PALM SUNDAY: Mt 21:1-11; Holy Mass: Is 50:4-7, Phil 2:6-11; Passion reading: Mt 26: 14-27 or Mt 27: 11-54.

On Lent's sixth Sunday, we commemorate Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday. We celebrate both these together because the Passion of the Lord is victorious, and the palm branch is a symbol of victory. The first gospel that we read at the blessing of the palm branches tells us that the Passion of the Lord is victorious. The first gospel tells us that Jesus entered Jerusalem. Jesus entered Jerusalem to suffer, die, and rise from the dead in order to give the Holy Spirit for the salvation of the whole world. The Passion of the Lord is victorious not only for the Lord, but for all of us sinners as well! That is why the gospel tells us that the crowds welcomed Jesus with palm branches. Palm branches are a symbol of victory!

The second gospel today that we have just read also tells us that the Passion of the Lord is victorious. This gospel tells us that Barabbas, the notorious prisoner, was set free because Jesus, the innocent one, was condemned to death in his place. The gospel also tells us that after the death of Jesus, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; that is, the holy of holies which was accessible only to the high priest and only once a year is now accessible to all every day. The gospel also tells us that the dead rose to life and that the pagan centurion and his fellow guards were converted. Indeed, the Passion of the Lord is victorious and salvific.

The first reading follows the theme of the gospel. The first reading also tells us that the Passion of the Lord is victorious. The first reading is the third of four suffering-servant songs of Isaiah. It tells us of the vicarious suffering of the suffering-servant of the Lord, that is, the suffering-servant suffers on behalf of sinners for the salvation of sinners. Thus, we read in the first reading:

    “I offered my back to those who struck me, my cheeks to those who tore at my beard; I did not cover my face against insult and spittle. The Lord comes to my help so that I am untouched by the insults. So, too, I set my face like flint; I know I shall not be shamed.” (Is 50:6-7). 
Jesus took upon himself all that insult I deserved as punishment for my sins.

We put our palm branches with the crucifix because the Passion of the Lord is victorious. It is resurrection, life, glory, and salvation.   

Today, celebrating “Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion”, we begin Holy Week! Holy Week will climax in the Easter Triduum of three days: Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday. But Good Friday begins with Holy Thursday Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper, and Easter Sunday begins with the Easter Vigil. The Easter Triduum, which celebrates the death (Good Friday), burial (Holy Saturday), and resurrection (Easter Sunday) of the Lord, is one celebration.

    That is why there will be no dismissal after the Holy Thursday Mass and no dismissal after the Good Friday Service. The dismissal will only be given after the Easter Vigil Mass. That is why it is important that we participate in the whole Easter Triduum of three days in order to die and rise with Jesus Christ to the new life of Easter. Attentive participation in the Holy Week liturgy will deepen our relationship with God, increase our Faith, and strengthen our lives as disciples of Jesus. Each Mass Wish you all a blessed and fruitful Holy Week.

 LENT-A-V: Ez 37:12-14;   Rom 8:8-11;   Jn 11:1-45

Today’s Gospel reading presents us with two messages. First, it tells us that our living faith in Jesus will raise all our physical bodies in the final resurrection. Secondly, especially now, with the approaching of Easter Sunday, we are called symbolically to resurrect ourselves from sin to grace by partaking in the Sacrament of reconciliation.

Just like what we heard in last week’s gospel, we see a spectrum of different responses –to the theme of “death.” The disciples tried to dissuade our Lord from going personally to Bethany, which is close to Jerusalem because they feared death for Jesus and for themselves. We have Martha and Mary, who had earlier appealed to our Lord to come and heal their brother because they believed that He could postpone death with a miracle. Now that Lazarus is dead, they saw no need for His presence. His presence now was too little too late! Then we have Mary incapacitated by her tremendous grief because she believed death was the end of the road for her brother. She couldn’t even come out to meet Jesus. And finally, we have Martha, who believed in the resurrection of the dead, but only saw it as a future and ethereal reality that would take place at the end of time. Only our Lord, who feared neither death nor saw it as the end of life, could receive the news of His friend’s death and be gladdened because, as He told His own disciples: “this sickness will end not in death but in God’s glory, and through it, the Son of God will be glorified.”

How can Lazarus’ death bring glory to God and to Jesus? The resuscitation of Lazarus was a prophecy in the form of action. It foreshadows Christ’s own resurrection and, at the same time, anticipates the resurrection of all the righteous. Lazarus’ death and subsequent resuscitation will show that God and Christ have power over death, man’s most ancient enemy – an enemy which we thought to be inevitable and undefeatable … at least until now.

Lazarus’ death brings God glory than if Jesus had only healed the sickness of Lazarus. If Jesus had been there before the death of Lazarus, then he would only heal him from his sickness. But raising someone dead for four days brings more glory to God than healing a sick. Jesus stayed two more days in the place when he heard of Lazarus’ sickness. Therefore, when God delays in answering our prayers, it may be that God would get more glory by that delay, as in the case of Lazarus.

Jesus loved Lazarus much. And so, when he stood at Lazarus’ tomb, he wept bitterly. The people saw and said, “Look how he loved him!” [Remember in this context what message Martha sent to Jesus, ‘the one you love is sick’]. If Jesus loves me/you, he would cry even today for my/your death, our spiritual death more than our physical death.

 Jesus said, “Roll that stone away.” In the warm climate of the eastern Mediterranean, the dead body would rot and stink. As He instructed them to remove the stone that sealed the tomb of Lazarus, the family members of Lazarus and on-lookers would have been appalled by such a morbid request and thought of desecrating the body of a dead man. Therefore, Lazarus’ sister said, “Don’t roll that stone away. Leave things as they are. The smell would be unbearable.” Sometimes we are like her and say, “Leave things as they are? Let’s not touch this or that issue. It might explode in our faces.” Indeed, we even say, “Let’s not open a can of worms. But Jesus was opening a tomb of worms. He said, “Roll that stone away.” And then he called, “Lazarus,” and he commanded, “Come out!” And that dead man came out and started to live. Lazarus is bound when he comes out. So, Jesus says, “Unbind him and let him go free.”

Take note of this: If Jesus could bring Lazarus out alive from the tomb, why couldn’t he unbind him himself by just saying, let him be unbound. Whatever we can do, God wants us to do. We cannot bring a dead man back to life, but we can unbind somebody and let him or her free. When Jesus changed water into wine, he could have said, let these stone jars be filled with water, instead of asking the servants to fill those jars with water. So, whatever we can do, God does not want to do and let us just sit idle.

Jesus wants to do for us, for all humanity, what he did for that dead man. He wants us to live, and he gives us the gift of life. He said he came that we may have life, life in fullness, not just a kind of so-so life. He also gives us hope as we hear in his dialogue with Martha when he asserts with those unforgettable words: “I AM the Resurrection and the Life.”  This is the core statement of the whole story and is one of the seven great ‘I AM’ statements in John’s gospel. 

Let’s examine this lent; how much of a life do I think I am having? Do I live and enjoy life with the hope that I live and will rise with Christ, not just now but in the life after here? Am I thoughtless like the rich man who had a lot of harvests and said to himself, let me tear my barn down and build a larger one and enjoy life, unconcerned about others and unconcerned about tomorrow? Or in the story of a rich man and Lazarus at his door who later regretted his plight when he saw Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham.  May the risen Lord who had once asked Lazarus to come out of the tomb help us to come out of our tombs of sin and inactivity in this Lenten season.

  Lent IV [A]: I Sm 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a; Eph 5:8-14; Jn 9:1-41

The Gospel of today presents Jesus as the light of the world. We have today the marvelous story about the cure of a man born blind.  John’s aim in presenting us with this marvelous story about the cure of a man born blind is to show Jesus as our light. 

A few verses before today’s Gospel, in John 8:12 Jesus called out: "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness but will have the Light of life." Jesus is not just setting the scene for the drama of the Man Born Blind. He is speaking directly to us, to you, and to me. He is telling us to put our trust in Him, to rest in him, and to know that no matter what happens in this world, good or bad, positive or negative, we will always enjoy the Light of Life.

John narrates that as Jesus and His disciples were walking along, they encountered the blind man.  The disciples ask Jesus the reason for his blindness: whether it is his own sins or the sins of his parents.  During the time of Jesus, the popular belief was that there was a close link between sins and a chronic sickness or disability and that the sins of the parents could have effects on their children. We remember when the paralyzed man was let down through the roof at the feet of Jesus, seeking to be healed; surprisingly, Jesus’ first words to him were, “Your sins are forgiven.”  Here, in this case, Jesus clarifies the meaning of suffering in the life of a person.   The blindness of the person has nothing to do with his sins or those of his parents.  He is blind so that God’s power might be seen at work in him.

 

In John’s gospel, seeing is synonymous with believing. Our Lord uses physical sight as a metaphor for something of even greater importance, spiritual sight, to see with the eyes of faith.

First, we have the disciples of the Lord. They have been the privileged recipients of the mysteries of the Kingdom and witnessed first-hand the Lord’s miracles. They, like so many others, truly believe that they can “see.” It is with this presumed sight that they pose what appears to be a clever theological question with regard to the disability of the man born blind, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, for him to have been born blind?” Well, it is absurd to think that his own sins caused him to be born blind. It is assumed that people reap what they sow, that ‘bad luck’ is a result of ‘bad karma’. Our Lord corrects them: “Your assumptions are flawed.” “He was born blind so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” The same concept is explained in the book of Job. Job’s friends thought he was being afflicted because he sinned. But he strongly refuted saying he had done nothing wrong to be punished. At the end, when the test of his faith was complete, he was restored to whatever he lost during the trial of his faith.

The next group is the blind man’s neighbors and people who knew him as a blind beggar. The sight of the blind man being able to see should have inspired awe at seeing the wonders of God, but instead, what arose was incredulity.

Then we have the man’s own parents, who are summoned as witnesses. They recognize their son, and they also recognize the amazing transformation, if not a miracle, that has taken place – their son, born blind, can now see. And yet, they refuse to acknowledge this out of fear of being implicated in this escalating controversy.
Finally, we have the Jews and the Pharisees, who were scandalized by the fact that the Lord had performed a miracle on a Sabbath in violation of their ritual prohibitions. They have heard the testimonies of the blind man, his neighbors and family members but still refuse to “see”. They’d rather believe their biased opinion of Jesus than what their “lying eyes” are revealing to them. The story culminates in this parting shot of the Lord aimed at the Pharisees: "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you are saying, 'We see,' so your sin remains.

Yes, all these characters claim to be able to see, but can they really? For our Lord, the real question is whether the lack of seeing is voluntary or involuntary. While the blind man couldn’t help being blind, the others, who could have seen, deliberately chose to be blind. Therefore, their guilt remains. At the heart of this fascinating narrative is a simple but powerful contrast: the man who is blind from birth who sees nothing, but upon encountering Jesus, the Light of the World, sees clearly. On the other hand, the other characters all claim to be able to see clearly, but at the end of the story expose themselves to be truly blind. They deliberately chose not to see. So, the only character that finally sees is ironically, the man born blind.

In today’s world, we see a large number of people refusing to accept and believe what is blatant and true. Those who stand by the truth are branded as conservatives or crazy religious. We need to pray for the world to be healed of blindness and see the glory of God’s goodness in the world and the people around them. Let us also pray for ourselves that our eyes are readily open to witness His presence and glory in our life. 

 

 LENT III [A]: Ex 17:3-7; Rom 5:1-2, 5-8; Jn 4:5-42 

Jesus appears on the scene today, apparently thirsty, asking for a drink. Who could have guessed that a topic on water and thirst could lead to such profound theological depth in this exchange between the Samaritan woman and Jesus? Jesus thirsts one other time too, and that was one of the last words he utters from the cross. What God really thirsts is for us, for our liberation and our salvation.

In this story, though Jesus thirsts, ironically it is the Samaritan woman who was thirsty, a thirst that cannot be sated by her unending search for love, acceptance, spirituality, and faith. The mention of the depth of the well is a good starting point to speak of the gravity of the spiritual thirst of the Samaritan woman and that of every soul. Jesus knows better than she does what kind of thirst is in her heart.  She has looked for love in many places but has failed in her search. 

To know the background of their conversation we should know the history of Samaritans.

Samaria was in central Israel. The Samaritans were once believers, and they shared the same religious beliefs as the Jewish people. But during the Babylonian exile, many Jews were exiled to Babylon and those left behind in Israel were later known as the Samaritans who mostly intermarried with people of other faiths.

When Babylon was captured by Persia, the emperor Cyrus let the Jews go back and rebuild their city and temple. It was done under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah, but unfortunately, they were not going to let the Samaritans have any part of it. And, even though the Samaritans came down to ask if they could help to rebuild the temple, they said, “No, because you are no longer true, blue people of the covenant but you have turned to other gods and goddesses.” As a result, the Samaritans and the real Jews became enemies. They would not even go to each other's territory and be hospitably treated. One time Jesus and the disciples were passing through Samaria and they were not welcomed, and John and James asked Jesus to call down fire from high on them for treating them bad.

 

At this time Jesus did not go into the villages but sat outside the village of Sycar, near the well of Jacob while the disciples went to buy some food.

Now, here comes a lady to draw water at this high noon. Usually, women draw water in the morning hours before the sun goes up. They used to gather together at the well and fill their buckets and at the same time chat and exchange information. But why was this lady at the well now and that too alone? The reason is revealed in the conversation Jesus had with this woman. She was morally poor or a public sinner as she admitted that she had six or seven husbands. Please do not think that she was the cause of the failure of her marriage. In Judaism, as it is even now in Islam, women have no right to divorce. So, it could be likely that she was abandoned by these men for some reason.

when Jesus asked for a drink, she really gets angry and says, “How could you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan, to give you a drink? Don’t you understand we’re not even supposed to talk to each other?”

 And then Jesus says, “If you knew who was the one that asked for a drink of water, you would have asked him for water and he would give you living water, and that water would bubble up in your heart. Then she stops for a minute and says, “Give me that water, so I don’t have to come up here for water again.” Either she half believes what Jesus says or she was mocking Jesus.

 From Jesus’ conversations, she feels she’s being treated very special, with great care and with fondness and love in his voice. And so, she kind of enjoys talking to him. To get make her know the depth of her thirst, Jesus says to her, “Now you go and get your husband.” And that’s when she says, “I don’t have a husband.”

To which Jesus smiles and says, “You’ve had six husbands and the one you have now, indeed, is not your husband, yes, you speak the truth.

She knows now for almost certain that Jesus is a prophet because he told her story. Then she does not stay any longer but runs back to her village to tell them that the Messiah is here near the well. They come and request Jesus to stay with them overnight.  Astoundingly, he stays with the Samaritans for two days.  He eats with them, stays in their shelter, and talks with them. Finally, they tell the woman not because of her but now for themselves.

After Jesus’ resurrection, he commanded his disciples to go to Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth to preach the gospel. One of the early seven deacons, Philip, evangelized Samaria. He had only to reap what Jesus had already sown in his conversation with this Samaritan woman and his two days’ residence there.

By recording this lovely story in his gospel John is basically telling what the Messiah has come to do. He came to give us the living water that can really quench the thirst of human hearts.

God created man with the capacity to worship Him and the need to be in fellowship with Him. Science fiction writer, H. G. Wells, writes that every person has a “God-shaped vacuum in his heart - a void that only God can fill.” St Augustine puts it this way, “My soul is restless ‘till it rests in Thee.”

Lent is the time to examine whether we are at the Well of the living water or at the well that gives us polluted dirty water that makes us sick for the life. Am I taking some time to have a heart-to-heart conversation with Jesus like this woman at the well.