Third Sunday of Lent

There is a certain familiarity with our Gospel that really touched me today. I don’t consider myself to be a true gardener, but I do love having tree’s in my yard that serve a practical purpose, and in North Carolina we can grow just about any kind of fruit tree, including figs. A few years ago, I happened to purchase a small fig tree that I thought could be a good source of shade in the yard, as well as some fresh fruit. It was quite tiny when I got it, and when planted in my yard it did grow, though not as I had hoped for. It remained skinny and scraggly for several years and did not produce much in the way of figs. My initial thought was to simply cut it down and try something else in the same spot. I was planning to do just that, when I happened across an article about how to care for these tree’s and realized I had not really done my part in caring for this scrawny plant, so I took just a few steps to see what would happen. I put down a bit of compost and loosened the soil around it a bit to allow for better drainage, and in short order I noticed a marked change in the little tree. It became fuller and actually had quite a few figs on it even though it was later in the growing season. It simply responded to some basic care, and being given a bit of time. I still have that tree in my yard, and to this day it produces more figs than we can use (if anyone needs any fresh figs, let me know).

The lesson of time, patience, and a little care were not lost on me. It actually made me realize how often in my own life I have been blessed by others who had not written me off despite my shortcomings and instead guided me with patience and kindness and allowed me to benefit and grow from their influence. This is especially true of our Lord who must have found me exasperating at times in my ignorance and stubbornness, and yet who exercised the greatest patience with me, and even blessed me with His extra care because He knew I needed a bit more attention to grow and prosper.

In this Lenten season, as we prepare ourselves through repentance and self-examination, something we might ponder is how well we are caring for those around us who we may sometimes find difficult or frustrating. This is one of the challenges that we need to be keenly aware of as followers of Christ. It’s very easy to spend time with those we enjoy, but it comes very hard sometimes to dedicate time to those in our lives who we do not find so easy. Yet this makes it all the more important for us to focus on these people, because they are Gods children too, and He expects us to care for them as He does. This is the call. In showing loving patience to them, we show our love and respect for Him who thought enough of each of us to die on the cross for us – no exceptions. The saddest thing on this earth is someone who is truly left alone and without care, it goes against God’s will, and it defies our truest nature to allow this. If we want to pick a truly meaningful Lenten resolution (it’s not too late to change or add to yours), consider making an effort to reach out to someone whose life you have not touched in some time. You may be pleasantly surprised at the eventual results.

Second Sunday of Lent

What does it mean to be transfigured? The definition I looked up said it is to be transformed in a glorified or spiritual way. To take on a new appearance that reflects divine or spiritual beauty. For most of my life, I assumed that this was something that was reserved for Jesus alone, just as we hear about in today’s Gospel. Yet as I have gotten older and been able to witness what are sometimes truly amazing changes within people I have encountered, I am not so sure my original assumption was completely correct if we take the definition literally. While we may not radiate the same glorified form as our Lord – amazing transformation that can be witnessed by others is still possible.

It’s true that we all go through changes as we live our lives, and not all of them for the better. We can even make some progress in our development as people, and as followers of Christ, that while good, are not quite on the level of what would be considered a transformative. Yet, in a precious minority of instances, radical transformation can occur. When I think of Saint Francis of Assisi, or Saint Augustine, and how each spent their youth I see evidence for this kind of change. To go from truly dark places in life, completely focused on things of this earth, and to then burst forth as new creations born of Spirit so that flesh and earthly desires are no longer of much importance is such a complete metamorphosis that it requires grace as its catalyst.

No saint or sinner can will this to happen, no internal fortitude or strength is sufficient to trigger this kind of transformation; if we think we are so endowed that we can do this without God’s intervention, we are arrogant to the point of foolishness. Instead, we need to humble ourselves profoundly and completely, and express our deepest longing to God to grant us spiritual movement to leverage the side of ourselves born of water and the Spirit and take us beyond what our fleshly inclinations so desperately and erringly cling to. In this season of Lent, the time is perfect to pursue this grace of transformation. To use this time of penance and preparation to express a desire to God for the kind of spiritual radiance that can demonstrate to others what is possible through prayer, love of God, and generously granted grace that we embrace with our whole selves.

When Peter, James, and John saw our Lord in his radiant transfigured form, we hear that their first reaction was fear, and perhaps so, since they had never witnessed anything like this before. I suspect this was coupled also with awe and wonder. To see the glory of God so closely and personally manifest within their teacher had to be both humbling, but also inspiring. They gained strength and confidence from this for the time to come when they would witness Jesus’ crucifixion. Our Lord knew this experience and seed of change within them would be needed.

Like any good students Jesus’ three disciples sought to emulate their master in all things, perhaps even those heaven born. We too should look upon this time of Lent as transformative and pray for the grace of experiencing this in a truly radical way.

First Sunday of Lent

There has never been a time when God has not watched over and cared for us. From the days of creation, to the time of the oppression that the people of Israel endured and were rescued from, to the days of Jesus time here on earth, right up to this very day – He is ever watchful and loving.

In our earliest days He was stern and commanding because we were young and rebellious and were easily led down wrong paths. We had no roots in the land. Gradually though, we grew as a people, through His grace, and became more than nomadic tribes, we took root in Israel. We learned and worked to educate others about Israels God. We stopped wondering, and we built our homes, cities, and places of worship. We matured and grew and sought knowledge of our Creator.

In his time, our Lord came to us in our own fleshly manifestation, and walked among us, taught us, healed our bodies, and gave his own for our sake so that our souls might be healed and we could be reconciled with our Father in heaven. He took the suffering that should have been ours upon himself and gave everything of Himself for us so that nothing was left. He did this out of love.

Yet with all this history of love and caring, we sometimes doubt. We think that the God of the universe who did all this for us, somehow may not understand us and what we deal with in our daily struggles. It doesn’t make sense if we really think about it. This is especially true in light of todays Gospel. There is literally nothing that the devil did not try to get our Lord to give in to temptation. The narrative doesn’t fully do justice to what our Lord endured and stood fast against. We all know that Satan has many means at his disposal to try to tempt us, and he certainly did not spare effort when he encountered our Lord in human form. This, however, is the whole point, he tried everything and failed. Our Lord would not give in to sin, and yet experienced all the powerful temptations we do because He was one of us in the flesh. This should give us a great deal of confidence in both his understanding of all that we are subject to, and also in His mercy because he has been through it and knows how difficult it can be to remain unscathed. Difficult, yes, but not impossible, He proved that as he was both God and man. He gave us a model to follow, a success to take confidence in, and an unwavering love so that we are to be assured of his forgiveness for each of us when we stumble and come to him in repentance and humility. No temptation is not understood, no sin is beyond His forgiveness, and no person beyond his loving gift of redemption.

Eighth Sunday in Ordinary time

One of my favorite quotes ever is from Hamlet when Polonius states that “brevity is the soul of wit”. Truer words have rarely been spoken. What we say speaks volumes about who we are, and what we believe. Subsequently the more we say, the more opportunities there are for us to make that impression about ourselves either positive or negative. From a purely analytical point of view, we are likely to make a far more favorable impression by limiting our words and giving greater thought to the things we do say. (talk about the antithesis of most behavior observed in the various forms of media).

Shakespeare was not the first one to utter words along these lines. In our first reading from the book of Sirach, we hear something philosophically similar – “When a sieve is shaken, the husks appear; so do ones faults when one speaks”. The moral of both of these statements is also quite similar – we are better off with more thinking and less talking, at least until we have truly given thought to what is going to come out of our mouths.

If the two excerpts above are not enough to convince us that we need to be incredibly careful with what we say, then perhaps we will listen to Jesus himself. He did not focus on how our words would define our own standing, but presented a far more urgent reason for caution. The power our words can have on others. This is true of both the good and the bad. Our Lord tells us that we must always be conscious of our own situation and actions before we try to guide others. Not simply because we want to avoid being seen as hypocritical, but because we don’t want our own errors in thought adversely affect someone else – we cannot guide someone else effectively if we ourselves are blind to the path. This is one of the reasons why humble self-assessment is so crucial to anyone who wants to be of help to those around them. We need to be brutally honest with ourselves (not always and easy thing), but without this we cannot hope to be effective in assisting anyone else.

Each and every day comes with great potential for us to either help or harm others with our words. Whether this is in a casual conversation at our work, discussion around the dinner table, or an opinion stated online, our words can have a deep impact on others that we often cannot anticipate. We have relatively few ways of knowing the things that those around us are sometimes dealing with. Only our Lord truly knows these things. It is however, all the more reason for us to be judicious with our speech, and at all times strive for kindness, compassion, and truth. “For from the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks”.