Do we hear what the prophets say?

Saturday of the Second Week of Advent
Gospel: Mt 17:9a, 10-13
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121325.cfm

In Matthew 7:20, Jesus says, “By their fruits you will know them.” Jesus was speaking about how you can determine who is a false prophet and who is a true prophet, by what fruit they produce. Sometimes you need to wait a while or know where to look to see the fruit because prophets don’t control how their message will have an impact

Each of us still has a free-will which means, even if someone shares God’s message, people still have the freedom to go against it. And often, with prophets, the message is received by unlikely sources, mostly those on the fringe of society and oftentimes at the expense of the elites. Part of the prophets message normally is a leveling of the playing field. One group isn’t being chosen over another, but it’s a matter of who is willing to respond and receive the message. When we’re in a position of thriving, why would we change? If we are comfortable with or have accepted the status quo, there is uncertainty and risk with change. But, when our suffering is great, we’re more open to hearing and responding to a message of hope?

This is Jesus’s message in today’s gospel. John the Baptist was the new Elijah who came to restore all things, but the people did not listen to him. They continued to maintain their regular life without any significant change. They disregarded his message and went on their way. We know that some people did, but not the masses of people that should have. If they allowed God’s intention to come to fruition, it would have been so much more, but not everyone heeded and truly heard the message. Jesus predicted that his experience would be the same. God’s intention with Jesus was so much more than what came into being, but they didn’t let it come to fruition. Jesus didn’t need to die for our sins. Jesus was always bringing salvation to all regardless of if he was crucified or not; yet, those of Jesus’s time and society decided to have him killed. It makes me wonder what we’d do with Jesus today, and I’m afraid that the result would still probably be the same, but I hope more people would truly hear and respond to the message firsthand. 

God didn’t intend for his son to be killed, we killed him. We killed our savior. While a prophecy was fulfilled, it was not the intention of the action. The prophecy existed because we were not yet what we needed to be, not that it was God’s intention for it to be that way. God wanted to be surprised. God wanted the prophecy to not come true. God hoped for more from us, so God still took the chance anyway.  When we recognize God’s attempts, it allows us to see that we’re not there yet. Such observations have the potential for repentance, or transformation. God keeps trying in hopes that we’ll wake up to it and change. God will keep giving us the means and ways even if we’re going to reject it. When will we all learn to take God up on it? When will we surprise God by responding to the call?

Mary and Elizabeth

Friday of the Second Week of Advent
Gospel: Lk 1:39-47
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121225.cfm

Mary didn’t have to fully go it alone. While a miracle happened to her with the conception of Jesus, so had her relative, Elizabeth, had a miracle conception with pregnancy as well. With the way Luke tells the story, it is almost instantaneous that Mary decides to journey to Elizabeth. While a miracle happened to her, she was eager to celebrate Elizabeth’s miracle with her. Through this experience, they were brought closer.

Think of their spirituality! They were faithful and loyal to God and accepted with humility the role they were to play in their own personal journey. That said, they revere each other in what is happening to them. Mary travelled all that way to see Elizabeth, and Elizabeth recognized how blessed Mary is. They didn’t lose themselves in their own experience, but looked to celebrate the experience of each other.

In recognizing Mary, Elizabeth called out that Mary is blessed among women, that her child was blessed, and that she was blessed for her belief that what was told to her would be fulfilled. In other words, she was blessed in herself, blessed through her relationship, and blessed through her faith/action. Her blessedness was innate, relational, and active. I believe we have it in all of us, and God wants it to come to fruition.

Both of them accepted that, with God, it will all work out. They may not know the details or how it will all be done, but they trust in God’s providence that they will have what they need. As God put trust in Mary and Elizabeth, God puts trust in us to fulfill our role. May we, like them, find the faith and trust to return to God that which was already given to us.

A step in history

Thursday of the Second Week of Advent
Gospel: Mt 11:11-15
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121125.cfm

God wants us to progress through history. The child may inherit the sins of the parent or carry forward the trauma from previous generations, but God wants the arch of history to be the progress of humankind to the Kingdom of God. A lot can be accomplished in a generation as a lot can also be set back, but God is always at work pushing it all forward. 

In today’s gospel, Jesus comments about John the Baptist that no one is greater than he, but that he is the least of those in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus is speaking to our continued growth throughout history. He also says that during his present moment in history, the kingdom is suffering great violence. He recognized the struggling power dynamics, to include the binary dynamics between people (the clean and unclean, the Samaritan and the Jew, those in positions of power and those without), were keeping the kingdom from coming together. Jesus saw the need for there to be a paradigm shift, and his call was to bring about such change.

That change he drove was not instantaneous, and only realized by a select few during his time. We are still reflecting and learning from it today. His life and its impact has been a catalyst for a change to the good. One that, at times, has sadly been misunderstood and used to justify the very power dynamics and separations of people that his message was trying to fix. Our prayer should be that we do our part to successfully progress the kingdom, knowing that it could be fully realized at any moment or it could also take time for it to fully reveal itself. We must do our part in the eternal dance hoping and praying, that if not in our time, those after us will continue the progress forward.

Finding peace

Wednesday of the Second Week of Advent
Gospel: Mt 11:28-30
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121025.cfm

We are a society that has a bias for action and hard work. We find our value through what we produce. Our society is driven by a competitive nature. We have a tendency of seeing the world as a place of winners and losers. We are entertained by spectating and participating in sports and other competitive games. Even the way we market and sell products drives us to have a sense of missing out or that we’re better than others given the products or brands we associate ourselves with. We are always comparing ourselves to others. We downplay the successes of others to make ourselves feel better. We celebrate the failures of our competitors. We live in a state of comparative analysis where we’re always ranking, rating, and positioning ourselves and our group with others.

How great would it be to do what you want to do without it being referential! Do we even know what we want without being referential? Can we even break from our sense of obligation or competition? Can we move past self-preservation or our fear of missing out?

In today’s gospel, Jesus speaks of there being another way. We can leave all of this dog-eat-dog. It is in following this call of Jesus that one finds a yoke that is easy and a burden that is light. It is our judgments that bring us down, not the work or labor. By becoming humble and meek, we find peace.

Unredeemable

Tuesday of the Second Week of Advent
Gospel: Mt 18:12-14
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/120925.cfm

In today’s gospel, we learn that God desires to not leave anyone behind. No matter how lost anyone is, God is searching for a way to reach that person. Think of all the people that you personally believe to be unredeemable or unlovable. Think about all the people we as a society believe are unredeemable. There are a lot of people who take advantage of their power. There are people who seek the demise of others or cause pain to others. There are people who have turned their back to God and others. No matter how heinous the person, God still desires them as part of the flock.

Yes, we can look at the world and see a lot of evil. As we do, we need to remind ourselves that God wants to save it all. If we have any desire for the damnation of others, we must remember that God doesn’t. For this reason, such desire separates us from God as it goes against God’s will. During this season, let’s find a way to be like God by seeking redemption and salvation for those we may hate or find difficult to love. 

Move beyond your ego

Monday of the Second Week of Advent
Gospel: Lk 1:26-38
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/120825.cfm

God seeks to work through all of us, but it’s through those who are truly humble and devout that God’s love is consistently expressed. Our egos get in the way. We can have too low of an image of ourselves or too high. Most of the time, we don’t even realize that we’re doing it. Our ego can drive us to catastrophizing or to thinking that we’re one of the few that knows better than everyone else. We can put full certainty in our world view and not leave space for any doubt or challenge, or we can be overly doubtful. We can believe that we’re the one who needs to provide and care for others or overly lean on the support of others. We can exclusively focus on protecting what we have from the threat of others, or we can be overly generous out of a sense of obligation or to earn the love and attention of others. We can see ourselves as worthless and not try, or not try because we’re afraid that failure will disprove the value we put in ourselves. We all subscribe to these different ways of thinking. Some of us may subscribe more exclusively to certain ones over others, and others of us may bounce around them.

In today’s gospel, Mary provides a good example of going beyond these ego-limited ways of thinking by aligning her will with God’s. She was humble and devout with the trust she put in God. When Gabriel first greeted her, she was confused by the angel’s words. It was hard for her to conceive of the concept of being full of grace, but then she accepted that God has favor with her. God’s favor is God’s emotion, not her own. She accepts God’s perspective of her but still questions the practicality of the situation. Once the angel explains further, she accepts her role fully in the divine dance.

I don’t know about you, but, if I’m being honest with myself, there is a strong part of me that finds it difficult to truly say the words of Mary. The last thing I’d ever want to do is be a servant to anything or give my will up to even God. My own will is where I find my identity and my worth. I even keep my concept of God limited to my perspective, when God is always wanting to show and reveal more. 

I am constantly looking at God and saying, “I got this.” But, in truth, I’ve got absolutely nothing without God. Even that part of me that says “I got this” isn’t even possible without God. Our egos are a means of deceiving ourselves and simplifying the narrative to simply being our own, but there is always a bigger narrative with God. To be part of that narrative, we need to accept the fact that there is always more which means we need to be comfortable with our own personal doubt and perspective while we also place our trust in God who will continue to be further revealed to us. It’s not an unknown to be feared, but a mystery to be enjoyed. Open up your heart and mind to let God work through you, don’t close God out with the certitudes of your own will regardless of your intentions. Like Mary, get past your personal intentions and let God in.

The ax and the fan

Second Sunday of Advent
Gospel: Mt 3:1-12
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/120725.cfm

John was preparing a way for the Lord by giving people an opportunity to repent. Repentance is more than just deciding to not do evil anymore. It’s recognizing that one’s actions have consequences and negative impacts on oneself, others, and the world to such an extent that they desire change and seek transformation. John was trying to awaken the people of his day to repentance. 

In his interaction with religious leaders, he shows how they’ve been corrupted by power with the justification that they were the people chosen by God. John even has the audacity to say to them that God can make anything chosen. John goes on to highlight the systematic impacts through the images of a brood of vipers and a tree awaiting to be cut down and thrown into a fire. The image of the brood of vipers is a symbol of the institutional power held by the religious authority and the tree showcases the generational sin. These institutional and generational systems, John preaches, will be destroyed with the coming of the Messiah.. 

For individuals, though, there is redemption. People are like plants meeting the harvester. The harvester with a winnowing fan separates the grain from the chaff. The harvester then clears out the chaff, stores the grain, and burns off the chaff. When John speaks of the people, he is including the religious leaders as well. They have the ability to be transformed like everyone else. While the systems they have benefited from and willingly contributed to lead to the downfall and struggles of many, they too are redeemable by God. The Messiah will take away ours and their worthless parts so that only our good fruit remains. 

We, like the Pharisees and Sadducees, give ourselves over to institutional and generational sin. We justify it because it’s just how it is or just how it’s always been. It’s hard to recognize our contribution when we all share in it. We also have systematic ways to keep ourselves asleep and numb from recognizing and seeing the impacts of these systems we created. That’s why we must awaken to it. 

Prophets like John were trying to shine a light into the overlooked darkness of their times. They were showing their communities that we have to accept accountability for our actions and let that accountability transform us. We need to critique the systems we take for granted and examine the impacts of the systems we’ve put in place so that we can transform them for the betterment of all. It’s not replacing one system for another, but truly transforming it into something different, something whole.

God is calling all of us to redemption and transformation, oppressors and oppressed alike.

All in the design

Saturday of the First Week of Advent
Gospel: Mt 9:35–10:1, 5a, 6-8
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/120625.cfm

This is the second time during this advent season that the gospel of Matthew states that Jesus was moved to pity. While the previous reading was later in the gospel (Mt 15:29-37), they both showed how Jesus was moved by his time shared with us. He was problem solving from what he was observing. He was responding to his feeling of empathy towards his fellow people. It’s as if creation and human community are coded to the divine.

In becoming man, Jesus gave up on having all the answers. His experience of the world, his experience of us, led him to what he needed to do. In the previous “pity” gospel, he felt empathy because he didn’t want the people to go hungry. In today’s gospel, he feels empathy because, as one man, he would not be able to address the needs of everyone. In Jesus’s divinity, he could have just satiated the hungry crowd or miraculously given the second crowd a sense of belonging and well-being to rid them of being troubled and abandoned, but this is not how God works. God gives us free-will and works within creation. 

Creation is like a board game and God is the game designer. What good is it to create rules to a game to only break them because you can? Each player has the ability to make their own decisions within the limits established within the game’s design. In Jesus, God was one of us, so he played by the rules of the game. God, while infinite, chose not to be infinite in Jesus, but to be one within the design. God wants God’s creation to find its salvation through its design. For this reason, we are all created in God’s image and can help others discover that image for themselves.

All of us, at times, feel that we are lost and abandoned and need others to help shepherd us. We also have the capacity within us to lead others. We are both shepherds and sheep. Likewise, we are both laborers and the harvest. Jesus is calling us all to be laborers. In tough times, the laborers may be few, but good labor inspires more good labor. Over time, this pattern will lead us to a plentiful harvest. As we continue to bear fruit, we help others do the same. We build real community through participating in the divine. We, likewise, participate in the divine through building real community.

Miraculous encounter

Friday of the First Week of Advent
Gospel: Mt 9:27-31
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/120525.cfm

I often heard that Jesus didn’t want to share his miracles because he didn’t want to get in trouble with the religious leaders, but throughout the gospel, Jesus is always being questioned and accused by them. Maybe Jesus didn’t want his healings to be advertisements or a means for him to build notoriety or acclaim. He wanted his message to stand on its own. The message he had to share was beyond his miracles. There was a deeper truth the miracles themselves might distract from.

Not just that, but if Jesus wanted the miracle shared, it devalues the gift for the individual. Each miracle was for the person receiving the miracle, not to drive his greater narrative. The miracle was something sacred between Jesus and the person being healed. Jesus wasn’t doing the miracles to prove his divinity to others, he was performing them to heal the person in need. The miracles were performed out of care for the individual. They were intimate encounters between the person and the divine. 

Jesus also gives the people being healed the credit for the miracle. He would say it was their faith that healed them, Jesus was a conduit for their faith. Jesus wanted their participation.

God seeks a similar encounter with us. We are not a means to an end for God, we are an end. God cares for each of us individually. We are each loved as the unique creation we are. God simply wants us to reach out and participate.

Not all who say, “Lord, Lord”

Thursday of the First Week of Advent
Gospel: Mt 7:21, 24-27
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/120425.cfm

The kingdom of heaven is for those who participate in it. Jesus is calling us to be followers which goes beyond calling out to God in one’s time of need or for praise and worship. It is easy to call out to God in one’s suffering or praise God for answered prayers. In a way, these interactions are transactional. We call out because we want God to do something, and we praise God because we believe God did something. 

Every relationship will have some form of transactions within it from time-to-time, but  good and healthy relationships are more than that. Good relationships require us to know each other on a deeper level, empathize with each other’s struggles, learn and grow together, help each other in our time of need, enjoy each other’s company, and give each other grace through established trust.

To be a follower of Jesus cannot be a strict adherence to a purity code. God is not counting your sins for divine retribution. Sin is sin because it separates us from God and puts a distance between us and others. It’s not about the action but what it does to us. We can still distance ourselves from God while strictly following the law. God’s grace is not earned, it is freely given.  

God doesn’t ask us to be worshipped in return for grace or answered prayers that would be transactional. God’s grace is given out of love without the expectation of anything in return. Our gratitude is a means of recognizing what has been done, and so is being a good steward with what’s been given. Gratitude and stewardship are not actions that elevate your place with God but are the responses of a person in the right relationship. 

To do God’s will is to act in the same manner, and Jesus summarizes it simply by stating love your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. It’s not done by a scorecard of where there are measurements of how much you loved or didn’t love. The love is known and observed through the types of relationships you have with yourself, God, and others. 

A time for healing

Wednesday of the First Week of Advent
Gospel: Mt 15:29-37
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/120325.cfm

After healing the sick for three days on a mountain, Jesus is moved to pity with the idea of the crowd having gone hungry. The blind were given sight. The lame walked. The deformed were made whole. The mute spoke. But what good is all this healing, if some of them were left to starve or collapse or their journey home? With empathy, Jesus was not only compelled to heal members of the crowd but was concerned about their nutrition for their upcoming travels.

The passage doesn’t say anything about Jesus preaching during this time. He was living the gospel, not speaking the gospel. He was gathered there with the people for healing. He didn’t perform this healing in the city or the temple but on a deserted mountain. We all need our time away from the hustle of life for healing. In these times, we must also learn to trust that God will take care of needs as with the loaves and fishes in today’s gospel. God doesn’t want us to do it alone; God wants us to do it together. As we need God, we also need each other. We all have a purpose and a need for each other. No person is truly alone and everyone needs their time for rest. We all have our times to lead and our times to follow; our times when we perceive a sense of control and our times when we do not.

This gospel shows the power and the impact of empathy. Empathy gives us the drive to take care of others as it gives others the drive to take care of us. It’s not the greater ones who are empathetic to lesser ones, but that we’re all equal. We all have times where we need assistance. It is pride that makes us want to go it alone. It is pride to always be the one to give. Even Jesus accepted gifts, grace, and, yes, even handouts from others. He took free meals from others without a need to compensate as he was also the one to make sure others were fed and healed. He did not always need to be the giver but accepted his responsibility when it was his time. May we this season learn to do the same and accept our fate at times to provide for others as we also embrace the times when others provide for us.

A childlike understanding

Tuesday of the First Week of Advent
Gospel: Lk 10:21-24
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/120225.cfm

To see and know God is to go past our own certitudes and understandings. As we age, we develop our own theories about reality. We develop an understanding of how things work, causes and effect, and judgments about the world and others from our experiences. While this is natural and a good thing that keeps us safe, it also has a negative side that can lead to presumptions, prejudice, and false value judgments. We eventually develop certitude in our theories that create our worldview. 

The longer we hold our worldview, the more we have to lose by changing it. When we get challenged, we can easily fall trap to confirmation bias, anchoring bias, sunk cost fallacy, gambler’s fallacy, and false causes to name a few. We put these biases and fallacies in place to protect our egos from being wrong. This happens to us on a personal, group, and societal level. With social media, we have echo chambers that reinforce these views and polarize us into different groups bound to others by similar worldviews, biases, and fallacies while excluding others who don’t belong. 

God is always seeking to transform us and see beyond our presumptions and our limited views. If we make a significant change, we risk our ego being shattered. Oftentimes it takes great suffering or great love for us to be willing to change. But when we are young, we are more open to change. We are still moldable and have become less rigid in our ways and our practices. We are open to new experiences and take them in with new eyes. This is why Jesus calls us to be more childlike. He is challenging us to see with eyes that are not tainted by our preconceptions and false conclusions. Don’t worry, we’re in good company with the likes of prophets and kings who similarly faced these limitations, but God desires more for us. God wants us to fully see beyond our limited views.

God’s love is universal

Monday of the First Week of Advent
Gospel: Mt 8:5-11
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/120125.cfm

In today’s gospel, we learn of a centurion who has legions of people who look up to him and serve him. He has a lot of merit according to earthly standards. As compared to others, he has no need for want. The centurion does not see himself as worthy to receive Jesus. He has come to Jesus on behalf of one of his servants. For this, Jesus recognizes his faith. He may not fit the attributes of one needing salvation, but Jesus gives it to him anyway. 

The gospel Jesus is sharing is universal. It is not limited to certain types of people, races, personality, classes, traditions, or locations. While we often speak of this, it’s truly a challenge for us to fully embrace. Even our enemies are children of God. God does not exclude, we exclude. Everyone was created in the image of God. God is seeking them out as much as God is seeking us out. God’s grace is not merit-based, it cannot be earned. We create measures for ourselves to define our worth, or our lack of worth, and the value, or lack of value, we put on others. Everyone is in need of salvation; God is always willing to redeem, even if we are not.

God is a thief…

First Sunday of Advent
Gospel: Mt 24:37-44
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/113025.cfm

Today is the first day of Advent; the season preparing us for the coming of Jesus; the moment when the creator becomes the created. To kick off this season, we have today’s gospel. In this gospel, Jesus speaks of the coming of the son of man as being like the flood or a thief in the night.

Jesus provides different images of people keeping up with their day-to-day activities. He speaks of eating and drinking, marrying and being given to marriage, working in the fields, milling, sleeping. In the midst of all these activities, something miraculous is going on. Something truly transformational could be occurring just under the surface, but goes unnoticed. The divine encounter could be happening to us at any moment, but we stay lost in our daily activities. This experience of God is not limited to a time or place but is always around us and has the potential to be noticed and participated in.

Twice in this gospel, Jesus provides an alternative to us being lost in the stupor of our activities by telling us to remain awake.  We have the capacity to see beyond the repetitions of human endeavors to the greater truth that is at play. For our egos, the divine encounter is like a thief in the night. God steals the false securities, pretenses, and foundations we maintain for ourselves so that they can become something more. God, in every moment, is revealing truth and beauty, but we must keep ourselves awake to see it. Transformation is difficult so it is easy for us to overlook. Even change for the better is a risk as it takes us into the unknown, beyond our current certitudes.

Through this season, may we open ourselves up more to this divine encounter. May we see beyond the monotony of our daily lives to encounter the living God who is always and actively transforming the world around us.

Easter Morning Sonnet

The Resurrection of the Lord: The Mass of Easter Day
Easter Vigil Gospel: Luke 24:1-12
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041925.cfm

As the morning sun peered over earth’s crest,
Three women traveled to Jesus’s tomb.
With ointments, they would have his body blessed,
But the spot was empty with spring in bloom.

With the stone rolled away, they entered in
And did not find the body of their Lord.
As their puzzlement started to begin, 
Two men in dazzling white garments moved toward.

"Why do you seek the living with the dead?
Recall his words about his destiny,
As a captive, for sinners he’d be bled,
And in three days, defeat death’s legacy."

From sin we are no longer imprisoned!
Al-le, Alleluia He is risen!

Jesus’s Burial Sonnet

Holy Saturday
John 19:31-41
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/19

As his body was lifeless on the cross,
It could not remain there for sabbath day.
A lance in his side to confirm life’s loss,
An outpour of blood and water gave way.

Joseph of Arimathea was there
And asked if he could take his body down,
Pilate approved for burial elsewhere.
They removed his garments for a white gown.

They cleansed him with myrrh and other ointments.
To fulfill sacred customs for the dead 
Including the use of spice and incense.
Then they placed him in a tomb on a bed.

A garden where once he was full of zest,
Jesus’s body now had come to rest.

John’s Passion of the Lord in Four Sonnets

Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion
Gospel: John 18:1-19:30
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041825.cfm

I
At night, Jesus prayed with his disciples
In the garden; Judas knew the place well.
He was now partnered with self-made rivals,
Priestly guards with swords waiting for the tell.

Jesus knew their intent and so inquired
“Who are you looking for?” They said, “Jesus.”
He said, “I AM” as the time had transpired
‘Take me and free these men who are with us.”

Peter drew his sword and cut a man’s ear
Jesus said to Peter, “Put that away”
I have a destiny beyond your fear.”
They seized Jesus and he, in turn, obeyed. 

Judas betrayed his friend for some silver
Like a mansion whose butler did pilfer.

II

High priest Annas started Jesus’s trial
And Peter was nearby within the grounds
A maid spoke, “You and him were rack and file.”
“We were not,” Peter abruptly expounds. 

The priest questioned Jesus on his doctrine,
He told him to speak to those who heard verse.
Peter, still outside, was questioned again,
A second denial, he was making it worse.

Back inside, a temple guard struck Jesus
He said, “Do not speak this way to a priest.”
Out front, a slave said, “Do not deceive us, 
Peter, you were with him and got released?”

As the cock crows announcing this night's end.
For a third time, Peter denied his friend

III

At daybreak, Jesus was brought to Pilate.
The priests said that he was a criminal.
“Take him yourselves, who am I to rebut?”
“We can’t kill him so we’re stuck liminal.“

So Pilot went back to Jesus and asked
“Are you the King of the Jews like they say?”
Jesus had some banter and went to task.
“My kingdom’s not here, but I’ve shown the way.”

Pilate found no guilt but he served the crowd;
Offered a chance of release, they denied.
Jesus was then scourged; they mockingly bowed. 
They beat and jested him with acts so snide. 

“With a thorny crown and a purple cloak,
Hail Jesus, King of the Jews! What a joke!”

IV

Pilate brought out Jesus and said to them
“I have found no guilt, this is what you want.” 
Mary’s there as she was in Bethlehem,
As the crowd yells a “Crucify him” taunt.

So Pilate gave Jesus more affliction
And said “Your king’s ready for his demise.
This afternoon shall be his crucifixion.”
Jesus carried his cross as they chastised

At the skull, he hung between two others,
Under a note that read “King of the Jews.”
Soldiers divide his clothes while he suffers
As he thirsts, common wine is what they choose.

As it touched his lips, he said “It’s finished.”
His spirit gone, the body diminished.

Holy Thursday Sonnet

Holy Thursday -Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper
Gospel: John 13:1-15
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041725-Supper.cfm

Jesus knew his time was about to come.
He loved his own in the world to the end.
He pondered the death he would soon succumb;
With all God’s power, he would not contend.

So Jesus removed his outer garments,
He took and tied a towel around his waist.
Then poured some water for the performance
to wash their feet with a loving embrace.

When his turn arrived, Peter had to ask,
“Master, are you going to wash my feet?”
Jesus answered, “As I now do this task,
You don’t know why, but some day you’ll repeat.”

 “Do you realize what I’ve done for you?
To be a teacher, this you’ll also do.”

A Sonnet for Judas’s Lie

Wednesday of Holy Week
Gospel: Matthew 26:14-25
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041625.cfm

“If I give you him, what will you give me?”
Judas Iscariot asked the high priest.
“Thirty pieces of silver in a sleeve.”
So he thought of when he’d expect it least.

"Where shall we all eat the Passover meal?”
The disciples asked and Jesus replied,
"In the city is a man with a deal,
Tell him the end’s near and may we reside.”

They reclined together with food and drink
Jesus spoke, “A betrayer’s in our midst.”
“Surely none of us,” they started to think. 
“Woe to the person who brings this plot twist.”

They ate dipped bread with one caught in a lie.
Judas asked, "Surely it’s not I, Rabbi?"

A Sonnet for Peter’s Righteous Intention

Tuesday of Holy Week
Gospel: John 13:21-33, 36-38
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041525.cfm

Over a meal, Jesus told those present,
"One at this table now will betray me."
So they wondered exactly what he meant.
Simon Peter announced, “Who could it be?”

Judas took the dipped bread that Jesus gave.
Not for the poor or to prepare the feast,
He left quick as there was no time to save.
Jesus said, “My time left is at its least.”

“To come with me, you can’t,” he concluded.
Peter said, “But Lord, I would die for you.”
So Jesus explained, “You are deluded,
Not now, but there will be a day you do.”

“Tonight you will not hear the rooster crow
Until three times you’ve denied me to know.”