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Lectionary Readings for Passion Sunday, Year C

“Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

After journeying five Sundays and weekdays in Lent, we enter into Holy
Week - starting with Passion Sunday, or as it is traditionally called,
Palm Sunday.  As we approach this holiest of weeks, we recall the many
times our priests and pastors tell us of the loving sacrifice of Christ
- how He gave up His very life to save us from our sins.  And this Holy
Week in the Year C of our liturgical cycle, we are again reminded of
that very important truth: Christ, the Suffering Servant of Yahweh,
underwent tremendous physical and psychological suffering, even death
on a symbol of ignominy at that time, so that we may not be lost in
our sins and our errors, and be reconciled back to God.

The gospel for Passion Sunday is a long one and is taken from the
gospel of Luke.  Many things are said of this gospel by those who
explain the “Seven Last Words” and by priests who especially prepare
a very moving homily for this special occasion.  We can perhaps, in
view of focusing on Christ’s relationship with the Father, reflect
on one of the “Last Words” - “Father, into your hands I commend my
spirit”.  As we reflect on this exclamation by Christ before He
expired, let us remember His prayer at Gethsemane where He spoke in
deep prayer with the Father.  Christ did not want to go through the
agony He was called to do, but out of complete trust and love for
the Father, He said, “Not my will, but yours be done”.  Even in the
gospel of John, the gospel states one verse in relation to this:
“My food is to do the will of the Father”.

Christ is teaching us how to be obedient to the will of God: it
is to be obedient even in the face of pain, suffering or maybe even
death.  By the Passion of Jesus, He teaches us a way of serving God
that ennobles us despite of the pain and suffering it involves. It
may mean suffering in silence because of an ailment; it may mean
sticking to a marital commitment when it is going through a stormy
phase; it may mean bearing financial burdens and losses during
economic hardships; or it may mean anything in life that we are
committed to do and still persevere in it despite pain, suffering,
and affliction. But let us not forget that the passion and death
of Christ does not end here.  There is still His resurrection. 
And just as we share in Christ’s passion and death, we shall also
share soon His resurrection.

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Lectionary Readings for the 5th Sunday of Lent, Year C

“But from now on, avoid this sin.”

In the 3rd Sunday of Lent, the gospel spoke about a fig tree that does not
bear fruit.  The vinedresser pleaded to his master to give the tree one more
year so he can fertilize it so it will bear fruit. In the 4th Sunday of Lent
the gospel spoke of the parable of the prodigal son.  Despite the prodigal
son’s wasting of his father’s fortune, he was received back by his father
when he came home and asked his father’s forgiveness.  Now, in the 5th
Sunday of Lent, we continue with this theme of mercy and forgiveness with
the dramatic story of the woman caught in adultery.  As in the two previous
Sundays, the theme of mercy and forgiveness remains the main point of the
gospel.

Teachers in moral theology tell us that in dealing with moral questions,
cases or issues, we are to condemn the sin and not the sinner. This is one
of the underlying moral principles which Jesus practiced with the woman
caught in adultery.  Under Jewish law, the woman is sentenced to die because
of her sin.  And the punishment for such a sin was to be stoned to death.
Jesus perfected this Law by qualifying it with the practice of mercy and
forgiveness.  Jesus knew the weakness of our human nature.  He knew that
sin is in us despite His being without sin.  As He embodied the Divine Mercy
of the Father, He advocated the case of the woman caught in adultery and
reminded her compassionately: “But from now on, avoid this sin.”

How often we find in life times when we condemn people for the bad things
they do.  We become self-righteous like the Pharisees and the scribes. We
forget that we too are sinful, weak, and are under the Lord’s judgment.
We forget to make the distinction between the sin and the sinner.  We
are always tempted to identify the sin with the sinner.  However, the
example of Jesus dealing with the case of the woman caught in adultery
teaches us to condemn the sin but to have compassion and mercy to the
sinner.  When we follow the example of Jesus’ compassion to sinners, we
are called to place love above the Law - to balance the Law’s rigidity
with mercy, forgiveness and compassion.

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Lectionary Readings for the 4th Sunday of Lent, Year C

“He was lost, and is found.”

For the fourth Sunday of Lent, we have the parable of the Prodigal Son.
This parable is very popular and it gives a poignant lesson that touches the
heart of all.  It speaks much to our human experience, because it tells
of family life and relationships within them.  And family life is the
basic cell of Church and society.  All over the world, whatever be the
race or creed, many of us are born into a human family.

The story of the prodigal son is a story of a young man who gets his
inheritance from his father before due time, and then squanders it in
immoral living.  He then find himself without any support, and goes back
to ask forgiveness from his father.  His father compassionately and
mercifully takes him back.  But the story tells us of an elder brother
who resents this action of his father.  He told his father how much he
has worked hard for him in the stewardship of the family property. His
father then assuaged the feelings of his elder son and told him how
much all that he had already belongs to him.  He then teaches his
elder son that the value of their family was life and family
relationships more than property.

It is easy for us to be tempted to value material things and property
more than life and relationships.  In a sense, both sons in the
parable thought in terms of material things and property - even
though the elder son did his obligation as a son to his father.
It was the father in the parable who thought more in terms of
life and family relationships. This is what that the Lord Jesus may
have wanted to convey to us with this parable.  God is like
that forgiving, merciful and compassionate father.  He provides us with
everything - even giving us what we need to be able to function in
present day modern society.  But He wants us to steward that property
well: not giving in to the temptation to place material things and
property above family life and relationships in His kingdom.
Let us always seek His counsel and ask fervently in prayer
for the strength not to be tempted to value property above family
life and relationships so that we may not be lost and break our
relationship with Him - who is the center of all life and family
relationships.

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Lectionary Readings for the 3rd Sunday of Lent, Year C

“Sir, leave it another year…then perhaps it will bear fruit.”

In this third Sunday of Lent, the gospel is given in two parts: the
first part contains a story based on history, and the second part, a
parable on the fig tree.  The first part speaks about how some Galilean’s
blood were used by Pilate to mix with their sacrifices and about 18
who were killed by a falling tower in Siloam.  This story is adjoined
to the moral lesson about the need to reform.

The second part is about the parable of the fig tree and also can be
related to the need to reform.  Both the first part and the second part
give conditions that death will be the result of those who have not
decided to reform and repent.

Lent is a time to reform our lives and to repent of our evil and wicked
ways.  Even if we have not disobeyed any of the 10 commandments and we
have obeyed the commandment of Jesus to serve our brothers and sisters,
there is always something in us that is sinful or needs to be purified.
Lent gives us this time to repent our lives, purify our souls and seek
the Lord’s forgiveness and mercy.  Lent calls us to more prayer, more
meditation and spiritual reading, more frequenting of the sacraments,
and more acts of charity and kindness.  It is a time to give ourselves
to God and to make reparation for all the failings, misdeeds and errors
we have committed in our life.

In the parable, it speaks about a man who wanted to cut down his fig
tree because he had been visiting it for three years and still did not
find fruit in it.  His vinedresser said, “leave it for one more year”;
“if it does not bear fruit, then it can be cut down”.  Christ is like this
vinedresser.  Before the Father, we are under divine judgment.  But
Christ is our Advocate, our first Paraclete - one who advocates our
case before the Father.  Although in the case of the parable, the
vinedresser speaks of one year more only [perhaps since he is speaking
in material terms], Christ on the other hand speaks in terms of our soul
- one which involves our whole lifetime.  So, even when we are on our
deathbed, Jesus will still be there, our Vinedresser, who will tell the
Father - “give him one more moment to seek mercy” - and then you can judge
him.

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Lectionary Readings for the 2nd Sunday of Lent, Year C

“Master, how good it is for us to be here.”

In this second Sunday of Lent, the gospel tells us the story of the
Transfiguration - where Jesus appeared in glory before His apostles and
disciples.  This Christian mystery is now part of the rosary.  It is the
fourth mystery in the luminous mysteries instituted during the papacy of
the late John Paul II.

According to biblical scholars, the transfiguration is a peak moment in
the life of Jesus’ ministry.  It again reaffirms that He is the Lord and
Redeemer, the Beloved Son of the Father.  Just as in the Lord’s baptism,
there was a voice that came from the cloud and said, “This is my Son,
my Chosen One. Listen to Him”, so also during the event of Christ’s
transfiguration, the apostles heard that voice again from the cloud -
affirming Jesus as the Messiah sent by the Father to redeem us from sin
and to teach as the way, the life and the truth we must follow.

This event of the transfiguration enraptured the apostles so much that
they wanted to remain on that mountain.  The gospel states how much Peter
wanted to remain in that experience - “how good it is for us to be here”. 
But bible scholars teach us that this Transfiguration event can be
interpreted as a “peak experience” to help the apostles and those who
believe in Christ have faith during the time when He will then be taken
and arrested and put to death on the Cross. 

In our life, we also have “peak experiences” - experiences of great joy,
happiness, and something akin to this “mountaintop experience” of the
Transfiguration of Jesus.  It could be the first religious profession,
a wedding ceremony, a priestly ordination, a graduation experience,
the birth of a first child, or any joyous, successful, happy human
experience that we will always remember and go back to for obtaining
meaning, strength, encouragement, and healing.  During that peak moment
of intense happiness and joy, we feel as if we have a glimpse of the
“eternal” and wish that this feeling or experience will never end.  But
we have to let go of that “peak moment” and come down to the nitty gritty
business of life - sometimes having to face great suffering and hardship,
great losses and pain, much distress and and death-dealing events -
just as what Christ suffered on the Cross of Calvary.  However, when
we do experience these sufferings, we can look back to our peak moment
of happiness and joy and regain meaning and strength in our life
commitments - especially our commitment to follow Christ and share in
the glory of His resurrection.