Second Sunday in Lent

Link to Mass Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/032011.shtml

The desert is a hard place. There isn’t the plenty we are used to, and it’s uncomfortable. Where before we could just take what we need, in the desert we need to go without. We suffer, and deprive ourselves. The desert is also lonely; while other people may be suffering as well, to suffer is an intensely personal thing. No one feels what we feel, and our pain is entirely unique. The desert can be beautiful in its starkness and severity, but no one wants to live there. And yet, during Lent we put ourselves here on purpose.

Christians have been removing themselves to the desert for a long time, and in the early centuries of the Church it was a popular spot for monks. But the desert doesn’t make loving God easier. What the desert does is remove from us the things we surround ourselves with that make us comfortable, which makes us not need God because we have these things. In the desert, these things are gone. But we are still left with the choice, to choose God or not. We can find things in the desert to distract us, and hide our heads in the sand if we want to. But it’s harder to hide from ourselves in the desert, and when we turn away from God here we know exactly what it is that we are doing.

The readings today are about the glory God brings to us if we can choose Him through all the suffering. Paul tells us to “bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God.” Even in the desert God is here, and His strength is the Rock of Ages, the waters of everlasting life. God has saved us and called us to a holy life; He will preserve us in that life if we call on Him, and to survive in the desert we have to. Only God is strong enough for what He wants from us.

Abraham is the best example of God preserving His servant through suffering. Abraham wandered in the wilderness most of his life, all because of the promise God gave to him. We don’t know how much Abraham struggled with what God asked of him, but we do know that Scripture tells us “Abram went as the Lord directed him.” Because that is the important part, more than our pain, or feelings, or insecurities, or temptations; are we, or are we not going as the Lord directs us?

The Transfiguration of Jesus on the mountaintop is one of the few times where God reveals the glory of Jesus in a visible way. The disciples see Jesus robed in white talking with Elijah and Moses, who represent in the Old Testament the Prophets and the Law. When the disciples see Jesus talking with them, they see that Jesus is equal with these two legendary figures. But then God says “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” The disciples then know that Jesus is greater than the Law of the Old Testament, and all the Prophets. In Him is their fulfillment, and the glory He shows on the mountaintop is with Him always, if only they had eyes to see.

It is hard to suffer for the kingdom. God only tells the world publicly two times that He is well pleased with Jesus. The rest of the time, Jesus must continue to struggle on in faith. That is what we must do; we must continue to struggle on in faith through the desert, and trust God, because He is trustworthy. When Abraham was done with his wandering, God did indeed make of him a mighty nation, and preserved him through all of his trials. Jesus brought to fulfillment all the He had been destined for and conquered sin; He rose in glory because He trusted God and persevered until the end. Our crown of salvation waits for us too, to make it to the end and not give up.

I like the words from the psalm today: “Our soul waits for the Lord,/ Who is our help and our shield./ May your kindness, O Lord, be upon us/ who have put our hope in you.” We have removed ourselves from the things in life that can keep us from God, and in our severity we have put our trust in God. We believe that God is trustworthy, and will bring us through this suffering to the glory of salvation He has promised us. Amen.

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Link to Mass Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/011611.shtml

Obedience. What does it mean to obey, to do something whether you will it or not? What is freedom, and is there freedom in obedience?

The readings today focus on obedience, and the reasons why we are obedient to God. The first is that we are obedient, because it is through our obedience that God accomplishes His will. “You are my servant, Israel, through whom I show my glory…I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. “ For this purpose God makes us powerful, and has raised up the weak things of the world to accomplish great purposes.

The second reading tells us that we are to be obedient because we are called to it. We have called upon the name of Christ Jesus to save us, and in return have been sanctified by His blood. Because of our sanctification we are called to be holy, and in holiness is obedience to God. We should be obedient out of gratitude, and respect for what we have been given.

The Psalm says to be obedient, because that is what God desires. “Sacrifice or offering you wished not/ but ears open to obedience you gave me.” Rather than praise of His name, God desires that we follow what He has commanded us to do. Over and over again in Scipture, we are told that we know God’s people by the works that they do. The hymn of praise we sing should always be, “Here I am Lord; I come to do your will.”

These are excellent reasons for obedience. But is it good for us to be obedient? The greatest gift God gave was free will, that we might freely choose God and offer Him our love. But the commands that God gives are often things that I do not want to do. They are hard things, and while they are satisfying in the long run, they are frustrating in the short term. Why is it good, that if God gives us freedom, we should give it up to show our love back? To be obedient, to follow commands like a dog, does not seem the kind of love we are taught is between God us. Does God desire slaves or sons? What good is freedom, if I can never do what I want to do?

God desires sons who are free, and in their freedom always choose Him. Is it more free to choose good or evil as one desires, or to always choose good because that is all you desire? Holiness means becoming the latter. John the Baptist was free, and was obedient to God out of a pure desire for holiness. He did not sin because the law required him not to, but because he loved God and chose good. What is more, the freedom that chooses good out of a holy desire is made grander: “I am made glorious in the sight of the Lord, and my God is now my strength!” With God, much more is open to us, and we can choose things that were beyond our grasp before.

God is powerful. We obey Him because of that, because we owe Him that, it is what He desires, and it is how He accomplishes His purposes on earth. But we do it also so that through obedience He might change our hearts; and with changed hearts we might choose more freely only good things. We obey that we might be free in holiness.

Second Sunday in Advent

Link to Mass Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/120510.shtml

Christmas is inherently a sad time. There is a lot of effort during the commercial Christmas season to make everything happy and giddy simply because it’s Christmas. Nobody bothers to explain why it should be so happy, and as a result, it’s exhausting. Nothing is worse than someone telling you to be happy and not giving you a reason for it.

But it’s happy because the root of Christmas is in its sorrow. We celebrate Christmas during the darkest time of the year, when nature is at its ebb. While we celebrate family, many people will be alone; We proclaim “peace on earth, goodwill towards men” but crime increases. And when Christ was born, the world was enslaved to sin and desperately in need of a savior. There is a reason “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” is sung so mournfully.

But Christmas is a joyful time because we are given hope. In Advent we prepare for the coming of the Savior, who John the Baptist and the prophecies of Isaiah promise us is coming. And because God kept His promise with Christ’s birth, we believe God will come again. This is the hope that brings us joy: “Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel has come to thee O Israel!”

It sounds obvious. But in Advent we remember that Christ is a light in the darkness, He is our hope against sin and death. We prepare ourselves to receive His coming, and have hope. Hope that He will fix us, that He will be what we are searching for, that God will be faithful.

It is easy to lose faith. But Paul tells us “that by endurance and by the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” This is the time to remember that. The Christmas spirit is the faithful reminding each other not to despair, that God is coming for His people. We remind each other that God remembers us in our pain, that He is faithful. We show each other love at this time of year especially because God once did, and we remember that God is good.

Take the time to read the passage from Isaiah for today. This is what God has promised, and it will come to pass.