St. Thomas the Apostle Parish

Homily for Saturday of the 5th Week of Lent

In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus' name appears on a hit list: His Gospel of justice and compassion has become too much for the Sanhedrin, who rationalize a "prophecy" to justify Jesus' elimination.

Today's Gospel is relived in the lives of men and women who dare to speak the truth to power. Ridicule, isolation, rejection — even death — can be required of anyone for taking seriously God's call to be His prophets: to proclaim God's compassion, forgiveness, and justice to societies and institutions that are in determined opposition to the very idea of these things.

But the promise of the Resurrection belongs to those who dare to take up the cause of justice and reconciliation in order to proclaim that God has redeemed his people.[1]

 

[1] Cormier, Jay, Connections, Weekdays of Lent, 2007

Homily for Friday of the 5th Week of Lent

Both Jeremiah (from today’s first reading) and Jesus were persecuted because they upset those who placed rituals and rules over people. These people were not bad but were deeply mistaken. They knew their laws, but these had become so rigid and so primary that they no longer expressed God’s mercy.

When applied rigidly, religious rules become like idols. They can be misused as God’s judgment upon every action. Sometimes religious people find false security in fixed rules that are unchangeable.

Jesus tells us that the two greatest commandments are the love of God and love of neighbor. It is in following these commandments that we are most like Christ and most assured that our lives are what God created them to be.+

Homily for Thursday of the 5th Week of Lent

The words of Jesus reach back not only to the age of the great patriarch, Abraham (sometime around 1850 B.C.) but even further back, to that first day in Israel’s history, to the eternal day before creation. “Before Abraham came to be, I AM.” In this evocative phrase, Jesus identifies Himself with the YAHWEH. This name for God —very special and sacred to Israel — means in ancient Hebrew, “He who is always there.”

John’s Gospel presents Jesus as more than the fulfillment of Abraham’s faith and hope; He was one with God before the universe was even created. John understands that God was leading Israel’s history forward to the day when the eternal Word became incarnate as Jesus, son of Mary. 

For Christians, Jesus is the LORD of our history. His hopes and plans will remain at least partially unfulfilled until all nations are united as one faith and family. This is echoed by Paul’s statement: “All of you who have been baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with him. There is no longer among you Jew or Greek, slave or free person, male or female. All are one in Christ Jesus. Furthermore, if you belong to Christ, you are the descendants of Abraham, which means you inherit all that was promised.”+

Homily for Wednesday of the 5th Week of Lent

Jesus declares, “the truth will set you free.” A little later in John’s Gospel, He will say of Himself, “I am the truth.”

Jesus is a source of true freedom for His followers. He goes on to declare, “If the Son frees you, then you will be truly free.” It is through staying close to Him that we can enter into what St. Paul calls “the glorious freedom of the children of God.”

Our relationship with Jesus, and the Holy Spirit that He pours into our hearts, lets us live as God wants us to live: in ways that correspond to what is best within us.

True freedom is the freedom to love, to give of ourselves to others as Jesus gave of Himself to us. It is for this freedom we pray during these final weeks of Lent.+

Homily for Wednesday of the 5th Week of Lent

Jesus declares, “the truth will set you free.” A little later in John’s Gospel, He will say of Himself, “I am the truth.”

Jesus is a source of true freedom for His followers. He goes on to declare, “If the Son frees you, then you will be truly free.” It is through staying close to Him that we can enter into what St. Paul calls “the glorious freedom of the children of God.”

Our relationship with Jesus, and the Holy Spirit that He pours into our hearts, lets us live as God wants us to live: in ways that correspond to what is best within us.

True freedom is the freedom to love, to give of ourselves to others as Jesus gave of Himself to us. It is for this freedom we pray during these final weeks of Lent.+

Homily for Wednesday of the 5th Week of Lent

Jesus declares, “the truth will set you free.” A little later in John’s Gospel, He will say of Himself, “I am the truth.”

Jesus is a source of true freedom for His followers. He goes on to declare, “If the Son frees you, then you will be truly free.” It is through staying close to Him that we can enter into what St. Paul calls “the glorious freedom of the children of God.”

Our relationship with Jesus, and the Holy Spirit that He pours into our hearts, lets us live as God wants us to live: in ways that correspond to what is best within us.

True freedom is the freedom to love, to give of ourselves to others as Jesus gave of Himself to us. It is for this freedom we pray during these final weeks of Lent.+

Homily for Wednesday of the 5th Week of Lent

Jesus declares, “the truth will set you free.” A little later in John’s Gospel, He will say of Himself, “I am the truth.”

Jesus is a source of true freedom for His followers. He goes on to declare, “If the Son frees you, then you will be truly free.” It is through staying close to Him that we can enter into what St. Paul calls “the glorious freedom of the children of God.”

Our relationship with Jesus, and the Holy Spirit that He pours into our hearts, lets us live as God wants us to live: in ways that correspond to what is best within us.

True freedom is the freedom to love, to give of ourselves to others as Jesus gave of Himself to us. It is for this freedom we pray during these final weeks of Lent.+

Homily for Tuesday of the 5th Week of Lent

“O LORD, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.”

I focus, once again, on our responsorial psalm for the day. Today’s Psalm begins with a pleading for God to hear the prayer of the psalmist and recalls how God has always heard the cry of His people.

In the end, the psalm seems to be reassuring that God hears our prayers made amid our struggles and that God keeps us from succumbing from our trials.

Of course, this last part of the prayer refers to the end times and to our belief that regardless of what happens in this life, there is joy and salvation in the next.

May we always trust that God hears our prayers and may we always trust in His promise of eternal life.+

Homily for Monday of the 5th Week of Lent

“Even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil; for you are at my side.”

Our psalm today is another one of those things that we hear often in Scripture, and which sounds nice, but we have to ask if we really take it to heart. When it seems like our prayers are not being answered – or at least being answered as we would like – do we despair or do we take to heart these words of the great psalmist? Do we trust that God’s love and grace are with us regardless of what happens to us in this life? That trust (or at least that hope) is what marks the faithful people of God.

May we seek to trust that God is with us at every step of the way – in good times and in bad – and that, walking with us, he will lead us to the everlasting peace and joy of heaven.+

Homily for the 5th Sunday of Lent

There is a story of a young couple who received a mirror as a gift on their wedding day. The frame of the mirror was an odd aqua color and they couldn’t find a place where it would look good in their home. They moved a couple of times and brought the mirror with them, but they never could find a place where that aqua color fit in.

A few years passed, and as they were preparing to move again, they decided to have a tag sale to get rid of all their unwanted belongings. Among the items was the mirror with the aqua-colored frame that never once hung on their wall. They put a price tag of $1.00 on the mirror and put it in the yard with all their other unwanted possessions.

During the tag sale, a man was looking at the mirror and called his wife over. He said to her, “Look at this beautiful mirror. The frame is gorgeous and still has the plastic on it.” The couple selling the mirror looked on in horror as the man peeled away the ugly aqua plastic from the frame that revealed a beautifully carved golden frame surrounding the mirror.

In our own lives, there is much beauty and joy that we may never recognize. They are “wrapped” in layers of discouragement and resignation, and even wrapped in the busyness of our lives and schedules.

In baptism, we have been called to the work of resurrection: that is, to remove the “plastic” that covers the goodness and giftedness of so many souls; to free the bound Lazaruses among us who are in need of our compassion, care, and healing, to raise up those who have “died”, in a metaphorical sense, in their own despair and desperation.

This is the kind of resurrection we can bring to our world right now as we await the fulfillment of the Easter promise to come.

During this unprecedented time in our lives, even those of us working from home perhaps find that our lives have a slower pace; we are not bogged down by heavy schedules and errands. Yes, there is plenty for us to do but the urgency, the pressure of our schedules is, hopefully, a little less right now.

Perhaps during these days that we find ourselves “entombed” in the reality of the restrictions this pandemic place on us, we might find the opportunity to peel off that “plastic” that frenetic schedules and constant activity place upon us. Perhaps we can peel back that “plastic” that can sometimes hide the beauty that dwells in our lives, in our families, in our very selves; a beauty that is the life and the love of God.

Let us take our own metaphorical mirrors of reflection and, through our prayer and worship, through our own personal searching, peel back the “plastic,” and recognize the image of God dwelling in us and may we look forward with hope to our Easter celebration of Christ’s Resurrection, as we look forward to our own resurrection from the tomb that is this pandemic, and the Resurrection of the Dead, at the end of time.+