Frustration and Transformation
Gospel: Jn 4:43-54
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031724-YearA.cfm
During the time of Lent, The Roman Catholic Church uses different gospels on these Sundays, if you have adults that are being baptized and joining the Church at Easter. These readings are referred to as scrutinies. These three ‘special’ gospels are the Woman at the Well, the Healing of the Blind Man, and the Raising of Lazarus. The first one tells of Jesus being the living water, the second of him being the light of the world, and in last one refers to him as the resurrection and the life. The beauty of these three gospels is the transformation that occurs through the encounter with Jesus.
In this last story, Jesus shows that he has power over death. A lot of people focus on the passage: “Jesus wept.” It is often recognized as Jesus showing mourning for his friend that has passed. What I have always found fascinating is another component of Jesus’s humanity in this text. Four times in the passage, Jesus is described as feeling perturbed. People kept commenting about him coming too late to heal Lazarus as Lazarus was already dead, and Jesus got annoyed. When I read the passage, it’s hard for me to read it as Jesus’s tears being a sign of him mourning Lazarus and more an expression of his frustration. He knew that he was going to resurrect Lazarus. The passage never talks about Jesus’s sadness, but it surely talks about his frustration over and over again.
And why would Jesus be so frustrated? The people in the story put limits on God. They saw an impossibility of the healing power of God. They put limits on what could be done. They didn’t realize that the resurrection wasn’t just a moment in time, but something that could always happen. With God, everything is possible, yet we constantly put limits on God. With God, we can be transformed into a new life. This isn’t a one-time occurrence but is something that happens time and time again. We are never too distant or too far away from the transformational power of God. This applies to us and everyone else. God encounters us where we are at. Looking at these three gospels, God encounters us in our day-to-day lives (the woman at the well), in our suffering and our healing (the healing of the blind man), and in our life and our death (the raising of Lazarus).
God’s love is transformative regardless of where we are and regardless of what is occurring in our lives. God is always here to bring us to healing and a transforming life. God guides us through order, disorder, and reorder (life, death, and resurrection). Different phases and moments of our lives may be focused on one of these three different themes, but each one is occurring at the same time. Regardless of where your current focus may be, God is with you, loving you, desiring the best for you, and ready to heal you and lead you to growth. There may be more work and effort needed from us, but God is always there ready and willing, while sharing in the experience with us.
God’s love
Gospel: Jn 7:40-53
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031624.cfm
When it comes to Jesus’s passion, it is easy for us to detach ourselves from the experience as if they are just stories. For those of us who grew up in Christian households, these are stories that we’ve heard since we were very young. Every year, we experience Easter with our traditions and practices.
But take some time with this; God decided to come down and be with us. God wanted to experience directly what it was like to be human. God wanted to become finite and get to know us. God experienced pain and suffering. God experienced being condemned and judged by others.
In return, we condemned and rebuked him. We looked for ways to deny his divinity and minimize his message. God then suffered and died. God didn’t have to do this. God chose to do this for us because God loves us.
This is what love does. Love gives. Love is there for the other.
As we get closer to Easter, reflect on all that Jesus went through for us.
Times of conflict
Gospel: Jn 7:1-2, 10, 25-30
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031524.cfm
In the gospel of John, there is more of a focus on Jesus’s struggles with tradition and religious leadership than the other gospels. Jesus is also more outspoken about his relationship with God. In today’s scripture reading, Jesus visits Jerusalem with his brothers. Once people recognized him, they argued that Jesus was not the Messiah because they knew where he was from. Jesus then retorts that they do not know where he is from because they are unfamiliar with the one who sent him.
Sometimes we want to mind our own business but we can’t. We have a calling or a drive that doesn’t let us stay quiet. We can also be challenged by unexpected adversity from others. Or like in the case of today’s gospel, we can experience both at the same time. It is challenging when we are faced with these moments. They can become crucible moments where we play through different outcomes that may happen depending on our actions. We debate if our actions are selfishly motivated or if they serve a higher purpose. Do we stand-up and make a scene or do we maintain the status quo?
In today’s gospel, Jesus had individuals that wanted to kill him. John outlines that Jesus was only in Jerusalem because that’s where his bothers wanted to be for the Tabernacle feast. Jesus knew that Jerusalem was a place for him to avoid given the potential actions of those who were against him, but Jesus went anyway. Given the circumstances, I’m sure he was a little on edge.
We too have moments when we are on edge. Sometimes we choose safety and other times we do not. I’m not sure if there is a right or a wrong answer in these circumstances, but what makes your choice easier to discern is building a strong relationship with God and knowing your deeper purpose. A lot of things are out of our control, but if we know our purpose, it makes it easier for us to see what is. We may not have control over other people’s actions or how they think, but we must be true to who we are. Do not let the unknowns, uncertainties, and lack of control limit you from doing what is right.
You are enough
Gospel: Jn 5:31-47
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031424.cfm
With social media, we can get obsessed with looking for praise and recognition from others. We can have negative feelings driven by a lack of likes, views, and followers. We feel hurt when we experience strangers disagreeing with us online. We get disappointed by things people share online that are intended to drive reactions.
When we think about God, we can feel judged. We carry the baggage of shame and we associate it with God. It is as if God exists to condemn us. The shame you feel though is not God; it is something that makes you feel that you are not deserving of God’s love. It separates you from God. In the story of Adam and Eve, we see how their sense of shame made them afraid of God. Their sense of shame separated them from God.
The gospels are loaded with stories of the reconciling love of God. We hear about the shepherd’s joy in finding the lost sheep and the father’s celebration when reconciling with his son. God loves us and accepts us unconditionally. It is our own choice to separate from God. Regardless of the situation or what we’ve done, we always have the opportunity to turn to God. When we do, we are good enough. God doesn’t keep count of all the times we have turned our back; God is always wanting reconciliation and persistently desires a relationship with us.
In today’s gospel (John 5:44), we read: “How can you believe, when you accept praise from one another and do not seek the praise that comes from the only God?”
You are loved and you are more than enough.
Giving it back to God
Gospel: Jn 5:17-30
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031324.cfm
We cannot do anything without God. We think our existence is our own, but our existence is a gift. We did not have a choice in it. Our existence is a possession of God. To think that it is anything else separates us for that which we came.
In today’s gospel, Jesus explains how his and Father’s will are one. This “will” goes beyond the limits of this reality. It has control over death. It is not otherworldly; it is active here and now. It is something that we too can participate in as Jesus did. It is a challenge for us given our ego and our need for control. Jesus found a way to keep that connection open so we too can do the same.
What parts of your life do you hold onto? What makes your life uniquely yours? Imagine everything you are and everything you have. Think about all of your relationships, your gifts, your talents, your possessions, the things you enjoy, the things you are proud of, your health, and your life. Imagine all of it in front of you. None of that would be possible without God. Imagine all your struggles and challenges and put them all in front of you too. Put everything that makes you you and put it in front of you. Now take all of that. Stay with it for a while and reflect on it. Now imagine putting all of it in front of God. Thank God for all of it. Now give it to God and pray:
All of this is yours. I give it all back to you. Help me be a good steward of these gifts. May I use these gifts according to your will. Help me use these gifts to grow in love for you and others. Amen.
Following the Law
Gospel: Jn 5:1-16
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031224.cfm
The Sabbath was a sacred day of rest. With the strict interpretation of how the law should be followed, any form of work was unacceptable even carrying a mat. Following religious tradition, including the strict following of the law, was of utmost importance to the people. Seeing the man carrying the mat was a violation and so was Jesus performing a miracle on the Sabbath.
We can look at stories like this and see the shortsightedness of the people. Having spiritual discipline is a good thing, but when it is taken to an extreme, we can lose sight of the spirit behind the law. This reverence for the Sabbath is a benign example as compared to the atrocities that have been done throughout history in the name of human advancement and religion. People have done a lot of evil things. We as a society have accepted different evils as if they are just the way the world works. We have justified slavery and the persecution of others. We have killed for ideology and resources. We then use our belief systems to justify our actions
It’s easy to see these fallacies in hindsight, but it’s much more challenging to see our present faults. We too are complicit in the transgressions of our time. What beliefs do we hold today that history will condemn? The gospel Jesus shared gives us a way to see what we might be overlooking. Jesus challenges us to love our neighbors; not just our friends and families, but our enemies and those we ostracize as well.
Who are we keeping on the fringe of society? What beliefs do we hold that limit us from fully loving our neighbors? Take today’s gospel as a challenge to go beyond our societal norms and follow God’s call to grow in love for each other.
Presumption and Persistence
Gospel: Jn 4:43-54
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031124.cfm
Jesus was completely human and completely God. He was human as we are human. He experienced joy and sadness, frustration and peace. As a person, he did not know everything. He gave up on his omniscience to be human. With his lack of omniscience, he made presumptions. Like us, he struggled with being misunderstood. He was bothered by the fact that he wasn’t welcomed in his hometown.
Jesus got frustrated that his message wasn’t enough; it took miracles for people to believe in his message. For most people, Jesus’s gospel required the proof of miracles. People needed to experience the supernatural for the message to resonate. For Jesus, the message superseded the miracle. For the people, it was the other way around.
In today’s gospel, Jesus made presumptions about the royal official. He thought the man was looking for a miracle to believe, but the man was not. He was not concerned with the divinity of Jesus, he was concerned for the well-being of his son. His love for his son meant more to him than the need for divine proof. He persisted with Jesus. He saw past Jesus’s presumptive statement to show his care for his son. Seeing this love, Jesus healed the man’s son.
When we experience love, we do the same. We persist. We go beyond expectation and we fight. Love gives the drive to go the extra distance. It gives us faith and hope. When we look at the life of Jesus, we can see how God has that love for us. God became human to fight for us, to give us hope, and to lead us to salvation from our suffering.
Love transforms us. Love heals us. Love saves us.
Healing blindness
Gospel: Jn 9:1-41
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031024-YearA.cfm
Today’s gospel shows how people with disabilities were seen in Jesus’s time. A man’s blindness was seen by the disciples and religious leaders as being caused by the man’s sin or by the man’s parents’ sin. To their society, God caused suffering due to sin. God punished people directly due to their sins.
Jesus came to heal. While Jesus heals the man’s physical blindness, the man’s blindness is also used in the story metaphorically. The gospel writer of John is using the story to show us something about the nature of God. We are all blind. We are all blind to the true nature of reality. We are created to love each other even those on the fringe of society; those we exclude, those who suffer, and those who do not meet our expectations.
We are blind because we don’t give of ourselves to those we perceive as blind. That is why Jesus refers to himself as the light of the world. We similarly need to be the light of the world and overcome our blindness to see the equality between us and to love one another. Jesus brought those who were outcasts back into society. This was not easy for those who excluded them in the first place.
Jesus’s judgment was to change the paradigm. He empowered those who were powerless and showed the powerful the limit to their power. God’s healing is not limited to some, it is provided to all. Even those who are humbled through the encounter with God are elevated by a deeper understanding of equality in the eyes of God.
Come as you are
Gospel: Lk 18:8-14
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030924.cfm
If you have ever been interviewed for a job, you have most likely been asked behavioral questions. Behavioral questions ask you to recall experiences and tell stories about how you responded. Here are some examples:
Give me an example of when you had a conflict with someone. How did you handle it?
Tell me about a time you made a mistake and wish you’d handled a situation differently.
Tell me about a time when you failed. How did you handle the situation?
These questions are a challenge to answer. You feel like you have something to lose if you answer the questions wrong or you may expose something about yourself. You try to figure out what they want you to say or the types of examples they are looking for. After an interviewer recently asked me similar questions in succession, I interrupted my own answer midsentence to ask, “You keep asking very similar questions, am I not giving you the answer you want?”
Most candidates rehearse answers to these potential questions. We try to make sure we have the right balance of confidence and humbleness. I even worked for a company that had us count how many times the person used “We” versus “I” language to these questions. It was a way of assessing how individualist or self-centered they were.
During an interview, it is easy to come off like the Pharisee in today’s story. You’re trying to make your best case to get the job. An interviewer once asked me what one of my weaknesses was and I answered, “I feel that I need to be the first one in the office and one of the last ones to leave.” To sound more humble, I explained that I had a hard time going to bed when I was a teenager unless everyone else was asleep. The gospel today called up a lot of these examples. I’m glad people have taken a chance with me!
When it comes to God, we are not being scrutinized by our word choices like we are in an interview. Yes, words are powerful, but our words are also merely symbols. They only point to things. They are only a placeholder for things; they aren’t the thing themselves. When it comes to God, God knows our reality so God doesn’t need all the words. The words we use show more about ourselves than they let God know anything. God already knows! If we aren’t being honest and direct, God knows. God doesn’t need us to justify our actions or talk about how great we are, God already knows. God doesn’t just know, God loves us regardless of our lowest and greatest moments.
God wants to meet us as we are and help us grow. We must be open to it. To be open to it, we must be honest with ourselves and honest in how we approach God. There is no need to sugarcoat or sell yourself to God. God wants you as you are so God can lead you to the fullness of your being.
Two simple rules
Gospel: Mk 12:28-34
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030824.cfm
I have been teaching Sunday school for about 10 years and I use this gospel to set the guidelines of the classroom. It doesn’t matter what age of kids I teach, we go over Jesus’s two rules. I explain that I have no control over these rules for them; they’re decisions they make for themselves. I go on to explain that I definitely have no control over the first rule in my classroom. Their relationship with God is their relationship with God. In the classroom though, we will follow the second rule. Now I can’t make them love their neighbor as themself, but we can treat each other as we want to be treated. That is the only rule we have. If we need more rules, then I will make more rules depending on their behavior and actions. We then review normal classroom rules and I explain how they are not needed. For example, you don’t need to raise your hand before you speak, but if they start talking over one another, we will create the rule. I’ve had to threaten more rules from time to time, but I have never added another rule in my years of teaching.
This gospel is part of a section in Mark that tells stories about how people tested Jesus. What makes this particular story unique is that the scribe has a change of heart about Jesus. The scribe says that Jesus’s rules are “worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” Offerings were burnt for thanksgiving to God and atonement for sins. They were done to make a right relationship with God. They were a means of making up for a break in the covenant with God. The scribe thought about what Jesus was saying in the context of the law. The scribes were the ones who knew the law the best because they transcribed them over and over again. The scribe understood that Jesus’s rules, not only summarized the covenant but were the full spirit behind it.
We all make a lot of rules and guidelines on how we live our lives. We also impose these rules and guidelines onto other people. We’ve got our lists of how we judge who is good and who isn’t. We are constantly measuring ourselves and others by these rules. Jesus only gave us two to keep in mind. Examine the rules you put out yourself and on others. How are your rules based on the two that Jesus put out there? How are they not? How can you simplify your life to Jesus’s way of thinking about that law? Remind yourself that you have control over you and not everyone else. If it worked for Jesus and a bunch of elementary students, it might just work for you too.
To gather or scatter
Gospel: Lk 11:14-23
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030724.cfm
We put labels on almost everything. We invent dichotomies to define who we are. With religious practices, we can define ourselves as traditionalists or progressives. Politically, we are liberal or conservative. Every affirmative statement has a negative statement. We think about who we are by defining ourselves as opposed to something else. In addition to these dichotomies, our society is predominately merit-based. We constantly rank and compare. These merit-based systems elevate some and minimize others.
Jesus exposed and confronted these ways of thinking. He challenged the divisive structures of his time by sharing a vision of a world where people are equal. For Jesus, a king was no longer greater than a peasant. He didn’t separate people as clean and unclean. He didn’t divide people into Samaritans and Jews.
For those who saw themselves as higher than others in society, Jesus was seen as a threat. They saw their value by how they compared to others. If others were seen as better or as equals, it limited their sense of privilege. This is a scarcity mindset as it sees the world as only having a limited amount of value to go around. If someone is given more, it has to be taken from somewhere. As one person’s situation improves, it makes another person’s situation worse.
We all succumb to this mindset. We elevate ourselves by putting others down. We put people in “for us” and “against us” categories. This way of thinking is easy to observe in others, but difficult to see in ourselves. When we see the success of others, we can feel less about ourselves, rationalize their success, or tear them down. When others succeed, we can transition them from being “for us” to “against us”. Everything was fine when we saw them as less than us, but now that they have been elevated, they are a threat.
Feelings of jealousy expose this way of thinking. When you feel jealous or think that someone is undeserving of what they’ve received, reflect on why it bothers you so much. In what areas of your life does this occur more prevalently? Why do you think that is? What can you do to challenge this way of thinking in yourself?
God is calling us to gather, not scatter. When we fall trap to this way of thinking, we scatter. Find a way to gather. Strive to be for others and not against them.
God’s reality
Gospel: Mt 5:17-19
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030624.cfm
Throughout human history, people have sought to understand why we are here. We have sought relationships with each other and relationships with God. We have strived for excellence. We have grown in community and freedom. We have worked through issues and become greater people. We have faced and conquered adversity. We have found ways to get along.
This journey hasn’t always been perfect. We can look to the news and see the ways our world is falling short of the Kingdom of God. We can look to history and find example after example of where and how individuals and civilizations have failed.
There have always been people striving for a better world; striving to be better people to themselves, others, God, and creation. Even those who have strived fell short of accomplishing it, but there have always been people who have tried. There are always more people trying than not trying. I’d argue that all of us are striving, but we get distorted views of how to accomplish it. Somewhere along the way, these distortions become our reality.
Today’s gospel reflects on this striving and humanity’s growth in relationship to God. The prophets and the law pointed people in a direction. That direction was then more fully revealed through Jesus. Jesus confronted skewed views during his time as he and others were actively engaged in building the Kingdom. For us, it can be difficult to distinguish what is Kingdom building and what is a distortion of it.
Let us pray. God, help us to distinguish the difference between your reality and how we skew that reality. Help us grow to see the world through your lens. Lead us to fulfill your mission and to carry on your living legacy in our time. Help us to grow in love of our neighbor and of you. Amen.
Forgiveness
Gospel: Mt 18:21-35
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030524.cfm
A good leader is someone whom people desire to follow or be around. A leader provides a good example. A good leader is one you want to emulate or strive to be like. A leader brings the best out of you and challenges you to grow.
In today’s gospel, Jesus shows that God is that type of good leader. God is not calling us to do something that God is not willing to do. God is merciful and therefore we are called to mercy. God is forgiving and so we are called to forgive. In the parable, the king forgave first. While the servant was grateful to the king, he didn’t have a change of heart when it came to others. He did not show that same type of mercy to others.
We need to have a change of heart when it comes to forgiving others. Forgiveness should not be conditional. Forgiveness doesn’t mean that you stay in relationships or communities that are harmful to you; what it does mean is that you should want what’s best for the other person. When we forgive, we don’t hold grudges or resentments. When we forgive, we are not consumed by how we have been wronged by others, we seek healing.
Let’s stop counting the wrongs and move toward the healing that comes from forgiving.
Prophetic voices
Gospel: Lk 4:24-30
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030424.cfm
There is a difference in how we share our traditions with someone who is from our culture and someone who is from a different culture. The things we do can look odd to a foreigner as it is easy for us to think the same of them. There is a difference in how we experience each other. Even when you speak the same language, you need to learn their customs and ways of doing things. You become more alert. Locals pay more attention to you when you are in a foreign land. Your seemingly normal actions do not seem so normal.
When you are in your community, you can easily get lost in the common practices of the people around you. On the norm, everyone operates as you expect. When you’re lost in a different culture, you don’t have that same level of security and control.
I think this is why prophets were not welcomed in their native land and were compelled to travel. When you are someone from the neighborhood, it is hard for someone to pay extra attention to you or see you as having a deeper message to share. You are simply the person they saw growing up. You are another person from around town. There is something special about being a foreigner or a stranger that has special significance. People need to try harder to understand what you're saying. They think more deeply to understand you.
When you’re a foreigner, you may need to have a local help you out. It is easier to receive help from someone who needs help from you. It’s extremely disarming. This is the case in some of the gospels too. When Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman at the well, she helped him to some water. It was not traditional practice for a Jewish man to speak to a Samaritan woman. It was very disarming. It’s these abnormal encounters that cause people to lean in and listen more intently. Someone from the outside may see something that you and your community have overlooked.
This can also happen in other ways. I often have times when a close loved one gives me advice, and I don’t always listen. I think that I already know their perspective and where they are coming from, but then if I read the same advice in a book or hear it from a stranger, I am more willing to consider it.
Who is someone close to you that you presuppose their perspective? Try to listen more intently to those you take for granted, you may be surprised by the prophets you already have around you.
Sacred place and people
Gospel: Jn 4:5-42
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030324-YearA.cfm
Jesus challenged the limited thinking of his time. At the well with the Samaritan woman, he broke the social standards that were in place in his day. Not only did he speak to a Samaritan woman, he asked her to share water with him. The societal norms would not permit such a conversation. There was a perceived notation of difference between them. Both the Samaritan woman and Jesus call it out. She was a Samaritan and he was a Jew. He was a man and she was a woman. They worshipped and communed with God differently. She worshiped her God on the mountaintop where as Jesus’s Jewish tradition saw Jerusalem as the holy place.
Jesus breaks these social norms through his actions and words. For Jesus, his God was no longer limited to the Jewish tradition. Samaritans and Jews could commune together. God was not limited to the mountaintop or Jerusalem, but God meets us where we are at. There wasn’t one God for the Jewish people and other gods for other groups of people, but there was one God for all people.
God is truly universal. Jesus didn’t call for the people’s conversion. He shared the good news, and they listened. They offered their community to him and he stayed with them. In tearing down the social barrier, the Samaritan town opened themselves up and welcomed Jesus and his disciples.
Jesus challenged the norms of his day to welcome people from different cultures and social classes. Like in Jesus’s time, we have social and religious differences that can keep us apart. We can keep a distance from strangers or people who live differently from us. Jesus pushed those of his time to see each other as equals; equal in the eyes of God and equals with each other. How can we do the same today?
Entitlement
Gospel: Lk 15:1-3, 11-32
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030224.cfm
Gifts are different than entitlements because with entitlements there is a sense from the receiver that they are owed. In today’s gospel, we learn of two sons, both of whom had a sense of entitlement when it came to their father’s gifts. They each thought that they were more deserving. The first son wanted his inheritance now. He thought that he was deserving enough to receive it before its allotted time. He was so deserving that he abandoned the giver. The other son felt entitled to more because he was unlike his brother and did not squander his father’s inheritance. He was more deserving because he stayed with his father. He deserved more because he was right.
It is easy to fall into a sense of entitlement. We can look at what others have and feel that we deserve the same. Even when we have what we need, we can get frustrated that someone else has more. We can get angry that someone else should have less because they are less deserving than us.
Now, there are societal sins that can lead to these things, and we must always fight against all forms of discrimination. The fallacy comes when we see or think we are more deserving or others are more deserving. We can also be guilty of supporting systems of oppression that keep groups of people subordinate to others. These are ways that we overlook that we are all equal in the eyes of God and that we are all created in the image of God.
In today’s gospel, we could think that there isn’t equality with God as the first son received more. It’s not fair because the second son earned more from their father for he was loyal and did what was expected of him. This gospel pushes us to think differently. There is equality with God, but it may not easily be seen in our limited view of material things.
God’s equality is in love for each of us. God doesn’t love any of us more or any of us less than anyone else. God doesn’t measure by material things as material things are to be freely given and shared. With God there is equality, and we must strive to make a world with the same. We are called to share and be in communion. Amen.
God’s harvest
Gospel: Mt 21:33-43,45-46
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030124.cfm
It is easy to dismiss the parable of the tenants as being explicitly about the chief priests and elders, but what if it’s about us as well? All we have and all that has been given to our care is like a vineyard from God. God gives us the supplies we need to do what we do. Yes, we may do the tending, but we are still only tenants for the Divine and therefore the harvest is God’s.
Like the tenants though, we can too easily take the harvest as if it’s our own. We overlook that the soil, the seed, the sun, the water, and the rest of what we need is provided by a different source. We make our claim to the harvest through our competitive natures, our sense of entitlement, our lack of generosity, and our lack of concern for the needs of others. We earned it, right?
All we have in life was given to us by God. We are called to share it. People come our way in life needing our love and resources like those sent to vineyards for part of the harvest. God calls us to be present for them and not cast them away. The stone the builder rejected has become the cornerstone. God comes to us in unexpected ways and through unexpected people.
For the Kingdom of God is given to them who produce its fruits. It’s not just a good harvest, but how it is shared. We are called to be both good stewards and to share the harvest with others as if it were given to us to share.
Prosperity
Gospel: Lk 16:19-31
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022924.cfm
In Jesus’s time, there were a lot of people who believed that those who lived a life with riches and success were seen as having good favor with God. It is as if God rewards the good with earthly success and privilege. The Pharisees believed that the Jewish captivity by the Romans was due to the Jewish people not living up to their part of the covenant with God. If the Jewish people lived by the covenant fully then God would restore Israel. During this time, there was also the belief that sickness and poor health were caused by the sin of an individual or of one’s family.
The gospel today shows a different way of thinking by telling the story of a person who is sick and destitute in life receiving glory in heaven and a person with great privilege in life having difficulty in the next. It’s those who are truly in need and marginalized by society that recognize that they need God. Having the mentality that we earned or inherited our privilege separates us from God and from others. The idea that we are better than others or more deserving than others has us lose sight that we are all in this together.
In this gospel too, we learn that the poor man with sores is named Lazarus. We don’t learn of the name of the rich man. How often is this the case? We focus more on the names of celebrities, athletes, and the extremely wealthy. Jesus is showing us to shift our way of thinking. We should know those most in need more personally. We should be elevating those in need, not revering those of great achievement.
Being grateful for the gifts that God has given us is to freely share them with others. As God is generous, we are called to be generous. We should seek the glory of all with what we have to give. With every gift, there is a responsibility to share, but it is so easy for us to look at our possessions as ours because we’ve earned them. This doesn’t just apply to our possessions, but our health, our relationships, our reputation, our role in society, etc. It applies to anything that we can use to say that we are better than someone else or more deserving than someone else. It is too easy to fall trap to the rich man mentality and overlook the Lazarus in society.
Who may be a Lazarus in your life that you overlook that needs your presence and attention? How can we create a world that doesn’t overlook the marginalized in society? We are all deserving of God’s love as we should all share God’s love with others.
Changing the paradigm
Gospel: Mt 20:17-28
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022824.cfm
As we’ve been going through this Lenten journey, I find myself reflecting on these gospels through the lens of Matthew 5:45: “...for God makes the sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.”
It’s not about power and prestige; it’s about what you do. We shouldn’t constantly put labels on others for being good and bad or just and unjust. Yes, we should strive for more justice and more goodness, but this should not be a comparative analysis. We are not earning anything by being more just or being more good, we are bringing the Divine Will into being. This Divine Will goes beyond our ego and is applies to all. It is a return to the image in which we were created. We are the ones who have turned our back on that by not seeing the Divine image in ourselves and others.
We should not act with justice and goodness for an eternal reward for us individually but should be doing it for the abundant goodness for all. None of us earn our salvation, but we all contribute to the salvation and the damnation of all by how much we teardown and build up the Kingdom. We are responsible for the inequalities we see in the world. We can overcome these inequalities by taking a servant approach and focusing on what we can do and not on what makes us better or separate from someone else. We are not earning a higher position in heaven; we are striving for a world of equality and generosity.
Love transcends our desire to be “better than.” Let’s strive to see others as “equal to” and find ways to live and love more generously.
Corruptibility
Gospel: Mt 23:1-12
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022724.cfm
We humans struggle with and fight for power. Power itself can be very corruptible. Even with the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’s time, those who were given the authority to lead the people religiously, were easily corrupted. Jesus says that we shouldn’t dismiss the insights of their message and that we shouldn’t follow their example. Not all of their message was divine, but the parts that they spoke that were, should not be dismissed because of their hypocrisy. We see this a lot today in our culture and our society as well. A person is not entirely a reflection of who they are on their best and worst days.
This gospel is a cautionary tale of how easily we are corrupted by the power dynamics within our society. Religious institutions do not escape this tendency for corruption. Power leads to hypocrisy, subordination, vanity, and entitlement. It seeks social privilege over others and fights for a sense of being better than other people. It’s as if life itself is a competition. In merit-based cultures, we have a sense that we are entitled to more because we sacrifice more or because we are more strategic, more creative, more athletic, better looking, smarter, more holy, more generous, put forth more effort, etc. Every time we use the word “more” we are comparing. We are putting together a hierarchy. Yes, we may have comparable differences, but those differences do not make one of us more deserving than another. We are all created in the image and likeness of God and are therefore equally entitled.
We created the inequalities we see in the world through these stories we tell ourselves. We need these comparisons to justify our reality and make ourselves feel better about ourselves. How much better off would we be, if we could see the equality between us? Jesus gives us a means to this at the end of today’s gospel, “The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted." We must approach each other with a servant attitude. We must approach each other as if they are just as deserving as we are because they are.
Let us pray. God help us to see that we are all equal and deserving of your love and grace. Help us see your divine image in ourselves and others. Free us from the corruption of ourselves and others. Help us discern your message in the world beyond our limited perspective and desires. Lead us to see the world through your universal lens. Amen.