Who Do You Say That I AM?

Deacon Tom Writes about…

“Who Do You Say That I Am?”

Fifth Sunday of Lent, Year A

Beginning on the Third Sunday of Lent, our Gospel narrative comes from the writings of St. John. The stories we hear are familiar ones:  the Samaritan Woman, the Man Born Blind, and the Raising of Lazarus. These three weeks of Lent are particularly important to those who are preparing to be fully initiated into our faith, the Catechumens or Candidates. Over these next three weeks, they undergo an intense period of interior reflection known as the “Scrutinies”. The readings from John’s Gospel help them and us reflect on who Christ really is.

The first part of John’s Gospel is referred to as the book of signs. In it John describes Jesus’ miracles as a way of letting us know His identity. John does this by having Jesus use the phrase “I Am”. This helps the listener know that Jesus is identifying Himself with God in an absolute sense.

Here are some other “I Am” statements from John’s Gospel that Jesus used to reveal Himself to His listeners:

4:25 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.” 4:26 Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who is speaking with you.”

6:35 Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst”.

8:12 Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

10:9 I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved

10:14 “I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me.”

10:36… “I said, I am the Son of God”

11:25 Jesus told her, "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live”.

14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.”

Matthew, Mark, and Luke all have Jesus ask his disciples the tough question, “Who do you say that I am”? Matthew 15:16, Mark 8:29, and Luke 9:20. How do we answer that question when Jesus asks it of us today? Just as important, do our lives reflect our answer?

Please keep our Catechumen and our Candidates in your prayers.

Enjoy the Day!

Deacon Tom

Sin - The Bad We Do; The Good We Fail To Do

Deacon Tom Writes,

Sin –The Bad We Do; The Good We Fail To Do

Fourth Sunday of Lent Year A

Today’s Gospel brings up the topic of sin. The disciples wonder who is responsible for the man’s blindness: the man himself because of his own sins, or was it his parents’ fault, i.e. because of their sins. Jesus avoids laying blame. Rather, he says, “it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him” (Jn 9:2-3). Jesus puts an end to the notion that God employs disease to punish us for our sins. 

According to St. Thomas, “sin is nothing else than a morally bad act (St. Thomas, "De malo", 7:3), an act not in accord with reason informed by the Divine law. God has endowed us with reason and free-will, and a sense of responsibility; He has made us subject to His law, which is known to us by the dictates of conscience, and our acts must conform with these dictates, otherwise we sin.” [1]

Actual sin is committed by a free personal act of the will. It is divided into sins of commission and sins of omission. That’s right; you can actually sin by doing nothing, by failing to perform an action!! That raises the table stakes slightly, doesn’t it? Why is that? Well, sometimes we have a moral obligation to act. That’s the lesson of the Good Samaritan. You just can’t ignore someone in need. Sometimes you can’t chose not “to get involved”. 

Look at the words we recite during the Penitential Rite during Lent. We acknowledge to God and our brothers and sisters that we have wronged them by our thoughts, words, and deeds; in what I have done, and in what I have failed to do…. It’s right here. I’m not making this up…..

I confess to almighty God

and to you, my brothers and sisters,
that I have sinned through my own fault,
in my thoughts and in my words,
in what I have done,
and in what I have failed to do;
and I ask Blessed Mary, ever Virgin,
all the angels and saints,
and you, my brothers and sisters,
to pray for me to the Lord our God.

There is still a lot of Lent to go. In the days ahead may God give us the courage and ability to recognize our many faults and the grace to change our ways for the better. 

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom

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[1] http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14004b.htm

Breath Into Me

Deacon Tom Writes,

Breathe Into Me

Third Sunday of Lent, Year A

A young man told me his conversion story a while ago when I was a prison chaplain in Connecticut. He needed some quick cash to pay off his gambling debts. So, he stopped by a bank to make a withdrawal. Small problem – his withdrawal slip was a pistol. While fleeing the bank the police responded appropriately by firing at him, unaware that his pistol was a BB gun. He was hit six times. As he lay dying, he says he saw the devil come to him and begin to “rip his soul out of his body”. Just when he thought he had drawn his last breath, he felt new life being breathed into him by Jesus and he heard Him say, “Get away Satan, this is a child of God”. This young man had been recovering for seven months when I met him and, after his recovery, which was still some time off, he would face a long prison sentence. That didn’t bother him because his profound encounter with Jesus had given him a new vision for his life; it has changed his life forever. He knows that God has a purpose for him and he is looking to find out just what it is.

Most of us look with skepticism at such extreme conversion experiences because they are over the top. Yet recall the words of Isaiah, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.” We fail at times to remember that God is mystery. We simply cannot grasp the great love He has for us that leads to His pursuing us all the time, through … “the labyrinth ways of my own mind; and in the midst of tears” as Francis Thompson wrote in his poem, The Hound of Heaven. God is like a bloodhound, always tracking us down, right there beside us when we stumble and fall.

Today’s gospel is about this very point. Jesus goes out of His way to engage this Samaritan woman. The Samaritans and the Jews are religious enemies who hated and loathed each other because they differed on the proper way to worship God. (Some things never change!!) Jesus intentionally crosses the barriers of hostility to encounter this woman. He meets her in the midst of the crises of her life; in the middle of her life that has been filled with broken relationships, disappointment, alienation from her community; and He breathes new life into her, and through her, He animates the entire village.

By necessity we need to be advocates for those who are trying to put their lives back together after they stumble and fall. It is through their stories and their witness that we come to know the mystery of God’s love for us, His readiness to breathe new life into us. No matter what we do. No matter how far we run or from how high we fall. 

I believe we all have profound conversion stories of how God has come to us through our failures and brokenness. Perhaps, as we continue on our Lenten journey, we can reflect on how God is calling us to use these encounters to help Him breathe new life into others too.

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom

Renewal Of The Mind

Deacon Tom Writes,

“Renewal Of The Mind”

Second Sunday of Lent, Year A

In his letter to the Ephesians St Paul instructed them: “You should put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created in God's way in righteousness and holiness of truth.” (Eph 4:22)

When Peter, James, and John see Jesus in the fullness of His glory, they, quite naturally, want to hang on to the moment. In an effort to hold on to this moment they want to erect three tents perhaps so that Moses, Elijah, and Jesus can stay with them for a while. But that was not to be. The vision doesn’t last. Before you know it, it’s all over and the time comes to return to the ordinary, routine affairs of daily life.

Hold on to the vision, Christ tells them. Keep this all to yourself until the Son of Man has been raised from the Dead!  What an impossible task!  Yet there can be no doubt that these men were deeply affected by what they saw. Seeing Christ in the fullness of His glory affected their thinking, their behavior, and their attitudes. Does what we hear today do the same for us?

If we so desire, the words of our Gospel today can have a great impact on our life. We too can be renewed in the spirit of our minds and be given a new mindset, one that will transform every aspect of our lives, renew and enliven our inner beings, empower us to do the difficult interior work that will allow us to grow more spiritually mature. You can call this renewal of the spirit of our minds a new thinking paradigm.

Peter, James, and John were fortunate to have been given this glimpse of the divine Jesus. We are somewhat more challenged today since we will not experience this until our life’s end. But now that the story’s been told, we have the vision. And the vision in today’s Gospel beckons us to begin the difficult, life-long work of crafting our new selves created in God’s way, a work that will come to completion only when we become one with Him in our eternal home.

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom

A Memorable Lenten Experience

Deacon Tom Writes,

A Memorable Lenten Experience

First Sunday of Lent, Year A

We begin this Lenten season with St. Matthew’s account of Jesus’ temptation in the desert. I am sure that we are very familiar with this passage, so much so that it may fail to hold our attention while it is being read. Yet, for those who can envision this descriptive passage they just may come away with this thought that will serve them well for these next forty days: the desert isn’t a wasteland; it is a refuge. For us Christians, Lent isn’t a time of desolation; it is a time of discernment.

Jesus, the consummate teacher, leads by example inviting us to follow him into the desert. In the solitude of that wilderness he is tempted by the devil with some clever “earthly” ways options for establishing the Kingdom of God on earth. Fortunately, as we are told, Jesus does not go into the desert by himself and he is aware of who is waiting for him there. He has an ally, a protector. “Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert…to be tempted by the devil.” Jesus does indeed encounter the devil. He is tempted. He feels the full brunt of satin’s power. But, he will not yield! Even though he is shown all the power, the privilege, and the prestige that this world has to offer, it will not sway him. He will remain faithful to the Spirit within him, the Spirit who revealed him as God’s “beloved Son”.

This Lent we have another opportunity to grow in holiness, another chance to discern God’s Will for us. This is precious time, a time to read scripture so that we can become an intimate friend of Jesus. Remember the question that Jesus asked Peter when they were at Caesarea Philippi, “Who do you say that I am?” How do we answer that question? Who is Jesus for us? Do we know him personally, as a friend in whom we confide….trust…. share our lives? Do we look to Jesus to help us discern the choices that lay before us….help us in our relationships…..with life’s challenges...or to overcome our many personal weaknesses?  Lent is a special time when we can experience the love God has for us by coming to know the person of Jesus Christ, God’s “beloved Son”. Spending some quality time with Jesus in the desert, away from the TV and the noise and chatter of this world is a sure way to make this a memorable Lenten experience. 

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom