Homily-Reflection on the 4th Sunday of Lent

In the Gospel of John, people and
names appear in it that don’t appear in any of the other Gospels. Nicodemus is
one of them. He is one of the 71 rulers of the Jewish people at the time of
Jesus. Today, marks the first of 3 times he shows up in this Gospel. Another particular thing about John’s Gospel
is that ‘time’ seems always to be a big deal.
Throughout the Gospel, St. John makes a definite point to tell us the
time of day something happened.

The scene of today’s Gospel is that
Nicodemus comes at night. It illustrates
that Nicodemus is cautious and afraid to be seen with Jesus in light of day; fearful
of what others might think of him if he acknowledges himself to be a believer
and follower of Christ. Like pressures
many of us experience today….you can believe in Jesus…just don’t’ be showy
about it! This attitude of Nicodemus will
change over time. It will be Nicodemus
who will be the only one to speak up against the rest of leaders challenging
them for not giving Jesus a fair trial at the time of His arrest. He is also
the one who will provide the nearly 100 pounds of burial ointment for Jesus
after He is taken down from the Cross…which, like the over-abundance amount of
wine made at the wedding feast of Cana when Jesus performed His first miracle,
this amount of burial ointment is totally over the top. Not only was it a lot,
but the cost was outrageous….costing much more than gold! [So, if gold is nearly $800+ per ounce today…imagine
what 100 pounds of this ointment would cost!] The point is in all this,
Nicodemus in his relationship with Jesus gradually moves from darkness to
light….from being scared about being associated with Jesus to becoming visible
beyond embarrassment and extravagant beyond imagination in honoring Him.

What does all this mean for us? Where do we stand in our relationship with
Christ? In what ways has this season of
Lent been a journey of moving from darkness or secrecy in our relationship with
Christ to a more visible expression to others…particularly, in how we stand up
to speak against injustice and wrongs?
Are we becoming more generous with what we have to help others
especially with those dealing with loss and pain in their lives?

Today’s Gospel passage follows
immediately upon last week’s cleansing of the Temple. The segment we just heard begins at verse
14. What goes before this is that
Nicodemus acknowledges Jesus as a teacher who has come from God. He wants to learn from Jesus. He wants to see
and experience this kingdom Jesus envisions Jesus tells him that in order to do
this, he has to be born again…not go back to the womb and start over, but born
in a new way with His Holy Spirit. This
Spirit is what leads us out of darkness. Nicodemus allowed this Spirit to take
hold of him and the remainder of the Gospel reveals what happened.

Now, at this time/this Lent, we are called to
allow this same Spirit to take hold of us. We are called to let go of the darkness in our
lives. A real way for it to happen is through the Sacrament of
Reconciliation. For many of us, we fear
this sacrament. Like Nicodemus, when he first came to Jesus, we are fearful of
being ‘too showy’ in coming to Jesus in this way. Yes, we pray in silence for
forgiveness, but we don’t want to be seen by others that we need this
sacrament. But, in reality it is by
being seen and professing what we believe that will prove to ourselves that Christ
has not come to condemn us, but bring us salvation. Nicodemus had the courage to do this. May we do the same.

Homily-Reflection on the 3rd Sunday of Lent

Two weeks ago, we were in the desert…last week we traveled to a mountain top…and today, we find ourselves in the Temple. Each of these places presents a special encounter with Jesus. The desert was a time for discerning how Jesus was to follow His Father’s Will. Last week was an encounter of how we will ‘see Jesus and share in His glory’ when we listen to Him and follow His way in doing His Father Will. Today, we encounter Jesus when we fail to follow God’s Will by sacrilegiously misusing His sacred space by what we are doing to others. Jesus is not happy and He doesn’t keep His feelings to Himself.

In all the other Gospels, this passage takes place right at the end of Jesus’ ministry…right before He enters into His Passion. In John’s Gospel [today’s] it is at the beginning…right after the wedding feast of Cana [His first miracle]. Remember that event? Jesus had not ‘gone public’ yet. He was living the simple life in Nazareth and was invited to the neighboring town of Cana for a wedding. For whatever reason the wedding coordinator had not planned well and the wine was running out. Jesus’ Mother, Mary, was also at the wedding and informed Jesus of this dilemma. Jesus gave an odd response, “My hour has not come,” but Mary would hear none of that…and Jesus steps up to the plate….and we know the rest of the story. Jesus is now OUTED!!!
As Jesus is now in the public eye, today’s Gospel is the VERY NEXT INCIDENT of what He does. Talk about going from a non-known carpenter to HEADLINE NEWS…Here’s Jesus! In these two scenarios in the 2nd Chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus’ unveils two important aspects of what His Mission in life will be. Bring joy to people’s lives and turn the tables on all those who abuse, misuse and extort others…especially those who use the name of God or His Temple to try and do so.

Jesus is riled up in this passage we just heard. He goes ballistic because the way the Temple
worship no longer reflects God’s original idea of a worshipping community. The religious leaders had put rituals over morality. The common practice was when you came to the Temple, you gave a sacrifice. But, not any sacrifice was acceptable. It had to be what they saw as proper. The
religious administrators of the Temple worship took pains to see that worshippers were duly supplied with high quality cattle, sheep and doves for sacrifice And, only what they provided, was good enough…and the price you paid was their inflated price. Another thing, you could not just pay with any money. They made sure that the “dirty” money people brought with them could be exchanged for the “holy” Temple money …so, before you could pay for your sacrificial offering, you had to change money into the Temple currency. Only ‘they’ held this money…and their exchange rates were in the pits. All this in the NAME OF GOD! Jesus, seeing this, could not walk by and do nothing.

He is angry. He is angry at injustice. He is angry at evil. And, He does something about it.

Today, as we continue to journey through Lent, we need to keep ourselves connected to each
of these last 3 weeks’ Gospel…fighting temptation by doing God’s Will as Jesus….being transfigured into His life by listening to Him…and this listening leads us into ACTION…to stand up against injustice and evil, especially evil by using God’s name and sacred space to take advantage of people. As Christians and followers of Christ, we have duties and responsibilities to do what we can to eradicate injustice and wrong.

So, what riles us? Not just people cutting us off in the parking lot; but, deep down, what makes us angry? Or what doesn't -- and should? Does poverty make us angry? Does homelessness? Abortion? Exploitation of the poor? Discrimination? Infidelity? Racism? What will anger us in the name of the Lord? What will force us into action?

esus came to do His Father’s Will….re-create us into the image and person we were created
to be. When we allow this to happen, we will share in God’s glory….when we fail to let this happen or prevent it in happening to others, we see today that God does not close His eyes or turns the other way. He upturns the tables and says NO to injustice and abuse. In the name of Christ, we are called to do no less!