While we are yearning for the Heavenly Jerusalem

       The first reading today from Isaiah obviously points us toward Heaven. Toward the time when we will walk with the Lord in Paradise and see God clearly face to face. No more crying, no more death, no more (insert frustrating things here), just eternal happiness with the God, who wants to “exult in His people.” A land where there will be no spiritual, physical, or emotional problems, but simply perfection and happiness.

         But our human nature inclines us to ask “what about now?” Are we just sad and miserable creatures trying to get by until we go to heaven? Is Our God a distant god who awaits us in Heaven, and until then we are on our own? NO! God created us “to be a joy” and when this scripture is read in light of our resurrected Christ, new meanings begin to stand out. While we are looking forward to our union with Christ in Heaven, Christ has established His kingdom here on earth in which we are also able to rejoice in and with Him now! There are many places that this intimacy with God is apparent within our faith, especially in two places.

         The first is our Catholic Church. A place where any where in the world

and any day of the week, we are able to take sanctuary in the loving embrace of God’s grace. Free of any judgment we are able to approach God and not receive just a sign, but actually receive Him, who is goodness, physically into our bodies and into our hearts. Within our Church we can rejoice in the Lord’s presence knowing we are loved and that we matter. It is within our church that “the fruit of the vineyard [we] plant” is taken by the priest and through Christ turned into Goodness Himself. It is here we truly catch a glimpse of Heaven!

         Another place we find joy within our faith is our Blessed Mother. Her whom Jesus gave to us on the cross. Her whom Jesus enjoyed, so much so, that He felt He must share Her love and care with us. And we are able to fly to the Virgin Mary anytime with our troubles, and know she will direct us always toward Her Son. In her comfort we can trust and rest, knowing, that our God Himself rested in her arms for the entirety of His childhood.

         So during this time of lent, as we walk with Jesus in the desert, let our hearts rejoice! While life might be tough at times, or we might struggle with our Lenten sacrifices, we know it is in these sufferings we are closest to Him. Jesus is not just our leader, but also our friend. He loves us and in this love we can truly pray, “I will praise you Lord, for you have rescued me.” While in Heaven our happiness will be of all kinds, now we can have peace and joy in Christ as we look forward to eternity.

 Thank you Lord for the gift of Your Church and Your holy Mother!

-Patrick Tunnell

         

In Christ

I would like to focus on today’s second reading, Second Corinthians 5:17-21, which is beautifully tied to today’s gospel reading, the famous pericope of Christ dining with sinners and tax collectors and his telling the Pharisees the parable of the prodigal son.

St. Paul highlights the beautiful sacrament of Confession as the way to enter into the forgiveness of the Father’s love through uniting ourselves to Christ. Let us look at it line by line:

“So for anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation: the old order is gone and a new being is there to see” (5:17). St. Paul reminds the Corinthians that they are a new creation in Christ. What does it mean to be in Christ? Christ has died for our sins and rose again so that we might share in His glory, but how can we access that glorious resurrection?

“It is all God's work; he reconciled us to himself through Christ and he gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (5:18). We do not reconcile ourselves to Christ, but rather, Jesus reconciles us to the Father. But where is Jesus? How are we in Christ? Jesus said to His apostles at His ascension that He would send the Holy Spirit, cf. Acts 1:7-8.

“I mean, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not holding anyone's faults against them, but entrusting to us the message of reconciliation” (5:19). It would be a cruel trick if Jesus promised us the forgiveness of our sins in Him without giving us a sure way to be united to Him. St. Paul, therefore, reiterates the importance of our connection to Christ through the Apostles and those who succeed them.

“So we are ambassadors for Christ; it is as though God were urging you through us, and in the name of Christ we appeal to you to be reconciled to God” (5:20). To whom is St. Paul referring when he says “you” and “us”? When St. Paul says “us,” he is referring to himself and the other Apostles, as well as to their successors, the priests and bishops of the Church. “You” refers to those who are in need of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, i.e. all of us! St. Paul is not making a false dichotomy between “the righteous” and “sinners,” like the Pharisees do in today’s Gospel. Rather, he invites the Corinthians (and us) into the gift of Reconciliation in Christ and through apostolic authority.

“For our sake he made the sinless one a victim for sin, so that in him we might become the uprightness of God” (5:21). Again, St. Paul says that it is God’s work. All are sinners, including the Apostles, but in Christ all are made whole and return to the Father like the prodigal son.

-Jacob Pride

"Let us walk humbly with our God."

          In today’s gospel, Jesus tells the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. In his prayer, the Pharisee reminds the Lord of all he has done, fasting, praying and tithing. The tax collector goes humbly, on his knees, and asks for mercy for his sins. Jesus reminds us that it is the tax collector who is justified. “The one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

          For many of us reading this, we are good people trying to live out our faiths in a very secular world. We go to Mass each week, we may attend a Bible study. We spend time in prayer, we fast. It can feel like we are doing so much compared to others.   We measure ourselves against a world that, these days, doesn’t set a very high bar. But even if we measured ourselves against the piety of the holiest man, it is our humility the Lord most desires.  If  we went to Mass every day, made a monthly confession and tithed more than our 10% and came to the Lord showing him all our good deeds, He would be more pleased with the person  who had done none of this but said to Him, “Bless me for I have sinned.”

          There is a great comfort in knowing that it is the condition of our hearts that will hurt or please the Lord. We absolutely should spend as much time as possible in prayer, fasting, almsgiving. These things make us more like Jesus and bring us closer to Him. We just have to do so with humility. We can’t earn our way into Heaven. Jesus took every one of those nails out of the same love for saint and sinner.  We say at Mass, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof.” We humble ourselves before we receive the greatest gift ever given, the actual body of Christ. That shows how important humility is in the Christian walk.

          We will all walk through different seasons of life. There will be times when we can make it to daily Mass and monthly confession, times when we can tithe 10% before taxes. Hopefully, we will get on our knees each night of those plentiful times and tell the Lord that we are thankful for His provision and ask for forgiveness for the ways we didn’t honor Him. There will also be times when we can’t get to daily Mass, when our tithe will be in time rather than money. Hopefully we will get on our knees during those times and tell the Lord we are thankful for His provision and ask forgiveness for ways we didn’t honor Him.

          Our God loves us in plenty or in want. He loves us not for what we do or give, but who we are. God doesn’t love us because we’re good. He loves us because HE is good. 

-Keri Ninness

Freedom from the Law

            “[Jesus] said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’” Man, would I love to hear that from Jesus! Clearly, the scribe who questions Jesus in today’s Gospel reading gets it; let’s try to learn from his example and see how he got so close to the kingdom of God.

            The Jews in Jesus’ day were all about the letter of the law, and I can see why, given how complicated their law was; I’m certain I would have broken it on accident a few times per day. They had strict laws for purification, diet, and observing the Sabbath, among other things. If you had a rock for every time I ate a meal with unclean hands, you could stone me!

            One of the purposes for Jesus’ mission (besides dying for our sins, obviously) was to give us freedom from the law. This is not freedom in the way we usually think about it—the ability to do whatever we want, whenever we want. That’s called license. True freedom means being free of any sinful desire or attachment. If we no longer desire to break the law, we are free of it; it is no longer a burden on us. Let’s see a practical example of this.

            Consider a young man who thinks the Mass is boring. He doesn’t understand why we have to go every Sunday. The law is a burden to him. But imagine if someone explained to him that the Mass is heaven come to earth and that we are connected, through our participation in the Eucharist, to every Catholic throughout history, regardless of time! This young man begins to think about Mass differently. He starts coming to Mass every Sunday, and maybe even during the week occasionally. He has achieved freedom from the law!

Bio:

Michael LaPointe is a FOCUS missionary at Georgia Sothern. Originally from Montgomery, AL, he graduated from Auburn University in 2011.

What Saints Perpetua and Felicity Can Teach Us Today About Faithfulness

“But they obeyed not, nor did they pay heed. They walked in the hardness of their evil hearts and turned their backs, not their faces, to me.” (Jeremiah 7:24) This passage from the first reading of today’s Mass is both sad and terrifying because most of us can think of a time(s) when we, like the Israelites, have completely turned our backs and disobeyed God. We betray God for various reasons: out of fear, selfishness, pressure from those around us…all in pursuit of something or someone that we think may make us happier only to find that it fades away and our hearts are left empty.  We betray the very one who died for us out of love instead of following Him in trusting obedience. We may face many obstacles in our pursuit of the Truth and love for God, many of which will bring us to a crossroads: love of God or self-preservation in its numerous forms. Today the church remembers the martyrdom of two heroic women who lived in the early 3^rd Century: Saints Perpetua and Felicity. When it came down to it, these women bravely endured persecution and death rather than turn their backs on God.

Perpetua was a well-educated daughter of nobleman of Carthage.  She discovered Christianity during the persecution of Emperor Septimius Severus, a time when declaring yourself a Christian was almost certain death. At the age of 22 Perpetua was a catechumen (one who is studying Christian teaching before baptism) and her father, who was a pagan, begged her not to embrace Christianity fearing her death and that of her infant son. The human inclination to survive and protect one’s child would surely make embracing the Truth a difficult decision but Perpetua stood firm and pointing to a water jug, she asked her father, "See that pot lying there? Can you call it by any other name than what it is?" Her father answered, "Of course not." Perpetua responded, "Neither can I call myself by any other name than what I am – a Christian." Wow! What a response! Shortly after this Perpetua was baptized and because she would not deny her faith when questioned, she was thrown into prison with several others who chose to face death rather than deny Christ.

Among them was a servant woman named Felicity, who like Perpetua, was a young mother only she was eight months pregnant. Knowing she too faced certain death and the life of her child was uncertain, she bravely remained firm in her belief and trust in God. Felicity endured great suffering in the stifling heat of her prison and was laughed at and mocked by the guards as she labored to give birth to her daughter. It’s recorded that the soldiers said "If you think you suffer now, how will stand it when you face the wild beasts?" Felicity calmly answered her tormenters by saying "Now I'm the one who is suffering, but in the arena Another will be in me suffering for me because I will be suffering for him." She gave birth to a daughter who was adopted by a Christian woman from Carthage and the prisoners were thereafter sentenced to death in the arena for public entertainment.

Perpetua and Felicity’s companions (including Perpetua’s brother) were ripped apart by wild beasts and eventually they were all martyred when their throats were cut.  Perpetua’s last words to her brother were “Stand fast in the faith and love one another.” Eyewitnesses say that they calmly went to their deaths with joy.  They had confidence in the life that was to come. They knew that as Christians, they could not turn their backs on God regardless of the cost.

Can we truly take the name of Christian? Can we, like them, remain faithful to God even if we are being pressured to deny the Truth in some way? Yes we can! God will give you the grace to endure suffering for His sake. Each and every day is a chance to show forth our love for God. While we may not face physical death when we come to a crossroad in life, we may have to deny ourselves, suffer humiliation, persecution, endure heavy crosses, etc. in our walk with Christ and He will be walking with us so we can remain faithful to the Father and experience God’s joy. Remember the last words of St. Perpetua: “Stand fast in the faith and love one another!”

Obey AND Teach

            In today’s gospel reading, Jesus says “whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven.  But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven”.  We all know we are supposed to follow God’s commandments, but here, Jesus points out that teaching is also important.  We aren’t just called to follow the commandments, which can be hard enough as it is, but also to teach them to others!  Maybe this is why the Church is standing so strongly against homosexual marriage and the pro-choice movement.  We can’t just obey God’s commands in our little Church community.  We must evangelize to the world and share these commandments, in which are found the love and goodness of the Lord.  
             However, in order to teach them, we really have to believe in them, knowing in our hearts that these commands are from God, who is ALL good, and are made to bring us everlasting joy and happiness.  When was the last time you were taught something by someone who didn’t really care about what they were teaching?  Did you learn very much or care about what was being taught?  Wouldn’t it be the same way if we were to teach others about God’s commandments without believing in them?  If we don’t have enthusiasm towards the decrees of the Lord, how do we expect anyone we share them with to?  We must find why we believe in the commandments the Lord gives us so that we can convey that to other people who may not believe in them.  Maybe the reason so many people think the Church is just a bunch of rules and regulations that suppress freedom is because they were taught the commandments of the Church by someone who wasn’t very convicted towards them or didn’t believe in the authentic freedom they give.  With so many misunderstandings in the world around us, we must be able to clear things up in a way that shares the full Truth of God with some passion towards that Truth.  We have to stand up for this faith God has given us so that people will know and believe in the goodness that it brings, the goodness of God and His commandments.  And what better time to do this then now, when the whole world is watching us?

-Stephanie Shipley 

OUR DESTINY: Overcoming the Mediocrity of the Day

                  The readings for Mass today give us a great lesson against one of the toughest vices of our time- mediocrity.  In the first reading, God, hearing the cry of his people in slavery, presents an incredible task to Moses in the midst of his day-to-day work.  God called him to do something great- to influence the trajectory of history. We call to mind our own slavery to sin and unworthy habits in our lives, and how God sent His own son to deliver us from this slavery.

                  The second reading draws more on this as we call to mind those worldly things that enslave us.  In our western world, we have a great tendency to desire comfort. Without knowing it, we often consider situations saying, “What is the best decision here, so that I don’t have to suffer?” or “How can I get out of this uncomfortable situation?”  Our first tendency is often “What is best for me?”  In the same way God called Moses, he appeals to us in our ordinary lives- to live less ordinary- to challenge us out of our commonplace inclinations, and warns us in the last verse of the second reading today, “Therefore, whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall.” (1 Cor. 10:12)

                  Finally, the Gospel today seems to put the concluding dismal touch on our third Lenten Sunday.  Jesus is very clear that sinners will perish- and even goes to the extent of telling the story of the person who wanted to cut down the fig tree for not bearing fruit- in a mere three years!  Yes, while hell is real, it is not our destiny. The Old Testament story we read today is a prefiguration of what Jesus has done for us.  Our eternal destiny is the heavenly kingdom, and our King has shown us how to live. He is a King who gave his life in order to save us. His suffering is unfathomable- He died scourged, with a bloodied face, nailed in humiliation.

                  Yet, we know this is not the dismal end of the story. Our King rose from the dead- and not only did He rise- but He reigned from that cross- “the throne of love.”  Let us “take up our cross and follow Him” if we wish to be His disciples. (Matthew 16:24) For, it is not possible to follow our Lord without the cross.  As we carry this “tree of dazzling beauty,” with knowledge of our sonship, may it lead us to the eternal splendor of our destiny- pure happiness. Forever.