First Sunday Gospel Reflection

By Ryan Fannon

The Gospel begins with, "Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry ” It invokes many thoughts of all the temptations that exist in our world today and how only with God by our side can we choose the right path.

God provides us many gifts in our lifetime, but the gift of free will is one of the greatest gifts of them all, yet one of our most challenging. How often do we come to a fork in the road with a tough decision and ask ourselves what the right thing is to do. As Jesus was tempted by the devil in the desert, we are tempted every day of our lives to make the right decision or the wrong decision. Often, we might not even know what the right or wrong decision is.

Something happens to us when we stop at these tough decisions in our daily lives and simply ask God to guide us to make the right decision. Not the earthly decision our human mind makes in these circumstances on our own without asking for God's guidance, for it never will be enough. It's the freedom and the free will of letting go and knowing that God is in charge, not us. When we accept that and embrace that reality of our Catholic faith, our daily decisions and choosing between right and wrong often find a true clarity and provide us an inner peace that only God can give.

God gives us the ability and gift of our free will to make hard decisions by simply stopping and asking, "What would Jesus do in this moment?" If we can say that before we make important decisions, and even if our decision appears to have been wrong by the earthly outcome, it will always be the right decision because we made it through God's help.

We all have made and will make many more mistakes in our lifetime because that is reality, and we are human beings. But if we put our faith in God every day to lead us down the path he has chosen for us with strength and conviction, the positive impact we can make in our lives and for others has no limits.

Because one day, when all of us go before the Lord on our Judgment Day, we hope and pray the words of God for us will be, "Well done, my good and faithful servant.”

For all this and more, we pray and thank you Lord for the guidance to all be able to say one day as 2 Timothy 4:7 reads, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” Please God, guide us all home to You. Amen.

The Second Sunday of Lent Opening Reflection

By Stephen Crooker

The reading this Sunday from the Book of Genesis considers the amazing call of Abram: a call to radical change, to leave everything he knew and go to another place that God would show him. God promised that Abram would be a blessing to those with whom he came into contact.

Psalm 121 promises that God will be with us day and night. In the Letter to the Romans, Saint Paul encourages us to see that God blesses us as we work, and even if we are doing nothing, because we believe in God’s transforming love that creates and recreates and makes possible what we may think impossible.

The Gospel reading traditionally for the second Sunday of Lent is the Transfiguration. Our Lord took Peter, James, and John up to a mountain, and before their very own eyes they saw his Divinity. They saw His connection to the past, the present with them, and His future mission. They were stunned and afraid and didn’t know what to think or do. However, Jesus reassured them and asked them not to speak of it until later. For a moment, the humanity of Our Lord is lifted to show His full divinity.

As we continue to journey forward during this season of Lent, let us also be a witness to others of the saving power of Jesus Christ in our lives. Let us also ponder this question: Do we believe as Abram did that God is blessing others through us, day, and night?

Loving God, there is so much darkness in my life and I hide from you. Take my hand and lead me out of the shadows of my fear. Help me to change my heart. Bring me to your truth and help me to respond to your generous love. Let me recognize the fullness of your love which will fill my life.

Free me from the darkness in my heart.

The Second Sunday of Lent

Gospel Reading

Matthew 17: 1-9

After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents* here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud cast a shadow over them, then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” When the disciples heard this, they fell prostrate and were very much afraid. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and do not be afraid.” And when the disciples raised their eyes, they saw no one else but Jesus alone. The Coming of Elijah. As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, “Do not tell the vision to anyone until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

Second Sunday Gospel Reflection

By Rebecca Vaccaro

I don’t know if it makes sense to have favorite Apostles (shouldn’t they all be our favorites?), but Peter is in my top three (Thomas and “the other Judas” round out the group). Why? In part because that poor guy never seemed to get much right. Just in chapter 16 of Matthew’s gospel alone, the chapter before the reading for this week, we see the Apostles (Peter chief among them) wrestling with what Jesus is trying to tell them regarding the Pharisees and Sadducees. Jesus warns them by saying, “Look out, and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (Mt 16:6). They conclude, “It is because we have brought no bread” (Mt 16:7), which prompts Jesus’s rebuke, “Ye of little faith” (Mt 16:8). Later, when Jesus is talking with them about His suffering and death, Peter reacts with horror: “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you,” to which Jesus responds, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me” (Mt 16: 22-23).

Certainly, Peter isn’t at his finest during the Lord’s Passion. When the temple guards come for Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter does what many of us would probably do if someone was threatening our best friend; he pulls his sword and attacks, cutting off Machus’s ear (John 18:10). Result: “Put your sword into its scabbard. Shall I not drink the cup that the Father gave me?” (Jn 18:11). And we all know about the denial (Mt 26:69-75).

Despite these miscues, errors, and failings, Jesus persists in choosing Peter. Peter is the rock “and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it” (Mt. 16:18). He merits witnessing the Transfiguration, glimpsing Moses and Elijah, and hearing the Father affirm Jesus’s status as His Son (Mt. 17:2-3, 5). But why? Perhaps a look at the rest of the readings for the Second Sunday in Lent can help clarify what Jesus seemed to see as the defining characteristics of Peter.

Peter, like Abram, “went as the Lord directed him” (Gn 12:4). His recognition of Jesus as Lord and his faith in that truth, led him to abandon his father and his profession to follow Jesus. By giving up his life to follow the Lord, Peter led a life of faith and thus fulfilled God’s promise that “all the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you” (Gn 12:3).

Peter was also a man of hope. He frequently made bad decisions. And yet his continued faith contextualizes those mistakes. Every failing Peter displayed is followed by a moment of repentance. One can very easily imagine him begging the Lord’s forgiveness in the words of the Psalmist: “May your kindness, O LORD, be upon [me] who [has] put [my] hope in you” (Ps 33:22). And this humility is what ultimately allowed Peter to find the hope and courage to “bear [his] share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God” (2 Tm 1:8).

Peter shows all of us that it isn’t about how many mistakes we make, how often we make them, or even how egregious any of them are. It’s about believing in the reality of God, hoping for the salvation He promises, and working toward that salvation every day. Even if we fail sometimes.

St. Peter, pray for us.

Excerpt from “The Deluge” – G.K. Chesterton

Though giant rains put out the sun, Here stand I for a sign.

Though earth be filled with waters dark, My cup is filled with wine.

Tell to the trembling priests that here

Under the deluge rod, One nameless, tattered, broken man Stood up, and drank to God.

The Third Sunday of Lent Opening Reflection

By Father Noah Morey

A quick internet search reveals that 70% of the earth is water-covered, while up to 60% of the human body is made of water. The power of water is frightening, yet water is necessary for life and health. In the arid regions where the Scriptures were written, and especially in an agricultural society, access to water was a matter of life and death. How fitting that today’s readings focus our attention on the living water that God provides. The Chosen People had miraculously crossed dry-shod through the Red Sea, having left slavery in Egypt. But amid their wanderings in the desert, they had lost hope in God’s power to save them from evil and make good on his promises.

Spiritually, the waters of baptism bring supernatural regeneration in souls. We enter the waters of baptism, a symbol of death, and we rise up to newness of life. Baptism washes us from slavery to sin, making us heirs to the promised land of heaven. Created in the image and likeness of God, through our baptism we are recreated in the image of the Son of God. Interestingly, Jesus is the one here who asks for a drink. He thirsts for the Samaritan woman’s love; He wants to be the bridegroom of her soul because her five previous husbands could not satisfy her desires. The water Jesus provides satisfies all our desires because it leads us to eternal life.

From the cross, Jesus said, “I thirst.” Granted, Our Lord was physically thirsty because he had had nothing to eat or drink since the Last Supper about 18 hours earlier, and He had lost a great quantity of blood, which only increased His need for water. But on a deeper level, Jesus was thirsting for our love, just as in today’s reading. To paraphrase Saint Augustine: “Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of God’s thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for him” (CCC, 2560). Baptism gives us ample reason to hope in God for eternal life, for “hope does not disappoint, because the love of G od has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Let us rejoice in the marvels that God does for us daily, specifically for adopting us as His beloved sons and daughters through baptism.

O God, thank you for making water a symbol of health and new life. Thank you for taking care of our every need, and for sending your Son, Jesus Christ, to sanctify all the waters of the world through His baptism. May we live always as your very dear children, ever aware of your power to transform us anew. Amen.

The Third Sunday of Lent

Gospel Reading

John 4: 5-42

So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there. Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well. It was about noon. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” (For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” [The woman] said to him, “Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the well is deep; where then can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?” Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” Jesus said to her, “Go call your husband and come back.” The woman answered and said to him, “I do not have a husband.” Jesus answered her, “You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’ For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain; but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Anointed; when he comes, he will tell us everything.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking with you.” At that moment his disciples returned, and were amazed that he was talking with a woman, but still no one said, “What are you looking for?” or “Why are you talking with her?” The woman left her water jar and went into the town and said to the people, “Come see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the Messiah?” They went out of the town and came to him. Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” So the disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say, ‘In four months the harvest will be here’? I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest. The reaper is already receiving his payment and gathering crops for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together. For here the saying is verified that ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; others have done the work, and you are sharing the fruits of their work.” Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me everything I have done.” When the Samaritans came to him, they invited him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. Many more began to believe in him because of his word, and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”