His Word Today: Feasting

Good morning everyone,

During the forty days of Lent, we are given a precious opportunity to renew once again our commitment to spending time with our God in prayer.  In this sense, spending time simply means being in the presence of God so that he can share His wisdom with us - like a father might do with his children - and so that we can benefit from these lessons in order to enrich our own lived experience of faith.

In the gospel passage proposed for today's liturgy, the disciples of John came to Jesus and asked, 'Why do we and the Pharisees fast much but your disciples do not fast? (Mt 9:14).  Jesus' answer to this question helps us to understand the precious opportunity that we have been given during this Lenten season.  He says: Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? (Mt 9:15).  While Jesus was with the disciples, they had the precious opportunity to sit in his presence every day, to soak up his wisdom, to ask questions and to make his wisdom their own.

The opportunity that was afforded to the disciples is also offered to us.  This precious season of Lent is an invitation for each of us to spend time with Jesus - the bridegroom - in prayer.  The more opportunities we find to do this, the more we will be able to discover the joy that comes from being with Him, and the more our hearts will be nourished with the special food of His presence.  Having fed our hearts with his precious food, when the time comes for us to mourn - to face moments of doubt - our souls will be able to endure because we have been enriched through the discipline of spending time in His presence.

Have a great day.

His Word Today: Rejected

Good morning everyone,

Only one day into the Lenten journey, the words of the gospel passage show us that Jesus didn't try to deny the fact that his journey would not be easy.  Even as he was inviting his disciples to follow him, he was brutally honest about what they could expect, and the same is true for us.

Knowing that his disciples were misinterpreting his claim to be the promised Messiah, Jesus wanted to set the record straight.  Whereas they were expecting him to somehow wield political power, his idea of leadership was very different: The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected ... and be killed and on the third day be raised (Lk 9:22).  This plan must have been surprising to them, and so we should also expect that God's plans will surprise us.

Lest we become discouraged at the thought that our Messiah's plans are not the same as our dreams, Jesus explains: If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily (Lk 9:23).  We should never be surprised by the fact that God's plans for us may be different from our own hopes and dreams, but we can also find comfort in the fact that he will never abandon us.  He has already suffered, been rejected, been killed ... and been raised ... and he promises that this will be the way for us as well.

Have a great day.

His Word Today: Ashes

Good morning everyone,

As the day goes on today, how many of us may find ourselves walking along the sidewalk, or sitting in a restaurant or doing other errands when someone may point to our foreheads and giggle, or make a comment about dirt that we have forgotten to wash away?

Today is one of the days when we most effectively bear witness to our faith.  As we begin the season of Lent, ashes on our foreheads remind us of our mortality since our bodies will all return to ashes after we have died.  They also remind us that we should live every day in hope of heaven which will be our reward when this earthly life is complete.

In answer to questions from strangers, we can explain that the ashes mark the beginning of a special time when we are called to come closer to God.  Through prayer, fasting and almsgiving, we prepare to celebrate Easter ... the greatest feast of our faith.

Receive ashes today and wear them proudly as a mark of the faith that we have been invited to live.

Have a great day.

His Word Today: Everything

Good morning everyone,

In the gospel passage for today's Mass, we hear the voice of Peter speak.  I can imagine that he was perhaps frustrated at this particular moment.  Perhaps he had seen what he perceived to be affluence and comfort in the lives of others and this led him to question his own choices.  His words ring across the centuries: We have given up everything and followed you (Mk 10:28).  Perhaps we too have known this experience: disillusionment at having followed what we believed to be the right path, only to find that in place of reward there were only more questions.

Jesus responds with words meant to console the heart of one who is disillusioned: there is no one who has given up ... everything ... for my sake who will not receive a hundred times more in this present age ... and eternal life in the age to come (Mk 10:29-30).

It can be very difficult for human beings to grasp the wisdom of Jesus' words, but they contain a truth that has stood the test of time.  Look around and you will soon see: there are those who are reluctant to give up everything in order to follow Jesus.  Are they truly happy ... or are they still searching?  There are some who have given up everything for the sake of Jesus and his kingdom who seem to possess an inner joy because they know that in their willingness to renounce one treasure, they have a greater treasure to look forward to.

Have a great day.

His Word Today: What else?

Good morning everyone,

As we prepare for the beginning of the Lenten season, the gospel passage today issues another challenge.  Jesus is setting out on a journey when a man runs up to him and asks: Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? (Mk 10:17).  I wonder if we have asked this question of Jesus in prayer.

The answer Jesus gives (at least the first part of the answer) is something that we all might expect: the Commandments are like a prescription for maintaining good spiritual health, but that young man wanted more.  We should all want more when it comes to the promise of eternal life, and it is the next part of the story that is most intriguing.  When the man assures him: Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth (Mk 10:20), Jesus looked at him and loved him (cf Mk 10:21).

Many if not all of us can rightly say - like the man in the gospel - that we have kept the Commandments, but how many of us have had the experience of knowing that Jesus is looking at us, gazing at us, and loving us?  This is perhaps the simplest and most profound experience of prayer: to know that Jesus is looking at us and loving us.  Perhaps this can be the beginning of our Lenten experience.  Ask the Lord simply to look at us and to love us.

Have a great day.

Preparing for Lent

In just a few days, we will begin the annual discipline of Lent: the period of forty days that is given to us each year so that we can prepare our hearts for the great celebration of Easter.  I will speak more about how we can prepare for this celebration when Ash Wednesday arrives, but even now, I think we can all begin to think about what our experience of Lent might be.

In the gospel that we have heard today, Jesus asks some questions that might help us to orient ourselves and to prepare our hearts.  He asks his disciples some interesting questions - which appear to be rhetorical, but questions that probably led them to reflect on their own situations.  These same questions can also help us to do the same.

Can a blind person guide a blind person?  Will not both fall into a pit? (Lk 6:39)  Our lives of faith are a constant journey that begins at baptism; a journey that will not end until we are reunited with our Father in heaven.  Along the way, our God is always near to us, but it is up to us to follow his guidance.  Unfortunately, at times, we choose to follow the guidance of others, and sometimes the others that we choose to follow can become lost themselves.  Have we fallen into this trap?  If we have, Lent may give us a chance to start again, to focus on Jesus and to follow him because he knows the way that we should travel so that we can find our way home to our loving God.

Why do you see the speck in your neighbour's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? (Lk 6:41)  Human beings seem to have an uncanny ability to recognize the faults of others, but at the same time, we also seem to blind to our own faults.  Is this because deep within our hearts, we may be aware of our own weakness but we don't want to admit it to anyone - even to ourselves - in case we might be perceived as weak in the eyes of others?  Perhaps we think that the admission of guilt will somehow make us less in the eyes of God, or in the eyes of others?  Yet, if we were the parent who was seeking to console a child who had done something wrong, would we not immediately want to speak reassuring words, to tell our precious child: There is nothing that you could ever do that would make me love you less than I do right now?  Perhaps as Lent begins, we can ask for this grace, and perhaps if we can hear these words addressed to us, we would be more willing to be merciful with others.

Dear friends, it is not too late for us to change our hearts.  Metanoia - the changing of hearts - is the grace that we are invited to experience during the liturgical season of Lent.  Since the day of our baptism, God has been at work within us, planting the seeds of goodness, mercy, forgiveness and love and helping us to recognize these seeds within us as they continue to grow and to bear fruit (cf Lk 6:43), and all of this is in preparation for the day when these mortal bodies of ours will put on immortality (cf 1 Cor 15:54).

Let us prepare our hearts in the coming days so that we will be able to set out on the journey of Lent, together with the Lord who never leaves us alone.  He will guide us every step of the way until we reach our eternal home, until we celebrate the great joy of the resurrection that is the gift of Easter.

His Word Today: Understand

Good morning everyone,

Today's gospel passage begins with a question that is asked of Jesus: Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife? (Mk 10:2).  Within the words that are spoken by the Pharisees, there is a hidden hope: they either want him to change the teaching or they want to put his teachings to the test.

Every adolescent will - at some point - challenge the rules, and it seems that this is what the Pharisees are trying to do with Jesus.  Did they want him to change the teaching or were they out to challenge him, hoping to find some weakness in his arguments?  Even in adulthood, there are times when we would prefer to challenge the rules that God has established for us, but there is a deeper lesson to be learned here too.

True wisdom always stands the test of time.  If God's laws have indeed stood the test of time, why is it that we should think that God should change the rules just for us?  Instead, should we not ask a different question: how can we approach the author of such wisdom, and ask for the gift of this wisdom to be shared with us - at the level of our hearts?

Have a great day.