The Samaritan Woman at the Well

(St. Photina)

The Samaritan Woman at the well
(Equal-to-the-apostles)

February 24, 2008: 3rd Sunday of Lent
Exodus 17:3-7 Romans 5:1-2, 5-8 John 4:4-39

To the churched and unchurched[1]
gathered in a church not built by human hands[2]

First reading: water from the rock
(Ex 17:3-7)

In those days, in their thirst for water, the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “Why did you ever make us leave Egypt? Was it just to have us die here of thirst with our children and our livestock?” So Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? A little more and they will stone me!” The Lord answered Moses, “Go over there in front of the people, along with some of the elders of Israel, holding in your hand, as you go, the staff with which you struck the river. I will be standing there in front of you on the rock in Horeb. Strike the rock, and the water will flow from it for the people to drink.” This Moses did, in the presence of the elders of Israel. The place was called Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled there and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord in our midst or not?”

Gospel: water from the well of Jacob
Jn 4:4-39

Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John
Glory to you, Lord.

Jn 4:4-9: Meeting at the well

Jesus and his disciples had to pass through Samaria and they came to a town named Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there. Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down at the well. It was high noon. A woman of Samaria came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink of water.” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a cup of drink?” (A Jew would never use the same dish or cup that a Samaritan uses.)

Jn 4:10-15: Living waters

Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink, ‘you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the well is deep; where then can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?” Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.

Jn 4:16-18: Five husbands!

Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come back." The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!"

Jn 4:19-24: Worship in spirit and truth

“I can see that you are a prophet,” the woman said.” Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain; but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans do not really know whom you worship; we Jews know whom we worship, because salvation comes from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Those are the kind of people the Father wants to worship him. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Jn 4:25-26, 28-30, 39: Belief in Jesus

The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ; when he comes, he will tell us everything.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak with you am he.” At that, moment Jesus’ disciples returned, and they were greatly surprised to find him talking with a woman. The woman then left her water jar behind and went back to town, and said to the people there, “Come and see someone who told me everything I have ever done! Could this not be the Messiah?” At that, they set out from the town to meet him. Many Samaritans from that town believed in him on the strength of the woman’s word of testimony that, `He told me everything I ever did!’”

The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Introduction
Water & shade at Jacob’s well

As Jesus and the disciples were leaving Judea and were going back to Galilee they decided to go through unfriendly Samaria instead of around it. They came to a town called Sychar. Jacob’s well was there. It was high noon, and all were tired and thirsty. An artist’s conception of the scene depicts a massive oak tree stretching its immense branches over Jacob’s well. In its heavenly shade and amid cool breezes the weary wayfarers are wiping their brows and slaking their thirst with cool clear water from the ancestral well of Jacob. (Jn 4: 3-6)

Ancestral wells runs deep with sexism

At the ancestral well, the woman said to Jesus, “Sir, you do not have a bucket, and the well is deep.” (Jn 4:11) Ancestral wells run deep. They run deep with the priorities and values with which we arrange our lives. Speaking of his ancestral well a friend writes, “I was raised in a conservative working class family in Cincinnati, Ohio. Being of German ancestry, I was taught from my earliest memory to challenge nothing that Holy Mother Church teaches. I was taught to respect all persons in positions of authority: teachers, parents, aunts, uncles, police, government officials, etc. I was taught to work for what I wanted and to wait until I had cash to buy it. I was taught that the Lord helps those who help themselves. And I was taught there is no excuse for being dirty because everyone can afford a bar of soap.” With those priorities and values he had arranged his life, and in later years he was not proud of himself.

The ancestral well in today’s gospel runs deep with sexism. When the disciples went into town to buy food, Jesus remained behind at the well. Suddenly a Samaritan woman with a bad reputation in town came upon him. (In that culture, as is in all cultures, it is only the women and not the men who have a bad reputation in town, even though adultery or fornication takes two!) Public sinner that she was, she had to wear a scarlet letter on her forehead. To avoid the gossip and cruelty of other women fetching water in the cool of early morning, she came in the heat of high noon when nobody would be around.

This lengthy gospel presents Jesus as doing what no respectable rabbi would do: he is chatting friendly with a woman in public! This surprises the woman herself. “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a cup of drink?” (Jn 4:9) Returning to the well, the apostles also are surprised to see Jesus speaking publicly with the woman. (Jn 4:27) Where in the world did that woman and that first college of apostles (consisting of males only) get their sexism? Where do all cultures and colleges and religions get their sexism? Why, of course, they imbibe it at the ancestral well.

Jesus refused to drink from that well. Instead, he stood out in the open for all to see, and with the woman, he held the longest private conversation of Jesus recorded in the New Testament. It runs through almost 40 scriptural verses. It is so long that a liturgical directive allows the gospel reading for this Sunday to be shortened for sake of the people in the pews who are anxious to get out and get going. By speaking at great length with the Samaritan woman and not to her Jesus restored her human dignity and recognized her right to have her spiritual needs met.

Ancestral wells run deep sectarianism

Out of the blue, Jesus told the woman to go fetch her husband. It was a ploy to open a discussion about her marital situation and her bad reputation in town. When she replied that she had no husband, Jesus responded, “You’re right, woman! You have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband!” (Jn 4:17-18) Startled that Jesus knew so much about her past, the Samaritan woman exclaimed, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet!” (Jn 4:19)

Out of the blue again (that’s what makes this conversation seem so rambling), the woman brought up a religious bone of contention between Jesus and herself. We Samaritans, she told him, worship here on Mt. Gerizim, but you Jews claim one must worship in the temple in Jerusalem. (Jn 4:20) That, too, was a ploy; the woman wanted to change the subject about her bad reputation.

The ancestral well in today’s gospel runs deep also with sectarianism. Where in the world did Samaritans get their claim that Mt. Gerizim is the only right place to worship God? They imbibed it at their ancestral well. “My [Samaritan] ancestors worshipped here on this mountain,” the woman told Jesus (Jn 4: 20). That was her proof that Mt. Gerizim is the right place to worship God.

Where in the world did Jews get their claim that Jerusalem is the only right place to worship God? They imbibed it at their ancestral well. Where in the world do Muslims get their claim that Medina and Mecca in Saudi Arabia are the only right places to worship God? They imbibe it at their Islamic ancestral well. Where in the world do some Catholics get the claim that the only right place to worship God is in St. Peter’s in Rome? Of course, they get it from an ancestral well.

Jesus went along with the woman’s ploy; he changed the subject and addressed her problem. Refusing to drink from any ancestral well, he assured her that it does not matter where one worships, whether on Mt. Gerizim or in Jerusalem or in Medina and Mecca or even in St. Peter’s in Rome. What matters is how we worship God. What matters is that we worship God in spirit and truth. ((Jn 4:21-23)

Turning the tables

When the lengthy conversation at the well opens, it is the woman who has cool clear water to offer, and it is the Lord who is thirsty and asking for some to drink. In the course of the almost rambling conversation, we find ourselves exclaiming, “For God's sake, give the thirsty man a drink of water! He’s dying of thirst!" Nowhere in the whole account do we read that Jesus ever received a cup of water from the Samaritan woman. No material transaction is related. There is only spiritual transaction in which the tables are turned. At the end of the day, it is now Jesus who has living water to offer, and it is the woman who is thirsty and is asking for some to drink. Jesus offers her living water. She drinks deeply of it and is converted from her meandering life. The water of rebirth washes away the scarlet letter from her brow, and she now walks with her head up high.

Rather she runs with her head up high. Overwhelmed by her encounter with Jesus, the woman takes off in such a hurry she forgets her water jar! (Jn 4:28) She runs off to tell her people in town about Jesus and invites them to come and see for themselves. Because of her testimony many Samaritans come to believe in Jesus (Jn 4:39).

Conclusion
St. Photina, equal-to-the-apostles.

The Orthodox Church has a long and rich tradition about the Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob. Sermons from the fourth to the fourteenth centuries call her “apostle” and “evangelist,” and characterize her as “excelling the male disciples!” (No sexism here!) At her baptism, that unnamed Samaritan woman received the name of Photina! (Phos in Greek means light. E.g., photosynthesis comes from phos.) Photina is “The enlightened one. “ Photina is also “The enlightener.” She took the light she received at the well of Jacob and Jesus and ran to enlighten her people in town. Then she went on zealous apostolic journeys to bring that light to distant lands like Carthage and Smyrna in Asia Minor. On her feast day, February 28, the Orthodox Church sings this hymn to the Samaritan woman:

By the well of Jacob, O holy one, thou didst find the water of eternal and blessed life. And having partaken thereof, O wise Photina, thou went forth proclaiming Christ, the Anointed One and the Light of the World.

Great Photina, equal-to-the-Apostles,
pray to Christ for the salvation of our souls.

[1]] By the “the unchurched” is especially meant not those who have left the church but those whom the church has left!

[2] Acts of the Apostles 17:24

On Mt. Tabor's Heights

Feb 17, 2008, 2nd Sunday of Lent: the Transfiguration of Christ
Genesis 12:1-4a II Timothy 1:8b-10 Matthew 17:1-9

To the churched and unchurched[1]
gathered in a church not built by human hands[2]

First reading

The Lord said to Abram: “Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you. “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you.” Abram went as the Lord directed him.

The Gospel

Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew
Glory to you, Lord.

Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud cast a shadow over them, then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” When the disciples heard this, they fell prostrate and were very much afraid. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and do not be afraid.” And when the disciples raised their eyes, they saw no one else but Jesus alone. As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, “Do not tell the vision to anyone until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ

Introduction
Another high mountain

Last Sunday the Devil led Jesus to a very high mountain and showed him all the glitter of the world’s kingdoms which he promised to bestow upon Jesus if he would only fall to his knees and adore him (Mt 4: 1-11). This Sunday Jesus is on anther height called Mount Tabor in Christian tradition. That height is always the theme for the second Sunday of Lent in all three liturgical Cycles of A, B and C (Mt 17:1-8; Mk 9:2- 8; Lk 9:28-36).

The coin of ecstasy

On Tabor the apostles saw the Lord’s face shining like the sun, and his clothes resplendent with light. Out of a cloud they heard the voice of the Lord God. The voice proclaimed Jesus to be a “beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” (Mt 17:5). Something spectacular was happening on that mount. Christians call it a transfiguration. Catholics assign a special feast day for it on August 6, Feast of the Lord’s Transfiguration. Psychologists simply call it a religious experience.

With religious experience there comes the coin of ecstasy. Peter became ecstatic on Tabor. He was beside himself emoting and exclaiming, “Lord, how good it is for us to be here” (Mt 17:4)! The experience was so powerful that Peter wanted to dig in and hunker down on that lofty height forever. “Let’s build three shelters up here,” he said to Jesus, “one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” (Lk 9: 28-36). Not only was Mount Tabor high, Peter himself was also high with ecstasy.

A religious experience on a road

A religious experience can happen not only on a breezy mountaintop but also in the sweaty valley of the human journey. Saul of Tarsus had his religious experience on a road. As he was journeying to Damascus where he planned to arrest Christians, a bright light struck him off his high horse, and he heard a voice. (In a religious experience one hears voices.) The voice cried out, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Saul was startled and asked who was speaking. The voice answered, “I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting” (Acts 9:1-22). That experience converted Saul, the terrorist, into St. Paul, the great apostle to the Gentiles.

A religious experience in a garden

St. Augustine (354-430)[3] had his religious experience in a garden. In his younger days he was a rounder of the first water. He strayed off into the teachings of Manichaeism and into the wayward paths of youth, begetting a son out of wedlock. With great literary skill and deep spiritual tones Augustine records his theological aberrations and his wayward youth in his Confessions -- a very personal, powerful, prayerful and poetic piece of prose.

In the garden of his villa one day, Augustine heard a voice coming from the other side of the wall. (In a religious experience one hears voices.) The voice kept saying in a singsong sort of song, “Tolle et lege! Tolle et lege!” (Augustine wrote in Latin.) “Take and read! Take and read!” At first he thought it was the voice of some child playing a game. Then suddenly, he was seized with a strange impulse and picked up the Scriptures which lay near at hand. They fell open to Romans 13: 13: “Let us conduct ourselves properly, as people who live in the light of day; no orgies or drunkenness, no immorality and debauchery, no fighting or jealousy. Rather, let us take up the weapons of the Lord Jesus Christ, and let us stop concentrating on the flesh and gratifying its desires” (Rm 13: 13-14; Confessions Bk VIII, ch 12). That experience converted the rounder Augustine into the great bishop of Hippo in North Africa. By his voluminous theological writings Augustine (later titled Doctor Gratiae -- Teacher of Grace) taught the Universal Church from the fifth to the thirteenth century when he was superceded by the equally voluminous St. Thomas Aquinas (Doctor Angelicus – Angelic Teacher).

A religious experience in a church

St. Francis (1182-1224) had his religious experience before a very old crucifix in a dilapidated little chapel of San Damiano in Assisi. Praying there one day he beseeched the Lord to tell him what He wanted of him. Suddenly Francis heard a voice from the crucifix. (In a religious experience one hears voices.) The voice said to him, “Francis, repair my church.” Being a simple and literal person, he thought the voice was calling him to repair the rickety little chapel. It was, in fact, calling him to become the father of the great Franciscan family which would repair the Universal Church corrupted by the medieval Byzantine splendor and excesses of his day.

Jung in search of Mt. Tabor

Francis’ religious experience took place in a church. Where, if anywhere on God’s earth, should we expect a religious experience with its coin of ecstasy to take place if not in church? Where, if anywhere on God’s earth, should we expect to see visions and hear voices if not in church? Where, if anywhere on God’s earth, should we be exclaiming, “Oh how good it is for us to be here” if not in church? Sometimes that does not happen. Often that does not happen!

Karl Jung, the father of modern psychology, writes about the day of his first Holy Communion. Because of what he had been told, he greatly expected to see visions and hear voices on that very special occasion. The day finally dawned, and all peeled into church. In familiar robes his father, who was the minister of the celebration, stood behind the altar and read the prayers. On the white altar cloth lay large trays filled with small pieces of bread. (The bread came from the local baker.) He watched his father eat a piece of the bread and sip the wine. (The wine came from the local tavern.) Then he passed the cup to others. Jung writes that all were stiff, solemn, and seemingly disinterested. Though he kept looking on in suspense, Jung could neither see nor guess that anything unusual was happening inside anyone. No one had joy on his face. No one seemed to be seeing visions or hearing voices.

Finally Jung’s turn came to eat the bread which tasted flat and to sip the wine which tasted sour. After the final prayer, no one was heard to cry out, "Oh how good it is for us to be here!" No one was seen to tarry or linger on in a glow of ecstasy. No one was heard saying, “Let us build shelters here and hunker down on this height forever.” Instead, Jung writes, "All peeled out of the church with faces that were neither depressed nor illumined with joy— with faces which seemed to say, `Well, that's that!'"

Only gradually did it dawn on Jung that nothing had happened. What he had seen (nothing) was all there was! The total lack of any religious experience with its ecstasy on the day of his very first Holy Communion proved to be disastrous; it proved to be his very last Communion! (Memories, Dreams, and Reflections) When the sun set on that long anticipated day of his first Holy Communion, Jung found himself exclaiming, "Oh, how bad it was for me to be there!"

Amy on Mt. Tabor

Where, if anywhere on God’s earth, should we expect to have a religious experience with its coin of ecstasy if not in church? Where, if anywhere on God’s earth, should we expect to see visions and hear voices if not in church? Where, if anywhere on God’s earth, should we be exclaiming, “Oh how good it is for us to be here” if not in church? That sometimes does, indeed, happen, and when it does happen, we are, indeed, blessed. It happened one day for the Amy who writes,

My husband and I were in Milwaukee for the weekend on a getaway from Indianapolis. We spent our first trip together in your city five years ago and returned for a much-needed vacation. We have a three year old. Recently we suffered a miscarriage at 12 weeks in July. We needed some time to get away and celebrate each other and heal from our loss. It was a very therapeutic trip for us which ended in a fabulous experience in your beautiful church. We had walked the streets of Milwaukee and passed by your gorgeous church and decided to celebrate mass with you on Sunday. We had intended to get up for the 9 AM Mass because going to the 10 AM would put us on the road a bit later with the time change back to Indy. I insisted with my husband that we attend your church instead of waiting to go in the evening at home. I truly feel it was God’s will that we celebrated with you at Old Saint Mary’s.

I so enjoyed the service. Father was absolutely fabulous, his sermon was out of this world, the choir was phenomenal, the lector was dynamic and the beauty of your church was just so stunning. It was a pivotal moment for us, especially for me. I lit a candle after Mass for our lost baby and I am looking forward with hope to our family’s future. I know that God has bigger plans[4] for our family than we even realize, and I know we are blessed.

Unlike Jung Amy can be heard crying out, “Oh, how good it was for us to have been there!”

To expect Mt. Tabor to happen at every Sunday Mass is unrealistic. It is also spiritual gluttony. But never to expect it to happen, or never to feel any disappointment or anger as it never happens is to join the army of those who peeled out of Jung’s church with faces which were “neither depressed nor illumined with joy” but which simply seemed to say, “Well, that's that! We’ve fulfilled the Sunday obligation.”

Our search for Mt. Tabor

If our Sunday assembly never takes us up to Tabor (and there’s simply nothing we can do about it) then we should take the pain to shop for a church that will. We take diligent pain to shop for a good house or a good car. There is nothing wrong (in fact, there is something quite right) about shopping for a “good Mass.” That is a Mass which takes us to Tabor and sets us exclaiming, “Oh how good it is for us to be here!” If our Sunday assembly never does that, then we must vote with our feet.

Conclusion
Tabor: not forever and not for itself

The Tabor high was not forever. Jesus and the Apostles eventually had to get down from that lofty height and descend into the valley of real life (Mt. 17:9). Neither is the Sunday high forever. We, too, have to leave Sunday Mass and descend into the valley of our weekday lives. The Tabor high was not for itself. It was for the great low that awaited the apostles in the imminent death of Jesus (Lk 24:17). Neither is the Sunday high for itself. It is for all the small and great lows which await us in the week ahead. The Sunday high is for assuring us in all life’s miscarriages, as it assured Amy, “that God has bigger plans for us.”

[1]] By the “the unchurched” is especially meant not those who have left the church but those whom the church has left!

[2] Acts of the Apostles
[3] (November 13, 354 – August 28, 430)

[4]Bigger plans, indeed! A son (John Ambrose) was born to them on December 29, 2007, just before the tax credit deadline!

Temptations for a Fast-fix and Hard Miracle

February 10, 2008: First Sunday of Lent
Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7 Romans 5:12-19 Matthew 4:1-11

To the church in the diaspora[1]
& to the church of the unchurched[2]

First Reading The temptation of Adam (Gen 2:7-9; 3:1-7)

The Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being. Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and placed there the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God made various trees grow that were delightful to look at and good for food, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals that the Lord God had made. The serpent asked the woman, “Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?” The woman answered the serpent: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘You shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman: “You certainly will not die! No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is evil.” The woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together

The Gospel

Alleluia, alleluia.

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew
Glory to you, Lord

The temptation of Jesus, son of Adam (Mt 4:1-11)
At that time, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the Devil. There he fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry. The tempter approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.” He said in reply, “It is written: One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”Then the Devil took him to the holy city, and made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: He will command his angels concerning you and with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.” Jesus answered him, “Again it is written, You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.”

Then the Devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, and he said to him, "All these I shall give to you, if you will but bend your knee before me and worship me.” At this, Jesus said to him, “Get away, Satan! It is written: The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.” Then the Devil left him and, behold, angels came and ministered to him.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.----------------

Introduction

The three temptations of Jesus

In Dostoyevsky’s Brothers Karamazov, the Grand Inquisitor asks Christ, “Dost thou think that all the combined wisdom of the world could have invented anything in depth and force equal to the three temptations put thee by the wise and mighty Spirit in the desert?” (Chapter on The Grand Inquisitor) Scripture’s formulation of the three temptations of Jesus as found in Matthew, Mark and Luke is always recounted on the first Sunday of Lent ( Cycle A in Mt 4:1-11; Cycle B in Mk 1:12-13; Cycle C in Lk 4:1-13).

St. Mark describes the temptations of Jesus only generically. Matthew and Luke, on the other hand, list three specific attractions to sin: that of bread, self-vindication and glory. Those are the temptations of all of us, and those were the temptations of Jesus, a son of Adam.

The Devil tempted Jesus with bread. The Grand Inquisitor in Brothers Karamazov aptly characterizes bread as temptation when he tells Jesus, “Give the people bread and they will run after thee like a flock of sheep, grateful and obedient." After his forty-day fast, Jesus was hungry, and the Devil enticed him to turn stones into bread (Mt 4:3-4). Jesus resisted the temptation. Instead, he quoted scripture: “Man does not live by bread alone” (Dt 8:3).

The Devil then tempted him with self-vindication. He winged Jesus high up to the pinnacle of the Temple. There he challenged him to prove himself as God’s Son by jumping off and trusting that God would rescue him from certain death below (Mt 4:5-7; Ps. 91: 11-12). Again, Jesus resisted the temptation. Again, he quoted scripture: “You must not put the Lord your God to the test (Dt 6:16).

Finally, the Devil tempted Jesus with glory and wealth. He took him up to a very high mountain where they could see the glorious kingdoms of the world spread out before them. There the Devil promised to bestow all the glitter and gold of those kingdoms upon Jesus if he would only fall to his knees and worship him (Mt 4:8-10). Again, Jesus resisted the temptation, and again he quoted scripture: “You shalt do homage to the Lord your God; him alone shall you adore” (Dt 6:13). The Devil finally gave up on Jesus, and angels came to minister to him exhausted by the ordeal of temptation.

St. Paul’s Letter to the Hebrews immediately comes to mind: “Our high priest [Jesus] is not one who cannot feel sympathy with our weaknesses. On the contrary, we have a high priest who was tempted in every way that we are, but did not sin. So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and favor, and to find help in the time of need” (Heb 4:15-16). On the first Sunday of Lent we are consoled with thought that the Lord has great sympathy for us sinners, for he himself knows what it means to be tempted.

The temptation for a fast-fix

The Grand Inquisitor in Dostoyevsky’s Brothers Karamazov was right to claim that the combined wisdom of the world could not have invented anything in depth and force equal to the three temptations put to Jesus by the wise and mighty Spirit in the desert. This scripture passage is mystical, and it lends itself to different interpretations depending on who we are and where we are in our life’s journey.

Sometimes I see the three temptations as simply that ever-present human temptation of ours for the fast-fix. The Devil’s command that the hungering Jesus change stones into bread is a fast-fix for bread. But there is no fast-fix for bread. There is only the long haul: seed grown into grain, grain grounded into flour, flour kneaded into dough and dough baked into bread.

The Devil’s command that Jesus prove himself to be the Son of God by jumping off the pinnacle of the Temple and then counting on God’s angels to protect him from being smashed to death on the rocky ground below is also a fast-fix. We prove ourselves to be sons and daughters of God as Jesus did: through a long haul.

The Devil’s command that Jesus fall to his knees and worship him, and then all the glory and gold of the world would be his is, indeed, a fast-fix. Glory and gold come not through a fast-fix but through a long haul. The glory and gold of the world Olympics or of the recent Super Bowl victory by the New York Giants are the reward of a very long haul.

Blessed are they who resist the temptation for a fast-fix which often does not fix anything, and sometimes it is even lethal. Blessed are they who give themselves to the long haul; they shall, indeed, fix what needs to be fixed. The Lenten task before us is to give ourselves with hope and courage to whatever long haul our journey is asking of us.

The temptation for a hard miracle

St. Thomas Aquinas speaks of first class miracles and second-class miracles. By first class miracles he means the really miraculous miracles -- the “hard” miracles which defy the laws of nature and are granted once in a lifetime (if at all) -- miracles like the multiplication of five loaves and two fish into enough food to feed five thousand hungry people, or like changing gallons of water into the best of wine at a wedding feast. Aquinas’s first class miracles would certainly include turning stones into bread, leaping harmlessly off high peaks and laying hold of earthly glory and gold by a simple bend of one’s knee.

Aquinas speaks also of second-class miracles. Those are the “soft” miracles which do not defy the laws of nature but rather glory in them. They do not so much fill us with surprise as with wonder and awe. The birth of a child filling a father with wonder and awe is a soft miracle. The birth of a new day with the rising sun splashing its glory over Lake Michigan filling us with wonder and awe is a soft miracle. The soft miracles of life do not happen just once-in-a-lifetime; they abound daily, as birth and sunrise daily abound.

Sometimes I see this mystical gospel for the first Sunday of Lent as a challenge to resist the temptation for a fast-fix. Sometimes I see it as a challenge to resist the temptation for a hard miracle!

It is strange especially for Catholic spirituality, hagiography and theology (which abound with the miraculous) to speak of miracle as a temptation. But whenever we have an overwhelming need for a truly miraculous miracle and make a stout demand for one, then miracle becomes a temptation for us. It sets us up for anger at and even rejection of a God who does not intervene miraculously in the critical and desperate moments of our life. Those are moments when we are faced with a loved one beset with cancer or autism, or when we or someone very dear desperately needs liberation from an over-powering addiction, or when we are about to lose our home because we can’t pay the mortgage, or when we have a son or daughter, husband or wife who stand in harm’s way in the battlefields of Iraq. The miracle we overwhelmingly need and stoutly demand is a temptation; it leads to anger at and rejection of a God who didn’t work the miracle we desperately needed and ardently prayed for.

The task of Lent is to resist the temptation of the hard miracle. The task of Lent is to resist the temptation to be angry at or reject a God who does not intervene miraculously in our lives when the chips are really down. The task of Lent is to pray as Jesus prayed in the garden when he beseeched God to deliver him from his suffering, and no miracle was granted him: “Father, not my will but thine be done!” The task of Lent is to forgive God our Father for not having miraculously intervened in our lives, just as Jesus forgave God for having forsaken him on the cross (Mt 27:42).

Conclusion

Many miracles for those who love

The task of Lent and the Christian life is to leave the hard miracles to God and to attune ourselves to the soft ones. The soft miracles don’t defy the laws of nature but rather glory in them. They’re not granted just once in a lifetime but abound all through the years of our journey. They are not granted us out of the hardness of our hearts demanding a miracle, but out of our hearts’ softness. Under the picture of a magnificent velvety rose, an inscription reads, For those who love there are many miracles.

1] Diaspora is a Greek word meaning dispersion. Originally it referred to the settling of scattered colonies of Jews outside Palestine after the Babylonian exile. It’s now come to mean the migration or scattering of a people away from an established or ancestral homeland or parish!

[2]] By the “the unchurched” is especially meant not those who have left the church but those whom the church has left!

The New Lent (Ash Wednesday 2008)

Ash Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Joel 2: 12-17 Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-18

To the church in the diaspora[1]
and to the church of the unchurched[2]

First reading from the prophet Joel

Even now, says the Lord, repent sincerely, and return to me with fasting and weeping and mourning. Rend your hearts, not your garments. Return to the Lord, your God. For gracious and merciful is He, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment….
Blow the trumpet on Mount Zion! Proclaim a fast and call an assembly! Gather the people and prepare them for a sacred meeting! Assemble the elders, children and infants! Even the newly weds must leave their homes and come. The priests, serving the Lord between the altar and the entrance of the Temple must weep and pray, “Have pity on your people, Lord. Do not let other nations despise us and mock us saying, `Where is your God?`”

Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew.
Glory to you, Lord.

Jesus said to his disciples: Take care not to perform righteous deedsin order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father. When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your almsgiving may be secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.

The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.----------------

Introduction
Changing the liturgical clock

With Ash Wednesday (February 6, 2008) we exit Ordinary Time and enter into the Extraordinary Time of Lent in preparation for Easter (March 23, 2008).
How we got Lent and Ash Wednesday
The gospels recount how Jesus was led into the desert by the Holy Spirit, where he fasted and prayed for forty days and nights. That forty day ordeal which ends with the Devil tempting Jesus three times is always recounted on the first Sunday of Lent in all three liturgical Cycles of A, B and C (Mt. 4:1-11; Mk. 1:12-13; Lk. 4:1-13). In honor of that forty-day fast and prayer of Jesus, the church in the Council of Laodicaea (360 A.D.) prescribed a forty day penitential season in preparation for the feast of Easter. That’s how we got the season of Lent.

Counting back forty penitential days from Easter (Sundays not included) [3] gives us a Wednesday as the opening day of Lent. In the course of time the church created a little ceremony to initiate the Lenten season. She took the old palms from the past Palm Sunday, burned them down to ashes and smudged the foreheads of the faithful with the ashes, admonishing them to remember that they are dust and unto dust they shalt return. That’s how we got Ash Wednesday.

Other Lenten trivia

It’s an interesting bit of Lenten trivia to note that the only word Latin has for Lent is "Quadragesima," and that simply means forty. The only word Italian has for Lent is "Quaresima," and that simply means forty. The only word Spanish has for Lent is “Cuaresma,” and that simply means forty. In those languages Lent is simply “the season of the forty” -- the forty days Jesus spent praying and fasting in the desert.

Here is more Lenten trivia: The Tuesday before Ash Wednesday is called Mardi Gras. In French Mardi means Tuesday and gras means gross or fat. In the old days, on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday people stuffed themselves with food and especially with meat before the onerous forty-day period of fasting and abstaining. That’s how we got Mardi gras (Fat Tuesday). And when the sun began to set on Fat Tuesday the faithful cried out, “Carne vale!” In Latin carne means meat, and vale means goodbye: “Goodbye to meat!” And that’s how we got “carnival.”

The fascination with Ash Wednesday

Something remarkable always happens on Ash Wednesday. It isn’t a Sunday or a holy day of obligation. It’s a weekday and a work day. But still the faithful come flocking! The churches are packed! For some incomprehensible reason, Ash Wednesday curiously fascinates us.

It is quite understandable that the faithful should come flocking on Palm Sunday to receive a blessed palm, or on Candlemas Day to receive a blessed candle, or on Easter Morning to receive blessed water. (It’s the old yen in us humans that likes receiving something for nothing.) But to come flocking on Ash Wednesday in order to receive ashes! To receive nothing! To have our clean faces smudged and to be ominously reminded that we are dust and unto dust we shall return -- that, indeed, is a bit incomprehensible.

For a moment at least, the stark ritual of Ash Wednesday puts us squarely in touch with a profound but nagging reality of our being: our mortality. No matter how much we try to deny it or distract ourselves from it or refuse to think or talk about it, that nagging reality is always there down deep within us. For a moment, the ashes of Lent bring it to the fore—to the forehead, and they remind us of what we like to forget: that we, indeed, are dust, and unto dust we shall return.

With foreheads smudged, Ash Wednesday sends us forth on a forty-day journey towards Easter. But that long journey is sometimes undertaken with a knapsack full of dubious Lenten ideas about God, about sin and about penance.

The God of Lenten observance

On Ash Wednesday we ask who is the God of our Lenten observance? Is He a God who has gone into a deep pout or revengeful anger because of our sins? Is He a God who needs to be appeased and bought off with a glum and onerous observance of forty days? In the old days that frame of mind would always beset me every Ash Wednesday, and I would grit my teeth and set myself to the task of Lent: to buy God off (angered by my sins) with forty onerous days of gloom.

A god who pouts and needs to be appeased like us human beings might well characterize the gods of ancient Greece and Rome but not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Ex 3:6). It does not characterize the God of the prophet Joel who reminds us every Ash Wednesday that God is “gracious and merciful, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment” (Joel 2:13).

The object of Lenten observance: sin

In place of the old traditional formula for the distribution of ashes (“Remember man that thou are dust….”) the minister of ashes may say instead, “Repent! Turn away from sin and be faithful to the gospel!”

On Ash Wednesday we ask what is sin (at which our Lenten observance is aimed)? We have all been exposed to the infantile anthropomorphism which characterized sin as “a slap on God’s face.” But God has no face to slap! Less offensive but perhaps not very luminous is the catechism’s age-old answer that sin is “an offence against God.” I have always wondered how in the world can puny man offend an almighty and magnanimous God.

A robust cattle-farmer, who would come into town periodically for a session of spiritual direction, settled my wonderment one day. Strange to say, this robust cattle-farmer was a mystic! He would read St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross (Spanish mystics of the sixteenth century) and Thomas Merton (a famous monk of the twentieth century). Like Merton, he had great affection for Buddhism. He was really a married monk who spent hours on his farm in prayer and meditation.

In one of our sessions, this man, steeped in mystic spirituality (which was a bit beyond me), to my surprise said out of the blue, “I don’t believe in sin!” He glanced to see my reaction. Then he hastened to add, “Oh, I do believe in evil, but I do not believe in sin as an offence against God.” I registered no dismay at his words. I thought he was saying he did not believe that sin could offend an almighty God who is untouchable. (I didn’t believe that either!) I thought he was saying he believed that if sin offends or hurts anyone, it offends or hurts either ourselves or our neighbors, and if it doesn’t hurt ourselves or our neighbors, then whatever it is, it’s simply not sin. (I quietly believe that too!)

The penance of Lenten observance

On Ash Wednesday we ask what is the penance we set before ourselves on our forty-day journey to Easter Sunday? In the old days we used to ask ourselves, “What are we going to give up for Lent?” With good will but not with great perspicacity we would impose on ourselves little penances that gave us candy or movies or other things which we could conveniently give up for forty days and to which we could quickly return on Easter morning.

Since Vatican II there are new Prefaces for the formerly glum season of Lent. One of them spells out the penance of Lent not in terms of what we are to give up but what we are to take on for Lent. It reads,

Father, all-powerful and ever-living God, we do well always and everywhere to give You thanks through Jesus Christ our Lord. Each year You give us this joyful [not glum] season when we prepare to celebrate the Paschal Mystery with mind and heart renewed.

You give us a spirit of loving reverence for You, our Father,
and of willing service to our neighbor [i.e., what we are to take on for Lent]. As we recall the great events that gave us new life in Christ, You bring the image of your Son to perfection within us.

Now with angels and archangels, and the whole company of heaven, we sing the unending hymn of Your praise. Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

A knock at the door and a summons

On the Saturday between Christmas and New Year’s, Sister Louise Lears, CS, a pastoral minister at St. Cronan’s parish in St. Louis, was served at home with a summons and admonition signed by Archbishop Burke (Arch Shepherd of the Church of St. Louis), to appear at the Catholic Center of the Archdiocese on January 15 at 10 AM, to “take cognizance of the accusation and proofs concerning your apparent commission of the delicts of 1) the rejection of a truth de Fide tenenda (canon 750), and 2) grave scandal (canon 1399).”

Sister Louise knows what prompted the summons: her support of the ordination of women. The two women who were ordained to the Roman Catholic Priesthood in October, 2007, were from St. Cronan’s parish. Rabbi Susan Talve, who offered her synagogue for the ordination of the women, was invited to be the guest preacher at an Advent Vesper at St. Cronan’s. Archbishop Burke requested that the invitation to Rabbi Talve be cancelled. Instead, the Vesper service took place on the public sidewalk outside the church. Sr. Louise presided at the service. This, no doubt, is what incited Burke’s summons, although the summons itself is silent about its motivation. The President of Sr. Louise’s community, Sr. Barbara Hagedorn, has spoken with the Parish Council at St. Cronan’s, and they are standing firm behind Sr. Louise.

The subject of Lenten observance

The alternate formula for the distribution of ashes is, “Repent! Turn away from sin and believe the Gospel!” On Ash Wednesday, we ask who are called to repent and believe the Gospel? Answer: All God’s people are called. In the first reading, the prophet Joel summons everyone: the elders, the children, the infants at breast, the newly weds. He summons also the priests serving the Lord between the altar and the temple. All in the pews and all in the pulpits are called on Ash Wednesday to repent and believe the Gospel.

Archbishop Burke, Sr. Louise, the Parish Council of St. Cronan’s are all called on Ash Wednesday to repent. (The word in Greek is metanoiein, i.e., to change one’s mind and heart.) They are all called to change their minds and hearts. On Ash Wednesday, we ask who are called to believe the gospel? (The word means “good news.”) All are called to believe good news. At the end of the day, all are challenged to face the issue whether the prohibition of the ordination of women is God’s news or just man’s news? All are challenged to face the issue whether the ordination of women is bad news or good news -- Gospel.

Conclusion
The New Lent

Since Vatican II, there is a new Lent in preparation for Easter. The new Lent is not a glum journey of forty days. It is a “joyful season when we prepare to celebrate the Paschal Mystery with our minds and hearts renewed. “ The new Lent does not rehabilitate God, the pouter, who needs to be appeased and bought off. It rehabilitates us “by bringing the image of Your Son to perfection within us.” The new Lent does not give up things. Rather it takes on ”the willing service of others.” The new Lent, God willing, calls not only the sheep to repentance but the shepherds as well.
[1] Diaspora is a Greek word meaning dispersion. Originally it referred to the settling of scattered colonies of Jews outside Palestine after the Babylonian exile. It’s now come to mean the migration or scattering of a people away from an established or ancestral homeland or parish.

[2] By the “the unchurched” is especially meant not those who have left the church but those whom the church has left!


[3] Sundays are not included in the count because they are never penitential days.