On the Fourth Sunday in Lent

Epistle
Ephesians 2:4-10

Brothers and sisters:
God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--—by grace you have been saved--and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his handiwork--what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

Gospel
John 3:14-21

Jesus said to Nicodemus:
"And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life".

'For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life'.

'Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.'

Those who believe in him are not condemned. This should not be a hard saying for the baptised but, for me, it is. What does it mean to believe? It can't be a check-list of things, though that would be easy and the tradition certainly has produced enough of them. Belief cannot be simply the fact of subscribing to a list of assertions / propositions, no matter how nobel, enlightened, engaging.

St. Paul teaches that we are saved by grace; specifically : this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not the result of works. Can belief be one of those good works God has prepared for us? If so, I stand condemned. For, whenever confronted by the dilemma of God's Grace, and the question of my ability to do, to achieve merit, I straight away embrace the long history of my failure to merit and so, despair. I am simply exhausted by the burden of it all. . . How I long to sing: Blessed assurance! Jesus is mine. with an authentic voice.

Until that day, I must say with St. Thomas : I believe, Lord. Help, Thou, my unbelief.

On the Feast of the Annunciation

Lowliness is assumed by majesty, weakness by power, mortality by eternity. To pay the debt of our sinful state, a nature that was incapable of suffering was joined to one that could suffer. Thus, in keeping with the healing that we needed, one and the same mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ, was able to die in one nature, and unable to die in the other.

He who is true God was therefore born in the complete and perfect nature of a true man, whole in his own nature, whole in ours. By our nature we mean what the Creator had fashioned in us from the beginning, and took to himself in order to restore it.

For in the Savior there was no trace of what the deceiver introduced and man, being misled, allowed to enter. It does not follow that because he submitted to sharing in our human weakness he therefore shared in our sins.

He took the nature of a servant without stain of sin, enlarging our humanity without diminishing his divinity. He emptied himself; though invisible he made himself visible, though Creator and Lord of all things he chose to be one of us mortal men. Yet this was the condescension of compassion, not the loss of omnipotence. So he who in the nature of God had created man, became in the nature of a servant, man himself.

Thus the Son of God enters this lowly world. He comes down from the throne of heaven, yet does not separate himself from the Father'’s glory. He is born in a new condition, by a new birth.

He was born in a new condition, for, invisible in his own nature, he became visible in ours. Beyond our grasp, he chose to come within our grasp. Existing before time began, he began to exist at a moment in time. Lord of the universe, he hid his infinite glory and took the nature of a servant. Incapable of suffering as God, he did not refuse to be a man, capable of suffering. Immortal, he chose to be subject to the laws of death.

He who is true God is also true man. There is no falsehood in this unity as long as the lowliness of man and the pre-eminence of God coexist in mutual relationship.

As God does not change by his condescension, so man is not swallowed up by being exalted. Each nature exercises its own activity, in communion with the other. The Word does what is proper to the Word, the flesh fulfils what is proper to the flesh.

One nature is resplendent with miracles, the other falls victim to injuries. As the Word does not lose equality with the Father's glory, so the flesh does not leave behind the nature of our race.

One and the same person - this must be said over and over again - is truly the Son of God and truly the son of man. He is God in virtue of the fact that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He is man in virtue of the fact that the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.

From a letter by Saint Leo the Great, pope
Epistula 28 ad Flavianum, 3-4


Responsory: See Luke 1:31, 42

Receive, O Virgin Mary, the word
which the Lord has made known to you by the message of the angel:
You will conceive and give birth to a son, both God and man,
--- and you will be called blessed among women

A virgin, you will indeed bear a son;
ever chaste and holy, you will be the mother of our Savior.
--- and you will be called blessed among women.

So, the Church begins today the long steady celebration of the fact of the Incarnation; even in the midst of our preparation for/ celebration of the Passion; the life and death of Jesus, the one who saves.

In the midst of life we are in death, but by death he conquered death. Every aspect of our existence has been encompassed by the life and death of the Saviour. Each of us caught in that invitation / embrace.

Christ, who is risen from the dead, have Mercy on us!

On filial piety

Doris Marie Oakes Dixon
January 17, 1925 - March 25, 2004


Daughter
Sister
Wife
Mother
Grandmother
Friend

Alive, in God's mercy:

. . . for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

On the Commonplace again

From The Moth and Flame : a Benjamin Justice Novel, by John Morgan Wilson:

From page 175

I was restless, but my encounter with Victor Androvic had put the kibosh on any interest I had in the X-rated images available on the Internet. Having one of the models in my arms, in the flesh, had reminded me that these were real human beings, not inanimate objects devoid of souls and feelings; the notion of using them like inflatable dolls to satisfy one's masturbatory fantasies had lost what little appeal had been there to begin with. It's funny how we think we need something--how we're sure we can't live without it--until a dose of reality hits us, and the temptation vanishes as if it never existed at all.

From page 193

Prozac had given me six months of peace, of being able to get through the day without being overwhelmed by melancholy and dread. But it wasn't what I wanted anymore. I wanted to be able to write lines again that meant something to me. I wanted to experience sensuality again, to respond physically when a man touched me in a way that should have felt exciting and good. I wanted to care about someone deeply. To risk getting close as once I had, even if it meant doing it without a little pill to take the scary edges off. I wanted to reclaim myself, all of me, and start to feel fully alive again.

From page 196

Cecelia Cortez had arranged my visit through Bibbby's older sister, who'd taken on the responsibility of sorting through his belongings but still wasn't up to getting started. I'd done some of that myself, back in the eighties and early nineties, when every few months another friend had died, sometimes at shorter intervals than that. If you were lucky, he'd have packed up everything and labeled it with a name or place where he wanted it to go, but sometimes it was less tidy than that. Sometimes you had to sit on the bed where he'd died--sometimes the same bed you'd once shared with him--and decide if his old sweaters were worth sending to the thrift store or should be put on the curb where the homeless could pick through them. Sometimes it might even be a sweater you'd given him one year before the plague had come and changed everything.

From page 200

I unzipped and relieved myself in the toilet, staring at a framed lobby card for The Front Page, the 1931 version. It felt strange, pissing in the bathroom of a dead man without his permission, while his blood clotted the carpet fifty feet away. But I planned to be here awhile, so I figured I better get used to it.

From page 285

"I was just thinking that nostalgia's not all that it's cracked up to be".

On the Wisdom of the Age

I won't be living this life forever.

A telling throwaway quote from this week's Supernatural.

On the Feast of St. Joseph

St. Joseph, pray for us!

On the Third Sunday of Lent

Exodus 20:1-17

In those days, God delivered all these commandments:

“I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.
You shall not have other gods besides me. You shall not carve idols for yourselves in the shape of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; you shall not bow down before them or worship them.
For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God,
inflicting punishment for their fathers( wickedness
on the children of those who hate me,
down to the third and fourth generation;
but bestowing mercy down to the thousandth generation
on the children of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

“You shall not take the name of the LORD, your God, in vain.
For the LORD will not leave unpunished
the one who takes his name in vain.”

“Remember to keep holy the sabbath day.
Six days you may labor and do all your work,
but the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD, your God.
No work may be done then either by you, or your son or daughter,
or your male or female slave, or your beast,
or by the alien who lives with you.
In six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth,
the sea and all that is in them;
but on the seventh day he rested.
That is why the LORD has blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.”

“Honor your father and your mother,
that you may have a long life in the land
which the LORD, your God, is giving you.
You shall not kill.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife,
nor his male or female slave, nor his ox or ass,
nor anything else that belongs to him.”

I Corinthians 1:22-25

Christ the Power and Wisdom of God

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,
‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe.

For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’

The Gospel story for today describes the expulsion of the money changers from the Temple. In John's Gospel, Jesus exclaims: Stop making my Father's House a market-place. In another place Jesus cries out: Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations' But you have made it a den of robbers.'

Jesus challenges us to a restored relationship with God, not founded on obedience, but on love.


The foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.

On the Feast of St. Patrick

St. Pat­rick’s Lor­i­ca

I bind unto myself today
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same
The Three in One and One in Three.

I bind this day to me forever
By power of faith, Christ’s incarnation;
His baptism in Jordan river,
His death on Cross for my salvation;
His bursting from the spicèd tomb,
His riding up the heavenly way,
His coming at the day of doom
I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself the power
Of the great love of cherubim;
The sweet ‘Well done’ in judgment hour,
The service of the seraphim,
Confessors’ faith, Apostles’ word,
The Patriarchs’ prayers, the prophets’ scrolls,
All good deeds done unto the Lord
And purity of virgin souls.

I bind unto myself today
The virtues of the star lit heaven,
The glorious sun’s life giving ray,
The whiteness of the moon at even,
The flashing of the lightning free,
The whirling wind’s tempestuous shocks,
The stable earth, the deep salt sea
Around the old eternal rocks.

I bind unto myself today
The power of God to hold and lead,
His eye to watch, His might to stay,
His ear to hearken to my need.
The wisdom of my God to teach,
His hand to guide, His shield to ward;
The word of God to give me speech,
His heavenly host to be my guard.

Against the demon snares of sin,
The vice that gives temptation force,
The natural lusts that war within,
The hostile men that mar my course;
Or few or many, far or nigh,
In every place and in all hours,
Against their fierce hostility
I bind to me these holy powers.

Against all Satan’s spells and wiles,
Against false words of heresy,
Against the knowledge that defiles,
Against the heart’s idolatry,
Against the wizard’s evil craft,
Against the death wound and the burning,
The choking wave, the poisoned shaft,
Protect me, Christ, till Thy returning.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the Name,
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.
By Whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
Salvation is of Christ the Lord.

Translated by Ce­cil F. Alex­an­der

O God, who did send blessed Patrick, thy Confessor and Bishop, to preach unto the Peoples of Ireland the glory of thy Name : grant that, aided by his intercession and mindful of his example ; we may of thy mercy find the courage to procalim in our lands and among our peoples the truth of the Gospel and so bring peace, justice, and equity to all thy daughters and sons.

We make our prayer through Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord and brother, who lives and reigns with thee, Father, together with the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world withought end.

Amen.

On a Second Sunday in Lent

'Tis good, Lord, to be here,
Thy glory fills the night;
Thy face and garments, like the sun,
Shine with unborrowed light.

'Tis good, Lord, to be here,
Thy beauty to behold
Where Moses and Elijah stand,
Thy messengers of old.

Fulfiller of the past,
Promise of things to be,
We hail Thy body glorified
And our redemption see.

Before we taste of death,
We see Thy kingdom come;
We fain would hold the vision bright
And make this hill our home.

'Tis good, Lord, to be here.
Yet we may not remain;
But since Thou bidst us leave the mount,
Come with us to the plain.

Joseph A. Robinson

In our meditations on today's lections, I note an invitation to look beyond the substitutionary possibilities of Jesus' death (which is certainly strongly represented in the tradition) and to reflect on the message inherent in the death and resurrection of Jesus taken as a whole.

In the crucifixion of his only son, the human family has certainly committed the ultimate offence against God. God has responded to this horror, not with vengeance, but with compassion, forgiveness, healing. God is willing that Jesus should suffer this, not so much to pay some cosmic debt, but rather to reveal that Love is greater than fear, greater than death, that debts are not so much paid, as forgiven.

There is true rejoicing in Mudville, not because Casey is at bat, but because God's love transcends the game, every game, even that of debt and debtor.

Let us take this opportunity to look to the passion, not so much to see the consequence of our own sin--which it does reveal and which each of us must confront, but in the light of the resurrection, that God is able to overcome any sin that might separate from him those whom he loves. In the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God reveals to us just how far he is willing to go, has gone, does go, to reconcile to himself even the most estranged of his daughters and sons.

Lent is a time for penance, but also a time for rejoicing.

Genesis 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18

God put Abraham to the test.
He called to him, "Abraham!"
"Here I am!" Abraham replied.
Then God said:
"Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love,
and go to the land of Moriah.
There you shall offer him up as a holocaust
on a height that I will point out to you."

When they came to the place of which God had told him,
Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it.
Then he reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son.
But the LORD's messenger called to him from heaven,
"Abraham, Abraham!"
"Here I am!" Abraham answered.
"Do not lay your hand on the boy," said the messenger.
"Do not do the least thing to him.
I know now how devoted you are to God,
since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son."
As Abraham looked about,
he spied a ram caught by its horns in the thicket.
So he went and took the ram
and offered it up as a holocaust in place of his son.

Again the LORD's messenger called to Abraham from heaven and said:
"I swear by myself, declares the LORD,
that because you acted as you did
in not withholding from me your beloved son,
I will bless you abundantly
and make your descendants as countless
as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore;
your descendants shall take possession
of the gates of their enemies,
and in your descendants all the nations of the earth
shall find blessing
all this because you obeyed my command."

Romans 8:31b-34

Brothers and sisters:
If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare his own Son
but handed him over for us all,
how will he not also give us everything else along with him?

Who will bring a charge against God's chosen ones?
It is God who acquits us, who will condemn?
Christ Jesus it is who died . or, rather, was raised .
who also is at the right hand of God,
who indeed intercedes for us.

Mark 9:2-10

Jesus took Peter, James, and John
and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves.
And he was transfigured before them,
and his clothes became dazzling white,
such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.
Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses,
and they were conversing with Jesus.
Then Peter said to Jesus in reply,
"Rabbi, it is good that we are here!
Let us make three tents:
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."
He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified.
Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them;
from the cloud came a voice,
"This is my beloved Son. Listen to him."
Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone
but Jesus alone with them.

As they were coming down from the mountain,
he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone,
except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
So they kept the matter to themselves,
questioning what rising from the dead meant.

On the First Sunday in Lent

Genesis 9:8-15

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ‘As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.’ God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.

I Peter 3:18-22

Beloved:
Christ suffered for sins once,
the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous,
that he might lead you to God.
Put to death in the flesh,
he was brought to life in the Spirit.
In it he also went to preach to the spirits in prison,
who had once been disobedient
while God patiently waited in the days of Noah
during the building of the ark,
in which a few persons, eight in all,
were saved through water.
This prefigured baptism, which saves you now.
It is not a removal of dirt from the body
but an appeal to God for a clear conscience,
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
who has gone into heaven
and is at the right hand of God,
with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him.

Mark 1:12-15

The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert,
and he remained in the desert for forty days,
tempted by Satan.
He was among wild beasts,
and the angels ministered to him.

After John had been arrested,
Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God:
“This is the time of fulfillment.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

Not the removal of dirt from the body but an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven . . .

An appeal to God.

Here Peter teaches that we don't have to put our faith in the escatological mechanics of Anselm. No, we can put our faith in the goodness of the saviour, whose resurrection from cruel death reveals the possibility and hope for our acquital.