Third Sunday of Lent

Posted on by Cassie

Through the “cleansing” of the temple, Jesus was really symbolically replacing it.  Without animals for sacrifice, sacrificial worship could not be offered at the temple.  Jesus later in the Gospel of John tells the Samaritan woman at the well because of Him, worship will be offered to God not at special sites like the Jewish and Samaritan temples, but in Spirit and truth (4:23-25).  The real temple of God—place of God’s special presence– is not a building in Jerusalem, but Jesus Himself.  Thus Jesus can say, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.”  John explains to us that He is talking about the temple of His body.

Jesus’ action at the temple was thus another sign of who He was and of the momentous change He was making in the relationship between God and His people.  His first disciples did not immediately grasp the full significance of the signs He worked, but their  meaning became clearer after Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.  Signs such as the “cleansing” of the temple enabled people to believe in Him (Verse 11,23).

God Bless

Msgr. Powell

 

Second Sunday of Lent

Posted on by Cassie

Jesus just told His disciples that He would lead them to the cross.  He knew it would not be easy for them to follow a crucified Messiah, so He wanted to give them a glimpse of what awaited them on the other side of the cross.  The Transfiguration was an anticipation of the glory of Jesus which He would enter through His death and resurrection.  It was also an anticipation of the glory His disciples would experience if they walked the way of the cross with Him.

The dazzling white, the high mountain, the cloud, the voice from the cloud, were all images from the Old Testament that showed the glorious presence of God with His people.  The two central figures from the Old Testament were also there: Moses, as the great lawgiver, and  Elijah, representing all the prophets of old.  Jesus was the fulfillment of God’s plan, the one to whom both the law and the prophets pointed.

The voice of God speaks:  He identifies Jesus as His son and urges us to “listen to Him.”  We too can have our mountaintop experiences of God, times in which we are overwhelmed with awe and joy in God’s presence.  Yet we cannot depend on there brief experiences to last and sustain us.  We must listen to all the words of Jesus and move with Him in the way He leads us.

Praise the Father for making us His beloved sons and daughters.  Ask Him to strengthen us in our struggle with suffering and death.  Look with hope to our future transfiguration when God will raise us from the dead and take us into glory.

God Bless

Msgr. Powell

 

Palm Sunday – The Passion of the Lord

Posted on by Patrick Leyden

Today’s reading of the Passion ended on the dismal note of death— Jesus died and His tomb was sealed with a stone.  Sometimes that is the way our day ends: on a dismal note, for we still suffer our pain, hurt from our losses, or feel terribly lonely.

However, Passion Sunday is not the last word of the Jesus story.  Rather, it is only the first word of a Holy Week that will reach its climax next Easter Sunday.  The final word will not be the death of Jesus, but His rising from the dead.

So too, no matter how many of our days seem to end in a depressing way, they are not the last word of our story.  Rather, they are only a prelude to triumphs we have yet to experience in this life, and they point to that ultimate victory which will be ours in the next life.  There we will again process with palm branches, not to mark Christ’s triumph entry into the earthly city of Jerusalem, but our own victorious entrance into the heavenly city of Jerusalem.

God Bless

Msgr. Powell