Both "Lamb" and "Shepherd"?: The Fourth Sunday of Easter

This upcoming Lord’s Day is often known as “Good Shepherd Sunday,” since each year the Gospel reading is taken from John 10, the “Good Shepherd Discourse.”  It’s also often observed as a day of prayer for vocations to the priesthood and religious life, since priests and religious are visible manifestations to us of Christ in his role as the Good Shepherd.

Most of the Readings are tied together by a shepherding theme.

1.  The First Reading continues the traditional Christian practice of reading Acts during the season of Easter.  We are up to Acts 13, the point in Acts where St. Luke begins to follow the career of St. Paul in a particular way.

There is a basic division of Acts into two parts: Acts 1-12 follows Peter's ministry and Acts 13-28 follows Paul's.

The Primacy of Peter and the Primacy of Love: 3rd Sunday of Easter

This week is the Third Sunday of Easter, and our readings highlight the primacy of Peter among the Apostles, and the primacy of love in following Jesus.

 

Just a few comments on the preliminary readings before we concentrate on the Gospel.  During the seven weeks of the Easter Season, the Lectionary reads semi-continuously through Acts in the First Reading (showing the birth of the Church on earth) and through Revelation in the Second (showing the final state of the Church in heaven). 

Divine Mercy Sunday: The Readings

This coming Sunday is the Second Sunday of the Octave of Easter, also known as “Divine Mercy

Sunday.”  The theme of God’s mercy runs through the readings.

1. In the First Reading, we see an outpouring of God’s mercy through the hands of the Apostles, who are given a gift of God’s power for the healing of physical illnesses and those plagued by evil spirits:

Reading 1 Acts 5:12-16

Many signs and wonders were done among the people
at the hands of the apostles.
They were all together in Solomon’s portico.
None of the others dared to join them, but the people esteemed them.
Yet more than ever, believers in the Lord,
great numbers of men and women, were added to them.
Thus they even carried the sick out into the streets
and laid them on cots and mats
so that when Peter came by,
at least his shadow might fall on one or another of them.
A large number of people from the towns
in the vicinity of Jerusalem also gathered,
bringing the sick and those disturbed by unclean spirits,
and they were all cured.

Thoughts on the Seven OT Readings for the Vigil

I've posted this in previous years, but thought I'd post it again for our newer readers:

Brant, Michael and I belong to a school of thought that sees covenant as a central concept in biblical theology, particularly Catholic biblical theology.  Such an approach has strong support in the text of Scripture and in the tradition and liturgy of the Church, and would seem to be a "no-brainer," yet there are those who oppose it and de-emphasize the significance of covenant for interpreting the Scriptures in the Church.  For that reason, it's necessary periodically to justify this approach.

Some Thoughts on the Good Friday Gospel Reading

Every year on Good Friday, we read St. John’s account of the Passion from John 18-19.

One of the themes that runs through this reading is the Priesthood of Christ.  In this post, I would like to trace that theme.

There is priestly language already in the First Reading, from Isaiah 52 & 53, the famous “Suffering Servant” Song.  It speaks of the servant “making himself an offering for sin,” “justifying many,” and “bearing their guilt.”  These were priestly roles in the Old Testament, not the duties of prophets or kings. 

Turning to the Gospel Reading in context, we note that priestly themes precede the passage we read in Mass (Jn 18-19), beginning already in the Last Supper complex (Jn 13-17).  For example, the discourse on the Holy Spirit in John 16:4-15 contains priestly concepts.  Holy Spirit is sent to empower judgment of guilt vs. innocence, which reminds us of the tribunal of confession (cf. Jn 16:7 with Jn 20:22-23).  The Holy Spirit is upon Jesus, and will be given to the apostles, for the purpose of forgiving sin and making moral judgment, which in the Old Testament was the prerogative of the priests (see Lev 4:20; Deut 17:9).

The Jewish Roots of Palm Sunday and the Passion

On this coming Sunday, the Church will bring us to what may be one of my favorite Masses and my favorite sets of Scripture readings in the entire liturgical year: Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, popularly known simply as ‘Palm Sunday’.

With the Palm Sunday readings, the Church ushers us into the climax of the liturgical year in the celebration of Holy Week. This is the last Sunday feast before the beginning of the Triduum, which will climax in the celebration of Easter (Latin Pascha), what the Catechism calls the “feast of feasts” (CCC 1169).

As you may recall—especially if you have young children who need to be held the entire time the Gospel is being proclaimed!—this is one of the longest sets of readings in the entire liturgical year. For on this Sunday, the Church not only commemorates the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem six days before the Passover; she also lays before the faithful the complete account of Jesus’ Passion and death, according to one of the Synoptic Gospels (This year, being Year C, it is Luke’s account that we will hear.)

Given the sheer number and length of readings for this Sunday, it should go without saying that I can’t give a full analysis of them all. (Whole books have been written just on Luke’s account of the Passion!) Instead, what I’d like to do in this post is focus our attention on the Old Testament roots of the opening Gospel—the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem—and show the deeper meaning behind Jesus’ actions and the way in which it anticipates the mysteries that will be revealed in the rest of the Palm Sunday readings, in his Passion, and in the Mass itself.

The Triumphal Entry of Jesus according to Luke

Unlike other Masses, Palm Sunday contains two proclamations of the Gospel. The first is from Luke’s account of Jesus Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem:

Jesus proceeded on his journey up to Jerusalem. As he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples. He said, “Go into the village opposite you, and as you enter it you will find a colt tethered on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. And if anyone should ask you,‘Why are you untying it?’ you will answer, ‘The Master has need of it.’” So those who had been sent went off  and found everything just as he had told them. And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying this colt?”They answered,“The Master has need of it.” So they brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks overthe colt, and helped Jesus to mount. As he rode along, the people were spreading their cloaks on the road; and now as he was approaching the slope of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of his disciples began to praise God aloud with joy for all the mighty deeds they had seen. They proclaimed: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He said in reply, “I tell you, if they keep silent, the stones will cry out!” (Luke 19:28-40; New American Bible)

Now, there are many aspects of this event that could command our attention. But the two that I think are most critical to a proper understanding of the event are (1) the Jewish roots of Jesus’ act of riding the colt into the city, and (2) the Jewish roots of the crowd’s response to his action.

Why Does Jesus Ride a Colt into Jerusalem?

As is fairly well known, by choosing to publicly mount and ride a “colt” into Jerusalem in the midst of the procession of so many Passover pilgrims into the city, Jesus is performing what scholars refer to as a prophetic sign—a symbolic act which is meant to both symbolize and set in motion some major event in the history of salvation. In this case, Jesus’ act of riding the colt into Jerusalem harks back to Zechariah’s prophecy of the advent of the Messiah—the long-awaited king of Israel—to the city of Jerusalem (see Zechariah 9:9). However, there is more here than simply an implicitly messianic public act. For when we go back to the prophecy of Zechariah and read it in its full context, we discover several other important features of this particular messianic king:

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on an ass, on a colt the foal of an ass. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem;  and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your captives free from the waterless pit. (Zechariah 9:10-11)

Three aspects of Zechariah’s prophecy are worth highlighting here: (1) he is a king of peace, not war; (2) he is king of the whole world; and (3) he will set his people free from “the Pit”—the realm of the dead—through the blood of the covenant. Let’s take a minute to look at each of these in turn and see how they are fulfilled in the Passion of Jesus.

 1. The King Who Rides the Colt will be a King of Peace

First, notice that  according to Zechariah, the messianic king who will come riding on a colt into Jerusalem is not just any kind of king: he is a king of peace. He will not be coming to wage earthly warfare, but to make the chariot and the war horse cease from Jerusalem.

 The Palm Sunday readings will make the same point in Luke’s account of Jesus’ Passion: in Gethsemane, when Jesus’ disciples realize that he is about to be arrested, they begin to fight back with the sword, and one of them (Simon Peter, as we know from John’s Gospel), cuts off the “right ear” of the high priest’s servant. In response to this, Jesus declares:

“Stop, no more of this!” Then he touched the servant’s ear and healed him. (Luke 22:51 NAB)

Although he is Messiah, neither Jesus (nor his followers) will rule through the power of the sword, but through the power of imitating him---the “one who serves”--and by taking up their crosses to follow him (see Luke 22:24-27).

2. The King Who Rides the Colt will be King of the World

Second, notice also that according to Zechariah’s prophecy, the king that will come riding a colt will also be a universal king; his dominion shall not be just over the people of Israel, but to the ends of the earth (Zech 9:10).

Once again, we see this element of Jesus’ Triumphal Entry fulfilled in his Passion an ddeath. Although the inscription his executioners put above his head read, “This is the King of the Jews” (Luke 23:38), at the moment of his death, it is a Gentile centurion who recognizes the innocence of Jesus:

It was now about noon and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon because of an eclipse of the sun. Then the veil of the temple was torn down the middle. Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit”; and when he had said this he breathed his last. The centurion who witnessed what had happened glorified God and said, “This man was innocent beyond doubt.” When all the people who had gathered for this spectacle saw what had happened, they returned home beating their breasts… (Luke 22:44-48)

As I was preparing this reflection, I could not help but note one striking application to the present celebration of the liturgy. Not only does Jesus’ rule over the Gentile nations begin when the Gentile centurion recognizes his innocence, but it is also at this very moment—the moment of his death— that the Lectionary contains a rule for the faithful throughout the world to kneel. It says:

[Jesus] breathed his last

[Here all kneel and pause for a short time.]

The centurion who witnessed what had happened glorified God…

By inserting our act of kneeling into the moment between Jesus death and the recognition of the Gentile centurion, in a certain way, the Liturgy itself realizes the prophecy of Zechariah 9. At this moment, on Palm Sunday, throughout the world, Gentiles everywhere will kneel to the King of the Jews. Indeed, one cannot help but see in the liturgical act of the faithful kneeling in silence at the death of Jesus a fulfillment of the Second Reading for Palm Sunday:

Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave… he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend… (Philippians 2:5-10)

3. The King Who Rides the Colt, the Blood of the Covenant, and the Release from “the Pit”

Third and finally, according to Zechariah’s prophecy, the king who rides the colt into Jerusalem will not deliver his people through the shedding of blood in battle, but through the mysterious “blood of the covenant,” which will somehow set captives free from the realm of the dead known as “the Pit” in the Old Testament (Zech 9:10-11).

Once again, this Old Testament background of Jesus’ Triumphal Entry on Palm Sunday ultimately points forward to what he will accomplish in his Passion. For in the Upper Room, at the Last Supper, we find a striking parallel with Zechariah’s prophecy:  

When the hour came, Jesus took his place at table with the apostles…Then he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying,  “This is my body, which will be given for you;  do this in memory of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you.” (Luke 22:19-22)

In other words, by means of his Triumphal Entry, Jesus is signaling much more than just the fact that he is the Messiah.He is also signaling what kind of Messiah he will be, and by what means he will set his people free from captivity—not by the blood of warfare, but by the blood of the covenant, which he will pour out under the appearance of wine in the Upper Room and on the wood of the Cross on Good Friday. It is by means of this blood, poured out upon the Cross on Calvary, that he promise the penitent thief that he will not go down to the shadows of the Pit, but into the glory of Paradise:

Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us.” The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply, “Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation? And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes,  but this man has done nothing criminal.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He replied to him, “Amen, I say to you,  today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 22:39-43)

Note it well: the difference between the ‘good thief’ and the ‘bad thief’ is really about how they understand the nature of Jesus’ kingship. The first thinks Jesus Messiahship means that he will save his subjects from suffering and physical death. The good thief recognizes that Jesus kingdom is not of this world, and Jesus reveals to him, in the very midst of his agony, that the restoration he has come to give is not to the earthly land of Israel but to the promised land of “Paradise.”

The Palm Branches and the King Who Goes Up to the Altar to Offer Sacrifice

Finally, bringing our reflection to a close, I would like to make one last point about the crowd’s response to Jesus’ triumphal entry, with their proclamation of the words “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Luke 19:38). As is also well known, the crowd is taking this chant from Psalm 118, a popular song that was sung during the feasts of Passover and Tabernacles. However, once again, when we go back and look at the Psalm in context, we discover yet again several striking features of the king whose arrival is being celebrated:

Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them  and give thanks to the LORD… The stone which the builders rejected  has become the head of the corner... Save us, we beseech thee, O LORD! O LORD, we beseech thee, give us success! Blessed be he who enters in the name of the LORD! We bless you from the house of the LORD. The LORD is God, and he has given us light! Bind the festal procession with branches, up to the horns of the altar! Thou art my God, and I will give thanks to thee.. (Psalm 118:19, 22, 25-28).

Although much could be said about this passage, for our purposes here, one point above all should stand out: When the crowds greet Jesus with palm braches and chants, they are reenacting the words of Psalm 118. Yet in the Psalm itself, notice that the king is not simply coming into the city (‘open to me the gates)—he is going up to the Temple to offer sacrifice. And not just any kind of sacrifice, but the “thanksgiving” sacrifice, known in Hebrew as the todah offering (see Leviticus 7).

Once this Old Testament background to the crowd’s response is in place, the deeper meaning of Jesus’ Triumphal Entry is revealed. The crowds with their branches and their Psalms have it right: Jesus is the king of Israel; he has come to his city; and he is going up to the altar to offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving. But the sacrifice he is going to offer is not that of bulls or goats, but of himself. And the todah that he will give will begin with the Eucharist celebrated in the Upper Room and consummated on the altar of the Cross.

The Catechism on the Triumphal Entry, the Eucharist, and Holy Week

In other words, at every Mass, when we proclaim—“Blessed is He Who Comes in the Name of the Lord,Hosanna in the Highest!”—we are not only remembering the first Palm Sunday. Even more, we are celebration the liturgical coming of the King into our midst, as he 'ascends' to the altar of the Eucharist. As he said at the Last Supper, there he 'pours out' the blood of the new covenant in the one eternal offering by which we too are given peace and prepared to enter into the kingdom of Paradise.  In the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

How will Jerusalem welcome her Messiah? Although Jesus had always refused popular attempts to make him king, he chooses the time and prepares the details for his messianic entry into the city of "his father David". Acclaimed as son of David, as the one who brings salvation (Hosanna means "Save!" or "Give salvation!"), the "King of glory" enters his City "riding on an ass". Jesus conquers the Daughter of Zion, a figure of his Church, neither by ruse nor by violence, but by the humility that bears witness to the truth… Their acclamation, "Blessed be he who comes in the name of the Lord", is taken up by the Church in the "Sanctus" of the Eucharistic liturgy that introduces the memorial of the Lord's Passover.

Jesus' entry into Jerusalem manifested the coming of the kingdom that the King-Messiah was going to accomplish by the Passover of his Death and Resurrection. It is with the celebration of that entry on Palm Sunday that the Church's liturgy solemnly opens Holy Week. (CCC 559-560)

A Protestant meets a Papabile

Marc Cardinal Ouellet

In the Fall of 1999, I wasn't even a Catholic, but I was sitting the fence, and my friend Mike Dauphinais invited me to a conference in Chicago put on by the Lumen Christi Institute. 

I went, partly out of curiosity, to see what a Catholic conference on theology and Scripture might be like.  Many of the talks were unexceptional—I remember some Scripture scholar struggling valiantly for an hour trying to show how some source-critical approach permitted deep spiritual insights, an effort that is something like watching a man attempt to fly with the aid of a shovel. 

A Whole New World: The Readings for Laetare Sunday

A whole new world  
A new fantastic point of view ...

So run the lyrics to "A Whole New World,"the Oscar-winning single from the sound track of Disney's "Aladdin" (1992).

As incongruous as it may sound, the signature phrase from that song keeps running through my head as I ponder the readings for this upcoming Fourth Sunday of Lent, which open up to us a "whole new world," a different way of living, a form of life St. Paul calls "a new creation."

The Revelation of the Divine Name: The 3rd Sunday of Lent

In this third week of our spiritual journey through Lent, the Scripture readings remind us of what we might call the  “Moses stage” of salvation history, and also drive home the theme of repentance during this holy season.

1. Our First Reading is Ex 3:1-8a, 13-1
 

Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro,
the priest of Midian.
Leading the flock across the desert, he came to Horeb,
the mountain of God.
There an angel of the LORD appeared to Moses in fire
flaming out of a bush.
As he looked on, he was surprised to see that the bush,
though on fire, was not consumed.
So Moses decided,
“I must go over to look at this remarkable sight,
and see why the bush is not burned.”

Ratzinger's Joke About Cardinal Tagle

Cardinal Louis Antonio Tagle of Manila in the Philippines

John Allen, who is profiling different papabili each day on his blog has a very funny story about a joke Ratzinger told about the young Archbishop Tagle from the Philippines. This is jocular side of Ratzinger most people wouldn't expect.

Under ordinary circumstances, Tagle's youth would be seen as an almost insuperable bar to election. At 55, he's three years younger than John Paul II was when he was elected in 1978, so a vote for Tagle would be tantamount to a vote for another long papacy, perhaps as much as 30 years. 

Tagle actually looks even younger. The story goes that in the mid-1990s, when then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger introduced Tagle to Pope John Paul II as a new member of the Vatican's International Theological Commission, Ratzinger jokingly assured the pope that the youthful-seeming Filipino had, in fact, received his first Communion.

Source.

The Second Sunday of Lent: The Beginning of the New Exodus

Slavery is not a good thing.

God's liberation of the people of Israel from the condition of slavery—an event we call "the Exodus," literally, "the road out"—is one of the most important events and motifs in the the whole Bible.

Although loosely related, the Readings for this Sunday are linked by the theme of the Exodus.  In the First Reading, the Exodus is prophesied; in the Gospel, Jesus begins a New Exodus that culminates in the Last Supper and Calvary.

1.  Our First Reading is Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18:
 

The Lord God took Abram outside and said,
“Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can.
Just so,” he added, “shall your descendants be.”
Abram put his faith in the LORD,
who credited it to him as an act of righteousness.

Lent as Spiritual Warfare: Readings for 1st Sunday in Lent

At the beginning of Lent, the Church reads to us the account of Jesus doing spiritual combat with the devil in the wilderness, reminding us that Lent is a time of warfare. Through our Lenten practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we do battle with the power of the devil in our lives, and with God’s grace, defeat him decisively.

1. The First Reading is Deuteronomy 26:4-10:

Moses spoke to the people, saying:
“The priest shall receive the basket from you
and shall set it in front of the altar of the LORD, your God.
Then you shall declare before the Lord, your God,
‘My father was a wandering Aramean
who went down to Egypt with a small household
and lived there as an alien.
But there he became a nation
great, strong, and numerous.
When the Egyptians maltreated and oppressed us,
imposing hard labor upon us,
we cried to the LORD, the God of our fathers,
and he heard our cry
and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.
He brought us out of Egypt
with his strong hand and outstretched arm,
with terrifying power, with signs and wonders;
and bringing us into this country,
he gave us this land flowing with milk and honey.
Therefore, I have now brought you the firstfruits
of the products of the soil
which you, O LORD, have given me.’
And having set them before the Lord, your God,
you shall bow down in his presence.”

The First Readings during the first five Sundays of Lent are designed to provide an overview of salvation history, with a special emphasis on the Passover and Exodus from Egypt, because from Holy Thursday to Easter we will re-live these events in our own liturgy. Therefore, we prepare for Holy Week over the five preceding weeks by pondering the meaning of the pivotal events in the story of God’s people.

This First Reading, at the beginning of Lent, is particularly suitable because it provides a summary or overview of Israel’s story from the time of Jacob/Israel (the “wandering Aramean,” that is, Syrian), through the Exodus, to the conquest and settlement of the Promised Land.

In this passage from Deuteronomy, Moses commands the Israelites to come regularly to the central sanctuary in order to worship. When they come, they are to recite the history of salvation in order to commemorate it before the Lord.

This passage reminds us of the importance of memory in worship. To this day, when we celebrate mass, we do it “in remembrance of me,” that is, the Lord Jesus.

One of the enemies of the spiritual life is forgetfulness. We forget what God has done for us. We forget who we are, what we have experienced as God’s people, where we come from and where we are going. As they say, those who forget history are condemned to repeat it. Applied to the spiritual life, that means: those who forget the bondage God has saved them from, will slide back into that bondage. 

Much of American Christianity has religious “amnesia.” Churches are as bare as malls. There is no remembrance of the saints, the councils, or the history of God’s people. Even the Old Testament often gets ignored. As a result, there is little sense of being part of one people of God through the ages. Memory creates identity. The Church in her wisdom constantly encourages us to remember, so that we know who we are.

The Church wisely requires us to come to mass weekly in order to remember God’s salvation. In the Bible, remembrance is not just mental recall. Remembrance often involves a new saving act of God. God remembers Noah in the ark. God remembers the people of Israel in Egypt. In both cases, God’s “remembrance” involves salvation. This is the reason the Psalms frequently ask God to “remember” his people (Psalm 20:3; 74:2,18; 89:50, etc.). When we come into mass to “do this in remembrance of me,” we are asking God to pour out his saving power on us once again, for the coming week.

2. The Responsorial Psalm is 91:1-2, 10-11, 12-13, 14-15:

R. (cf. 15b) Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High,
who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,
say to the LORD, “My refuge and fortress,
my God in whom I trust.”
R. Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
No evil shall befall you,
nor shall affliction come near your tent,
For to his angels he has given command about you,
that they guard you in all your ways.
R. Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
Upon their hands they shall bear you up,
lest you dash your foot against a stone.
You shall tread upon the asp and the viper;
you shall trample down the lion and the dragon.
R. Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
Because he clings to me, I will deliver him;
I will set him on high because he acknowledges my name.
He shall call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in distress;
I will deliver him and glorify him.
R. Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.

This Psalm is the quintessential spiritual warfare psalm, and was employed for the purpose of exorcism and protection against evil spirits already in ancient times. To this day, it is one of the psalms used for optional recitation during the rite of exorcism. The “asp, viper, lion, and dragon” mentioned in the psalm were understood as references to evil spirits, which were worshiped under the form of animals in pagan cults. The singing of this Psalm in today’s mass is particularly appropriate, because it ties into the theme of combat with Satan in the Gospel Reading. This Psalm assures us of victory over the forces of evil, if we make the Lord our God our "fortress and refuge."

3. The Second Reading is Romans 10:8-13:

Brothers and sisters:
What does Scripture say?
The word is near you,
in your mouth and in your heart
—that is, the word of faith that we preach—,
for, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
you will be saved.
For one believes with the heart and so is justified,
and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.
For the Scripture says,
“No one who believes in him will be put to shame.”
For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek;
the same Lord is Lord of all,
enriching all who call upon him.
For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

The Second Readings during the first five Sundays of Lent consist of classic passages from St. Paul in which he summarizes the Gospel message. This reading is a good example. At its heart, the Gospel is simple: believe in Jesus Christ and his resurrection, admit it openly to the world, and you will be saved.

As a Protestant pastor, I often used this passage in evangelism. I would encourage people to place their faith in Jesus, pray to receive his Spirit into their lives, and thus be assured a place in heaven.

That was well and good. The only danger comes in reducing the whole Christian faith to just believing and confessing in order to be saved.

We need to remember other Scriptures as well, like the following:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 6:53-54 

“He who believes and is baptized will be saved.” Mark 16:16 

He who says, “I know him” but disobeys his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 1 John 2:4

It is true that “everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved,” but to “call on the name of the LORD” presumes an attitude of repentance and humility, an acknowledgement that we cannot save ourselves, that we need God’s help, and we are ready to do what God tells us to do in order to be saved. To “call on the name of the LORD,” but then disobey God’s instructions for salvation—which include baptism, Eucharist (“eating his flesh and blood”), and a transformed life—doesn’t really make sense. Romans 10:8-13 needs to be understood in light of all that the Bible says about being saved.

4. The Gospel is Luke 4:1-13:

Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan
and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days,
to be tempted by the devil.
He ate nothing during those days,
and when they were over he was hungry.

It may sound strange that the Lord was not hungry until after the forty days. Yet during long fasts, the body adapts to burning stored fat, and after a few days one does not feel hungry until one’s fat stores are burned up. At that point, the body begins to break down muscle to stay alive. The body is beginning to die, and the hunger returns. Jesus was at that stage after forty days.

The devil said to him,
“If you are the Son of God,
command this stone to become bread.”
Jesus answered him,
“It is written, One does not live on bread alone.”
Then he took him up and showed him
all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant.
The devil said to him,
“I shall give to you all this power and glory;
for it has been handed over to me,
and I may give it to whomever I wish.
All this will be yours, if you worship me.”
Jesus said to him in reply,
“It is written:
You shall worship the Lord, your God,
and him alone shall you serve.”
Then he led him to Jerusalem,
made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him,
“If you are the Son of God,
throw yourself down from here, for it is written:
He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,
and:
With their hands they will support you,
lest you dash your foot against a stone.”
Jesus said to him in reply,
“It also says,
You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.”
When the devil had finished every temptation,
he departed from him for a time.

The three temptations of Christ correspond to the “threefold concupiscence,” that is, the common three ways in which we experience the temptation to sin. In 1 John 2:16, St. John summarizes them as follows: “Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” “Lust of the Flesh” is physical lust for food, sex, drugs, comfort, etc. “Lust of the Eyes” is greed or avarice, the desire to own and possess things of beauty and value. “Pride of Life” is simply pride.

Sin entered the world when Eve gave in to the threefold concupiscence. Genesis 3:6 says that she looked at the apple and saw that it “was good for food” (Lust of the Flesh), “pleasing to the eye” (Lust of the Eyes), and was “desirable to make one wise” like God (Pride, to be equal with God).

In the temptation in the wilderness, Jesus undoes Eve’s threefold disobedience.

First Satan tempts him in the area of Lust of the Flesh: “Turn these stones to bread. Wouldn’t some nice, hot bread taste so good after all your fasting?”

Then, Lust of the Eyes: he shows him all the “power and glory” of the kingdoms of the world in an instant and offers it to him.

Finally, Pride: Satan takes Jesus to the most public place in all of Israel, the Temple, and encourages him to perform a miraculous “stunt” that will make him a celebrity, receiving fame and adulation from the whole populace. It would only serve to aggrandize Jesus' ego.

In every case, Jesus responds to Satan’s temptations by remembering God’s Word. Of course, this is what Eve failed to do: she refused to remember—that is, to call to mind and obey—the command of God.

As we begin Lent, we should remember that the three practices of piety—prayer, fasting, and almsgiving—are meant to help us resist the threefold concupiscence.

Prayer combats Pride, because prayer is the humble acknowledgement that we need God’s help, that we cannot do it on our own.

Fasting combats the Lust of the Flesh, teaching us to have control over our physical appetites.

Almsgiving combats Lust of the Eyes, teaching us to be detached from our wealth, to give up on greed, to share our wealth rather than hoard it for ourselves.

During Lent, we re-live Jesus’ forty days in the Wilderness in our own experience. Through an intense life of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we do spiritual warfare with the Devil and drive him from our lives with the help of God’s grace.

We don’t struggle by ourselves, because we have received the Spirit of Jesus the Victor through baptism and the other sacraments.

We call to him for strength, and can be assured of victory because “everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved,” and 

“He shall call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in distress;
I will deliver him and glorify him.”

****
This summer, join me and Fr. Denny Gang, TOR, for a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, including the area where our Lord wandered in the wilderness. Our pilgrimage to the Holy Land lasts from June 26-July 5. If you are interested in coming with us, click here or here or here for more information.

“Duc in Altum!” “Put Out into the Deep!”: Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time

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The Readings for this Sunday seem particularly appropriate for the Year of Faith.  In the First Reading and Gospel, we see both Isaiah and Peter, heroes of faith, humbled by their unworthiness, and yet eager to fulfill the mission for which God has chosen them.  As we share their sense of unworthiness, we should also embrace their zeal to share God’s Word.

1.  Our First Reading is Isaiah 6:1-2a, 3-8:

In the year King Uzziah died,
I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne,
with the train of his garment filling the temple.
Seraphim were stationed above.

Why Do People Hate a "Good Person"? The 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Readings for this Sunday show both Jesus and Jeremiah facing opposition for speaking God’s truth to their contemporaries.  They raise interesting questions about why it is that the “good person” so often suffers at the hands of others, and offer encouragement to those who experience this suffering.

1.  Our First Reading is  Jer 1:4-5, 17-19:

The word of the LORD came to me, saying:
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I dedicated you,
a prophet to the nations I appointed you.

But do you gird your loins;
stand up and tell them
all that I command you.
Be not crushed on their account,
as though I would leave you crushed before them;
for it is I this day
who have made you a fortified city,
a pillar of iron, a wall of brass,
against the whole land:
against Judah’s kings and princes,
against its priests and people.
They will fight against you but not prevail over you,
for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD.

One of Jeremiah’s major contributions to salvation history and Christian theology is his own person as a type of Christ, more so than any other prophet.  Biography plays little role in the Book of Isaiah, but a large role in Jeremiah.  In many ways, Jeremiah becomes absorbed into his prophetic ministry,

St. Thomas Aquinas' Biblical Approach to Theology

Today is the Feast Day of St. Thomas Aquinas! In honor of that, I thought I'd cover some ground I've been over before, namely, Thomas' role as a model of Catholic theology and his primary focus on Scripture. Perhaps most striking--at least to some--is Thomas' insistence on the priority of the literal-historical sense of Scripture.

In short, for Thomas, Theology is a biblical endeavor. This, I suppose, will come as a surprise to some of my non-Catholic friends. Nevertheless, as I'll explain, since he's consistently held out by the Church as the exemplar theologian (the "Common Doctor"), Catholic theologians should be sure to, likewise, make "the study of the sacred page. . . the very soul of theology" (Vatican II, Dei Verbum, 24).


St. Thomas' Significance

Throughout the ages, Thomas' work has consistently been held out as a model for Catholic theology by the Catholic Church. Consider some of the following quotes from various popes. I've added some italics.

Pope John Innocent VI, Serm. De. St. Thomas (c. 1352): “[Thomas’] teaching above that of others, the canonical writings alone excepted, enjoys such a precision of language an order of matters, a truth of conclusions, that those who hold to it are never found swerving from the path of truth, and he who dare assail it will always be suspected of error.”

The Word of God Fulfilled in Your Hearing: Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

The past three Sundays have focused on the three early “manifestations” or “epiphanies” of Jesus’ divine nature recorded in the Gospels: the Visit of the Magi, the Baptism, and the Wedding at Cana.  Now the Lectionary “settles in” to Ordinary Time, which this year involves reading through the Gospel of Luke.  This Sunday, we pick up the introduction to Luke’s Gospel (Lk 1:1-4), but then skip to the beginning of Jesus’ ministry (Luke 4:14-21) because we’ve already heard all the accounts of Jesus’ childhood and early life (Luke 1–3) during Advent, Christmas and Epiphany.

The Readings this Sunday focus on the importance of the public proclamation of God’s Word.  In the First Reading, we see Ezra, the great priest and scholar of the Law, reading the Law of Moses out loud to the people of Israel after their return from Babylonian exile.  In the Gospel, we see Jesus, our great high priest and interpreter of God’s Law, reading the promises of salvation from Isaiah to the Jews in the Synagogue of Nazareth.  In both situations, the proclamation of God’s Word is a call both to repentance and to hope for salvation.  However, in Ezra’s day, the salvation was far off; in Jesus day, He announces that the salvation is present now.

1.  Our First Reading is Neh 8:2-4a, 5-6, 8-10:

The Bridegroom Revealed: 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

This Sunday we remain in the afterglow of Epiphany, the celebration of the “manifestation” of Jesus’ divine glory. [Greek epi – phaino = “shine upon” = “reveal, manifest.”]  Epiphany, which once was its own season (like Advent or Christmas), has often been associated with three events from the Gospels: the Magi, the Baptism, and the Wedding at Cana.  These are the first events that reveal or “manifest” Jesus’ glory in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and John, respectively.  Certain well-known Epiphany hymns (e.g. “Songs of Thankfulness and Praise”) make reference to all three events.

In Year C, the Church quite consciously offers us the Wedding at Cana for our meditation on the Sunday immediately following the Baptism.  By happy Providence, this year we are able to ponder the Magi, the Baptism, and Cana on successive Sundays.

The Readings for this Lord’s Day highlight Jesus as our spiritual bridegroom.

1. The First Reading is the same used at the Christmas Vigil, Isaiah 62:1-5:

Jesus, the Beginning of the New Creation: The Readings for the Baptism of the Lord

The end of the Season of Christmas arrives this Sunday, as we celebrate the event that marked the end of Jesus’ early life and the beginning of his public ministry: the Baptism.

The Christmas decorations coming down in our churches and homes inevitably leaves a feeling of sadness and nostalgia.  We don’t want to move on from meditation on all the joyful aspects of Our Lord’s early life, the incidents of wonder and mystery, like the angels singing to the shepherds, or the visit of the Magi.  Nonetheless, as we leave the Christmas Season behind, today’s readings remind us of the power of the Holy Spirit that we share with Jesus!  The very Spirit of God has been given us in our own baptisms—this Spirit has ushered us into a new world, a New Creation in which we can daily walk with God, just like Adam and Eve once walked with God in the cool of the garden.

So we will look for “New Creation” themes as we work through this Sunday’s Readings.

Pilgrimage to the Holy Land this Summer

At Qumran in May 2011

This summer I'll be returning to Israel to help lead a pilgrimage in the footsteps of Jesus, and also spend some time viewing the Dead Sea Scrolls in person at the Shrine of the Book (Jerusalem) and at Qumran on the shores of the Dead Sea.  Fr. Denny Gang, TOR, of Franciscan University will be joining me to provide the sacraments and celebrate Mass on site at the holy places like Bethlehem, Cana, Mount of the Beatitudes, and Gethsemane.  Our guide will be an Israeli citizen who is a parishioner at the Basilica of the Annunciation, the Catholic parish of Nazareth.  A special feature of this pilgrimage will be our chance to see where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, and where they are now kept.  I have a special interest in the Scrolls, and recorded CD about them distributed by Lighthouse Media.

Although there are many pilgrimages to the Holy Land, not many have a native Catholic guide and the opportunity to celebrate mass at so many holy sites.  Since I first lead a pilgrimage like this in 2011, my experience of the New Testament and the mysteries of the Rosary have moved from "black and white" to "color."  I'd love to share this experience again with Sacred Page readers.

The Garden of Gethsemane is still there

Lecturing near the source of the Jordan, May 2011

The dates are June 26–July 5, 2013, and the cost is around $3,500 inclusive.  Select International Tours (1-800-842-4842) is arranging the logistics, and the brochure is available here (but you will need to scroll down and click on the image labeled "Dr. Bergsma and Fr. Denny Gang"). Or email for more info/brochure at sales@select-intl.com.

Come to the Light: The Readings for Epiphany

The Christmas season can sometimes seem to be just one joyful feast after another.  We are scarcely past the glow from the Holy Family and Mary, Mother of God, when Epiphany is already upon us.

The word “Epiphany” comes from two Greek words: epi, “on, upon”; and phaino, “to appear, to shine.” Therefore, the “Epiphany” refers to the divinity of Jesus “shining upon” the earth, in other words, the manifestation of his divine nature.

The use of the word “epiphany” for the revelation of divinity predates Christianity.  The Syrian (Seleucid) emperor Antiochus IV (175-164 BC), the villainous tyrant of 1-2 Maccabees, named himself “Epiphanes,” because he considered himself the manifestation of divinity on earth.  His people called him “Epimanes,” which means roughly “something is pressing on the brain,” in other words, “insane.”  Antiochus tried to stamp out the practice of Judaism, but he eventually died in defeat; apparently mankind would need to wait for a different king to be the “Epiphany” of divinity.

1.  Our First Reading is taken from Isaiah 60:1-6: