Third Sunday of Lent

Dominica III in Quadragesima C
23 March 2025

 This Sunday the Scriptures call us to reflect on what it means to belong to God in covenant.  We belong to Him and are claimed by Him.  This involves living in accord with God’s ways.  And when we inevitably fail to do that in both venial and mortal ways, we are called to repent and to bear the good fruit God expects.  The lesson of repentance and bearing good fruit is a well-timed lesson for the Season of Lent as exhibited in the Scripture selections for this Holy Mass.

 The second reading (from the First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians) speaks to us about the Old Covenant God made with the Israelites and the many wonderful saving events God provided to His people, especially involving the ministry of Moses.  St. Paul does something interesting in recounting these saving events.  He says what happened with the people in the Old Covenant serves as an example and a warning to us in the New Covenant.  Listen to the blessings received by the Israelites, which St. Paul recounts to Christians in Corinth: “[O]ur ancestors were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea”.  St. Paul says this movement from slavery in Egypt to freedom, entering the cloud of God’s presence and passing through the parted Red Sea amounts to a “baptismal” entry to the Old Covenant.  He wrote: “all of them were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea”.  Having thus been baptized into the Old Covenant, St. Paul goes on to write that they all “ate the same spiritual food”.  And here is the kicker from St. Paul.  He continues: “Yet God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the desert”.  Considering these saving events of the Exodus and the outcome that most of those chosen people died before arriving at the Promised Land, St. Paul drives the lesson home for Christians: “These things happened as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil things, as they did.  Do not grumble as some of them did, and suffered death by the destroyer.  These things happened to them as an example, and they have been written down as a warning to us…. Therefore, whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall”.  And thus, the appropriate Lenten lesson of repentance that is reinforced in the Gospel selection.

 In the Gospel, Jesus calls his listeners to repentance.  He confronts a false but common notion among ancient people, namely that when bad things happen to people (like the massacre of Galileans in the Temple or like those who died when the tower of Siloam fell) it happens as punishment for sin, it is a sign that those who died were bad sinners.  The ancients commonly thought that all calamity and misfortune were related to sin and came about as punishment.  We might think that a quaint notion from unsophisticated ancient minds.  Yet, we moderns commonly adopt the opposite extreme.  In our culture we commonly adopt the idea that there is no relationship between sin and punishment.  So, we probably should be careful about making charges of lack of sophistication.  While Jesus says that those who died in those events were not worse sinners than anyone else, he still goes on to say, “But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!”  What do we make of the apparent contradiction?  The Lord’s remarks can be understood if he is not speaking only of physical death of bodily death, like the Galileans experienced and like those who died when the tower fell.  The Lord is calling us to repentance so that we might not find ourselves facing spiritual death, eternal death in separation from him.  And in fact, the Lord expects and demands repentance that we might bear good fruit as members of the New Covenant.

   There is a popular notion among some Christians that claims that once a person comes to Christ and expresses faith, then they have a salvation that is set and unchanging.  That popular notion is expressed in these words: the doctrine of “Once saved; always saved”.  That notion simply does not match with the evidence throughout the Scriptures.  That notion makes no sense in light of the frequent biblical call to repent – even among those already following Jesus.  That false notion is adopted by many non-catholic Christians who might think that once they accept Jesus there is nothing that would endanger salvation.  But that false notion is also adopted by many catholics, perhaps unintentionally, who do not make good use of confession, that sacrament particularly geared to repentance and to the healing of sins committed after we enter the New Covenant in baptism.  That attitude cannot be ours.  For we are called to repent and to bear good fruit.

   As St. Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth, “whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall”.  The Lord, like the owner of an orchard, expects fruit to come from the trees he has planted and nourished with his saving grace and the Precious Blood from his Cross.  That Gospel image of the fig tree echoes exactly an earlier event in the same Gospel of St. Luke when St. John the Baptist is calling his listeners to not assume that because they have Abraham as father that they are automatically saved.  St. John goes on to say, “Produce good fruits as evidence of your repentance…. Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees.  Therefore every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire” (Lk. 3:8-9).  The tree is an image of an individual believer planted in the orchard of the covenant in Jesus.  From each believer, good fruit, produce at the proper time, is expected.  Like the people of the Old Covenant, God nourishes us with baptism and spiritual food and he sends workers to tend the orchard, to cultivate it and fertilize it.  The good fruit is expected and demanded.  If not produced, the tree is cut down.

    We trust that the Lord is kind and merciful.  But we also take care not to fall.  Repentance, by which we return constantly to the Lord, places our hope in him and keeps us united to the one whose generous gifts and patience make it possible for us to bear good fruit.

First Sunday of Lent

Dominica I in Quadragesima C
9 March 2025

 I think we would all agree that the Sacred Scriptures, being the inspired Word of God in written form, are of immense value for our instruction, for our correction, and for training in holiness (cf. 2 Tim. 3:16).  One of the blessings you can discover when you study and pray with the Scriptures is how much more there is than just the word on the page, as valuable as that is.  In addition to the words on the page, you see literary techniques and characteristics that open endless riches by which we can come to know God and by which we can come to see our lives in the plan of salvation.  By way of example, it is fascinating to understand that Old Testament figures can serve as types of what will be fulfilled in the New Testament.  Such is the case when we read about Isaac in the Old Testament, the beloved son of his father Abraham, who carries the wood for the sacrifice on his shoulders, much like what is fulfilled when Jesus, the beloved Son of God, carries the wood of the cross and is given in sacrifice by the Father for our sins.  Sometimes the literary device allows you to see mirror or inverse images between biblical events.

 On this first Sunday of Lent I suggest we should have in our minds the blessings of the Garden of Eden and mankind’s fall by giving in to the temptations of the devil.  We know about the garden from the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible.  God created all good things and made man in His own image, giving him authority over creation and placing him in that garden of blessing.  By taking and eating from the forbidden tree, man’s disobedience introduced sin, caused man’s expulsion from the place of blessing, and carries with it the inherited sin that we each receive and which weakens us in the face of temptation.  With that lesson from Genesis in mind, we have the inverse in the gospel selection from St. Luke.  Just one verse before today’s selection, Jesus is revealed in St. Luke’s genealogy as the “son of Adam, the Son of God”.  This reference to Adam bolsters how the gospel scene is an inversion of the garden, for Jesus is the new Adam, and like him, he is tempted by Satan.  But given that sin has entered the world, Jesus is led to, or placed in, the desert, far from the garden of blessing.  There, in that place of desolation that speaks so clearly of lack of blessing, Jesus, the new Adam, is victorious.  In this way, we have a summary of the temptations faced by Adam and Eve.  These temptations are relived, so to speak; they are recapitulated in Jesus.  But, this time, the new and perfect Adam, Jesus, is victorious; and, since he is both God and man, this means our own human nature, our flesh, has hope for victory in Jesus over what has caused our fall.

Genesis tells us of a threefold temptation in the Garden.  When Satan tempts Eve, the Scripture says that Eve saw that “the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise” (Gn. 3:6).  Christianity has developed a tradition of seeing in this scene from Genesis a threefold concupiscence, meaning a threefold way that is comprehensive for how we are inclined to sin.  You can see this tradition on display moving from Genesis to the opposite end of the Bible in the First Letter of St. John (chapter 2, verse 16).  He writes: “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world”.  Let’s make the connection from the threefold concupiscence to how this has developed in Christian tradition.  Eve saw that the tree was good for food, which corresponds to the Christian tradition of referring to our tendency toward sin due to the lust of the flesh.  Lust is a disordered attachment to things.  The lust of the flesh, refers to a disordered attachment to food and drink and sexual pleasure, things that are pleasurable to the flesh.  Second, Eve saw that the tree was a delight to the eyes, which corresponds to the Christian tradition of referring to our tendency toward sin due to the lust of the eyes.  The lust of the eyes refers to a disordered attachment by which we see things and desire to possess and take them, to make them ours.  Eve saw that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, to make one like unto God, which corresponds to the Christian tradition of naming the pride of life as a source by which we fall to sin.  The pride of life is a disordered attachment to being exalted, to raising oneself up in esteem, to be powerful, to seek glory, to be in the know, to seek to occupy the place of God.

Jesus recapitulates this threefold temptation, this triple concupiscence, in the gospel selection, which presents us an inversion of the Garden of Eden.  Satan’s temptations correspond to this triple concupiscence.  Jesus, led to the desert by the Spirit, has undergone serious fasting and he was very weak in his human nature.  The devil, being the most cunning of all the creatures, seizes upon the moment to bring temptations, and St. Luke’s very ordering of the three temptations highlights the triple concupiscence that I have been describing.  The devil tempts Jesus to command that a stone become bread.  That’s an expression of the lust of the flesh, to make something that would be pleasurable, that would feed a desire of the flesh, that would fill a longing of the flesh.  The devil tempts Jesus by showing him all the kingdoms of the world and promises that he will hand them over to Jesus, that he may possess them.  That’s an expression of the lust of the eyes, to see all the power associated with earthly kingdoms and mankind, and to desire to possess it, to take control of it.  Finally, the devil tempts Jesus by placing him in full sight at the pinnacle of the temple and urges him to throw himself down so that God’s promise of protection can be displayed.  That’s an expression of the pride of life, to display his power, to make a show of himself, and to be exalted before the world as the one sent by God the Father.

 And so, with the lesson of Genesis and the threefold concupiscence, it makes total sense that our standard Lenten practices – fasting, almsgiving, and prayer – are remedies for these precise areas of weakness.  Where we suffer from lust of the flesh, we fast to train ourselves against a disordered attachment to food, drink, and bodily pleasure.  We need to rely on fasting more, and not only in Lent.  Don’t think that simply because the Church requires fasting only on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, that those are the only days we should fast.  No, if you want to master the tendency to weakness in the flesh then adopt fasting.  In Lent, our use of a such a tool should be intensified.  Where we suffer from the lust of the eyes, we engage in almsgiving.  Where we might tend to fall prey to amass possessions, to take things and hold onto them for ourselves, we give things away to those who are needy and at the same time we train ourselves to maintain better control over this desire.  Where we are sort of tugged by the pride of life, wanting attention, or to be seen as an influencer, or to be wise, to be seen as powerful and noteworthy, we practice and develop a life of prayer.  By prayer we recognize our need for God.  We enter relationship with Him.  And immediately, humility is required because we can’t help but be honest in that relationship that we are not God, but in humility must rely upon Him and His love for us.  To make a minor adaptation of St. John the Baptist’s words in reference to Jesus: We must decrease and He must increase.

 Jesus has recapitulated the events of man’s sin and has been victorious over what separates us from God.  Thus, in Lent, we seek to be more greatly conformed to Christ so that, united more deeply with our Head, we who are members of the Body of Christ may share more fully in his victory.  Lent is not a time for superficial spiritual practices, but a serious engagement with prayer, fasting, and almsgiving so that the Lord’s power may come more fully into the weakness that ails us.  The Lord did not come in our flesh and die for our sins so that we can  give up trivial things for Lent.  That might be okay for children, but not for us adults.  He came to undo the power of our triple concupiscence.  Now is the time for serious battle to weaken the disordered attachments that keep us bound.

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday
5 March 2025

 The holy season of Lent is an annual opportunity to be honest – brutally honest – with ourselves about ourselves.  It’s as if we are looking at ourselves before the Lord, as if he were a mirror and we are checking our reflection.  How do we reflect the Lord in our daily living?  Is our image conformed more greatly to his?  Is our reflection of him lacking in some significant way that must be reformed, and even in smaller ways that need our effort at conversion?

Taking up the call to engage in this self-examination is critically important because it is so easy for us to fall into a complacency about ourselves that can result in our adopting self-congratulatory ideas and false estimations of ourselves.  Considering what takes place at almost every modern funeral exposes this complacency and this self-congratulatory tendency.  Funerals are now “celebrations of life” by which most people mean a celebration of the deceased and all of his or her favorite hobbies and interests.  Rarely does one get the sense that the life being celebrated is that of the Lord, lived in the person of the deceased, which would be the only thing that matters and the only thing that saves.  Gone are the days at most funerals when, facing the reality of judgment, the focus is clearly on praying that the deceased person may experience a merciful judgment.  The way most people speak at funerals gives the distinct impression, if not the outright claim, that the deceased is already in Heaven or has become an angel.  And since it is assumed that the deceased is already in heaven, there is little that communicates the need to pray for the deceased person.  In fact, one of the greatest tragedies in modern funerals is that the living are not left with an awareness of the need to pray for the deceased and to accompany and help the deceased soul through its purification.  Rarely at funerals do we hear that the deceased had sins that must be addressed or that we should hold off on claims of instant canonization.  I am not observing this to be nasty, but to pull the veil off of a tendency that undercuts the truth.  The truth is that we are sinners.  The truth is that we exist in a fallen nature due to original sin, which we inherit.  The truth is that we are each guilty of our own personal sins, and sometimes rather serious sins that risk our eternal loss on the day of judgment.  If we don’t face that truth, if we allow ourselves to be medicated by the spirit that is so evident surrounding modern funerals, if we adopt a secular way of thinking, then we fall into the trap of self-congratulatory attitudes by which we think our sins aren’t that bad and that we don’t have much for which we must repent and be converted.

And thus, the importance of Lent.   It is a time to be brutally honest about ourselves.  And if we use Lent well, we don’t keep that honesty only for Lent, abandoning it the rest of the year.  Rather, we continually examine ourselves as a regular part of the spiritual life, and we heed the call to practice that brutally honest self-examination in the gift of confession.  Why do we engage in this honest self-examination and the practices of penance?  Because Jesus himself is the example to us of prayer, penance, and the arduous struggle with evil and the devil himself.  He did so in his temptation in the desert.  Furthermore, he recommends such practices to his disciples.  Notice that in the Gospel selection, the Lord is recommending spiritual practices and telling his disciples how to engage in them sincerely and in a way pleasing to him.  He says, “When you give alms,” and “When you pray,” and “When you fast.”  The Lord assumes that his followers take up these worthy practices and that his followers do them in such a way that does not render them empty by doing them in order so that others see those righteous deeds.

What we do in Lent with particular vigor is not intended to be kept in Lent, as if we would leave behind serious and honest self-examination the rest of the year.  We engage with the opportunity of Lent as an intense time of renewal so that we live the faith in a way more consistent with our calling and so that the coming celebration of Easter will find us living a deeper communion with the Lord who is the only source and hope of our salvation.  The truth is that we need to dismiss the tendency to excuse ourselves of sin and to make use of the great gifts that are the marks both of honest self-examination and honest reliance on the goodness of the Lord who loves us and whose mercy saves those who are humble and who repent.