Fullerton T

Second Sunday of Lent

Here we are at the second Sunday of Lent. It is hard to believe it but time is marching on and yes its nearly a year since all the COVID19 restrictions began. In the Gospel reading for this weekend we hear about Jesus going up the mountain taking Peter James and John, with him and we hear the voice of the father identifying  Jesus as “my beloved Son.”  the God who speaks to the disciples on the mountain directs all of us to “Listen to him”. Our journey during lent is a journey of listening to scripture and listening to one another as we tell our own stories of faith.  Mountains were  always seen places of retreat and encounter with god.  Moses and Elijah were no strangers to mountain encounters with God. They met God on the mountain, but struggled to make God’s plan a reality back down among the people on the ground. Moses, the lawgiver and Elijah, the prophet, symbolized the rich religious tradition of the Jewish people.

Through them, that tradition is in dialogue with Jesus.  The voice of god from the heavens identifies Jesus as “my beloved Son.”  Jesus invites us to an exciting journey our lives lived in faith should be an exciting journey from birth right until we get to the pearly gates when we die. “The kingdom of God is at hand, Repent, and believe the Good News are all about Lent and in a particular way it is our call to take up the spiritual journey.  We’re not invited to go on  a trip to Disneyland or any other holiday place we might want to go to especially during the Pandemic when a great number of us are in lockdown. Instead we are called to explore the great depths of God’s love for us as we try to move and live in God’s Love as we climb the mountain of the Lord which is represented by our annua observance of Lent. Every year we hope to rise again from the ashes of our sins and failures “to recreate ourselves anew.” Every year we take a six week journey, a pilgrimage of faith that takes us through the penance, self-discipline, prayer, and  good works of Lent that lead us  to the refreshing waters of Easter.

As Jesus taught a lesson in patience and hope to Peter, James, and John, so He teaches us to listen and wait, as we wait we are encouraged to listen to his message. In our Lenten journey we remember Jesus transfigured on the mountain and listen to what he is telling us! May we keep in mind that God and the community around us provide us with encouragement and strength to continue in faith through all the adversities that have been thrown at us especially in this past year with the COVID19 pandemic with all the hassle it has brought to us .

First Sunday of Lent

This Sunday is the first Sunday in Lent and we would normally begin with the ashes on Ash Wednesday but this year things are very different. With covid19 around and an ever present danger we began Lent with  the Ash Wednesday services online but as usual we were asked to  repent and be faithful to the Gospel. This year lent is different  for all of us little did any we realize that we would be in the various restrictions  for so long. Nor did we realize that so many would be saying goodbye to their loved ones who died from the Corona Virus over the last 11 months. This Year Lent will be different as we go into the wilderness with Jesus and that is where we seem to have been for the last 11 months or so with the restrictions in place.

Many of us feel that we have been in the wilderness we also remember that Jesus has been with us in that wilderness and is journeying with us in all we have gone through as we look forward to more hope and joy filled times. Lent throws out many question to challenge us and the questions I often think about  around this time of year is Why do we have Lent every year? Why penance? Why fasting? Why almsgiving? What does that have to do with us? If we take our faith seriously then Lent, penance, fasting and almsgiving have a great deal to do with us. This reading from the Gospel of Mark also tells us that the time has come for us to repent and believe in the Good News. It is an ancient custom in the Church that the story of the temptation of Jesus in the desert should be read on the first Sunday of Lent. Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness. At the beginning of the forty days of Lent the Church always puts before us his time of solitude and it also puts before us a time for renewal.

We ask ourselves what in our homes, at work, local, and parish communities needs to be changed for so many are out there in the wilderness of a godless faithless life. During the season of Lent we take stock of where we are in our lives and where we really need to be as people of faith who believe in God. These next few weeks will be a time of refreshment, a time of repentance and also a time of renewal that prepare us for Holy Week and Easter. So now as we begin Lent we are invited to commit our lives fully to God and God’s ways remembering that god’s ways are not our ways.  Jesus preaches “Metanoia which requires change of heart, mind and Spirit. Let us ask ourselves whether we are open to be really changed as gods people s so we will be able to enter more fully into the great ceremonies of our redemption during Holy Week and Easter.

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time

This Sunday we celebrate the 6^th Sunday of ordinary time as we finish the first part of Ordinary Time as the Holy Season of Lent begins again with the Ashes of ash Wednesday next week. We have now come full circle and here we are facing into Lent with all its opportunities. However Ash Wednesday and Lent will be different this year because of the COVID Pandemic.

Our Gospel story tells us  about the Leper going to Jesus who healed him but it is about much more than just the healing, it is about the faith that the leper had in Jesus. It is also about the faith we have in Jesus.  After he heals him Jesus tells the man to be silent. He wants the miracle to be personal and quiet for a purpose. The man is to go first to the priests and go through the ritual cleansing prescribed in Leviticus (14:1ff.) Maybe the priests would ask the man how he was cured and then they would hear about Jesus. Who better to give witness to Jesus than someone whose life has been changed by him? Who better to witness to the strength, joy, encouragement, hope and direction that Jesus gives us than one who has been transformed by him?  

It is interesting to note that during his healing of the leper Jesus reaches out his hand and touches the man. This is a clear breach of one of the rules set down by Moses; touch was forbidden for fear of passing on the infection. But, of course, touch is often an important part of the healing process and Jesus does not hesitate to touch the man he is healing. In hospitals the doctors carry out the physical treatment but it is often the tender loving care given by the nurses that actually brings about the real healing. This TLC, as we call it, cannot be truly given without touching. When we consider the disease of leprosy we can see too that it has many similarities with that other great disease that afflict mankind, namely sin. Leprosy separates human beings from each other, but sin separates us both from God and from each other. Sin brings division and damages the cohesion of the community.  The lepers life was changed by Jesus’ compassion, touch and words but Jesus told him not to tell anyone. We have to ask ourselves are our own lives changed when we hear the words of Jesus?  Do we allow ourselves to be transformed by the words of Jesus in order to show his compassion to others? The man who Jesus cured became an evangelist.

He “proclaimed and spread the word.” In the context of Mark, the cured man brought others to faith even though he was told not to tell anyone. So many, in fact, Jesus could not travel in the open for fear of a mob. Yet, they came to him from every point in Galilee. Jesus continued his ministry despite restrictions placed on him. But he could not visit new territories and preach. Word of his power preceded Jesus and brought the needy to him. May we share the healed man’s enthusiasm to make known the goodness of God. As we begin the season of Lent  next Wednesday Let us pray for a spirit of compassion and understanding as we journey through Lent to the great celebration of Holy Week and Easter especially during the covid19 pandemic.

5TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

This weekend we hear from Job who believes there is nothing left for him but a life drudgery and grief. Like Job in the first reading, we all come upon times of chaos, times of stress. There are so many aspects to life for which there are no solutions especially during the COVID19 pandemic. Like Job we all experience what he called months of misery and it has been like that for so many people and countries for the past year or more as we endure  COVID19 .Perhaps, we do not suffer to the extent that Job seems to have suffered, but life these days brings many challenges, including challenges to our faith that God will get us through. The Lord is aware of our difficulties. He sees our turmoil. He wants to heal us, just as he healed all those people in this weekend’s Gospel.  In the Gospel Reading for this Sunday, Jesus comes to Peter’s house, he finds that Peter’s mother-in-law is sick, and he heals her. The whole town hears of her healing and rushes all their sick to Peter’s house. The house is surrounded, and so is Jesus. Now, all of a sudden, Jesus seems to have become a one-man hospital the man who heals all their ills.

He is so besieged that he can’t even pray in the house. He has to head out into the countryside secretly in the dark of morning. When his absence is detected, his disciples go looking for him. when they find him, they tell him “Everybody is looking for you!”  We Christians of today have many advantages over the people of Capernaum. They saw Christ with their eyes as a man of power amongst them; we see him with the eyes of faith as he really was and is the Son of God who came on earth in order to make us the family of God. We know who he really was and we know the full meaning of his mission. We have seen that mission completed amongst us by his death on the cross and his resurrection. By his death he conquered death by his resurrection he opened the gates of heaven for us and shows us  how to get there. The road we have to take is not easy and many people have chosen other roads. But I believe that people of all ages are out there looking for Jesus seeking the things of lasting value they are out there looking for Jesus and they are finding and following him. The questions of the suffering Job are not answered in the Gospel. Jesus may have his own questions about the suffering that surrounds him, as he will have his own questions when his own suffering becomes his passion on good Friday.

But whatever his questions are, Jesus stays committed to caring for the sick. That is his witness. Through the witness of Jesus we hold fast to the truth that God loves us in our weakness and fragility, in our sickness and suffering. We can see a reflection of God’s care in the commitment of doctors, nurses, healers, hospital chaplains and all the people who tend to the suffering of others especially in these times of the COVID19 pandemic. They are God’s compassion in flesh, God’s care in action on the ground. No doubt all of them have reason to wonder, to protest, to be angry when they see the innocent suffer. But they carry on. That is their enduring witness. Last Tuesday  we celebrated the feast of the presentation of Jesus in the temple and we blessed the candles. The candles represent the light of Christ will we be the light of Christ in all the places and situations we will find ourselves in  as we head towards the season of Lent that starts on the 17^th February? Will we be the people who point others along the right roads that lead to Jesus  in what we do and what we say during the season of Lent and beyond?