Fully Rely on God March 31

Piety

Let us pray.

Too often in life we do not fully rely on God. We ignore the Psalms which teach us that “You relied on the LORD--let him deliver you; if he loves you, let him rescue you.” Psalm 22:9.

Instead, we rely upon our paycheck or our savings account, if we have one. We rely on government programs or foundation funding to take care of us. We rely upon our home team to win its game. We rely upon the banks for loans to pay for the riches like the boats, motorcycles, and material things we don’t really need.

We rely upon the farmers to grow food for us and the “Giant” or the “Safe-way” stores to get it and sell it. We rely upon the oil companies to explore and drill for oil and gas for us that we can pump into our cars, lawn mowers, and chain saws. We rely upon television to be the center of our entertainment – delivering us the evils that we want to be delivered from – advertising more stuff to want, putting up modern “idols” to worship, and shocking us with images of the flesh.

Lord, St. Paul warns us that we have to die in the flesh to live in the Spirit. Help us to “die” a little today by denying some of these desires. When we share Christ’s death in the flesh, please help us to pursuit of a close moment with you through piety, study and action. Instead of the “safe way,” let us turn to the little way so you can rescue us. We do so because Christ is counting on us and we are counting on Christ. Amen.

Study

God offers to us sacred scriptures for today to read, to study and to hear.
You are invited to study and reflect on today’s readings:
http://www.usccb.org/nab/033106.shtml

Today in Wisdom, we read and hear of the persecution of the Just One, directly prophetic of the Passion and Death of Jesus. The Gospel reading from John tells of the rising tensions between the “crowd” and the “authorities” and Jesus as they debate during the Feast of the Tabernacles. As we close out the Fourth Week of Lent, we know that shortly this “debating” will escalating into the arrest of Jesus. But for today, the people can not literally lay a finger on Jesus because his hour has not yet come.

The line in John 7:30 “His hour has not yet come” is starkly reminiscent of the line in John 2:4 at the wedding in Cana – the second Mystery of the Light – where Jesus performed his first sign. When Mary approached him about the lack of wine, Jesus replied, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.” This gives me the sense that Jesus’ mother was telling him to get started. Mary has known since the anxiety of learning of her pregnancy in the Annunciation and then losing her son in the crowds only to find Jesus preaching in the temple as a youth that he had to be about the Father’s work. Today, when we hear the line in John 7, this is the beginning of anxiety that will mark the end of Jesus’ mission on earth.

It is more than symbolic that this debate occurred on the Feast of the Tabernacles. This is a reference to the Jewish Feast Day of Sukkoth, a tradition honored to this day by our Jewish sisters and brothers when they will erect tents or sheds or structures or booths (originally built to shelter harvesters). Other symbols of this feast are rain (water from Siloam poured on the temple altar) and lights (illumination of the four torches in the Court of the Women).[1] Notes in the NAB explain that the reference points to the continuing theme of Jesus as the way the truth and the life, as the “Light” and the “living water” replacing the feasts and symbols of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament.

Historically, Sukkoth commemorates the forty-year period during which the children of Israel were wandering in the desert, living in temporary shelters. Agriculturally, Sukkoth is a harvest festival[2] and may have been the Biblical harvest feast that the Pilgrims were enacting in the first Thanksgiving.

The Gospels at this stage are really stressing that Jesus was a counter cultural figure in his day. By that I mean that his teachings went against the grain of the local Roman authorities as well as those of most of the leaders in the Church. That doesn’t necessarily mean that Jesus is the hippy portrayed in most productions “Godspell.” However, it is hard to ignore the fact that Jesus challenged prevailing society and its views to believe and act according to those beliefs.

Action

Do something counter cultural today. Don't go out to some fancy restaurant. It’s a Friday in Lent so we are already aware of the need to abstain from red meat and eat lightly. Join others at a family friendly time of 6:15 pm on Fridays during Lent in Farrell Hall at St. MAry of Sorrows on Sideburn Road in Fairfax. Enjoy a simple meal of soup and bread and hear a brief talk about some of the ways the gospel is lived today. Stations of the Cross will follow at 7:30pm in the Worship Center.

Tonight’s talk is about Bob Laird and Jen Schiavone will give us information about the work of the Tepeyac Family Center in Fairfax, a Catholic ob/gyn practice that provides medical care to women regardless of their ability to pay.

The Tepeyac Family Center is named for a hill outside of Mexico City where over 460 years ago a 57 year old Aztec Indian, named Juan Diego, was on his way to Mass and heard the voice of a woman calling him by name in his native language. She identified herself as the ever virgin Mary, mother of the true God who gives life and maintains it. She asked Juan to go to the local Bishop and relay the message that she wanted a church built on Tepeyac Hill where previously there had been a temple to an Aztec mother goddess, and where thousands of humans were sacrificed to placate this and other deities.

On his third trip to the Bishop on the 12th of December 1531, Juan brought the sign the Bishop had asked for, Spanish Castillian roses, that he found at the direction of the Virgin on top of the frozen ground of Tepeyac Hill. She arranged the roses in Juan's tilma, or cloak, prior to the visit, and when they fell to the ground in the presence of the Bishop, all knelt in awestruck wonder at the image left on Juan's tilma. It is the heavenly portrait of the Mother of God -- Our Lady of Guadalupe -- with beautiful and delicate Indian features.[3]

(Those of you living closer to Arlington might drop by the Stone Soup Supper at Our Lady Queen of Peace, starting at 6:30 p.m. Tonight Fred Jones of the Arlington Food Assistance Network will talk on "The Face of Hunger in Arlington.")

(Even though we don't want to put too much reliance on the home team winning, you might offer some Palanca this weekend in support of Jim Larranega and Lamar Butler and the rest of the George Mason University Patriots. Now that all the Catholic universities (Villanova, Gonzaga, etc.) have neen knocked out, let's cheer on the school that symbolizes the counter cultural force in the Final Four -- counter to the culture of spending buckets of money at the major colleges and universities on their sports teams! Go Patriots! )


[1] http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/john/john7.htm#foot1
[2] http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday5.htm
[3] http://www.tepeyacfamilycenter.com/whytepeyac.asp