Be reconciled with your brother…

The scripture readings for today's reflection can be found at Friday of the First Week of Lent | USCCB

As we conclude the first week of Lent, our readings are reminding us of our duties and responsibilities towards God and towards our neighbor.

In our first reading, Ezekiel is reminding us to turn away from sin and remain focused on following the commandments of God. The reading from Ezekiel starts with the reminder, “If the wicked man turns away from all the sins he committed, if he keeps all my statues and does what is right and just, he shall surely live, he shall not die.” (Ezekiel 18:21) Throughout the old and new testaments, God has given us many ways to know how we can turn from sin and to turn to Him. From the 10 Commandments given to Moses in the old testament to the teachings of Jesus with the Sermon on the Mount in the gospels, we are called to live a life centered on God. We are to turn away from sinfulness and selfishness, and start living in relationship with God, while loving and serving our neighbors.

In our gospel for today, our Lord is reminding us that the commandment of “Thou shalt not kill” is more than just not doing the actual killing of someone. Being angry with our brother falls under this commandment. Our Lord teaches us that “…whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgement.” (Matthew 5:22) Jesus goes on to teach us that we should try to resolve our issues with the people in our lives with the love and respect that we have towards God. If we can’t show love, respect and forgiveness towards our neighbor, how can we be show love and respect to God?

There is always that difficulty of forgiving people due to various reasons. We may not like the person we’re supposed to forgive, or there’s some sort of personality conflict between us and the people we should forgive.  St. Teresa of Calcutta says it beautifully: “People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered; Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives; Be kind anyway.” In this way we can do as the Lord says in the gospel, before approaching the altar, “go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” This will be pleasing to God.

Finally, when we fall short of being forgiving or loving towards those in our life, let us then turn to God in the sacrament of penance. Through the healing power of confession, we will gain the strength to be loving and forgiving with those in our lives that we may find most difficult to forgive.

Lord God, help us to not only to know, love and serve you with our whole mind, heart and soul, but help us also to love our neighbors as ourselves. Amen.

Would that today you might fast so as to make your voice heard on high!

 

The scripture readings for today can be found at Friday after Ash Wednesday | USCCB

The focus on today’s readings for mass is on the importance of fasting. Fasting is an important part of many different faith traditions. In the Jewish faith, on Yom Kipper, also known as the Day of Atonement, Jews are expected to fast all day, and be in intense prayer with God in order to review their lives over the previous year, and to repent of their sinfulness. For Muslims, Ramadan is a month of fasting and prayer to review their relationship with God and to repent of their sinfulness. For us Catholics, during Lent we fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Further, Lent is a time when we review our relationship with God and how we have lived out our call to be Christians since last Easter.

In the first reading for today, we hear from Isaiah the prophet, and we are learning that there is more to fasting than to just not eating food. The prophet points out that people, as they are fasting, are working, and carrying out their selfish pursuits. At the end of their fasts, they start quarreling and fighting with each other. Isaiah goes on to say that this is not what God wants! The type of fasting God is looking for is treating others with respect, helping those in need, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked.

Further, during this time of Lent we need to focus on our relationships with others and how we treat those around us, whether it is with our spouses, with our children, or our extended family and friends. If we are not treating them with the love and respect that God expects us to have towards them, all the fasting that we do will not bring us into a better relationship with God. Fighting with our spouses, children or friends is not pleasing to God. Further, gossip is something that we need to avoid. Gossip attacks the reputations of those we are talking about and shows a lack of love and respect towards the people we are talking about.

During the next forty days of Lent, let us turn to God with true repentance in our hearts and to turn to others in our lives that need our love and support.  Isaiah encourages us to not only fast but to do those works of charity towards those in our lives that need our help most. Then, as the prophet Isaiah says, “Your vindications shall go before you, and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.”

We are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us.

 

The scripture readings for today's reflection can be found at Ash Wednesday | USCCB

Today we begin our 40-day journey of Lent. These 40 days will lead us to Holy Week where we will relive the Lord’s Supper, and His passion and death on the Holy Cross on Good Friday, and then His glorious resurrection on Easter Sunday Morning. These are the holiest days on the Christian calendar. We are meant to focus on our relationship with God and attempt to grow ever closer to Him through prayer, fasting, and good works.

In our gospel for today, our Lord outlines how we are to do this. Doing righteous deeds or giving alms so that others can see how good we are is not the way we are to live our lives as Christians. We need to do these things out of love of God, not for any praise that we may get. Doing righteous deeds, giving alms, and fasting are all good things. But the focus must be and should be on doing them out of love for God and love of our neighbor. We are not to do them in order for people to say how good we are. Instead, we are to do these things for the greater glory and praise of God.

St. Paul tells us in his 2^nd letter to the Corinthians that we are to be ambassadors for Christ. What Paul is referring to here is that, as Christians, we are to live in a way that reflects our faith in Jesus Christ. In all we do, whether it’s praying, fasting or works of mercy, we do it for Christ. And by doing these things for the love of God, we are helping others see that God is present in our lives. We are not doing it for our own praise, but to get closer to God in our relationship with Him, and to bring others into relationship with Christ.

Further, during these 40 days of Lent, as we strive to get closer to God by how we live, we should consider turning to God in the Sacrament of Penance. We are all sinners and fall short of how we should be in the eyes of God. Through the regular use of confession, especially during Lent, we can see how we fall short in our living out our lives as followers of Jesus Christ. It is through the sacrament of confession that we can and do receive God’s forgiveness. With His forgiveness we can become closer to God, receive the healing and forgiveness that can only come from God, and thus become better ambassadors for Christ.

As we start our journey towards Holy Week and Easter, let us, along with the psalmist, say to God, “Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness; in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense."

I DO WILL IT. BE MADE CLEAN

Today we have a guest blogger, Arlene B. Muller. Arlene B. Muller (Arlene Clare Muller, OSF) is a lector and EM at St. Pancras parish, a singer in the choir at St. Margaret's parish, a professed Secular Franciscan at St. Adalbert's Secular Franciscan fraternity & an itinerant speech/language therapist working with preschool children with delayed language development. She enjoys writing and music and sharing Christian and pro-life posts on FACEBOOK.

The scripture readings for  this reflection can be found at Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time | USCCB

On Sunday, February 14, 2021 we celebrated the liturgy for the 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time, and this was the last Sunday prior to the beginning of Lent. This year Ash Wednesday is on February 17, 2021, when the holy season of Lent will officially begin. Lent is a season when we are called even more than ever to examine our hearts to try to see whatever areas of sinfulness or uncleanness remains in our hearts and lives for which we need to confess and repent and perhaps bring to the Sacrament of Reconciliation. It is a time for try to engage in more and hopefully deeper prayer and perhaps try to attend some weekday Masses and receive the Eucharist if we are able, or perhaps watch Mass online or on television more frequently if attending Church is prohibited because of health concerns. It is a time to obey the Lenten regulations for fasting and abstinence established by the Church and hopefully engage in some additional form of fasting or sacrifice to help us reform our lives: maybe a start of healthier eating habits that can extend beyond Lent, perhaps spending less time on FACEBOOK (my personal weakness) or other social media or the internet or spending less time watching TV or substituting religious programs for secular programs, perhaps temporarily giving up sweets or alcohol or some other treat, maybe finally giving up smoking, or maybe introducing walking or some simple form of healthy exercise that could last beyond Lent. We are also called to almsgiving, which is finding ways to give more of our time, talent and treasure to our parishes, our dioceses, private charities, and people in our lives who are in need. This could include giving money or donating clothing to organizations that help people who are homeless and/or women in crisis pregnancies such as the Sisters of Life, The Bridge to Life and Good Counsel Homes. It could also be volunteering our time and/or talent to help others within the boundaries of COVID-19 regulations.

So on this Sunday before Lent begins we see the man with leprosy come before Our LORD JESUS asking for healing. The first reading from Leviticus presents the regulations that the Jewish Law prescribed for any Israelite suspected of having leprosy. At the Saturday 4:30pm Vigil Mass Msgr. Steven spoke in his homily about the extreme isolation that people had to experience when they were diagnosed with leprosy. Unless and until they were healed--and at that time there were no antibiotics to treat leprosy as we have now--they had to spend their lives in perpetual quarantine from their families, their friends, their places of worship, their businesses, all public places and the rest of the community, spending their time only with other persons with leprosy. They could have no physical or social contact with others. They could not touch any non-leper's hand or kiss or hug their family members or friends.

In recent years the stigma of leprosy has been compared with the stigma experienced by people with HIV/AIDS, especially since both diseases have been linked, whether justly or unjustly, with some form of sin. But as Msgr. Steven spoke about the isolation--the quarantine--that people with leprosy, especially in Biblical times, have had to endure, I could not help relating this to the temporary quarantine that has to be endured by patients suffering from COVID-19, by asymptomatic people who have tested positive for COVID-19, by people who believe they have been exposed to people who have tested positive for COVID-19, and, to a lesser extent, the rest of us who had to quarantine last year and who still have to limit our contact with people, avoid touching people who are not members of our family, wear masks, avoid crowds, wash our hands and/or use hand sanitizers more frequently, and practice social distancing.

So far I have been tested twice for COVID-19 (thank the LORD I tested negative both times) because of actual or potential exposure to people who tested positive for COVID-19. The second time this was only potential but not actual contact, so I didn't need to quarantine, since none of the people with whom I was in direct contact tested positive at the Daycare center where I work one on one with a child, but the daycare was closed for two weeks because some people had tested positive. But the first time I had been in the sacristy with a priest who tested positive for COVID-19 several days later (this was back in November 2020 and the priest has since recovered, thank the LORD), and even though we were both wearing masks and only in the same room for a few minutes, we were probably about 4 feet rather than 6 feet apart and I needed to get tested. When I developed a bad toothache I was unable to go to the dentist until I got negative test results that took 6 days. During those 6 days I could not go to Mass, I could not go out to dinner, I could not go to my monthly Secular Franciscan fraternity meeting, I could not see friends, and I could not go to choir practice. Unlike the experience of a person with leprosy, my quarantine only lasted 6 days instead of a lifetime, but I still had a very minor taste of what people with leprosy experience. So maybe God is showing us in a small way how we can empathize with people who have illnesses that cause them to have enforced isolation on a larger scale for a longer period of time, including people who have serious cases of COVID-19 that require hospitalization who cannot be visited by their loved ones--especially those who die alone without the consolation of loved ones or a priest administering the Last Rites.

I have always believed that the request of the man with leprosy to the LORD JESUS is an ideal prayer. The translation currently used in the Liturgy is "iF YOU WISH, YOU CAN MAKE ME CLEAN." Personally I prefer the older translation, which is "IF YOU WILL IT, YOU CAN MAKE ME CLEAN." The person with leprosy apparently had heard something about the healings and miracles of Our LORD JESUS, through reports that even reached his leper colony. Since the man with leprosy literally knelt down before JESUS, and the Jewish Law is very strict about kneeling before GOD alone, he apparently had recognized and was acknowledging some Divine element in JESUS.

Like the person with leprosy we have faith in the power of Our LORD JESUS to answer our prayer requests favorably and to heal and cleanse us. Like him we also realize that GOD is sovereign and has the right and the ability to do as He chooses, and that His will is mysterious and not necessarily the same as ours, which we most likely have learned from our own experience. The man with leprosy was wise: he knew JESUS could heal and cleanse him fully, but he knew he could not presume to know what the LORD in His sovereignty would choose to do. Therefore, like him we should have full confidence that the LORD has enough love and enough power to cleanse us of any and all of our physical, psychological, spiritual and social/relational ailments and problems, but always acknowledge His sovereignty and His right to do things His way and in His time.

As Lent begins we pray the prayer of King David, the Psalm for Ash Wednesday, Psalm 51, asking the LORD to create a clean heart and renew a right spirit within us. This is a request to which Our LORD will always respond, "I DO WILL IT. BE MADE CLEAN."

He has done all things well…

 

The scripture readings for today can be found at Friday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time | USCCB

In our gospel for today we have one of the many healings that Jesus performed, this one of the deaf man with a speech impediment. Jesus, being divine, could have very easily have said words of healing and the man would have been cured. There was no need for Jesus to even touch him. In other healings, Jesus would say to the person being healed, “May it be done to you as you believe.” But in today’s gospel Jesus felt it necessary to take the man away from the crowds to be alone with him. Jesus felt it was important to have that quiet time alone with this man. Further, Jesus thought it necessary to touch the man’s ears and touch his tongue with his spit.

It is possible that Jesus thought it necessary to bring this man away from the crowds because the man probably felt uneasy being the center of attention, and, with the speech impediment, probably felt embarrassed or awkward. So, out of compassion, Jesus brought him away to be alone with Him in order to calm him and help him feel the love, compassion, and presence of God, as well as to receive the healing that he needed. This intimate time with Jesus helped this man’s self-confidence, plus helped him to develop that relationship with God that may not have happened within the center of the crowd.

As a result of this healing, this man, and those that brought him to Jesus felt it necessary to share their experience of Jesus with others. They became witnesses and followers of Jesus and felt the presence of God in their lives.

We all have problems and concerns in our lives that needs the attention and healing of Jesus Christ. Whether it’s a physical or health issues that we may want to keep private from others. Or other concerns, such as family or financial problems that we are dealing with. We can bring all our concerns to Jesus in prayer, whether it is in church or alone at home in prayer. We can and should place our concerns into the loving hands of Jesus. He will in turn, reach out and heal us in a way that He knows we need it most. This healing may not be in the way we expect, but it will be in the way we need it.

We need to trust that Jesus will be there for us. And when we feel the healing presence of Jesus in our life, we can say to others, “He has done all things well.” Lord Jesus, we place all our cares and concerns into your loving hands. Respond to them in the way that is best for us and help us to trust in you always.

Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect hospitality, for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels.

 

The scripture readings for today can be found at Memorial of Saint Agatha, Virgin and Martyr | USCCB

In our first reading for today from Hebrews we are being reminded of what it truly means to be a Christian. Not only are we to love God with our whole mind, body, and soul, but we are also to love our neighbors as ourselves. As we give hospitality to others in our lives, Hebrews tells us that it’s possible that we may have unknowingly entertained angels.

Hebrews goes on to remind us to be mindful of prisoners. This reflects what the Lord Jesus taught us in Matthew, chapter 25, with the judgement of the nations. Among the list of people that represented the Lord, Jesus said, I was “in prison and you visited me.’” (Mathew 25:36) All through this chapter, Jesus was teaching us that what we do for others, whether they be hungry, thirsty, naked or in prison, we do it for the Lord. Our Lord says in the Gospel of Matthew: “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40) There are many ways to answer God’s call of love for others. Visiting prisoners, for example, could be more than visiting those in prison, but also visiting a lonely elderly neighbor, or visiting those in a nursing home who have no family to visit them. They feel as much imprisoned as those who may be serving time for a crime.

In the letter to the Hebrews, we are further reminded to remain faithful in our marriage vows, showing mutual respect and love between husband and wife. And it goes on to teach us to be free of love of money. Money is only a tool and should not become an idol, replacing our love of God. God should always be the center of who we are as Christians.

Today’s reading from Hebrews concludes with the suggestion to imitate those early Christians who spoke the word of God that has been handed down to us in scripture. We are to imitate their faith in Jesus Christ. We are to love and serve God in all we do, and we are to bring the love of God to a world that so desperately needs the love, healing, and peace that only can come from God.

Lord Jesus, help us to be true examples of your love in a world that is in so need of your love, peace, and healing.