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

http://www.pcentral-online.net/catholic/lectionary/3rd-sunday-lent-a.html

“…The water I give shall become a fountain
within him, leaping up to provide eternal life”

The gospel for the third Sunday of Lent is from
the gospel of John.  It tells us the story of the
conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman.
In the story, they met at the Jacob’s well.  Jesus
was sitting down at the well when the Samaritan
woman came to draw water.  What ensued between
Jesus and the Samaritan woman was an exchange of
the difference between Jews and Samaritans that
resulted in the faith and conversion of the woman.
What led to the faith of the Samaritan woman was
the prophetic knowledge Jesus had of her - telling
her about herself and how she had many husbands.
Acknowledging Jesus thus as a prophet, she ran
back to the village to tell her companions. The
villagers begged Jesus to stay with them and now
they know for themselves that Jesus is the Savior
of the world and not only from the testimony of
the Samaritan woman.

The occasion of being in the well gave Jesus
the opportunity to talk of His being able to
give living water - the water that will satisfy
and that anyone who drinks of it will never
thirst again.  Since the Samaritan woman needed
something important for her life (water from the
well), this caught her attention.  Water is a
basic need for all - especially in a village
like hers which depends on the well for their
drink and for their flocks.  Jesus thus spoke
at her level of basic need and invited the
woman to raise her need to something higher -
at a spiritual level.  What to the Samaritan
woman was physical water, Jesus spoke of a
living water that “shall become a fountain
within, leaping up to provide eternal life.
One of the symbols of the Holy Spirit is water.
And this is what Jesus was alluding to.

In our everyday living, we often are concerned
with the mundane things like the Samaritan
woman.  We work for physical food, clothing,
shelter, and an education for our children or
ourselves so that we can earn more to keep up
with the rising cost of living.  This Sunday of
Lent, we are called to raise our concerns to a
higher level - to that which shall give us
eternal life.  Lent is a time for us to refocus
our attention on the Lord and like the Samaritan
woman be converted and have faith in Him as the
source of eternal life.  One way we can do so
is to examine our lives and see where we have
failed to do this and to repent and return to
the Lord with a contrite heart.  Only by having
a sorrow for our sins will we begin that step
towards reconciliation with the Lord and once
again strengthen our faith in Him as our
Savior who will lead us to eternal life.

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Lectionary Readings for the 1st Sunday of Lent, Year A

http://www.pcentral-online.net/catholic/lectionary/2nd-sunday-lent-a.html

“This is my beloved Son…Listen to Him.”

The gospel for the second Sunday of Lent is from
the gospel of Matthew.  It shows the mystery of
Christ as He was transfigured before the apostles
Peter, James and John.  The account of His
transfiguration tells us of how His face became
as dazzling as the sun, and his clothes as radiant
as light. It also tells us that Moses and Elijah
appeared and conversed with Him.  This impressed
upon Peter who then said to Jesus that they would
build three booths on the spot: for Jesus, for
Moses and for Elijah.  But then a cloud came over
them and a voice spoke which said, “This is my
beloved Son on whom my favor rests. Listen to Him.”
After this, the vision disappeared and the apostles
are left with Jesus who said to them, “Get up! Do
not be afraid.”

As we read the text of this gospel, several themes
come to our attention again: the voice from the
heavens (which also spoke at Jesus’ baptism at the
river Jordan), the tranfiguration event happening
up on a high mountain (which refers back to the
Sermon on the Mount and to the times Jesus sought
prayer and solitude), and the encouraging words of
Jesus, “Do not be afraid”.  The passage is so rich
with meaning that we can derive much profit for our
spiritual life.  Let us dwell primarily on the voice
that spoke and said: “Listen to Him”.  This voice
is apparently the voice of the Father who always
affirms Jesus and His Sonship and the mission that
was entrusted to Him: to preach and teach the peoples
of God and His Kingdom.  And the injunction “Listen
to Him” is very important because as we read the
gospels, we see that only a few listened to Jesus.
Even at a certain point of His ministry, all the
apostles doubted as to His authority and mission
and like the others, would have left Him.  But
since Jesus was obedient to His Father and was
certain of the love of the Father for Him, He
continued on His mission and called many to listen
to His word about the Kingdom of God.

This Lenten season is a time for more listening:
in our prayer, meditation and contemplation. We
often forget to “listen” to God because we are so
busy earning a living and building a family or a
business.  But Lent is a time for more listening
on our part.  And we are called to especially
“listen” to Christ speak about His passion and
death - more specifically the words He uttered at
the time of His arrest, trial, sentencing to
death, His tortures and His crucifixion.  When
the Father in this mystery of the Transfiguration
tells the apostles to “Listen to Him”, He was
reminding them that they should be “grounded in
their sight”.  Listening to Jesus means knowing
that He is to suffer and die and rise again after
the third day.  The glory of the Transfiguration
made them forget to see that Jesus will still
have to undergo shame, disgrace, suffering and
death.

As we give more time to “listening” to God in
prayer, we will eventually recover that attitude
of placing God at the center of our lives. That
is why the Church also calls her faithful to
abstain from meat and to fast because these
spiritual exercises helps us to “listen” better
to the Word of God.  We fast from the comforts
that we are accustomed to and discover that
spiritual dimension that we have always longed
for: a space for peace and reconciliation, for
silence and meditation, for reflection and
prayer.  And there is a wisdom to be obtained
from the Lenten spiritual exercises; it connects
us to the rich tradition of the Church that
tells us in many, many different ways how Jesus
is indeed our Savior and Redeemer and the One
who loves the Church so much that He was willing
to give His life so that we may have hope of
salvation.

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Lectionary Readings for the 1st Sunday of Lent, Year A

“Jesus was led into the desert by the Spirit to
be tempted by the devil.”

In the gospel for the first Sunday of Lent for
cycle A of our liturgical calendar, we find the
story of Jesus being tempted by the devil. After
Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit at His
baptism by John, he went into the desert to pray
and to fast for forty days. It was while praying
and fasting that He encountered the devil.  The
devil tempted Him three times: so that He would
misuse His authoritative word; so that He would
be presumptuous and tempt God; and so that He
would obtain glory, power and prestige and end
up serving Himself rather than pay homage to the
Father.  But Jesus was strong in His stand, and
His faith in the mission entrusted to Him by the
Father, to be His Son and the Servant-Messiah of
God’s people.  He said “no” to all the three
temptations of the devil and was able to vanquish
the devil and obtain the victory.

The three temptations of Jesus and His strength
to say “no” to these temptations is a very good
example for all in the Church to follow.  Jesus
was tempted like us, since He was human.  However,
since He was without sin, the strength of God’s
grace and His Holy Spirit filled Him with a faith
and certitude that solidified His allegiance of
obedience to the Father and the mission entrusted
to Him.  Those temptations of the devil did not
end in that episode in the desert.  It continued
to materialize again as He was performing His
ministry among the people and the Scribes and the
Pharisees.  Everytime Jesus was tempted by the
Scribes and Pharisees to prove Himself with signs
and wonders, he only reasserted that “no” that He
said to the devil when He was tempted in the desert.

All of us human beings are subject to the temptation
to evil.  But since sin dwells in us, we are often
weak and succumb at times.  St. Paul even admitted
of this reality in our humanity when he said that
“he knew the good and wanted to do it, but the law
of sin abides in his flesh and what happens instead
is that he does what he does not intend to do”.
Our strength therefore in moments of tempation is
the person of Jesus.  Whenever we are tempted to do
wrong, let us ask the help of Jesus in prayer. And
through acts of mortification let us subdue our
sensual appetites so that we do not succumb to the
temptation of the evil one.  Let us also not rely
on our strength but let God be our strength in the
fight against the evil that is within us and in our
environment.  If we focus on Christ and cry out to
him to save us [as did Peter when he was already
sinking in the water], Jesus will not hesitate to
save us; He is the Good Shepherd who does not want
any - not one - of His little ones to be lost to
sin and darkness.

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Lectionary Readings for Ash Wednesday

“…pray to your Father in secret.”

In 1973, Dr. Karl Menninger wrote a book called,
“Whatever Became of Sin?”  In the book, he mentions
how our contemporary society often blames our
misdeeds and unethical behavior for complexes,
deficiencies, syndromes, and disorders. Although
in some cases these certainly are true, according
to Dr. Menninger some immoral actions flow from a
lack of sense of responsibility.  His book, timely
as it is in its time, call us back to a return to
a renewed sense of responsibility for our own
actions and for a renewed recognition of sin. He
calls back our attention to the reality of sin
and helps us to face up to it.

Ash Wednesday is a time for us to face up to our
sinfulness.  The gospel for this day makes us see
that even though we may not realize it, there is
a sinful potential in each and every one of us, to:
“trumpet our almsgiving”, “pray in a way that many
could see”, & “fast in a way that makes us look sad
and gloomy”.  Even though we may not own up to our
sinfulness, it is there in us; for we can feel and
sense how evil arises in our minds or in our hearts.
If we are not careful and do not take care of our
spiritual life, we may end up always “doing what
we are not supposed to do”.  Ash Wednesday is a
time for us to own up to our failings and our sins.
It is a time for repentance and to return and be
faithful to Christ and His gospel.  When we receive
the ashes on our foreheads, let us remember that
it is by our sins that we are destined to death
and corruption.  Only through Christ do we merit
eternal life.

It is not all the time that we may feel sorrow
for our sins.  We have to pray for it.  Many
conversions were initiated by a great sorrow for
one’s sins.  St. Augustine’s conversion is a
proof of that grace from God.  In the confessional,
the priest-confessor sometimes will help us and
pray that we have a sorrow for our sins.  This
helps us a lot in examining what areas of our
life we have done wrong to God, to others, to
the environment and to ourself.  It also helps
us to see which areas of our life we have failed
to do something for God, for others, for our
environment, and for ourself.  Even if we have
failed or have not done anything about something,
let us not forget that the grace of God always
helps us through the sacraments.  St. Paul, in
one of his letters tells us that “where sin
abounds, grace abounds all the more”.  Whatever
our sin, God’s mercy is greater. We only need to
repent, humble ourself, and seek God’s forgiveness
and be reconciled with God, the Church and
others through the sacrament of penance and
reconciliation.

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Lectionary Readings for the Fourth Sunday of the
Year, Year A

“Be glad and rejoice, for your reward in heaven
is great.”

This Sunday’s gospel is taken from the gospel of
Matthew.  It is a passage taken from the section of
Matthew’s gospel on the Sermon on the Mount.  We
find in this passage Jesus going up on the mountain
and speaking to the crowds and His disciples. He
taught them about being blessed and happy according
to the Christian way of living.  He gave much hope
by telling the people and His disciples that being
poor in spirit, being sorrowful, lowly, hungry and
thirsty for holiness, merciful, single-hearted,
peaceful, and persecuted for God’s sake is enough
to receive the reward God promises in heaven. For
certain, those in the crowds and those among His
disciples can relate to this teaching of Jesus since
all that Jesus says is within the common human
experience of every man, woman or child.  Jesus
encourages the people and says to them, “You are
blessed” for despite poverty, sorrow, lowliness,
or persecution, if you look to God’s reign, your
reward in heaven is great.

This passage of the gospel is often used by the
Church in reference to the call to holiness.  Many
religious institutes who follow a way of praying
and of living in religious communities can relate
much to what is being taught by Jesus in this passage.
It is because religious life is a sign and a witness
to the coming reign of God - the Kingdom.  Their
eschatological (pointing to the end times) witness
of living in poverty, chastity and obedience, tells
us that this world, though it is important in our
task of evangelization, is not what really matters.
What is more important is the world to come: the
reign of God.  Although the gospel passage may be
attributed traditionally to religious life, it also
is very important even to those who live in the
secular world and earning a living for the family.
There are surely many Catholic families who know
by heart that the next life matters more than what
we live now.  The human experience of death in the
family and of loss - whether it be financial, a
job, or a status - is enough to remind all people
that nothing lasts in this world and what really
matters is our entry into God’s reign through the
virtue of hope.

Living the Christian life according to the eight
beatitudes taught by Jesus in this Sunday’s gospel
passage is a challenge for all of the members of
the Church: clergy, religious and lay faithful. It
is a charter by which we can live by: a way of
following Christ by molding our attitudes according
to this teaching.  It is Christ telling us that this
is the real source of happiness in the world - and
one which will prepare us for more in the next. So
if we feel as if we are experiencing sorrow, strife,
persecution, humiliation, or poverty, if we only
look to Christ and see in His person how He teaches
us that our happiness lies in our capacity to hope
in the reign and Kingdom of God, then we shall feel
blessed indeed.  The peace that Christ gives is a
peace that flows from an inner and deep joy that
comes from the knowledge that our true hope is in
Him and all that we do in His name shall bring
forth the rewards God promises to all who follow
His Son.