Rice Bowl, to gather your forty cans and forty Rosaries, and to perform whatever acts of mercy you have chosen.

No longer can we remain silent.  Jesus wants us to publicly proclaim the Good News as the powers that be attempt to silence his voice, our voices are needed to proclaim.  Our hour has come. 

In My Father’s House

Solemnity of Saint Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary

When your days have been completed and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, sprung from your loins, and I will establish his kingdom. He it is who shall build a house for my name, and I will establish his royal throne forever. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me.  2 Samuel 7:12-14A

When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he said to them.  Luke 2:48-50

Piety

Father show me where I fit into this plan of yours.
How can a man be father to the Son of God?
Lord for all my life I've been a simple carpenter.
How can I raise a king, how can I raise a king?

Michael Card - Joseph's Song Lyrics 

Study

We remember saints Patrick and Joseph at this time of March every year.  Ironically, for St. Patrick’s Day, several web sites I visited urged people to watch the John Ford-directed film The Quiet Man (starring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara) to see how Hollywood tried to overcome prejudice against the Irish.

The Quiet Man is an interesting title and it could be the subtitle to our solemnity today:  St. Joseph the Worker, aka The Quiet Man.  Because throughout the Gospels, St. Joseph utters not a single word that is quoted directly.

He appears numerous times but each story is recounted in the third person.  Angelic revelations.  Reverse Exodus back to Egypt.  New Exodus back to Palestine.  The encounter with Simeon and Anna.  Today’s Passover story of Jesus teaching in the temple.  Joseph had a role in each of the Joyful Mysteries yet he utters not a single Amen nor a Hallelujah. The Quiet Man.

[St. Joseph] ignores conventional mores and marries the pregnant Mary. He never says a word in the Gospels. He simply prayerfully follows the mysterious promptings of the Holy Spirit revealed to him in dreams. He risks his life and acts to protect Mary and the baby Jesus.[i]

The only way to know what is revealed to someone in their dreams would be if they told those dreams to a third person.  Who would that be?  Joseph sitting in a quiet barn awaiting the birth of Jesus confides in Mary that he had his own personal “Annunciation?”  A few weeks later, as Mary was strong enough to travel home with the Baby and the Magi gifts, Joseph tells her of his Second Annunciation – the second message he got from an angel to flee to Egypt?  Or maybe, taking a break from building a house with his apprentice son, they sit in the shade of a tree and the father shares those experiences with Jesus.

Our Quiet Man had to speak out.  But he did not have to shout out.  He could get the word out in simple one-on-one conversations.

Action

Where are you looking for Jesus today?  What do you expect to find?  Who will you tell about the experience?

Pray the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary today and reflect on what you would be thinking if you were St. Joseph in each scene.

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[i] http://ignatiansolidarity.net/blog/2016/03/18/day-39-st-joseph-quiet-man/

The Lord is Our Strength

Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent

By Colleen O’Sullivan

I hear the whisperings of many:  “Terror on every side!  Denounce! Let us denounce him!”  All those who were my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine. “Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail, and take our vengeance on him.”  But the Lord is with me, like a mighty champion:  my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph.   (Jeremiah 20:10-11a)

In my distress I called upon the Lord and cried out to my God; From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.  (Psalm 34:19-20)

The Jews picked up rocks to stone Jesus.  Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from my Father.  For which of these are you trying to stone me?”  The Jews answered him, “We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy.  You, a man, are making yourself God.”  (John 10:31-33)

Piety

Should we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil, for you are with us. (Adapted from Psalm 23)

Study

Lent is drawing to a close and so is Jesus’ time on earth as one of us.  Enemies lie in wait, trying desperately at every turn to arrest Jesus.  (Little do they know how easy it will be once Judas decides to betray his friend.)   For now, Jesus eludes their grasp and crosses the Jordan, where many who had heard John the Baptist witness about the One to come were gathered.  They realized that John had spoken the truth about Jesus.

Speaking the truth, stating that he was the Son of God won Jesus no friends in many circles.  Proclaiming the word of God caused the prophet Jeremiah to be denounced even by those who were close to him at one time.  Being faithful and doing the will of God may alienate us from family, friends and others.  In many places around the globe, the cost of discipleship is the very lives of followers of Christ.

How is it that Jesus kept going during the last few weeks of his life?  What prevented Jeremiah from throwing his ministry to the curb and doing something less dangerous?  What enables us to prevail in a society full of increasing numbers of people who call themselves “Nones” and a world where terror groups like ISIS would happily snuff us out in a heartbeat?

Psalm 18 provides some answers.  For all of us, from Jesus to you and me, the Lord is our strength, our rock, our fortress, our deliverer.  God is the rock of refuge we seek.  When we cry out to the Lord, he hears our voices.

Action

When you have some quiet time, prayerfully ponder your personal salvation history.  Look for the places where God has been the rock you relied on, your source of strength in times of trouble.  When have you cried out to the Lord and known you were heard?  I think this is a good way to remind ourselves how very much God loves us and to reaffirm our love for the Lord.  Knowing that we are so cherished and cared for is what enables us to persevere in the difficult times.

Glory Our God

Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent

By Beth DeCristofaro

When Abram prostrated himself, God spoke to him: “My covenant with you is this: you are to become the father of a host of nations. No longer shall you be called Abram; your name shall be Abraham, for I am making you the father of a host of nations. … God also said to Abraham: “On your part, you and your descendants after you must keep my covenant throughout the ages.”  (Genesis 17:3-5, 9)

Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is worth nothing; but it is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ You do not know him, but I know him. … Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM.” (John 8:54-55, 58)

Piety

http://www.carmelites.net/blog/gods-garden-march-4-2016/

Study

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  During Lent we have the opportunity again to consider what it means to be Christian.  Patrick, kidnapped and enslaved, found God and the audacity to proclaim Him in spite of want, fear and the wiping away of his identity.  Yesterday we heard the story of three Israelites thrown into a white-hot furnace because they refused to worship an idol.  And Abraham conversed with God!  Today’s Gospel shows us Jesus upbraiding the leaders for their hardness of hearts, their refusal to let the glory of God shine through their lives instead of basing their faith on public, shallow piety. 

These are hard acts to follow but there have been many examples of Christians who shine God’s glory in small but miraculous ways in my life.  I think first of my mom who celebrates her birthday today! She served as an RN, volunteers to this day but through it all she stayed in the background, quietly dispensing kindness and faithfulness.  I think of my loving husband who gave the ball cap off of his head to a cold homeless man.  Friends that surrounded and did not let a family faced with tragedy face it alone inspired me as did a divorced woman with whom I worked who provided round the clock care for her dying ex-husband.  A stranger harbored me with a safe place to sleep when I was briefly without shelter.  God’s glory round about.

Action

The glory of God humbles us yet uplifts us through Christ’s grace as we keep covenant.  Far from easy, the Beatitudes offer us an identity rooted in Christ’s love. Which Beatitude do you find most challenging?  The works of mercy offer us ways to practice walking beside Christ and letting God’s glory shine to everyone.

I Always Do What Is Pleasing to Him

Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent

By Melanie Rigney

… The people complained against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!” (Numbers 21:5)

O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you. (Psalm 102:2)

 

(Jesus told the Pharisees:) “The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him.” Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him. (John 8:29-30)

Piety

Lord, I know what is pleasing to You, but too often, I’d rather do what brings me pleasure in the moment. Help me to discipline myself… and obey.

Study

“Because I always do what is pleasing to him.”

I think about a recent day, and am all but ashamed to call myself a Christian.

It started before dawn with grumbling and complaining. A couple of good hours followed, then more complaining, seasoned with some sniping. A bit of gossiping came next, and then some whining. Some service and joy ensued, but they faded away in the face of judging, along with large dollops of crabbiness and crankiness.

And after all that, I wondered why I felt so tired and drained at the end of the day. It was plain as could be. I was a Pharisee. I was an Israelite. I had spent large swathes of my day pushing the Lord away, doing what I wanted in the moment rather than what I knew in my heart and soul would be pleasing to Him.

We hear all the time about the two greatest commandments: Love God, and love others as yourself. Great, challenging advice. But John reminds us today why we should follow it: because it’s pleasing to the Father, and what could be better than to please Him?

Action

Keep a journal today of your thoughts, words, and actions that are less than pleasing to the Lord. Resolve that tomorrow’s list will be shorter.

Have the Light of Life

Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent

“Are you such fools, O children of Israel! To condemn a woman of Israel without examination and without clear evidence?  Daniel 13:48

Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12

Piety

Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of the heart.

(Easter 1916 by William Butler Yeats)

Study

Coming on the heels of Sunday’s reading about the Woman Accused of Adultery, the image of Jesus as Merciful Judge is complemented by today’s passages.  Daniel shows how he foreshadows the wise judge by not only doubting the accusations against Susanna but also by trapping the accusers.  Susanna was pious and trained in the Law of Moses which means she knew the punishment for adultery.

We now have three consecutive examples of merciful judges withholding condemnation.  First, Nicodemus encouraged his fellow Pharisees not to pass judgment on Jesus without giving the Lord his day in court.  Then Jesus showed how he refused to condemn the woman accused of adultery.  Now, Daniel adds to the list of wise judges. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.  (John 3:17)

Jesus’ purpose is to save, but his coming provokes judgment; some condemn themselves by turning from the light.[i]  His presence also provokes mercy and forgiveness. 

Action

With the vigorous political debate going on, it is easy to jump from one accusation to another.  I have one friend who has declared a moratorium on participating in the political debate because things are getting to contentious. 

“Our nation seems to have lost a sense of the importance of cultivating friendships as fellow citizens who, being equal, share much in common,” Archbishop Blase Cupich said in a homily Saturday (March 12) at Old St. Patrick’s Church.

“Instead, our politics and public discourse are often marked by enmity and animosity,” he said.[ii]

“There is an overly competitive character that defines how we relate to one another, emphasizing what divides us rather than what we share in common,” Cupich said. “And because we do not value growing together, a cancer is developing that threatens to harm us all. Positions harden, progress is stalled, and it is becoming clear that the body politic is nearing the limits of how much suffering it can endure.”

Otherwise, he said, “When the common good of all is not the aim of society’s growth, whether that be in the economy, education, civil rights or civic participation, a cancer grows that damages the whole social body.”

We know that the political season will carry on through November and beyond.  In any political discourse, let us all seek to emulate the wise and merciful judges we have witnessed in the Good News these past three days.

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[i] http://www.usccb.org/bible/john/3#51003017-1

[ii] http://www.religionnews.com/2016/03/12/trump-chicago-cupich-2016-election/

Straining Forward

Fifth Sunday of Lent*

By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ

Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; See, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? In the desert I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers. Isaiah 49:18-19

Brothers, I for my part do not consider myself to have taken possession. Just one thing: forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God's upward calling, in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14

So he was left alone with the woman before him. Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She replied, "No one, sir." Then Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go, (and) from now on do not sin any more." John 8:9b-11

Piety
Piety considers everything that does not speak Christ from the heart a loss. Piety gives us a claim on holiness. Zero tolerance is such a poor reflection of the forgiveness of Christ that there is obviously something wrong with it. Paul accepted the loss of all things and even good things were looked at as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus as Lord. Even good things that capture our energy can be considered a loss if they keep us from focusing Christ with all our minds, hearts and souls. The terrible things that gave birth to the notion of zero tolerance are all that terrible. Treating people with zero tolerance is just as terrible. We have an awesome challenge in the way Christ treated the woman caught in adultery because it is so easy to condemn others for what we are not caught at. The notion of zero tolerance dirtied the Church more than we will perhaps ever be aware of because it mocks the charity of Christ who did not let off the hook those who wanted to stone the woman taken in adultery. When he told them that the one without guilt could cast the first stone, none of the bystanders could qualify as sinless. Christ who was without sin did not condemn her. Our piety to be as genuine as it needs to be in following Christ, will not allow us to be critical of others. Our piety if it will reflect Christ will not allow us to be a condemning person. Piety calls us to give everyone a chance to change. We can condemn the sin. We should not condemn the sinner until they have failed to take the chance to change. Our piety protects those who cannot defend themselves. Piety encourages sinners to change.

Piety allows us to see the good that can be found in anyone.   Paul holds everything that is not Christ as nothing. For him the supreme good is what is found in Jesus as our Lord and Master. The Woman that was caught in adultery is any one of us that looks deeply at self and sees not just the evil that we would not do, but also the good that we do not do. The Lord does not condemn us. We have a Lord that knows everything about us because he in his humanity has been alive to life.  He is like us in everything but sin. He takes our sin to himself.  Paul looks at his own life when he discovered that it was Christ he was persecuting when he was punishing Christians. He speaks about his own journey with powerful words. Piety is our being taken possession of by Christ.  We have no righteousness of our own based on the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ. We know Christ and the power of his resurrection. We share his suffering by being conformed to his dying by our prayer, fasting and good works. Conformed to his death we know we may attain the resurrection from the dead.  Our piety helps us to strive for what lies ahead, the prize of God’s upward calling in Christ Jesus. 

Study
Christ studied the Word of God we find in the Old Testament. So much of who Christ is, is portrayed in Isaiah. Christ is the Suffering Servant of Isaiah. Piety springs forth from the influence of Christ on our lives through the example he gives us of forgiveness in his life. Christ made a way in the desert. In wastelands he puts water for his chosen people to drink. Christ forms our piety that we might announce his praise to the world by the way we live our lives as a forgiving people. We study our lives to discover who we need to forgive. But we study our lives all the more to see whose forgiveness we need to ask for. Who have we condemned wrongly? Whose asking for forgiveness have we failed to respond to?

Because we have not attained perfect maturity which would be in living our lives completely in Jesus, we study the life of Christ to discover what more we can do to put on Christ. God loves us so much that we can never really understand what our creation means. He created us to have someone to love. He did not create us for what we would do in his name. He gives us his perfect love which is the birth of his son into our lives. The only limit on God’s love in our life is how imperfectly we love his son.   Jesus is the perfection of God’s love for us. He loved us so much he wanted to be one of us. We could not respond to such a love without Christ. Love goes toward union with the beloved. How conformed we are to Christ measures the perfection of our love for God. We cannot love the God we do not see if we do not love the neighbor we do see.   Our love of God takes us to union with Christ in all our neighbors. When we look at Christ we see what is possible to us. God gives us Christ to be the perfection of our love. When our search for Christ is over, we will know ourselves in the Christ we are called to be. Our study of Christ through our prayers and the scriptures teaches us what we need to do.

Action
By our goodness we gain Christ. Forgiveness belongs to the sufferings of Christ. What are the crosses of life that I run away from that if I take them up would allow me to be more a disciple of Christ? We have not yet attained to the maturity of Christ in us until we arrive at the Resurrection when we will become one with the Christ who calls us into his life and is the source of all forgiveness. There is no shortcut to the Resurrection. We have to be taken possession of by Christ. Forgiveness allows us to forget what lies behind and straining forward like Paul to what lies ahead, our forgiving actions continue our pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling in Christ Jesus. We pray “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive and we try to be a forgiving people that God may be free in the space of our forgiving to forgive us even more than we have been a forgiving people.

Action speaks louder than all our protestations of love of God. How we live like Christ is the perfection of the actions of our lives. We are his hands and his feet in our world today. Where our love guides us is the operation of the Spirit in our lives.   We pray that all our actions have their beginning in Christ. He would live through our love for one another. Like Paul, we have not already attained perfect maturity. But we keep on going that we may possess the love of Christ. By our love of him we can be his love for our world. We are called to heaven by living out our love of one another. Living with Christ, we rise with him.  There is no greater love than to give our lives for one another. Love makes our world go round. Love is God’s work in us.

*  This edition of Your Daily Tripod combines reflections originally Published on March 17, 2013 and March 21, 2010.

First Hear Him

Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Yet I, like a trusting lamb led to slaughter, had not realized that they were hatching plots against me: “Let us destroy the tree in its vigor; let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name will be spoken no more.”  Jeremiah 11:19

Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them, “Does our law condemn a man before it first hears him and finds out what he is doing?” They answered and said to him, “You are not from Galilee also, are you? Look and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”  John 7:50-52

Piety

Father, help us to put away our selfish pursuits and be the change that we seek in the world around us.  Jesus, only you can make us see clearly in the dim light of this world until we can see you in your perfection.  Holy Spirit, send forth the gifts of wisdom so we know what is right and good and true.  Amen.

Study

Nicodemus was likely a member of the Sanhedrin, the ruling council of the Jews.  We first encountered him under cover of darkness and in privacy.  He came to Jesus at night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you are doing unless God is with him.” (John 3:2)

There was a mustard seed of faith in Nicodemus.  He acknowledges that God must be with him in order to accomplish these signs.  While the encounter resonates, Jesus hardly gives Nicodemus a straight answer.  Whatever private emotions drew Nicodemus to Jesus at night now begins to see the light of day as Nicodemus emerges as a defender of Jesus.  While not ready to let Jesus off the hook for his behavior, Nicodemus acknowledges that Jesus deserves his proverbial day in court.  The irony here is that Nicodemus has already first heard him and found out what he was doing.  But, he is trying to bring more people into that direct encounter with Christ.

Nicodemus wants people to hear Jesus.  No matter what he does, there will be elements of Jesus’ ministry and works that no one will grasp.  “What I am doing, you do not understand now.” (John 13:7).  The light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light.  However, Nicodemus emerges into the light.  We will encounter Nicodemus one more time after the Apostles scatter and go into hiding.  Nicodemus will be at the foot of the cross, taking the body of Jesus to a proper burial -- turned fully to the corporal and spiritual works that we mark in this Year of Mercy.

Action

Beginning in December, each month the USCCB will feature Moments of Mercy that offer brief reflections on mercy and concrete suggestions of how we can live out the mercy that God offers us all.  These are perfect for busy days since they help us to slow down for just a few minutes and think about the gifts God has blessed us with and how we can share them.  Here is what they suggest for March:

Though we often think of the Sacrament of Penance as a highly individualized and private sacrament, we must not forget its communal dimensions. In this sacrament, we are not only reconciling ourselves with God but also reconciling ourselves with our community and the Church as a whole. Every time we sin, we distance ourselves from God and neighbor. We may not have sinned against a particular person, but when our relationship with God is broken, our relationships with others suffer since we no longer have God as our guiding light. This sacrament helps us renew our lives to be witnesses of the Good News of Christ and builds us up as members of the Body of Christ.

1. Invite somebody, perhaps someone from a small faith-sharing group at your parish or a friend, to go with you to a reconciliation service at your parish this month before the celebration of Easter.

2. Begin to make amends with someone you are in conflict with. A perfect resolution does not have to occur, but approaching the conflict with an attitude of mercy and compassion will help ease the tension and help you to look on this person with the love of God.

Faith No Guarantee of Affirmation

Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent

By Colleen O’Sullivan

The wicked said among themselves, thinking not aright:  “Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us; he sets himself against our doings…  Let us condemn him to a shameful death; for according to his own thoughts God will take care of him…”  These were their thoughts, but they erred; for their wickedness blinded them, and they knew not the hidden counsels of God; neither did they count on a recompense of holiness nor discern the innocent souls’ reward.   (Wisdom 2:1a, 20-22)

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.  Many are the troubles of the just man, but out of them all the Lord delivers him.  (Psalm 34:19-20)

Some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem said, “Is he not the one they are trying to kill?  And look, he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him.  Could the authorities have realized that he is the Christ?  But we know where he is from.  When the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.”  (John 7:25-27)

Piety

O Lord, grant us strength for the journey with your Son these last few weeks of Lent.

Study

So much about our Christian faith is paradoxical:  the first shall be last, the least shall be greatest, etc.  The writer in the Book of Wisdom portrays life as seen from the perspective of the godless.  He says that, in their eyes, good people are the despised of the world, simply because they are good.     Go figure.  People of faith are a scourge to them.  We annoy them, maybe because their way of life doesn’t look so good in comparison.    People with no faith complain that the ways of believers are different from everyone else’s.  I would hope so.  That’s how we Christians want it to be.  We don’t want to be conformed to the world.  We are trying to walk another path, the Way of the Cross, the Way of the Lord.

Faith, purity of heart, and goodness toward others don’t guarantee approval or support at all.  Often just the opposite, as witnessed by the brutal murder in Yemen less than a week ago of 16 people, including 4 Missionaries of Charity sisters, at a convent and nursing home they ran for the elderly and disabled.

Jesus would tell us in a heartbeat how it really is, because he knows firsthand.  In today’s Gospel reading, it’s the Feast of Tabernacles, but Jesus is reluctant to travel in Judea.  He has more to accomplish and there are people there trying to kill him.  He finally decides to follow his disciples to celebrate the Feast, but he goes in secret.  In Jerusalem, Jesus goes to the temple to teach.  When Jesus says where he has come from, the Father, people try to have him arrested. 

The good news in all of this is found in the psalm for today, “When the just cry out, the Lord hears them, and from all their distress he rescues them.  Many are the troubles of the just man, but out of them all the Lord delivers him.”  We are not alone.  God is always with us.  Jesus is ever at our side.   I’d rather be rooted in Christ than place much trust in the ways of the world.  Pick up a newspaper, turn on the news.  The world can be an ugly place at times.

Action

Almost eleven years ago, I made my Cursillo weekend.  When I told my family I would be away and what I was doing, you would have thought I had announced I was joining a bizarre cult.  Relatives and friends of my mother who had never called me before were on the phone wanting to know what this “Cursillo thing” was all about.   According to one family member, I was becoming “too fervent” in my faith.  Now I can laugh about the family “crisis” caused by my desire to unite with other Cursillistas in proclaiming the Gospel and to grow in my faith, but at the time it didn’t seem so funny.  Sometimes even our families are part of the tug of war between the ways of the world and the Way of Jesus.

There are always going to be people trying to pull us away from what we know to be good and true, our faith in God.  When have you experienced this?  How did the Lord deliver you, as the psalmist put it?

Place Your Hope in Me

Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent

By Beth DeCristofaro

But Moses implored the LORD, his God, saying, “Why, O LORD, should your wrath blaze up against your own people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with such great power and with so strong a hand? … 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; and all this land that I promised, I will give your descendants as their perpetual heritage.’“ So the LORD relented in the punishment he had threatened to inflict on his people. (Exodus 32: 11, 13-14)

Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father: the one who will accuse you is Moses, in whom you have placed your hope. For if you had believed Moses, you would have believed me, because he wrote about me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” (John 5:45-47)

Piety

May God lead us along the path that leads to boundless joy through Christ who shares life with us.  Amen. (“Give us this Day: Daily Prayer for Today’s Catholic” March 2016, p. 81)

Study

The Scribes and Pharisees challenging Jesus would certainly know the stories and lessons in Exodus well.  They must have reeled back, aghast, when Jesus declared Moses would testify against them.  Moses, their ancestor in faith and rescuer of their people, saved the fickle Israelites again and again by standing up to God and holding up God’s covenant to His divine face in their defense.  Jesus tells the leaders that they are not to be defended in the hardness of their hearts.

How can I guard against my heart slowly calcifying under boredom, neglect, complacency, false piety?  Fr. Joe, who inspired so many of us with his compassion and wise sayings, gave me words to ponder and I am grateful.  Fr. Joe reminded our 119^th Women’s team in 2004 that friendship needs equality to flourish.  But how can we possibly find equality with Jesus?  He reminded us that God gave us equality by giving us His Son, Jesus.  Jesus is one of us and as one of us we are graced to hold within us a divine indwelling of Christ.  Should we accept and nourish this friendship we radiate that divine indwelling to the world.  It is against this grace, Jesus tells the temple leaders, that they hardened their hearts.    

Action

Cursillo’s Piety, Study and Action tripod are practices to help us be more open to and channels for the divine presence but neither the Temple practices of Jesus’ time nor of ours trumps us continually opening and giving away our hearts and wills to Jesus.  As Fr. Joe asked us then to honestly consider:  “God’s friendship is an obstacle to my (what?) which I refuse to renounce?”  And “In what ways do I obstruct God’s friendship?”

May you Rest in the peace of the Lord and pray for us until the Kingdom comes, Fr. Joe McCloskey.

The Will of the One Who Sent Me

Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

In a time of favor I answer you, on the day of salvation I help you; and I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people, To restore the land and allot the desolate heritages, Saying to the prisoners: Come out! To those in darkness: Show yourselves! Along the ways they shall find pasture, on every bare height shall their pastures be. They shall not hunger or thirst, nor shall the scorching wind or the sun strike them; For he who pities them leads them and guides them beside springs of water.  Isaiah 48:8-10

“I cannot do anything on my own; I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me.”  John 17:30

Piety

Jesus answered and said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, a son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees his father doing; for what he does, his son will do also.  John 5:19

Study

The notes on today’s reading remind us that the proverb or parable at John 5:19 is taken from apprenticeship in a trade: the activity of a son – any son but certainly this carpenter’s son – is modeled on that of his father. Jesus’ dependence on the Father is justification for doing what the Father does.

The Father is at work.  The Son is at work.  All the complaining that the Pharisees did about the cures on the Sabbath, Jesus refuted in two sentences.  While Jesus does claim authority, it is not on his own but only by surrendering his will to the will of the Father like Mary did at the Annunciation and Nativity. 

Isaiah reminds us of the “pastoral” imperatives.  Restore the land.  Free the prisoners.  Feed the hungry.  Protect those who are homeless from the winds and sun.  Like the Good Shepherd, he guides us to springs of refreshing water.  However, the reminder in the New Testament is that this work does not stand on its own.  This work has intrinsic value when we care for other out of love.  It has eternal value when we also care for others out of faith.

Action

As we continue on our path through the scorching wind and sun of the last two weeks of Lent, Jesus reminds us that our action is not an end but a means of growing closer to God by serving the children of God.  We, too, are children of God and we must depend as much on the Father as Jesus did. Thus, action without piety is called social work not evangelization.

Are you filling up a CRS Rice Bowl with your treasury and your prayers?

Are you donating 40 cans and 40 rosaries for Lent?

Tie your alms giving to your prayer life in some way to give it added meaning as the days of spring get longer and the warmth of the sun gets stronger.

Note: In the Monday edition of Your Daily Tripod, the lyrics of “How Can I Keep from Singing?” were attributed to the wrong writer.  While Pete Seeger has performed and adapted the song, the words and music are by Ro­bert Low­ry, 1860. He wrote about 500 Gospel tunes and the 190^th anniversary of his birth is this Saturday.  Happy birthday, Rev. Lowry.  My apologies. As always, the errors in Your Daily Tripod are all mine. Thanks to our loyal readers for keeping a watchful eye.

Be Made Fresh

Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

By Melanie Rigney

(The angel told Ezekiel:) “Wherever the river flows, every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live, and there shall be abundant fish, for wherever this water comes the sea shall be made fresh.” (Ezekiel 47:9)

The Lord of hosts is with us; our stronghold is the God of Jacob. (Psalm 46:8)

Jesus said to (the sick man), “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.” Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked. Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who was cured, “It is the sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” He answered them, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’” They asked him, “Who is the man who told you, ‘Take it up and walk’?” The man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away, since there was a crowd there. After this Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him, “Look, you are well; do not sin any more, so that nothing worse may happen to you.” The man went and told the Jews that Jesus was the one who made him well. Therefore, the Jews began to persecute Jesus because he did this on a sabbath. (John 5:8-16)

Piety

Rain Your love down on me, Lord.

Renata Sedmakova
Shutterstock.com

Study

When the angel took Ezekiel back to the temple entrance, water was trickling. After the angel measured off a distance, the water was ankle-deep. Another measure, knee-deep. Another measure, waist-high; another measure, it had turned into a river.

God’s goodness can feel that way as well… starting off small, then, as we open ourselves up and become more receptive to His grace, we find ourselves awash in love so strong and overpowering that it’s like nothing we’ve ever known before, even if we thought we had embraced Him before. Sometimes it’s an angel who opens the spigots to the greater outpouring… sometimes it’s the study of scripture or Sacred Tradition… sometimes it’s someone in our lives.

Consider the case of the sick man in today’s Gospel reading. His physical ailments were cured, but his concern for himself was greater than his gratitude. Amid questioning by the authorities about the healing taking place on the sabbath, he was unwilling or unable to simply slip away as Jesus had. The man was still healed. But I suspect he felt the spigot of grace in his soul slow down to a trickle, just as we do when we focus on potential consequences of following the Lord in this world, rather than on the joy it brings us. May we continually open ourselves and our souls… and go with His flow.

Action

Do something silly today that involves water. Maybe it’s taking a long shower and singing your favorite hymn at the top of your lungs. Maybe it’s splashing about and praying out loud as you wash the dishes.