21st Sunday of Ordinary Time Cycle B August 25, 2024
21st Sunday of Ordinary Time Cycle B
August 25, 2024
Campfires. Campfires are part of what summer is all about. As a child, I remember campfires at Y camp where we sang songs and watched skits with corny endings, “Hare today, Goon Tomorrow”. We also listened to stories of fables from American History or Indian lore. Campfires are places to reflect and think about life. As the embers fade, we would lie on our backs and look at the star-lit sky and think about what is out there. Reflections upon God and our place in the universe.
Last week I had a campfire with my sibs and some friends. We told stories about our childhood days and high school years and exchanged news about neighbors and old friends.
The words around the campfire are words like what Joshua says in today's first reading. As Joshua wanders with the exiles, he encourages them to remember all the good things God has done for them in the past and is doing for them today.
“Far be it from us to forsake the Lord”. The Lord has not forsaken us, we may just have to remember how the Lord has been with us. Come move a log close to the fire and reflect with me on our life of faith.
Look into the flames of the campfire and let your mind wander. Think about your life of faith, who has been a guide for you? Who first helped you learn what it means to be a follower of Christ? What times or moments helped you to know there is a living God?
I find myself staring into the fire and remembering my mother who got up early in the morning to get laundry done and get dinner started. As I came downstairs I would find her in her chair praying her rosary. Her break from work was time spent in prayer. Mom took all of us to church each week. We always seemed to arrive to an empty parking lot and church. We needed to be early to have those few moments for quiet prayer in the church.
I recall summer days spent wandering in the woods looking at the plants and the animals. As we rode our bikes in the cemetery, we got in trouble for this, I would find myself thinking about all the men and women of faith buried here.
I remember the plaque given to me on my confirmation, which still sits on my dresser, “What you are is God's gift to you, what you become is your gift to God.”
What about you? Whose face do you pull out of the fire?
“Far be it from us to forsake the Lord”
Look again into the fire, look up at the star-lit sky, see the bright shining moon. Think about how God is active in your life today.
I find myself experiencing God this week as I prayed with a family who has said goodbye to its father and the wife and who told me over and over, “I know he is at peace”.
I reflect upon the red sky I looked at the other night as the sun set on the horizon.
I see the faces of the children as they savor the flavors of summer at the Delaware County Fair.
When my cat jumps on my lap I feel his love for me and breath and prayer of thanksgiving to our God.
Now think back over your week, where was God in your days this week?
“Far be it from us to forsake the Lord”
We wake from our reverie in the flames of our campfire, but we go forth to recall all our God is doing for us. This time of peace and reflection nurtures our soul. We have experienced what the psalmist has told us is true, we have “Tasted and seen the goodness of the Lord.”
I have long thought that the Church gives us the two Gospel passages we hear today — the account of Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem and the account of his Passion and death — for very practical reasons: this is the last Sunday before Easter when we will celebrate Christ’s Resurrection and not everyone is able to attend and celebrate the Triduum liturgies during Holy Week. Therefore, the Church places these two critical Gospel passages together so that we hear and experience them in a regular Sunday Mass setting — literally, to ‘fit them in’ before Easter. But there is another equally, if not more, important reason we are to experience these Gospel passages together. And I honestly don’t know if the Church intends this reason or not, but I believe the Holy Spirit intends it. These two Gospel passages remind us as much as any passage that Jesus Christ, while fully Divine, is also fully human. He is like us in all manner except one, in committing sin. He therefore shares with us the experience of the full range of our humanity. In these two Gospel passages we experience Christ moving from triumph to tragedy, from soaring to suffering: the triumphant, soaring entry into Jerusalem and the suffering and tragedy of His Passion and crucifixion. Christ’s human experience is also our human experience, for do not we all experience triumph and tragedy, soaring and suffering? Therefore, we do not have a God and Savior who cannot sympathize with our human experience, but rather one who shares it with us! And we have a God and Savior who not only soared and suffered for us, but soars and suffers with us. Not just two thousand years ago, but right here, right now, in every minute of our lives. For what did Jesus promise? “I am with you always , until the end of time.” (Mt 28:20) When we soar and triumph, Jesus is with us, by our side. And when we suffer and experience tragedy, especially, Jesus is with us, by our side. We are encouraged to give thanks to God in our triumphs and soaring. And we are invited to unite our suffering with Christ’s suffering and offer it up for whatever or whomever is in need. Christ’s suffering was not pointless, and united to His, neither is ours. We offer it up, trust, and hope. Sisters and brothers, that hope comes from our knowledge of the rest of the Gospel story that we will experience with Christ: that His triumph and tragedy, His soaring and suffering does not end in death, but in the glory of Easter Resurrection.
5 th Sunday of Lent C April 6, 2025 Often someone will approach me and ask if I can do x y or z on such and such a date. I am not always good and knowing my schedule in the future, so I will say, “send me the dates and I will get back to you.” Sometimes they will send me the dates, sometime not. If I say yes, I may find I have a conflict. This is a stalling tactic giving me time to discern how to respond. This is what Jesus does as he writes on the ground. He knows the Scribes and Pharisees are using the woman to trap him, so he bends down to scribble in the dust to have time to answer them. When he does answer them, his statement is not about the woman’s actions, but about the motives of the accusers. He knows they hope to trap him. If he suggests the woman be released, he has broken the Mosaic law, if he suggests she be stoned he will be in trouble with the Romans. So, he focuses on the motive and state of the accusers. In our first reading we are reminded that God is doing something new. Jesus does something new. He doesn’t focus on what the law says, but he focuses on what is in the heart of the accusers. Mosaic law says that those caught in Adultery, both the man and the woman should be killed. Here we only have the woman. We are told she was caught in the act, but where is the man? For the season of Lent, we have been piling stones in our desert. These stones are the Character defects we wish to reform in this season. They are not for killing others but given to God to use to build us into a new creation. Jesus allows the woman to become a new creation. He refuses to condemn her, He encourages her to sin no more and to go free from the accusations of the temple officials. Have you been like the woman accused by others? How did you experience the forgiveness of your God? When have you been like a Scribe or Pharisee pointing the accusatory finger at another? Cast aside the stones you have wanted to hurl at the other and look inside your heart and see how God’s forgiveness has made you a new creation.
After Moses has his conversation with God in the Burning Bush, Moses asks God for what name he should use in referring to God. God gives the vague answer, “I am who I am.” Asking for someone’s name is a common occurrence. When we refer to someone with their name, we honor them. We all like to be referred to by name. This is one way we honor a person. Not all of us are good at remembering names, but when we do remember and use the name of the other person, we honor them. One of the names for God is taken from our psalm, “The Lord is kind and merciful”. God is also patient. The parable from the gospel about the fig tree is a parable about God’s patience. God, being the gardener, is willing to wait a year for fruit. God works the same for all of us. God is patient with us. Not everyone comes to faith in the same way or the same time frame. Some take less time, others more. When we see a new face in church we don’t ask “What took you so long?” or “Where have you been?” We simply say, “Welcome! It is good to have you here.” We ask and learn the name of the new person and we speak to him or her each week using their name and making them feel welcome. Maybe you have been a fig tree or known someone who is or was a fig tree. This is a good reason to give thanks to the patient nature of God. Remember the kingdom is in the future and now.
