March 14, 1999Fourth Sunday of Lent |
Our focus on conversion - The Heart of Lent - encourages us to relate the fruits of ongoing conversion to being Christian role models to our children, and our responsibility as disciples of Christ to make a difference in the world through social action. These are areas we have chosen to highlight in liturgies and Lenten evening services this past and coming week.
Our concern and responsibility to "pass on" our Catholic faith and traditions to our children is rooted in the Old Testament. In Deuteronomy the famous passage: "Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. Take heart to these words which I enjoin on you today. Drill them into your children. Speak of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest." Deuteronomy 6:4-7. In today's language we might paraphrase the Twelfth Step of contemporary recovery programs - Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps (i.e. conversion), we tried to carry this message to our children, and to practice these principles (i.e. faith traditions) in all our affairs.
The ultimate outcome of our desire to pass on our faith to others, especially our children is of course somewhat out of our control. However, like the example of enjoying good health is somewhat out of our control, we can certainly better the odds by practicing healthy life style choices, so in raising our children we can better prepare the ground for seeds of faith to grow by how we communicate to our children the practice of our faith. The third, fourth, and fifth Sundays of Lent this year offer us in the Gospels wonderful conversion stories to help us become good role models. Last Sunday's Gospel story of the Samaritan woman gave us the theme of thirsting for living water - "the water I give shall become a fountain within, leaping up to provide eternal life." (John 4:14)
This passage refers to the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised to "pass on" to all who follow him and thirst for the "living water." In baptism we are anointed with the Holy Spirit and in Confirmation this "anointing" is to be strengthened so that the gifts and charisms of the Holy Spirit are activated and become manifest. In Confirmation we are sealed with the anointing of the Holy Spirit in order to be authentic (credible) witnesses to "power from on high." A theologian in the early church wrote "As they saw it, the mystery of the anointing was so important that the very name of 'Christians' was derived from it: "This is why we are called Christians," writes one of them, "because we are anointed with the oil of God." Christians, according to this explanation, did not so much mean "followers of Christ," but rather "sharers in Christ's anointing." (The Holy Spirit in the Life of Jesus, Rev. Canatalmessa)
This Sunday's Gospel of the blind man's healing presents the classical story of growth in faith, i.e. "seeing" is a metaphor for faith-seeing signs of Gods presence and providence. John the Evangelist underscores the power of Jesus in this gradual awakening of faith by using the expression "opened my eyes" seven times. He first tells his questionners that Jesus' is clearly the prophet, later when he meets Jesus he bows down in worship.
This Sunday's Gospel relates well to the next weeks "heart of Lent theme "act justly, love tenderly, walk humbly, a call to social actions. "But we see, you say, and your sin remains," concludes the gospel on a note of warning to all think their powers of perception to be flawless. Jesus' words remind us of the ever-present dangers of spiritual myopia and/or tunnel-vision and challenge us to remain wide-eyed and watchful, in eager anticipation of even the subtlest of God's movements in our lives." (Celebration, March 1999)
Pope John Paul and our bishops have often and more urgently now, called us American Catholics to move beyond the walls of family and parish concerns to the larger world arena that so deeply needs our attention and social action. In the words of a favorite prayer.
Come Holy Spirit
Shout your prophetic cries
for more awareness
and fairness to the poor.
Show me specific people
and actual places that need
your justice and my compassion,
so that I too, working
with You, can renew
the face of the earth.
-Andrew Costello
On the third, fourth and fifth Sundays of Lent the Elect to be baptized are brought before the assembly with their sponsors to receive the prayers of exorcism known as Scrutinies in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. These prayers are part of their final preparation for baptism. The prayers free them to confess the faith of the Church that they do formally in the Rite of Baptism. All during Lent the universal Church prays for the Elect among us. Make it a part of your Lenten practice to pray for our Elect. Your prayers will strengthen both the Elect to be baptized and the Elect for Profession of Faith.
FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT: New Vision - For Samuel, David was most unlikely king and yet he became Israel's greatest king. To see and understand God's way of doing things requires a new vision, a new way of looking at life. Jesus gives the blind man a chance at a new vision, a new life; and this man says, "Yes, I believe." The leaders of the synagogue and this man's parents found Jesus' journey of conversion, new vision, too risky. Are we dissatisfied with the way we live our life? Do we find our vision too narrow, resistant to change and growth? Do we choose the darkness of what is comfortable, known, and "the way we have always done things" over the light and freedom of the new vision of Christ?
I often hear, "It's been so long, I don't remember how to do this anymore." I don't mind hearing that. The important thing is that the person is there - in the chair or on the kneeler - open to receiving God's forgiveness. Most of those who "don't remember how" - in fact, just about all - are pleasantly surprised at how easy it is. Jesus meant it to be that way.
When you come to the sacrament, whether you are using the reconciliation room, an office, or wherever, the first thing to do is to simply present yourself. "Hi, I'm here to receive the sacrament of reconciliation." Or, "Hi. I want to go to confession." Whatever you want to say is fine. You may want to use the old formula, "Bless me Father for I have sinned."
The priest will give you a blessing. He will begin with the sign of the cross and say something like: "May the Lord who enlightens every heart, help you to know your sins and trust in his mercy." The priest might then read or quote a particular Scripture passage. Then you can go on with your "confession." Talk about those things that are heavy and burdensome on your mind and heart. Talk about sin in your life - those actions and habits and thoughts you have which prevent you from getting closer to God's mercy and goodness. Then the priest will give you a "penance." That could be an action you can do that will demonstrate your seriousness about conversion. It could simply be a prayer to say. It could also be something to read. (I like to ask penitents to read some verses of Scripture.) Usually this will be done in dialogue with you.
Then the priest will ask you to "say an Act of Contrition," or, to say a prayer of sorrow for you sins. Don't panic. If you don't remember one of those memorized prayers, make one up in your own words. Like, "God, I'm sorry for my sins. Please forgive me." As simple as that. Or you can make a longer prayer if you wish. Or you can ask for a card with an Act of Contrition printed on it. No priest is going to be upset if you don't know the prayer by heart.
The priest will then extend his hand toward or over you you while praying the words of absolution and send you on your way. As simple as that.
Now, in a communal penance service, all you need to do is present yourself to the priest at the appropriate time in the celebration and quietly confess your sins. The priest will give you absolution and you return to your pew while you wait for everyone to finish. Do not try to use a communal penance service in the same way you use individual reconciliation. There isn't time for consultation, advice or discussion. In communal penance services we listen to the Scripture together, hear the same homily, pray our Act of Contrition together. The only thing we do individually is confess our sins and receive absolution.
+ Laetare Jerusalem! The ancient Latin Mass proclaimed these words as an entrance chant to the Mass of the Fourth Sunday of Lent. "Rejoice, Jerusalem and all who love her; mourners, rejoice and be consoled...." The custom of bringing roses to church this day may have led to rose as an alternate vestment color. Floral arrangements are permitted to be added to the decor of the church today. Laetare Sunday is a harbinger of springtime that is about to be here.
There are only two things to worry about. Either you are well or you are sick. If you are well, then there's nothing to worry about. But if you are sick, then there are two things to worry about. Either you will get well or you will die. If you get well, then there is nothing to worry about. If you die, there are only two things to worry about. Either you will go to Heaven or hell. If you go to Heaven, then there is nothing to worry about. But if you go to hell, you'll be so busy shaking hands with friends you won't have time to worry!
All Catholics associate Lent with the Sacrament of Penance, Reconciliation and Confession. Sometimes they put off going to Confession until the last minute depriving themselves of a much richer Lent, indeed a much richer life. Sometimes they put off going because it has been too long since they last sought the direct, personal forgiveness of Christ made tangible in the Sacrament; thus it only gets more difficult because of the procrastination. Everyone is urged to make the Lent confession early, during these first few weeks of Lent. In that way the richness of God's Lenten mercy may develop the full root and stem to blossom into a hardy and brilliant Easter joy.
My dear family in Christ,
We are invited today with Our Lord to the scene of the healing of the blind man. This is not as spectators but as those who are in need of healing ourselves.
Lent is a proper time to reflect on what we refuse to all. This is especially clear in the Gospel taken from John 9. The man was blind from birth; he never had the ability to see before. What Jesus gave to him was totally new. All this happened because he had faith. Surprisingly, those who witnessed it, including his parents, were non-committal. Isn't that the blindness that is common?
Jesus not only gives the young man sight but, more importantly, the gift to see who is the One who healed him.
This is where the story speaks to us. What is it we may refuse to see? There are always excuses, past hurts, oversights. In this Lenten season we have the opportunity to ask the Lord to heal us and see not just with our eyes but with the heart.
Faith is a gift but we have to be receptive. Jesus' healing touch is offered to us and we are invited to see the Lord of Light.
Fr. Ron
1. SAMUEL 16:1,6-7,10-13.
We hear how the prophet Samuel is directed by God to make the unlikely choice of David as king of Israel. God directed him to choose not the tall strong warriors of Jesse's family, but a mere boy. Samuel anointed David with oil and the power of God filled his whole being.
APPLICATION: God works in and through the most unlikely persons to unfold his plan of salvation. Given our willingness to serve, we too can become instruments of His saving grace.
2. EPHESIANS 5:8-14.
St. Paul urges his converts in Ephesus to remain faithful. They were in darkness and now rejoice in the light of Christ. Through Baptism all were given the power of God, not for themselves, but for the world.
APPLICATION: God has brightened world history and our personal lives with the light of Jesus Christ. We must not obscure that light with deeds that muffle its clarity.
3. JOHN 9:1-41.
Today we read one of the most unusual stories in the Gospel - the way the Church remembered Jesus' cure of the man born blind. He mixed a paste of spittle and dirt and anointed the eyes of the blind man and gave him the power to see.
APPLICATION: The reading presents a real challenge to us. Does our adherence to the externals of our faith blind us to the true depth of the presence of Christ within us? After all,
God brought us from blindness to insight in Baptism.
Fr. Eugene R. Sinz
Scrutiny rites are celebrated on the third, fourth, and fifth Sundays of Lent at the 8AM Mass. These scrutinies are meant to uncover, then heal, all that is weak or sinful in the hearts of the Elect, those adults and youth preparing for the sacraments of initiation: Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist.
During a scrutiny rite, the Elect step forward with their sponsors. They are asked to kneel as everyone in church prays for them, asking God to give them a sense of what is sinful in their lives. The church prays that they will be free from satan's power. This prayer is called an exorcism.
On the second Sunday of Lent a special scrutiny was celebrated for the candidates baptized in another christian denomination who are preparing to be received into full communion with the Catholic Church, as well as baptized catholics seeking to receive Confirmation and Eucharist.
These scrutiny rites, therefore, complete the final preparation and purification period of the Christian Initiation process, leading the Elect and Candidates to the Easter Vigil on April 3rd.
The weekend of March 20-21 during all the Masses, we invite parishioners to participate in the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. Once thought as a sacrament of the dying, the Church has refocused the emphasis to the sick and the healing that this Sacrament can provide - physically, mentally, emotionally & spiritually. In their commentary on the document, PASTORAL CARE of the Sick, the American Bishops describe sickness as it is applicable to this Sacrament:
To be sick means bodily pain, psychic depression, isolation from ones profession or from family.
To be sick means impatience, sulkiness, and excessive preoccupation with self. To be sick means discouragement, despair, hardness of heart, spiritual dryness.
Elderly people may be anointed if they have become notably weakened, even though no serious illness is present.
Families are encouraged to bring homebound persons to participate in this Sacrament. Places will be reserved for those who are disabled or not highly mobile
.In the Gospel Jesus cures a man born blind; he does this on the Sabbath, which upsets the Pharisees who in turn reject the man. Jesus, the "light of the world," explained how the blind will see, but those who hold on to sin will remain in darkness.
In the second reading St. Paul calls the people to live as children of the light, that is, to live in goodness, justice, and truth or to see as God sees.
To emphasize this point that "seeing" is from God's perspective and not ours, we have the story in the first reading about the Lord using Samuel to choose the unlikely David as king over the other sons of Jesse.
Message:
Jesus cures our blindness and restores our sight and thereby gives us the ability to realize that we are chosen for God's life, mission, and favor. The new sight comes from God's gracious initiative; it takes hold because of our conversion. So, in order to avail ourselves of God's gift of new sight, we work on the virtue of surrender or complete sensitivity to God's presence and power in our lives.
Application:
The Word of God for this Fourth Sunday of Lent is applied to our community in three distinct ways:
"Seeing" is from God's perspective.
God cures our blindness and gives us sight, but not necessarily in terms of social savvy or worldly wisdom. It is the ability to "see" life from God's point of view, to answer for ourselves in every circumstance: What would Jesus do? (WWJD!) Goodness and truth, justice and peace, solidarity and harmony are defined and described from a biblical or gospel point of view. This becomes our perspective and our choice for action.
We must be disposed to seeing. We can only ask to see if we acknowledge our blindness. We have to admit our brokenness, our weakness, our deficiencies, our sins -- not just to ourselves but to our faith communities in honesty and humility. This is why the Sacrament of Reconciliation is so important in this process of seeing.
Judging why someone else is "blind" is detrimental to our seeing. When we attempt to judge whether or how another has sinned, we plunge ourselves into deeper darkness and become farther removed from the possibility of embracing fully Jesus Christ, the light of the world.
--Father Benet OFM
Contemporary Man seems to find it harder than ever to recognize his own mistakes and to decide to retrace his steps and begin again after changing course. He seems very reluctant to say "I repent" or "I am sorry." He seems to refuse instinctively and often irresistibly anything that is penance in the sense of a sacrifice accepted and carried out for the correction of sin.
In this regard I would like to emphasize that the Church's penitential discipline, even though it has been mitigated for some time, cannot be abandoned without grave harm both to the interior life of individual Christians and of the ecclesial community and also to their capacity for missionary influence. It is not uncommon for non- Christians to be surprised at the negligible witness of true penance on the part of Christ's followers. It is clear, however, that Christian penance will only be authentic if it is inspired by love and not by mere fear; if it consists in a serious effort to crucify the "old man" so that the "new" can be born by the power of Christ; if it takes as its model Christ, who though He was innocent chose the path of poverty, patience, austerity, and, one can say, the penitential life. [RP n. 26]
Recourse to the Sacrament [of Penance] is necessary when even only one mortal sin has been committed. However, the Christian who believes in the effectiveness of sacramental forgiveness has recourse to the Sacrament with a certain frequency, even when it is not a case of necessity. In it he finds the path for an increasing sensitivity of conscience and an ever- deeper purification, a source of peace, a help in resisting temptation and in striving for a life that responds more and more to the demands of the law and love of God. [TPS 37/5, 1992, p. 306]
--Pope John Paul II
With this series of historical vignettes we review the history of the parish and archdiocese.
About 1886 the Cathedral, temporarily abandoned by the archbishop as the scene of his episcopal functions, in favor of St. John's Church, recaptured the favor the shepherd of the diocese, and its episcopal throne was once more actively occupied.
Simultaneously, the pastor, Father Eugene Coyle began extensive repairs and redecorations to brighten up the old and deteriorating edifice. It is sad to reflect that at his coming he celebrated Holy Mass on Sunday before a congregation of less than twelve people. Truly the fortunes of this noble church were at a low ebb. However, it seemed almost as if new life began to stir in its tired body; a page out of the past was to be relived. New granite steps replaced the hollowed-out sandstone steps, the exterior was tuckpointed, the steeple was recovered with copper, a new roof spread its protecting arms overhead; a new floor was laid, new pews of oak were installed; the organ was overhauled, the walls frescoed, and as a fitting climax new magnificent marble altars replaced the old. A most generous benefactor by the name of Francis Fischer adopted the Old Cathedral as a field for his charities, and to him is due a great amount of the credit for the renovation of the Old Cathedral at this time.
In addition, meantime, a new field of religious activity for the old church was found in an admirable way; it began to serve the religious needs of the downtown workers. Father Coyle sensed the opportunities, and inaugurated noon-day Masses for the Holy Days, and noon-day devotions for Lent, May, October, etc. It was at this time also that Father Coyle caused to be fashioned the first votive candelabra in St. Louis, which in time have become very popular, and a source of much income to the Old Cathedral and other downtown parishes.
A new day seemed to have dawned; old glories were returning. In 1891 the stately old church was the scene of perhaps the most gala ecclesiastical event in its long history - the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the consecration of Archbishop Kenrick. It was for this occasion that the sanctuary and the choir loft were enlarged to their present dimensions. The climax of the long and loving preparations for this wonderful day was the pontifical celebration of Holy Mass by His Eminence James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, a great prince of the Catholic Church. Yet within five short years the gala white and gold bunting and banners yielded to funereal black, as the same illustrious concourse of princes and prelates gathered once again at the Old Cathedral, this time to preside at the solemn requiem of the great Archbishop Kenrick.
Community is not possible without the willingness to forgive one another "seventy-seven times" (see Matthew 18:22). Forgiveness is the cement of community life. Forgiveness holds us together through good and bad times, and it allows us to grow in mutual love.
But what is there to forgive or to ask forgiveness for? As people who have hearts that long for perfect love, we have to forgive one another for not being able to give or receive that perfect love in our everyday lives. Our many needs constantly interfere with our desire to be there for the other unconditionally. Our love is always limited by spoken or unspoken conditions. What needs to be forgiven? We need to forgive one another for not being God!
Six year old Angie and her four year old brother Joel were sitting together in church. Joel giggled, sang and talked out loud. Finally his big sister had had enough. "You're not supposed to talk out loud in church." "Why? Who's going to stop me?" Joel asked. Angie pointed to the back of church and said, "See those 2 men standing by the door? They're hushers."
In Jesus' Love, Fr. John.
