This weekend the church will celebrate the Ascension of the Lord. The first reading is from the very beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, verses1-11. The Gospel is from the very end of Matthew, 28:16-20. In between, the second reading is from Ephesians 1:17-23. Put together, this is a story that most Christians have heard so many times that it no longer sounds strange, but if someone were to tell a story like this today most people would assume it was made up. Jesus, who was crucified, died, and was buried, appeared to the disciples over the course of forty days. Then, after telling his disciples that he was leaving, and commissioning them to make disciples of all nations, Jesus was assumed up into heaven right in front of the disciples. In Heaven, Jesus was “seated at the right hand of God far above every principality, authority, power and dominion” and “God put all things beneath his feet.” (Ephesians). Sometimes it is easy to forget what a different understanding of the world the people around Jesus had.

Copernicus, Newton, and Galileo did not come along until the scientific revolution of the 16^th - 17^th centuries. Before their time, the Earth was understood to be the center of the universe. The Sun was thought to travel around the Earth. Although astronomers understood the Earth was round, in spiritual terms, heaven was still ‘up’, and hell was ‘down’. During the lifetime of the apostles, the ‘whole known world’ was ruled by the Roman Empire. And “first-century Roman traditions of apotheosis or divinization, whereby a human hero - a dominant powerful male, such as an emperor – experienced postmortem elevation to life in heaven among the gods,” were part of the accepted language of civil religion. (Warren Carter. Matthew 16:21-28:20: Introduction and Commentary. Eerdmans: Michigan. 2025. pg. 722) The world that was home to early Christianity was a world alien to postmodern people of the 21^st century. But it was the world that Biblical authors were at home in, and therefore, the world that provided the images and language they used to convey the message of the Gospel. Without context, the message of the Gospel can be twisted, as history has proven repeatedly.

Christian Nationalists read the scripture passages for this weekend and feel justified in their efforts to make Christianity the rule of the land while treating all non-Christian people or nations as second class. Warren Carter reminds us that the scope of the mission given to the disciples “is hugely inclusive in imagining both the audience and the agents of the mission; all people are embraced in the merciful purposes of God. On the other hand, the worldwide scope of the mission and its nature of imposing submission to one set of teachings places one empire (that of God) alongside another empire (Rome) until the former triumphs over the latter. There are no warnings or instructions about cultural sensitivities, no recognition of existing respectfully and charitably within a world profuse with various worldviews, cultural practices, and ideologies” (ibid. 728-729). Jesus and the Biblical authors were not conversant in multiculturalism because they lived with a different worldview – and the world they viewed was significantly smaller than the world that is known today.

Jesus, and the authors who wrote about him and his teachings, was standing in resistance to one imperial worldview that attributed power, manliness, and godliness to those who could dominate other nations, expand the empire by imposing Roman rule and culture, and force weaker nations to submit to the will of Rome. In contrast, the Empire of God restored land to those who had been evicted, cared for the weak and vulnerable, confronted destructive uses of power, and created communities of love and compassion for all people. Jesus taught his disciples that the Empire of God was not only stronger, but it would outlast any earthly power.

When Jesus was taken into heaven, the Biblical writers say that he continued to have authority on Earth, unlike the god-heroes of Roman civil religion who let go of their earthly power upon dying by ceding their power to their appointed successors. This language is confusing today because it was written as the Romans understood the world. Today the clear message should be that the Empire or Reign of God, who is Love, is the one that Jesus preached using the language of his day to counteract the destructive and divisive message and rule of Rome.

“This is our mission: to make followers of Jesus who know his message, identify with his project, learn to live like him, and reproduce his presence in the world. Such fundamental activities as baptism, commitment to belong to Jesus, and the teaching ‘of all that he has commanded’, are ways in which to learn to become his disciples. Jesus promises his presence and his constant help. His followers will not be alone or forsaken, even if they are few, not even if they are two or three.” (Pagola. Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus. Year A. pg. 80)

Christian Nationalism distorts the message of God’s inclusive love of all people.

He chose to enroll in a small, local, Christian University so that he could pursue his love of golf while receiving an education. He plans to enter the master’s program there next year. I was happy to attend the ceremony as a way of honoring my grandson along with a number of other family members. The speakers were ethnically diverse and offered everyone an opportunity to consider what it means to be Christian in the world. Four out of five of the speakers were professional preachers, at least one of the student speakers is clearing heading that direction as well, and not one of them deviated from male language about God. Unfortunately for the many family members and students who were there not as a captive audience to hear a religious message, but to be present for the graduates, the service went on quite a long time. (That is probably an understatement.)

It is good once in a while to get out of one’s comfort zone and listen to the way that God, Jesus, and the Christian faith are spoken of, worshipped, and understood in places different from our customary practice. I have no doubt that the people I heard this weekend were sincere believers. The wide variety of ethnicities and absence of a flag provided assurance that white nationalism was not on the agenda, although the language and lineup of speakers revealed that sexism was still in play. The followers of Jesus continue to be a diverse group!

This Sunday’s Gospel, John 14: 15-21, speaks directly to what it means to love Jesus, a.k.a., to be a follower of Jesus, or a practicing Christian. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” And a second time he said, “Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me.” That’s it. Do what he commanded!

The verses for today are part of the discourse that takes place on the night that Jesus gathered with his disciples before he was arrested. The context is important. A few verses before this discourse, in chapter 13, Jesus gave his disciples a new commandment. “Love one another. Such as my love has been for you. So must your love be for each other. This is how all will know you for my disciples, your love for one another.” (verse 34-35) Clearly that was one of the commandments that Jesus was referring to.

There are other things that Jesus asked his disciples to do; to love others including one’s enemies, to show mercy, be peacemakers, work for justice, and be forgiving, etc., but for this moment, on this day, I think it would be good to focus on how Christians love one another as people tied together as members of one body, the Body of Christ, the baptized, the People of God.

Christians are not always good about loving other Christians, even those who worship in the same community as they do.

Love is easy if everyone does what is expected of them, stays out of trouble, and follows the rules. When people stay in line, everyone can be at ease, acting with rote kindness, being polite, listening when others speak, and remaining positive. In that situation love is easy – but maybe not particularly strong, for it has yet to be tried by fire. It is harder, but perhaps more important, to love when difficult things happen, when people do things that are inconsistent with the hopes or values or expectations that the community has for them, or when tragedy strikes and misunderstandings prevail. In those most challenging times, love is tested – and one can only pray that it will be strong enough to endure.

Love is patient. Love is kind. Love is not prone to anger…Love does not rejoice in what is wrong but rejoices with the truth. There is no limit to love’s forbearance, to its trust, its hope, its power to endure. Love never fails. (From I Cor. 13) When a community member is loved, they are given the benefit of the doubt, and if that benefit can no longer be given, then mercy must be extended, for God is merciful.

I have known people who grew up in traditions that practiced shunning. In the Catholic tradition we do not shun, although many people feel the need to remove themselves from community for fear of what others may think or how they will be treated. When that happens, there is no chance for reconciliation, recovery, clarity, peace, or resolution. And there is rarely only a single person who is affected by such removal. The ties of friendship and service and love are entangled in community life, and when those ties are broken many people are hurt. Many hearts feel broken or shattered. There is loss. There is grief. To keep a whole community together in the face of brokenness, doubt, and fear, takes a powerful commitment to love as Jesus has first loved us.

It is a challenge, but the People of God are called to love in good times and in bad times. “Love one another. Such as my love has been for you. So must your love be for each other. This is how all will know you for my disciples, your love for one another.” (John 13: 34-35)

On this Mother’s Day, I want to extend a blessing to all mothers, but especially to those who are suffering.

May the mothers who have lost their children be embraced and comforted by those who love Jesus.

May the mothers who are estranged from their children be held close in community.

May the mothers whose children are incarcerated know the love and support of Christian Community.

May Motherless children find love from supportive adults.

May women who never had the opportunity to be Mothers find intergenerational love in extended family.

May Mary, the Mother of God, be an example for all mothers whose children face tragedy.

And may all mothers who have the opportunity to be present with their children today be grateful for the time they have been given, and nurture their precious mother-child relationships.

Amen.

Happy Mother’s Day!

In the first reading from Acts 6:1-7, we read that the Twelve gathered the community together and asked them to look in their midst for deeply spiritual and prudent people who the Twelve would then appoint to care for the widows and others who were in need.

In the second reading, 1 Peter 2:4-9, speaking to a gathering of Gentile Christians tells them that they are “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a people set apart.” These are nearly the same words that God told Moses to speak to the people when he went up on the mountain to God in the third month after their departure from Exodus. “You shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.”

Then in the Gospel reading, John 14: 1-12, we read about God’s House with many dwelling places; about knowing the way to God and about recognizing God in Jesus. Warren Carter tells us that the phrase “‘My Father’s House- or God’s House’, has multiple levels of meaning - denoting a space, a temple, and a community.” In addition, it is important to remember that temple referred not simply to a structure but to a place where the divine dwelt. (John and Empire. pg. 259)

The Jesus of John’s Gospel when speaking of his father’s house, or God’s House, is speaking of the community where God dwells, and the preparation that Jesus is about, is the forming of that people into the people or household of God. There are many dwelling places because there are many people. This does not negate the traditional understanding that Jesus is speaking of eternal life, or heaven. Rather there are multiple levels of understanding here, and these verses speak also to the historical church present at the time John wrote and, to the church in our day, as well.

The interpersonal relationships made possible because of the indwelling of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit with the believers are what makes the community a living Temple. All of the images from today’s readings speak to the kind of church or people that we are called and being formed by the Holy Spirit, to be.

Bernard P. Prusak in his book The Church Unfinished: Ecclesiology through the Centuries, addresses the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church titled Lumen Gentium, or “Light for the Peoples”, which is one of the principal documents of the Second Vatican Council. “Lumen Gentium declares that God makes humans holy and saves them not just as individuals without any mutual connection, but by making them into a people, like the Jewish people. In that regard, the Church as the People of God is a historical community of humans living in time and place, but always simultaneously permeated by an essential universality. The church, as the people of God, enters into history in each particular age although the church as a divinely formed people also transcends time and racial boundaries.”

In early Christianity there were a variety of communities of believers, who were by their baptismal faith, dwelling places of God, living temples, inspirited people living out the call to follow the way of Jesus in their own particular way. Lumen Gentium describes the people of God as a priestly people, as the words in Exodus or First Peter declare. All of the baptized are to share a common priesthood of the faithful and have equal dignity as members of God’s household. It follows then, that as members of God’s Household, we should be at home in the Church.

Home in the best sense is the place where one is accepted and loved, challenged and held accountable, and where one’s gifts are valued and one’s voice is heard. Unfortunately, many believers do not feel welcome or at home in church for although they are baptized, their presence, their gifts and their voices are not yet received with the equal dignity that Lumen Gentium envisioned for the priesthood of the faithful. This means there is work to be done!

Meanwhile the tide of religion in America is moving in a fearsome direction. The day of large mainline churches wielding influence over local and national politics is long past while a small but vocal and politically over-represented group of far-right churches have laid claim to true Christianity. In recent months, the Catholic Church has begun to push back under the leadership of Pope Leo, but resisting the rising tide of Christian nationalism is likely to require a wide coalition of Christians with other communities of faithful people.

Just as a living cell in order to remain healthy must not only be nourished, it must adapt to changing conditions and be able to heal or regenerate itself, a living cell that is also the dwelling place of God, God’s household, the People of God, must likewise adapt, heal itself, be nourished or die.

Scripture does not give us a blueprint for going forward. It does not predict the end of the world or tell us who is assured of a heavenly reward. It does give us insights into the decisions and struggles of the people who came before us as they sought to faithfully follow the way of Jesus in their own day. And nowhere does it say that the road will be smooth.

Our ancestors in faith believed that the way of Jesus would lead them out of darkness into the divine light. May the Holy Spirit inspire and empower faith communities today, as holy temples and dwelling places of the living God and lead them into a deeper and more active faith.

Decision making has never been my strong suit. Whether I was raising children or working, when I had a crucial decision to make, I would frequently spend my nights wrestling with what to do instead of sleeping. My nightmares were probably a reflection of the anxiety that decision making created for me. It is also true that when I finally made a decision, having sweated through all the what-ifs and probabilities, I would find peace and sleep well!

This Sunday’s Gospel is from John 10:1-10. Two distinct images or metaphors for Jesus are given. One is Jesus as the Good Shepherd. The other is Jesus as the Gate. “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out and find pasture.” In his commentary on this Gospel, Fr. Jose Pagola mentions three key details. 1) There are many possibilities in life, but when people choose to follow Jesus, they enter through him to find eternal life. 2) People can come in and go out because the place they enter is “not the land of anarchy or licentious freedom.” 3) Those who enter find pasture, that is, they find “nourishment to live on.”

Pagola says that “Christ is the door through which we Christians must enter today if we wish to revive our identity. A Christianity made up of Christians who relate to a badly known, vaguely remembered Jesus, occasionally acknowledged in a theoretical way, a dumb Jesus with nothing to say to today’s world, a Jesus who does not touch our hearts, is Christianity without a future.” (Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus. Year A. pgs. 74-75) While Christians believe that Jesus is the door, there are still many ways to get there. The Christian life is lived with unity not uniformity though the popular perception of Christianity says otherwise. It is, however, vital that the followers of Jesus make an effort to understand Jesus, his life and death, and the teachings he gave through his words and deeds.

The United States is currently in an election year. Mid-term elections are coming, and the cascade of state primaries is setting the stage for what is sure to be yet another contentious year! As always, Christians of one stripe or another are convinced that there is only one way to choose. It is important to remember that neither political party fully represents Christian beliefs which means that faithful voters must do some soul searching to discern which candidates to choose. Wearing a cross or holding a bible does not make a person Christian, and there are many non-Christians who reflect the values of love, generosity, and justice that Jesus taught. Jesus as the good shepherd says that his sheep hear his voice and follow him because they know his voice. Recognizing his voice in the cacophony of competing rhetoric is not easy and may induce some people not to vote at all. Yet, as Christians, as Catholics, we are called to engage in public life.

Pope Leo is clear that the followers of Jesus have something to say to the world today. That belief is offensive to politicians and public officials who choose to believe that Jesus and those who follow him must stay in their own lane – meaning that they should comment only in strictly religious matters and not in regard to political decisions such as matters of war and peace. This is especially true if the Pope or other faith leaders disagree with the decisions that governmental leaders make. But the Pope does not tell people who to vote for nor does he tell world leaders exactly what to do. That would be “out of his lane.” Instead, the Pope shares the values and teachings of Jesus as they are found in the Gospels, applying them, or commenting on them, in light of current events. We are all encouraged to do the same,

In a recent interview Pope Leo addressed two of the serious issues of our day, the war in Iran and Immigration. Of war he said, “I would encourage the continuation of dialogue for peace, that all sides make every effort to promote peace, remove the threat of war, and respect international law. It is very important that innocent people are protected, as has not happened in several places.” https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2026-04/pope-leo-xiv-inflight-press-conference-conclusion-visit-africa.html In encouraging peace, the protection of the innocent, and respect for international law, the Pope reflected the voice of Jesus but did not give specifics.

Regarding immigration Pope Leo said, “[M]y answer begins with a question: what is the Global North doing to help the Global South, or those countries where young people today cannot find a future and therefore dream of moving north?... I am not saying that everyone must be allowed to enter without order, sometimes creating in destination countries situations more unjust than those they left behind. But that said, I ask myself: what are we doing in richer countries to change the situation in poorer countries?” (ibid) Again Pope Leo does not give specifics though he challenges people to consider the unconditional love of God for all people.

Pope Leo’s words ask people to reflect more carefully on political decisions and the situations the world is facing. If Christians choose to discern on the basis of their faith, (as in, What would Jesus do?), it is first necessary, as Fr. Pagola implies, to know Jesus – not in a badly known, vaguely remembered, theoretical way, but in a deeply spiritual manner that comes from following Jesus through the open gate. Those who have been baptized have been called to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, doing as he did: loving people as God loves them, offering forgiveness and compassion without judgement, caring for the vulnerable, and sharing from our abundance with those who live with scarcity. Of any candidate it is fair to ask: Is what you propose kind and respectful of people regardless of who they are? Or do your language and policies promote division and hate?

As Saint Peter says in the second reading for this Sunday, “Beloved, if you are patient when you suffer for doing what is good, this is a grace before God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps.” (I Peter 2:20b-21)

Together, let us enter through the gate

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Of all the things that have happened during the last year and a half, the events that seem to have caused the most distress for supporters of the current American regime were the verbal assault on the Pope and an AI generated picture of the president depicted as a Jesus-figure. I find irony in that particular event. After all, no one knows what Jesus looked like. The standard picture of Jesus, the one that has influenced portrayals of Jesus for years, including the offensive AI generated meme, was produced in 1940 by an American painter, Warner Saliman. Link The long haired, white skinned, Jesus he painted has sold more than 500 million copies and is considered the most recognizable picture of Jesus. Common sense tells us that a first century Aramaic speaking Jewish man from Galilee would have been dark skinned, with black hair and brown eyes, nonetheless, Saliman’s image is the standard. Such a standard is distressing for its racial and ethnic ignorance.

People were offended that the president was depicted as God-like, however he is not the first president to be depicted as divine. America’s cultural history can be quite surprising. In Washington D. C. the fresco on the dome of the Rotunda in the capitol building is titled, “The Apotheosis of Washington.” Link Apotheosis means deification or glorification. Additionally, a statue of George Washington currently in the Smithsonian, but first displayed in the Capitol Rotunda, depicts the first president as a classical Greek God, bare chested with a white drape over his lap, and a sword in one hand. Link What is unusual about the picture currently circulating on social media, is that it came from the office of a living President. Generally, such renderings are created after the death of a person by those who believe the person was especially important or worthy of praise. Pictures tell stories that influence what people believe.

This weekend the Gospel comes from Luke 24:13-35. The passage tells the story of two disciples on the road to Emmaus. In his book, Healing Affluenza and Resisting Plutocracy, Ched Myers begins his commentary on Luke by speaking about that particular story. Myers believes that the story has been “thoroughly sentimentalized in contemporary middle-class America.“ (pg.24) Myers refers to an 1877 painting by Robert Zund, a Swiss artist, that depicted the encounter of the two disciples and Jesus as “a contemplative stroll along a shaded forest path beside a babbling brook, the travelers’ tete-a-tete delightfully interrupted by a begowned-in-white risen Lord who gestures to the heavens.“ (ibid.) Such a representation, and others that are similar, have shaped how believers think about the event, even though as Myers goes on to explain, the depiction is pretty misleading. Jesus had been crucified. His friends, the disciples, have not yet heard about the resurrection. They are likely terrified that they might be next, which is why they are hurrying away from Jerusalem.

“Luke tells us they were debriefing ‘all the things that had happened’ (24:14), a phrase throughout the Gospels that specifically refers to the arrest, trial and execution of Jesus. These terrified movement members were likely blaming each other for the mess they’d gotten into, wondering what their next move might be, lamenting Roman kangaroo justice, cursing the colonizers—and maybe even cursing Jesus for failing to deliver on promises of a new social order… theirs was an animated exchange, carried out between labored breaths and anxious glances over the shoulder. “(ibid. 25) Myers suggests that Thomas Moran’s 1862 painting, “Slave Hunt in the Great Dismal Swamp” would be a better image to visualize! Link

Into that traumatic moment Jesus enters as a stranger who is apparently unaware of ‘all that has happened’. After asking the disciples what they are discussing, Jesus is clearly frustrated. He calls the disciples foolish. He says they are slow at believing what the prophets have already told them; that it was inevitable that Jesus would have to die! Then Jesus explains the scriptural texts that refer to Jesus beginning with Moses and the prophets. Calling Jesus’ death inevitable (necessary) was probably not what the disciples expected to hear even though they had seen the violence of the state toward rebels or prophets who challenged the status quo. The death of a prophet is not for the purpose of atonement, for as Myers says so succinctly, “{t}he prophet’s death is not required given who God is, it is, however, inevitable given what the state is, as history repeatedly reveals.” (ibid. 29) Crucifixion was to be expected. Resurrection was the surprise that became our hope.

By emphasizing how the disciples recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread, the church lifts up the Eucharistic element in the story of the journey to Emmaus. However, Luke’s narrative puts great emphasis on the need to understand Moses and the prophets before one can understand Jesus. That emphasis is often overlooked. Jesus was a prophet in the tradition of Hebrew prophets. His actions can best be understood through the lens that the prophets offer. “This is why at the outset of the Easter movement, Luke insists that the work of building literacy in the prophetic tradition should stand at the center of discipleship communities.” (ibid.)

The early disciples, those who walked with Jesus and knew him best, did not have a happy Easter Season. They needed to gather with other believers to reflect on Jesus’ words and actions in light of their shared history. and the lessons from the great prophets who had gone before them, before they could overcome their collective fear and move forward in faith. All of that took time. Modern day Christians need to dig below the sentimentalized images, and bedtime stories of Jesus, to rediscover the prophetic mission that is needed in the world today.

Thank God for Pope Leo! ”Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.” Link

For the next six weeks, until Pentecost, the church will continue to celebrate the Feast of Easter. For the secular world Easter is a one-day event. For the church, it lasts for 50 days. The importance of this season cannot be understated, and yet, even for believers, it is difficult to keep up the joy in the face of so much adversity. Perhaps it is useful to remember that our ancestors in faith, those who knew Jesus personally or knew someone who had been with him, and for the next generation, times were not easy at all. What we celebrate during Holy Week and throughout the Easter Season reflects what the early believers learned over time. The early followers faced discrimination and even martyrdom while they struggled to hold fast to what Jesus had taught them and come to terms with the mystery of his death and resurrection.

In each of this Sunday’s readings there are indications of how the first followers of Jesus attempted to live out their beliefs. As always, the three Sunday readings are not in chronological order, though I will address them that way. The earliest reading comes from 1 Peter 1:3-9, written about 65 CE before Peter’s death under the Emperor Nero. It may have been written by a companion of Peter, someone from the “Petrine School of thought,” but it is attributed to Peter. Peter rejoices in the “great mercy of God who gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus.” But Peter also addresses the reality of living in the Roman Empire where he says: “for a little while you may have to suffer through various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that is perishable even though tested by fire…” The reference to being tested by fire is telling since Nero blamed Christians for the Great Fire in Rome in 64 AD. Many Christians were reportedly burned in retaliation by Nero who was a violent and vengeful emperor. Thus, Peter spoke to encourage the fledgling community of faith with words to inspire them to endure. Words that have continued to give suffering Christians hope and courage in difficult and uncertain times.

The first reading for this weekend is from Acts 2: 42-47. Chronologically it comes second as it was written sometime after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. This is one of the most beautiful passages describing how the followers of Jesus sought to live. It describes a communal life that some have connected to communism or socialism and have therefore rejected! The people broke bread together daily, held goods in common, sold property and divided profits according to need rather than equally by individuals, as is the widespread practice in the modern western world. Ched Myers makes a particular point of reflecting on the meal, the tradition that believers broke bread together in each other’s homes. “The principal sign is that the community ‘holds all things in common’…” “The principal wonder (or portent, teras) is how the household table has eclipsed the Temple as primary symbolic center of the movement. This third sacred meal does not replicate the loaves and fishes’ formula of the first two because it is being embraced as a way of life.” (Healing Affluenza. Pg. 209) Clearly stated, the early Christians attempted to live communally, like Catholic Workers, or JVCs, or large extended families that include neighbors and friends try to do today. The isolation of Christians, in households of one or two adults with or without their own children, presents a challenge for keeping the faith. Jesus taught a communal faith that relies on communal practice to keep it lively and engaged.

Finally, we come to today’s gospel which is from John 20:19-31. John’s gospel was the last to be written in about 90-110 CE. The passage generally referred to as the story of doubting Thomas was written to inspire faith in the generations that had no direct contact with Jesus or the early generations of disciples who heard Jesus speak or knew someone who had – a great uncle or grandparent perhaps – people whose truth could be accepted. Very directly John has Jesus say, “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” That includes everyone living today. But the story also tells us that it is human to have doubts, to want proof, and to face the darkness that comes from unbelief. In the face of this human frailty, John also encourages believers to read the scriptures because they “are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.” Reading or hearing the Word of God, combined with living a communal life, caring for others, resisting empire, and keeping in mind that there will be trials when life becomes difficult, reveals a formula for living life as a follower of Jesus.

Embedded in the gospel passage is another line that reminds us that the early Christians lived in dangerous times – and yet they grew in numbers and the faith was preserved! During the time when John’s gospel was written, the Emperor Domitian reigned. Domitian, like any number of authoritarian leaders throughout history, relished the ‘divinity’ attributed to him by virtue of becoming emperor. Warren Carter reminds readers that John’s Community in Ephesus was under constant threat - not of annihilation -but of accommodation to Roman civil religion. When Thomas is told to touch the wounds of Jesus in order to know that it is truly Jesus, he responds, “My Lord and my God!” That title is taken directly from Roman titles for their emperors. In negotiating how to live under the rule of Rome, Christians were too often seduced into accommodation – a fact that most Christians have simply accepted today! Carter understands these uses of imperial titles for Jesus as “part of the Gospel’s rhetoric of distance, (which) seek to create greater cultural distance from the empire, a distance secured by devotion to Jesus alone.” (John and Empire. Carter. page 197)

Living as Easter people has never been easy. Believers live within societies that are messy, difficult, and often dangerous. In places where there is no religious discrimination, believers are constantly lured away from the values of Jesus and toward the values of markets and individual gain. In America today, Catholic Christians are increasingly singled out as in opposition to the policies of the current regime while Christians of all denominations are watching as their beliefs are twisted to fit a narrative that views the president as divinely anointed and guided. What the readings for today emphasize is the need that people of faith have for each other. We cannot be followers on our own.

Alleluia! May we learn to live as Easter People!

Friday, I had the privilege of participating in a Good Friday Service that put women front and center in the Liturgy. Women presided. Women read the stories. Women accompanied the cross as it came into the church. Women venerated the cross with feminine movement. And women kept a candlelight vigil as the assembly left the service. All of this feminine energy is at odds with a church that is most likely to exude patriarchy, but it is entirely in keeping with the Gospel narratives.

In many texts, including scripture, women and children stand for all who are left out, pushed to the side, and who frequently remain voiceless and nameless. Women are often in these categories, but they are not the only ones as our current political milieu demonstrates. The poor, the uneducated, people of color, the disabled, gender minorities, immigrants, unconventional thinkers, and the chronically sick are also found in the category of outsiders. So, today as we reflect on Matthew’s narrative for Easter, Matt. 28: 1-10, I invite you to consciously expand the meaning of ‘women’ while also recognizing the intensely specific and personal designation.

The Gospel begins with women coming to see the tomb. In Matthew’s telling the women are not bringing spices and oils to anoint the body. The anointing of Jesus’s body took place earlier, in Matthew 26: 6-13 when an unnamed woman brings a jar of costly perfume and pours it on Jesus’ head. In response to the indignation of the disciples, Jesus directly tells them that the woman is preparing him for burial. Apparently, the woman had taken Jesus’s words to heart in a way that the disciples had not. The women coming to the tomb knew that they did not need to bring burial oils because Jesus had already been anointed. Instead, they too, had taken Jesus words to heart and were coming to see if the tomb was already empty as Jesus said it would be. Warren Carter points out that the Greek word used in the ancient text meaning to see (theoresai) is used to express insight and understanding not simply to view or look at something. (Warren Carter. Matthew 16: 21-28:20, pg. 710)

On the day of the crucifixion, with Jesus hanging upon the cross, these same women along with other women, had watched from a distance even as the male disciples necessarily went into hiding. (Matt. 27:55-56) And when Joseph of Arimathea took Jesus’s body down from the cross, laid him in a tomb and closed the entrance with a stone, women remained there too. (Matt. 27:61) Women were expected to be quiet, invisible, uninvolved in public activity, and accepting of the fact that their voices would not be heard, just as so many marginalized people are expected to do today, and yet they remained present as only the invisible or insignificant can.

On the morning of the first day of the week, upon arriving at the tomb, the women, some of whom have names, experienced an earthquake that rolled away the stone that had closed the tomb, and saw an angel with the appearance of lightning and clothes as white as snow. This is all coded language. Earthquakes, lightning, and brilliant white clothing are all signs of divine intervention used not only in scripture but also in the ancient Greco-Roman world. (Carter. ibid. pg. 710). The angel gives the women the Good News that Jesus is not there, invites them to see the empty tomb for themselves, and then sends them to tell the disciples. The women are amazed, fearful and overjoyed all at once, but they go immediately. On the way they encounter the Risen Jesus who tells them not to be afraid as they fall down to worship him. He then adds to the message for the disciples – tell them to go to Galilee where they will see me. Thus, the women – those representatives of the marginalized, voiceless, and often dismissed or invisible members of the community, were the first to hear, the first to see, and the first to be sent to deliver the message to others. Jesus had Risen. He would be found back where the journey had started: In Galilee among the oppressed and destitute.

Today, and every day, the Gospel challenges people to see and hear with eyes and ears that have not been damaged by a culture of fear and despair where might makes right and hate is an organizing tool. Pope Leo XIV has been incredibly open in his condemnation of those who pray to God to annihilate their perceived enemies. Citation Challenging the status quo pushes Pope Leo XIV out to the margins where Jesus can be found. It is not a comfortable space for anyone whose faith is dependent on public affirmation by the rich and powerful. But it is the Galilee of our time. The pathway to peace and justice requires an open heart and mind. An open mind learns from those who understand the world differently. An open heart loves all people as children of God.

As Christians celebrate Easter around the world, the call to see and to listen with the eyes and ears of God, the eyes and ears faith, has never been so imperative.

Alleluia. He is Risen.

Do not be deceived. Love prevails.

The church will celebrate Passion Sunday this weekend. Also known as Palm Sunday, it is one of two days in the life of the church when the story of the Passion of Christ is told from his arrest in the garden of Gethsemane to his death on the cross. The second day comes later this same week on Good Friday. Please contemplate these sacred stories this week. On Passion Sunday this year the Passion is read from the Gospel of Matthew. (Matt. 26:14-27:66) On Good Friday, the church always reads from the Gospel of John (John 18:1-19:42). The story is the same. Jesus, unafraid to die, continues his efforts to bring the Good News of God’s faithful and enduring love to people even though leaders aligned with the Roman Empire have decided his truth must be silenced.

What truth? The truth that God’s love is unconditional and never-ending; that all people are God’s people, each of them deserving of love and dignity, mercy, and compassion. And, in the face of this truth, there are always people who choose to believe that they are more deserving of love and dignity than others, more worthy of the wealth of the earth, and merit special privileges and power over others. These people reject God’s unconditional love in favor of a system of reward and punishment. They give up abundant life in favor of a small and meaningless accumulation of personal gain. They choose to serve the god of empire and reject the unconditional love of the God of Creation. Nonetheless, God continues to love everyone. The sun shines, the seasons change, the rain falls, the soil produces food, and gravity keeps creatures grounded while the Earth spins through space with everyone onboard - regardless of their choices. Pretty amazing!

During Holy Week, from Passion Sunday until the Easter Vigil, it is proper to reflect on our own living and dying as we reflect on the passion of Jesus the Christ. We are taught to believe as Christians, that death is not the end of existence. We believe that Jesus died, but we also believe that he was raised. And we profess that we too will rise again even as most people express a fear of dying. Endings are hard and yet we know from experience that without dying nothing can be reborn. Throughout our lives we suffer little deaths, some more difficult than others. But we also experience rising, times when life seems good again, when hope is regained, when memories no longer drag us down but bring us joy, when relationships are mended, and we encounter forgiveness and grace. Each dying and rising teaches us something we need to know, as individuals and as community.

This Holy Week I will spend time reflecting on the death of the nation as the body politic continues to let go of values and principles integral to the nation’s existence, and jettisons dignified language and proper decorum so that shame exists where once there was pride. I will weep over the loss of alliances, allies, trade partners, and even tourists. I will lament that the nation no longer chooses soft diplomacy, negotiations, or compromise. I will wail as bombs made in this nation kill people all over the world. I will beat my breast as war and violence are given priority over healthcare and housing. I will grieve that faith in Jesus is being distorted at the highest levels of government while discrimination and hate are being lifted up as normative and patriotic. I will allow my tears to fall because the nation I love is being torn apart and death is immanent.

And then as my time of reflection ends, I will work in my garden, walk in the sun, embrace my loved ones, and listen for the still small voice that reminds us, that the nation, this enormous body of diverse and beautiful people, can also rise again.

May the Holy Spirit be present to you during this Holy Week.

This weekend we hear the story of the raising of Lazarus. (John 11: 1-45). It is a story that occurs only in the Gospel of John, and in John’s narrative, it is the story that compels the religious authorities to make the decision to kill Jesus. Because of rampant antisemitism and accusations of antisemitism in our day, it is important to look at the language that is used to describe those authorities. They are too often referred to simply as ‘Jews’, and since John’s Gospel refers repeatedly to ‘the Jews’, the Gospel of John became the justification for much of the world’s antisemitic thought for generations. The Greek word that is translated as ‘Jews’ is Ioudaioi. The word did not have a specifically religious meaning until sometime after 135 C.E. – years after the Gospel of John was written. The original meaning of the word referred to people who were part of the geographic region of Judea. For those reasons, many contemporary scripture scholars replace ‘Jews’ with ‘Judeans’ in their commentaries. (Howard-Brook. Becoming Children of God. Pg. 41)

When Jesus received the message about his friend Lazarus, he was outside the district of Judea, across the Jordan River to the northeast where he had gone after an angry crowd had tried to arrest him. (See John 10:39-41) When Jesus said that they should go back to Judea the disciples were concerned about his safety. Bethany, in Judea, where Lazarus, Martha, and Mary lived, was a little southeast of Jerusalem, the seat of Judean power. The conflict between Judeans and Galileans went back at least to the time when David was King and decided to keep the Ark of the Covenant in Jerusalem. The Ark was a decorative wooden box that held items sacred to the people, including the Tablets of the Law given to Moses. When the Ark was kept in one location, that location grew in power and prestige and gave some people more access to the Holy than others. Until David’s time the Ark had been moved from place to place with the prophets and people of God.

When David’s son Solomon completed the first temple, the Ark of the Covenant was permanently enthroned in the inner sanctuary. Sometime after the first Temple was destroyed, the Ark of the Covenant was lost, either hidden or stolen depending on the stories that are told. In the second Temple, there was a designated space within the inner sanctuary for the Ark of the Covenant should it be recovered.

The Temple was the center of Jerusalem’s economic power because the Hebrew people were expected to make three pilgrimages a year into Jerusalem; for the Feast of Passover in the spring and the Feast of Shavuot which followed 49 days later, and for the autumn Feast of Sukkot or Tabernacles. The pilgrims brought money into Jerusalem that the Temple and the City depended on - much as tourist cities rely on money from tourism today. Jerusalem was not on a direct trade route, making its economy more reliant on the pilgrims. This is one reason the Judeans were concerned about itinerant holy men like John the Baptist who drew people away from Jerusalem. Jerusalem’s power and influence over people was a natural draw for the Roman occupiers, and the Judeans, including Temple authorities who wanted to remain influential and wealthy, collaborated with Rome.

Howard-Brook writes: “Throughout the fourth gospel… the text works to establish opposition not between ‘Christians’ and ‘Jews’ but between Galileans and Judeans. It is not the strict sense of geography that is at issue. But the ideological site with which a person is identified. …To be a member of the Ioudaioi is thus not a matter purely of religion or geography but of ideological choice.” (ibid 43) Jesus and his disciples were Galileans AND they were Jews. They were not Judeans. What gets confusing is that scripture uses the same word for both, which requires thoughtful attentiveness on the part of readers, e.g., Jesus was not antisemitic. He was in fact a Jew.

Jesus was also reluctant to provide signs. (Matt. 12:39, 16:4; Luke 16: 29; Mark 8:11-12), Jesus wanted people to hear his message and believe because they recognized the truth of what he said and did, not because he provided some kind of overwhelming sign. He knew what would happen in such a case: people would flock to him wanting miracles rather than working with others to create a world based on loving kindness, and resisting the dominating and dehumanizing power of empire. Others would try to kill him before he destroyed their way of life. Perhaps this is why Jesus became so emotional in Bethany. The choice was stark: Leave his friend in the tomb or risk raising him along with the consequences of doing so. The last line of today’s Gospel tells us that after Lazarus was raised, many of the Judeans (Jews) who had come to Mary and seen what Jesus had done began to believe in him. A few verses later we read that the chief priests and that Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin where they would decide to eliminate Jesus.

“What are we to do with this man performing all sorts of signs? If we let him go on like this the whole world will believe in him,” they fretted. Here they named their real enemy for the first time in John’s Gospel. “Then the Romans will come in and sweep away our sanctuary and our nation.” Raising Lazarus was the final straw. The decision was made to kill Jesus in order to save themselves and their way of life. At the same time they decided to kill Lazarus because “many Judeans (Jews) were going over to Jesus and believing in him on account of Lazarus.” (John 12:10)

Believing in Jesus came with a cost for the early followers, but those who understood his message went to him anyway knowing that only in Jesus would they find life. The Roman world, the empire that they resisted, only brought death.

The choice remains for followers of Jesus today. Will we choose to move from death to life?

“No quarter. No mercy.” No quarter refers to taking no prisoners accomplished by killing any captives, even those who surrender. It is a war crime internationally and by US law. The Secretary of War has previously voiced his resolve not to be hampered by the rules of engagement that were designed to limit collateral damage, including civilian deaths. Mercy is the work of God and God’s people.

In a Friday morning social media message, the President of the United States spoke of the Iran War posting: “They’ve been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am killing them... What a great honor it is to do so!” Citation I wonder if that honor includes killing school children?

At the same time, the Secretary of Defense ends briefings and public statements by quoting scripture and calling on God to continue supporting and strengthening “our warriors” to prevail in this war that has no given goal and no clear limits. Citation God does not take sides in war. Every death is a tragedy.

On this fourth weekend of Lent the scriptures address what it means to be enlightened. In the first reading from Samuel 16, we hear the story of Samuel anointing David, the youngest son of Jesse. Although David’s older brothers were bigger and stronger, the Lord directed Samuel to keep looking because “man sees the appearance, but God looks into the heart.” To be enlightened, Samuel had to see David and his brothers as God saw them, not with the judgment and tradition of humankind, but with eyes that could see to the heart.

In the second reading, from Ephesians 5: 8-14, the followers of Jesus are reminded of their calling to leave behind all that is done in darkness and live as children of the light, “for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth.” War, killing, and destruction are not the results of goodness. Jesus stopped a disciple from hurting those who came to arrest him. Jesus said turn the other cheek. Jesus blessed the peacemakers. Jesus did not promote war.

Why is this so hard to understand?

The Gospel for this weekend is from John 9: 1-41. It is the story of the man born blind whose eyes are opened by Jesus. This story is pivotal when a community has people preparing for baptism because it speaks of enlightenment, of coming to the light who is Christ. Like many biblical stories it is also multifaceted. The story appears only in John’s Gospel, and along with the story of the woman at the well and the raising of Lazarus, forms a trio of stories that teach essential truths. They may be built on an incident in the life of Jesus, but the original incidents have been layered with details and meanings that address the experiences and the reality of the community being addressed. What does it mean to be enlightened? To see as God sees? How will others in your society react if you see situations differently? If you begin to see war as a tragedy to be avoided rather than a glorious opportunity to display strength and dominance?

The opening line to the gospel says, “As Jesus passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.” Some scholars translate this verse differently based on their understanding of the Greek language in which this gospel was written. Noting that the Greek article for ‘a’ is missing (as in a man), they suggest that a closer translation might be: “As he was going along, he saw humanity blind from birth.” (Howard-Brook. Becoming Children of God. Pg. 214-215). This translation then indicts all of humankind as blind from birth and in need of enlightenment – and helps to give more depth to the words of Jesus when he tells the Pharisees who were with him, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains.“ All who came to be with Jesus were blind until their eyes were opened and they recognized the truth of Jesus’ teaching. There were Pharisees who were with him, who were attracted to what Jesus was saying and doing but who were still blind to the larger truth of what Jesus was telling them. Coming to faith, having one’s eyes opened, is a process, a lifetime journey for most people who never fully arrive. To claim enlightenment, righteousness, and the ability to declare what is truth, was the sin of the Pharisees. Being born blind was not a sin, not for the one who was blind nor for their parents. It was the condition of humankind. It was the reason that Jesus came into the world. To bring the light. To show us the way.

The story offers many side stories, too many to detail here, except for one other thought. At first, the person born blind was given the ability to see, but without the larger sense of what enlightenment might mean. In the passage, the person is able to tell others how he came to see, what Jesus did, and even to point out Jesus as the one who gave him his sight. It was only much later in the story after the man has been dismissed by the temple authorities and left to fend for himself by his parents, that Jesus comes to him once again. This time Jesus asks, “Do you believe in the Son of Man.” When he gives an affirmative answer and asks how to find him, Jesus then reveals himself as the one who has come into the world to bring light to those who do not yet see. In blinding those who declare they already see, Jesus is pushing back against self-righteousness and the belief that one does not need to be enlightened.

There are two main streams of thought regarding John’s Gospel. One understands the gospel as a guide for personal spirituality. The other understands the Johannine Community as a community set apart, cut off from the synagogue, and separated from society. Warren Carter places the community right in the midst of Roman-occupied Ephesus, and therefore a community living in, and at ease with, Roman Imperial culture. He suggests that the implied separation from the culture is aspirational – a push for the community not to be so immersed in Roman Imperial society. (John and Empire, pg. 45). As Americans living in a secular consumerist society that relies on war and the manufacture and sale of war machinery to maintain its way of life, it might well be that we are also called to better separate ourselves from the cruelty and ease of living in an Empire.

There is a spreading darkness in the world that can only be addressed by those who have been called to be Children of Light. It is not enough to know that God is light and in God there is no darkness. One must also make the effort to follow Jesus who is the Light that came into the World. It is a journey that may begin in darkness, but with steadfast faith within a loving community, it will proceed toward the light.

Just War Theory has been challenged in recent times, but it does offer important markers – all of which have been violated in this conflict. This war was not started in self-defense nor in defense of an ally. It was not the last resort when negotiations had failed. According to just war theory, “The use of force must be proportional, that is, the suffering it prevents must be greater than the misery it is likely to create. The conflict cannot be the cause of more disorder and evil than those it seeks to address. In conflict, belligerents must discriminate between combatant and noncombatant, taking all measures to protect the latter.” A Catholic guide to understanding the war with Iran - America Magazine None of this reflects the reality of the current situation.

A few weeks ago, the Sunday Gospel included the beatitudes. The fourth beatitude concerns those who “hunger and thirst for righteousness.” According to Warren Carter, the “term designates those who are dissatisfied with current ideological claims of divine sanction for elite entitlements, with military power and elite alliances that secure the status quo hierarchical structures, with economic and political injustices concerning land, resources, taxes, and debt as well as societal structures and interactions, and with various daily practices of indignities and intimidations. God’s favor rests with those who long for and work for justice or righteousness for right societal relationships and access to adequate resources.” (Matthew vol.1. Pg. 310) I think that definition summarizes the faults of the current political regime while naming the work that Jesus’ followers are called to do.

This week marks the third Sunday of Lent when in year A, as well as in years when there is an active parish catechumenate, the story of the woman at the well is always read. (John 4: 5-42). The first reading from Exodus 17:3-7, compliments the Gospel theme of living water, relating the thirst of the Hebrew people during their desert journey, and God’s gift of water through the prophet Moses. The story of the Samaritan woman who comes to faith in Jesus and asks him for living water, is essential for those preparing for baptism. However, the story is much larger than an affirmation of Christian baptism. It is a carefully crafted narrative that relies on the history between the Samaritans and the Jewish people to reveal God’s preference for the poor and oppressed and to move people toward a much broader understanding of God’s love and inclusiveness.

John contrasts the story of the woman at the well with the story of Nicodemus in chapter 3: 1-21. Nicodemus is part of the elite class. He has a name. He is a Pharisee. He comes to Jesus at night when he is less likely to be observed. He asks questions of Jesus but is unable to grasp what Jesus tells him. The woman is from an outcast people. She is not given a name. As a woman, she has no business talking to a strange man. She comes to the well in broad daylight. She asks questions, comes to believe in Jesus, and invites the townspeople to come and do the same. This is a familiar story. God invites everyone but it is the people who have been left out of the privileges and trappings of empire who are most likely to hear and respond.

Commentators have written a lot about the woman who was purported to have had five husbands and was living with a sixth man, but the meaning goes beyond an immoral woman or someone unlucky in love. Here it is necessary to understand the woman as representing her people, the Samaritans, who had been repeatedly conquered, five times according to scripture (see 2 Kings 17:24) and were enduring a sixth time under Roman occupation. Thus, five husbands and a current alliance. One of the strategies of Assyrian forces was to resettle people of diverse backgrounds in the colonized regions to dilute the ability of conquered people to revolt. In that environment, the Samaritans had to struggle to maintain their identity while the Jews rejected them because of their mixed heritage.

After the Babylonian captivity when the Jews were working to rebuild the temple, they refused to allow the Samaritans to help in the rebuilding. This was the final straw that created enmity between the Jews and the Samaritans, and which is reflected in the dialogue about where the right place to worship might be. However, Jesus upends the conversation by declaring that God seeks people who worship in spirit and truth rather than those who worship in one location or another. Not surprisingly, God can be found outside the religious and civic centers of power.

In the closing of the story, the Samaritan people, after hearing from the woman who had encountered Jesus at the well, went to meet Jesus and escort him back to their village in a manner that would be provided for visiting dignitaries. After Jesus spends two days with the people they declare him to be Savior of the World. “The title ‘Savior’ evokes God’s intervention to save the people from imperial interventions. It recalls the fundamental affirmation that God is sovereign of the world, including the nations, and that all are subject to God’s purposes. Accordingly, it resists the empire even while it imitates it.” (Carter. John and Empire. Pg. 189)

Water is the draw in the readings today, but the larger story is one of resistance to empire, the thirst for peace and justice, and for belonging to a family larger than one’s particular ethnic or religious group. Jesus, the Savior of the World calls all people into one family led by a loving and inclusive God. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, who are dissatisfied with the way things are, are invited to drink deeply of the living water Jesus provides.

Books I refer to when reading the Gospel of John:

Becoming Children of God: John’s Gospel and Radical Discipleship. Wes Howard-Brook. Orbis Books. 1994

John and Empire: Initial Explorations. Warren Carter. T&T Clark; New York. 2008

My father’s family came from Italy. His father was from Sicily and his mother from Genoa. They met in the United States. My grandfather left Sicily looking for a new beginning after losing his wife and two children to illness. My grandmother was only a child when her family immigrated. They left because of religious persecution – they were not Catholic and that was not okay in Italy in the late 1800s.

My mother and father met in Portland, Oregon as young adults. My paternal grandmother was cool toward my mother because she was not Italian and she wasn’t Catholic – a faith my grandmother embraced a number of years after marrying my grandfather who was deeply religious. My maternal grandmother was standoffish with my father because he was Italian, Catholic, and had brown eyes and darker skin that she preferred. For me, they were just my parents; two people who loved and cared for each other and their four children and did the best they could to raise them to be good citizens and faithful people. As an adult I worked to look past their faults and to see them as individuals with their own histories that had shaped them into who they were.

The first reading for this weekend comes from Genesis 12: 1-4a. It is the story of God telling Abram, who is not yet called Abraham, to emigrate, to leave his kinsfolk and his country and go to a land that God would show him. God promised Abram that he would make him a great nation that he would be a blessing to all the communities of earth. And Abram went, along with his wife Sarai, their children, servants, livestock, belongings, and his nephew, Lot. It was not a solo venture. It was the uprooting of a large and wealthy clan. (See Genesis 13 where Abram is described as very rich in livestock, silver and gold!) According to scripture, Abram left his homeland at God’s command but kept in good standing with the family that stayed, enough so that his future son, Isaac, would eventually marry Rebekah, the granddaughter of Abram’s brother Nahor. (See Genesis 22:20-23).

People leave their homeland for many reasons. Their destination country offers a fresh start for some and treachery for others. What remains true is that migration has always been a part of human history, so much so that scripture has spoken repeatedly about how immigrants must be treated.

For example: Leviticus 19:34. “You shall treat the foreigner who resides with you no differently than the native born…”

Deuteronomy 10: 18-19. As God “befriends the foreigner, feeding and clothing them, so you too must befriend the foreigner.”

Psalms 146: 9. “God watches over the foreigner…”

Matthew 25:35. ”I was a stranger and you invited me in...”

Romans 12:2. “Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—God’s good, pleasing and perfect will.”

There has been an ongoing effort from the highest levels of government to transform the way that Americans see immigrants, from the neighbors next door to hostile enemies. Repeatedly immigrants are being identified as criminals, fraudsters, persons out to harm or cheat citizens out of their jobs or their birthright, and at the very least, as mentally ill. The effort to change the way that people who are not light-skinned Euro-descended Christians are viewed, has been relentless. The more often such lies are repeated on the air by politicians and reporters, the easier it is for people to begin to believe them, to stop seeing their neighbors as people like themselves, human beings made in the image of God, and instead see them through the eyes of suspicion and fear. But if people stop seeing others as siblings in Christ and view them only as part of a generic class of non-citizens, or people to classify by virtue of their skin color, accent, or faith, then this nation will have succumbed to the very treachery that scripture has repeatedly warned against. God loves all people. God is the creator of all humanity. Jesus is the face of immigrants. All people are made in the image of God.

The Gospel for this weekend, Matthew 17: 1-9, relates the story of the transfiguration, when Jesus took Peter, James, and John up the mountain with him. It is imperative that readers remember that just before this event in Matthew’s Gospel, six days before according to the narrative, Jesus told the disciples for the first time that he would suffer and be put to death before rising again. It was not a well-received message. Peter wanted to argue and then Jesus told all of the disciples that if they wanted to be his followers, they would have to take up their own cross and follow in his footsteps. It was undoubtedly a disturbing and mystifying message. Until this time the disciples had seen Jesus as a friend, a brother, a teacher, and hoped that he would be the Messiah/leader who would free the Hebrew people from the power of the Roman Empire. Remember that Matthew is writing after the Jewish war and years after the event that he is narrating. Matthew is writing to help all future disciples understand the experience that the first disciples went through, so that others might also come to believe in Jesus and follow him.

When Peter, James, and John went up the mountain, their eyes were opened. The veil that prevented them from seeing Jesus as the Divine Son was lifted. At least for a few moments during their time on the mountain top, the disciples no longer saw Jesus simply as a friend, a brother, a teacher, or even a Messiah leading them in a military revolution. Jesus was transfigured before their eyes: his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. Moses and Elijah, (standing for the Law and the Prophets), were there conversing with Jesus, and a bright cloud cast a shadow over them as a voice said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well please: listen to him.”

Appropriately the disciples were afraid and fell to the ground. But Jesus came and touched them, taking away their fear. When they arose, all was as it had been and Jesus told them not to tell anyone.

But nothing would be the same for the disciples. They had experienced their friend as God’s agent, God’s Son. They had to believe what Jesus told them, that he was going to suffer and die before rising again. They had encountered the God of Love, the one who calls all people, and they had been transformed.

May we always see others through the eyes of Love.

**I wrote earlier than usual as I had plans on Saturday. As I woke Saturday morning, I learned that the US had begun bombing Iran in yet another illegal war. I grieve for our nation. I grieve for soldiers and civilians. I grieve for the land and the creatures. Will we ever learn that war is never the answer? May God have mercy on us all.

I am not a fan of AI as it is being used either. The fact that news and information that we seek on phones – which are really all-purpose computers that give instant access to markets and news along with disinformation – is being used to shape the way people think disturbs me. I am also disgruntled at myself because I have become dependent on my phone’s calendar and contact list. Everything we do on our phones can be tracked, which is why phones are searched at the border and taken from people suspected of a crime. With the help of a convenient app (of course) I began tracking my smart phone usage. I was really startled by how much time I was online. As Lent approached this year, I began to consciously curtail my phone time. It is a constant temptation.

It is the first Sunday of Lent in Year A, Matthew’s Year. There are familiar readings. The first reading from Genesis chapter 2 speaks of the temptation in the Garden of Eden, of Eve being tempted by the serpent, and Adam joining Eve in eating the fruit of the forbidden tree. In the Gospel, Matthew 4: 1-11, Jesus is tempted three times by the devil. Adam and Eve succumb, but Jesus does not. For this reason, we hear in the second reading (Romans 5:12-19): “Through one man sin entered the world and through sin death,” and “through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous.” This belief, that sin and death came from human frailty and can only be mitigated through Jesus is at the heart of Christian faith. Throughout Lent this theme will be repeated until we reach Holy Week and Jesus makes the ultimate sacrifice to redeem humankind.

The three temptations or tests that the devil puts to Jesus reflect the times in which Matthew’s community was living, after the Jewish war and the fall of Jerusalem when people were hungry, and the power of Rome had reasserted itself over the people’s daily lives and their institutions. By his baptism - the story that comes right before the story of the desert temptations – Jesus is designated as God’s Son, God’s agent in the world. The tests that Jesus underwent determined if Jesus could withstand the pressures of the society in which he lived. Would he be tempted to use his divine access to feed the world on the command of the devil? Would he expect God’s angels to protect him at every turn? Would he use his divine agency to secure wealth and power over others? All of these things the devil sets before Jesus. The answer was no, however, as Warren Carter writes, “Matthew’s Gospel will later narrate Jesus performing such things: feeding crowds (14:13-21; 15: 32-39), publicly displaying God’s power and compassion in healings and exorcisms, (4:23-25), and gaining all authority in heaven and earth in his resurrection (28:18) and return (24:27-31; 26:64).” (Carter. Matthew 1:1 -16:20, pg. 230) The difference is in the choice to act only on God’s command, and in the focus of the tests. The devil sought personal power and benefits and offered Jesus the same. The devil also offered a way out of suffering, pain, rejection, and death. That is not a real pathway for humankind. We are mortal. Life is a gift that is not always easy. The suffering and pain that we naturally experience are teachers that help us on our way to holiness. And death is the end of earthly life. Would Jesus be the Savior he is for us if he had rejected the cross?

The temptations that are offered today look different from those offered in Jesus’ day, but they have the same effect: moving us away from God and the pathway to holiness.

We are called to be people in relationship to God and to one another. We are called to be people led by love and compassion rather than hate and fear and yet everywhere around us we are tempted to blame others for bad things and to see people who are different than we are as threatening. We do research on the internet, and algorithms give us what they figure out we should have. We seek information and AI may respond with distorted videos and disinformation. We think we control the device, but the device controls us. By “simulating human voices and faces, wisdom and knowledge, awareness and responsibility, empathy and friendship, systems known as artificial intelligence not only interfere with information ecosystems, but also invade the deepest level of communication, that of relationships between human persons.” (Pope Leo XIV https://catholicreview.org/we-are-not-created-for-algorithms-but-human-encounter-pope-leo-says-in-programmatic-message-on-ai/)

Pope Leo XIV is working on a major document to address the use and misuse of technology, especially AI. His “main concern is that technology does not substitute or erode essential human capacities—such as free reflection, creativity, or interpersonal relationships—but rather is oriented toward the good of the individual and the community, respecting truth and justice. This stance draws on elements from the Pope’s recent magisterium, who has spoken of AI as an ‘anthropological challenge’ and warned of the risks of turning people into passive consumers of machine-generated content.” https://infovaticana.com/en/2026/02/03/leo-xiv-prepares-an-encyclical-on-ai-reviewed-by-tucho/

There are two pathways that raise concern for me today. One is that people will succumb to the attraction and distraction of technology in ways that further divide our already polarized world, and second, that people will stop paying attention to anything that is happening because it has become so hard to discern what is true.

As we travel through this Lenten Season, may we come closer together as a community of faith, listening and learning from one another, so we can help each other in resisting the temptations set before us.

This week the church will shift as well, from Ordinary Time to the Lenten Season. The last of the Ordinary Time consecutive readings will change as the Sunday gospel readings begin to bounce around in Matthew before moving to the Gospel of John. This Sunday’s reading for the 6^th Sunday of Ordinary Time is from Matthew 5: 17-37, and it is a continuation of the Sermon on the Mount. Because this is Liturgical Year A, Matthew’s Year, the gospel for Ash Wednesday will be almost a continuation. Verses 5: 38-48 will be skipped, but the Gospel for the start of Lent comes from Matthew 6: 1-6 (plus verses 16-17) – which is still considered part of the Sermon on the Mount. The closing verses of the fifth chapter are important and are read on the 7^th Sunday of Ordinary Time in years when there are more Sundays before the start of Lent. This year Easter comes early, April 5, so when Ordinary time resumes again in June after the Easter Season, the readings will jump to the 11^th Sunday of Ordinary Time which includes Matthew 9: 36 – 10:8. I write about this to encourage people to read the parts of Matthew’s Gospel that will not be heard on Sundays this year. The narrative was written as a whole even though it is often thought of as a series of smaller passages.

This Sunday’s gospel reading begins with Jesus saying to his disciples: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” The law and the prophets is a direct reference to the whole of the Hebrew Scriptures. For some Christians, the Ten Commandments are what come to mind when they hear ‘the law.’ As important as those commandments are, they are only a few verses within the Hebrew Scriptures. The Prophets, along with the writings of the Hebrew scriptures which include books like the Psalms, Wisdom, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, are the largest part of the sacred work. This is important because to know and understand Jesus, it is imperative to know and understand the tradition in which he was immersed. Jesus was a Hebrew Prophet/Holy Man/ Messiah. His words today remind us of that fact. He came to fulfill the Hebrew Scriptures not to abolish them.

Jesus does, however, interpret the scriptures in ways that disturb, even anger the scribes and the Pharisees who were sure that they alone had the right and ability to interpret the scriptures correctly. “Matthew’s Jesus emphatically rejects the possibility that he destroys or abolishes the scriptures. By contrast, he affirms that he rightly interprets them as the will of God; nowhere does Matthew refer to the law negatively. Six additional times throughout 5:21-48, Matthew’s Jesus interprets scriptural sayings in accord with what is here framed as the right or authoritative interpretation of the divine will.” (Warren Carter. Matthew 1:1-16. Pg. 315) This assumed authority infuriated the authorized teachers of Jesus’ day, the Scribes and Pharisees, who were also part of the political elite. The love of power and control is not new in human societies. One way to maintain power and control is to dominate and regulate the religious and the judicial systems.

In the past few months, crimes, and alleged crimes related to Jeffrey Epstien and his multi-million-dollar sex trafficking operation have flooded the news. With somewhere near five million files of FBI collected information within the US justice department, and only three million of those released, and all of them at least partially redacted, speculation and conspiracy theories abound. What is not open to speculation is the reality that a number of exceedingly wealthy and influential men, and a couple of women, were closely associated with Epstein before and after his conviction on sex trafficking charges. In Europe, men who were discovered to be connected to Epstein have been forced to retire, resign, or in Andrew Mountbatten’s case, stripped of their royal title. In the case of Elon Musk, he was investigated and his Paris offices were raided by the equivalent of the French FBI. In the United States the stonewalling and obstruction of justice has only escalated.

In his interpretation of the sixth commandment heard in today’s reading, Jesus adds “I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.“ In Wikipedia lust is defined as: “immoral because its object or action of affection is improperly ordered according to natural law and/or the appetite for the particular object (e.g. sexual desire) is governing the person’s will and intellect rather than the will and intellect governing the appetite for that object.” Lust, as an intense form of human desire, when disordered, that is focused inappropriately, is centered on wealth and power at least as often as sex. There are few restraints and not many limits on what some very wealthy individuals or nations will do to expand or hold on to positions of power in the world. It now appears that within Epstein’s orbit the three ‘lusts’ were conveniently tied together. It does not take a lot of effort to realize that the American people are being deliberately prevented from knowing the extent of the rot within the government and other influential institutions and persons.

As a Catholic who has lived through the scandal of the priest sexual abuse cases, I am appalled that the church has not raised a loud voice even if the church is afraid of being the ‘pot calling out the kettle.’ It does not matter whether or not a particular person, judge, legislator, or Attorney General (Bondi) has been raised Catholic or Christian, the lesson on sexual abuse has not been taken to heart, and the church needs to speak up.

So far, the lust for power, influence, wealth, and illicit sexual desires has overridden any calls for justice and transparency. The first reading of this weekend from Sirach 15:15-20, is a reminder that God has set before humankind fire and water, life and death, good and evil, and has given humanity the power to choose.

Perhaps, it is time for Lent in the United States of America, a season of repentance, which provides an opportunity for reflection and change.

Change is sorely needed. Let us pray that positive change is coming.

There is no doubt that the wider society has become severely fractured, and revelations in the past weeks about social media have convinced many people that the fracturing of society has been intentional – perpetrated by entities that want to take over or destroy our system of government. After all, as scripture says, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.” (Matt 12: 25, Mark 3: 25. Luke 11:17). A divided country is always vulnerable to outside interests or internal schemes. In 1858 when Abraham Lincoln was running to become the Senator of Illinois, he gave what came to be known as his house divided speech where he quoted scripture and then said:

I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.

I do not expect the Union to be dissolved – I do not expect the house to fall – but I do expect it will cease to be divided.

It will become all one thing or all the other. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln%27s_House_Divided_Speech)

Our country, our society, our communities, families, and houses of worship are growing more divided day by day. We need to repair the damage, mend the breach, and heal the wounds while we still have a chance for recovery -- before we wake up and discover that the house is no longer divided but has united around a system that no longer reflects our deepest values of love, respect, inclusion, and justice. How can we do that?

In Sunday’s gospel, Matthew 5: 13—16, we hear Jesus teaching his disciples about the importance of living in ways that keep the flavor of his teachings while allowing the light of their faith to permeate the world around them. “Both metaphors [salt and light] are communal; both construct a missional identity and way of life for the community of Jesus followers. That is, the community is entrusted with a challenging, transformative, societal mission. No matter how small or powerless it might be, it does not live in retreat from or avoidance of the imperial world. Nor does it live for itself. “(Carter. Matthew: 1:1-16-20. page 312)

Christian communities cannot live for themselves worrying only about individual salvation or the well-being of their particular community of faith. Followers of Jesus are told to focus outward, living lives that are constantly in mission to the people around them. This is a collective mission that is not easily expressed in the English language where “you” can be both plural and individual. I – as an individual – am not called to reflect God’s light to the world. Rather we – as a collective – are called to reflect God’s light. Our task as individuals is to deepen our connections with other members of the Body of Christ so that God’s light can more effectively shine through us. Our communal life should reflect the values of the beatitudes and include all of the people who have been marginalized as expressed in the same beatitudes.

The first reading for this weekend comes from Isaiah 58: 7-10. The verses clearly describe the way of life that will lead people into God’s light. “Share your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless; clothe the naked when you see them, and do not turn your back on your own.” I am always perplexed that the church never reads verses 1- 6 of Isaiah chapter 58 on Sunday because they provide a context for verses 7-10 in worshipping communities. (While I suggest that you read those verses, it would be too much to quote them all here.) Isaiah challenges empty ritual done for the sake of personal or parochial interests, offering instead a different kind of ritual. “Is this not the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?” The verses read in church this weekend are the continuation of the passage, reminding the followers of Jesus that performing church-prescribed ritual does not by itself bring a community into the light. More is asked. The community is called to look outward. To exist for the purpose of bringing light to the darkness that others are experiencing.

In his commentary on Isaiah chapter 58, Walter Brueggemann writes: “The God of Judaism is not a God who likes to be flattered in a more or less passive routine of worship; this God is out working the neighborhood and wants all adherents doing the same.” (Brueggemann. Isaiah 40-66. Page 189) ‘This God’ is the God that Jesus knew intimately and called Father. While human leaders may need public flattery and ostentatious displays of power to bolster their egos, God does not – nor do the followers of Jesus.

Mending the fractures that seek to divide us will take great quantities of love, mercy, compassion, and forgiveness. Such quantities can only come from God through communities acting together for the common good. When communities stand up for the vulnerable, give voice to the voiceless, and shelter the oppressed, then, as Isaiah says, “Your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed… Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer…If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation, and malicious speech… Then light shall rise for you in the darkness.” (Isaiah 58)

May we become the communities of Salt and Light that we have been called to be.

If she had lived, today would have been my granddaughter’s 28^th birthday.

Rowan was a loving and beautiful person.

She will never be forgotten.

Life is hard in America right now. As a person in my seventies, I know and try to support a number of people in my circle who are struggling with health issues, loss, and even end-time-illnesses. It is part of life as we age. These griefs, as well as the day-to-day troubles that arise at any age, can weigh any person down, but when combined with the constant assault of vengeance and meanness coming from the highest levels of government, it is no wonder that the spirits of people of good will are being crushed. At times it feels almost impossible to take a breath.

I understand why people tune-out. I keep on going because of the many people who are fueling the growing resistance. Saturday’s labor rally in Portland was life giving. I cannot imagine how the people who are being targeted because of race or immigration status, who are afraid to leave their homes, or afraid to go home, who fear for their children or spouses, who have no idea where their loved ones have been taken, or find themselves sitting in a detention center far from home, are managing to breathe at all.

Such a situation has existed in America before. The Chinese workers who built America’s railroads were rounded up and deported after being treated abominably in the 1800’s. Japanese Americans were rounded up and sent to internment camps while their property was confiscated during the 1940’s. And although the connection to German society in the 1930’s has been made repeatedly, the Nazis looked at America’s slave history when they designed their assault on German Jews. I am white. I do not carry these racial traumas. I must force myself to call them to mind.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit” Matthew wrote in the gospel passage for this weekend, 5:1-12. He was expressing the teaching of Jesus in the context of the time and place in which he was living, after the Jewish War of 66-70 C.E., when a high percentage of the population was materially poor. As Warren Carter writes, we know that “poverty corrodes every dimension of a person’s existence. These are the poor in spirit, the materially poor, whose very being, their spirit, is diminished and damaged by economic, political, and cultural injustice. They live with few resources and little hope, subject to larger elite powers and struggles over which they have little control.” (Carter. Matthew 1:1-1620. Pg. 308) It is not just the lack of material goods. It is the combination of material need with helplessness in the face of overwhelming political and cultural injustice that makes people poor in spirit.

Each generation must do as Matthew did and express the teachings of Jesus in the context of the time and place in which they live. Many of the immigrants being targeted today, e.g., Somalis, Haitians, Venezuelans, Guatemalans, found refuge in America after experiencing hopelessness, and political and cultural injustice in their homelands. They came for the promise of freedom in America.

But the promise has been broken.

The beatitudes were spoken to people who needed to know how to live in the context of their times. Jesus looked at the crowds and called his disciples to himself. He gave them examples, ways to live in resistance to the Roman imperial system, ways that would allow them to survive and care for each other while at the same time expressing their belief in the promise of God’s Reign. Matthew honed Jesus’s words for his time, a time when the people around him were crushed by the weight of loss; especially “the loss of power and identity experienced in [the] context of submission to the victorious and oppressive Roman Imperial power expressed in the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple.” (ibid. 309)

The question for believers today is how best to express and act upon Jesus’s teachings in light of the particular context of our day. The first four beatitudes pertain to those who are being oppressed: 1) the poor - whose spirits are being crushed, 2) those who mourn the loss of power and identity, 3) the meek who have been stripped of property and dignity, and 4) those who hunger for righteousness – the ones who are on the direct receiving end of imperial domination and indignity. The next five beatitudes offer guidelines for those who can act as God’s agents. These are practices for believers to work on collectively rather than mandates for salvation. We try. We fail. We ask for forgiveness. We try again.

Blessed are the merciful. Mercy is at the heart of God’s reign. Merciful people give others the benefit of the doubt which relieves them of the need to judge whether or not any one is worthy of care or concern.

Blessed are the pure in heart. Carter describes purity of heart as a divinely sanctioned way of life that has “an aversion to what is false and deceitful…The emphasis is on integrity, on unity between internal motivations and external actions, on the absence of hypocrisy.” (ibid. 311)

Blessed are the peacemakers. Peace comes through the work of human hands as people join together to resist oppression, defend the vulnerable, and work to establish justice. The kind of peace that empires impose through the might of armed agents is not God’s peace. God’s peace is never achieved through force.

To live in resistance to the empire as an alternative community of justice and love is not without risk. “The eighth and ninth beatitudes recognize this inevitable conflict and express divine favor for those who are harassed and threatened by the hostile status quo seeking to protect its advantages.” (ibid.312)

Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness.

Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.

On the front lines of resistance, ordinary people, pastors, lawmakers, journalists, and even Cardinals and Bishops are experiencing backlash from defenders of the status quo. This is what happens in every age. Jesus told us this long ago. Matthew translated it into his own time just as countless other pastors and prophets have continued to do in our day.

We are blessed when we stay the course. No one said following Jesus would be easy.

Gratefully there were a couple of really good events. For example, three Catholic Cardinals, Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, Cardinal Robert McElroy, archbishop of Washington and Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R., archbishop of Newark, issued a joint statement challenging the morality of American foreign policy. “The events in Venezuela, Ukraine and Greenland have raised basic questions about the use of military force and the meaning of peace.” Citing Pope LeoXIV they said “A diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force, by either individuals or groups of allies. War is back in vogue and a zeal for war is spreading. https://adw.org/news/joint-statement-morality-u-s-foreign-policy-english/ I am grateful for their leadership. And in Minneapolis thousands of people walked out from jobs and schools, and went to the streets, while hundreds of businesses closed to protest illegal and threatening actions by ICE Agents -- even though the temperature was below zero. Resistance is possible!

This weekend’s gospel is from Matthew 4:12-27. In the first part of the passage Matthew quotes from Isaiah 9:1 which is also found in the first reading for the weekend which is from Isaiah 8:23-9:3. Once again it repeats verses from the passage so familiar to people that attend mass on Christmas Eve; “The people who walk in darkness have seen a great light.” The connection is more than merely intentional. It is designed to help people recognize Jesus as the Light of the World.

There is another repeated verse that might not be as familiar as it comes from Isaiah 8:23, which is only read in church every three years on the third Sunday of Ordinary Time. This is the verse that refers to the Land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali and the District of the Gentiles or “Galilee of the Gentiles” as it is referred to in Matthew. To be a District of the Gentiles or Galilee of the Gentiles meant that Galilee was occupied -- by Assyrian forces in the time that Isaiah wrote and by Roman forces in the time of Jesus and Matthew. In his commentary on Isaiah, Walter Brueggemann says that when we read this passage today, we read “as a nation state now warmly embraced by a powerful military ideology. We United States citizens are not, to be sure, the suppliants of a great superpower as Ahaz was of Assyria, for we are the superpower recruiting and seducing suppliant states for our grand designs of a ‘new world order.’” (Brueggemann, Isaiah I-39. Westminster Press. 1998. Pg. 80.)

Matthew was most likely writing his narrative of Jesus from Antioch, a site that is now located in Turkey but at the time was the provincial capital of the Roman province of Syria where there was a large population of Jews who had fled from the war. The land of Galilee had been devastated by the Jewish War of 66-70. While most people are aware that the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed during the attack on Jerusalem, Jerusalem was not the only city or region to suffer. The historian Josephus wrote of many localized catastrophes. “For example, at the outbreak of the revolt, Cestius attacked the Galilean town of Chabulon. Its residents were subjugated as soldiers pillaged their houses, set fire to the town, and then sacked and burned surrounding villages. Loss of life, both human and animal, and loss of property abounded, including the complete annihilation of several towns. (Carter. Matthew 1:1-16:20. Pg 245) Then after the war, “Vespasian and Titus claimed control of Galilee, redistributed land among loyal supporters, and ensured economic control of land and resources through taxation of the largely peasant economy. Loyal local elites who secured their own social and economic power through cooperation with Rome assisted in maintaining control.” (Carter. Mathew and the Margins. Pg113.) For his first readers, Matthew’s text made tight connections between empires past and empires present. Watching elites of today secure their social and economic power is no different!

The gospel says that Jesus withdrew to Galilee when he came back from his desert experience and discovered that John had been arrested, but it would be a mistake to believe that Jesus retreated to a safer place. Galilee was an occupied land. Jesus went to bring light into the darkness of empire and hope to a people who had experienced great trauma. It was in Galilee that Jesus began gathering disciples.

As I read about Galilee during the time of Isaiah or Jesus or Matthew, I first considered the pastoral pictures of Jesus walking by the sea and calling to Simon and Andrew. Next, I envisioned Gaza today, a land occupied and destroyed where any movement of resistance would be met with force. And I realized that the second vision was a more likely scenario. When Jesus called to Simon and his brother Andrew, and to James and John the sons of Zebedee, Jesus was bringing light and hope to a downtrodden people. Becoming followers of such a person was not without risk and yet these future disciples left their boats and followed. Perhaps they felt they had little left to lose.

Following Jesus has rarely, if ever, been like the pastoral images that adorn bibles and churches, calm and peaceful. Following Jesus takes courage and a willingness to take a risk that most people are unwilling or hesitant to take. Jesus went about healing people in that darkened land. Richard Rohr suggests that Christians often ask if the healings were real but rarely ask why the people were so in need of healing. “When you ask why the healing was needed, you have a whole new way of seeing what needs to change, which is invariably the bigger power structure: the institutionalized evils that no longer look evil; the ‘structural sins’ as Pope Francis [called] them.” (Rohr. The Tears of Things: Prophetic Wisdom for an Age of Outrage. Convergent:NY. 2025. Pg. 22)

Today, occupying forces are too often supported by the American Empire, and the people who benefit from the militarized world are often the people who proclaim Isaiah, and Matthew within their churches without fully grasping what Jesus was about. To be a follower of Jesus is to be willing to give up the safety and the benefits of the empire for the sake of a more just and humane world: what Jesus called, the Reign of God

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In liturgical planning, most of the effort goes toward the two great Feasts: Easter and Christmas. The preparation time for these two feasts -- Lent and Advent -- also gets some intense consideration. Ordinary Time is split into two parts: the weeks after the Christmas Season until Ash Wednesday, and the weeks after Pentecost which closes the Easter Season, until the beginning of Advent and the new liturgical year. Ordinary Time is often experienced as down time, a good time to take a vacation without missing the important Easter and Christmas Seasons. It is an interesting rhythm that should, I think, be reconsidered in light of the serious issues of our time. Jesus had important things to say -- by word and action -- that are highly relevant to the times we are living through, and I would suggest, more important that what we have to say about him.

This weekend begins the second week of Ordinary Time. Ordinary Time begins on the Monday after the Baptism of the Lord, so there is no Sunday in the first week, which explains why the first Sunday we celebrate in Ordinary Time is called the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time since it is the Sunday of the second week of ordinary time. (Confused?) Every year on the Second Sunday the lectionary provides us with a gospel text that affirms the divine nature of Christ. This year the gospel is John 1:29-34 which tells John’s version of the Baptism of the Lord, which we celebrated last week with the same event narrated by Matthew. John’s gospel presents a higher Christology than we find in the synoptic gospels (Mark, Luke, Matthew). High Christology emphasizes the divinity of Christ over the humanity of Christ. The church community announces who he is – the Divine Son – so that he will be taken more seriously than just another teacher or holy man. “He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” says the prophet. “He is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit…He is the Son of God.” In other words, listen to him!

What Jesus had to say about living in community, about sharing and caring for others, about forgiveness and compassion is a whole lot harder to implement than a celebration that honors him as the Savior, Son of God, Prince of Peace – and that is not to take away from the dedicated liturgists who go to great lengths to see that the church’s great Feasts are well celebrated. But, it is possible to name Jesus as the Savior of the World born in a manger and God’s Son resurrected from the dead yet know little about what he asked of his followers or how to live out his teachings in the world. For this reason, the teaching time of the church – Ordinary Time – is especially important. It is the season when the readings generally move consecutively through the gospel narrative rather than skipping around as they so often do in festal seasons. It is the time when a faith community can work and plan and perhaps strategize with one another about how best to live out the teachings of Jesus in the current moment.

In Dilexi Te (#2), Pope Leo XIV reminds people, using his own words as well as the words of Pope Francis, that “Jesus identified himself ‘with the lowest ranks of society’ and how, with his love poured out to the end, he confirms the dignity of every human being, especially when ‘they are weak, scorned, or suffering.’ As we contemplate Christ’s love, ‘we too are inspired to be more attentive to the sufferings and needs of others and confirmed in our efforts to share in his work of liberation as instruments for the spread of his love.” Liberation and love are not the values that come to mind when we see videos of immigrants and their advocates clashing with federal officers. And yet many of the news commentators and even politicians and influencers who speak in favor of these actions do so while wearing a symbol of the cross of Christ. Jesus told us through his disciples that whenever we feed or clothe or visit or serve the least of our brothers and sisters, we are doing so for him. (Matt. 25) There is nothing about purging people of color or minorities from our midst. “The Letter of James deals at length with the problem of relations between rich and poor, and asks the faithful two questions in order to examine the authenticity of their faith: ‘What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm, eat your fill.” And yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” (ibid #29 – James 2:14-17)

This weekend we remind one another once again that Jesus is the Lord. However, it is not enough for us to proclaim who he is if we do not also take the time to know what he asked of us, and then, in communion with other believers, to discern how best to implement his teachings in our own day. We should not let who Jesus is distract us from what Jesus said.

Keep the Faith!

The social safety net and helping institutions that we have relied on, some of us for our entire lives, are breaking apart. Money to fund activities like supplemental food assistance, housing, and healthcare is being used to fund other priorities like a larger military force and selective foreign aid or interference, depending on how one may look at it. It doesn’t really matter as the reality is the same either way. More people will need help in the world that is being reshaped by people whose vision of the world does not call for investing in vulnerable populations, but in raising up strident supporters of a new era.

This week the church celebrates the Baptism of the Lord. Liturgically we separate out the baptism in a way that the early church did not. Early on, the Baptism of the Lord was bundled together with the Coming of the Magi and the story of the Wedding Feast in Cana as three stories of the manifestation of God – or epiphanies! These stories had miraculous elements that pointed to the divine nature of Jesus. In the coming of the magi there is a heavenly star that leads the way, dreams that guide, and magi who bow down to the infant Jesus in recognition of his divinity. In the baptism, which we hear this weekend from Matthew 3:13-17, Jesus hears God’s voice affirming that he is God’s beloved Son. In Cana, Jesus demonstrated divinity by turning water into wine. Each story offers an ‘epiphany’ – or manifestation of the presence of God in our midst. For all time, these stories are to be reminders that we are not alone!

When Matthew wrote that the Holy Spirit descended like a dove, he was conveying more than just an image for his readers to use on various banners and future church windows. In antiquity, birds were often used in stories to represent messages coming from the gods. “Bird omens were understood to portend important events involving powerful and ruling figures.” (Warren Carter. Matthew 1:-16:20. Introduction and Commentary. Eerdmans. Grand Rapids, MI. 2025. pg.221) “Significantly, doves are also contrasted with eagles by several authors, the latter being warlike and strong and the former being gentle and nonviolent. In addition, “the eagle was a common image for Rome’s imperial and military power, a sign of empire and an omen of conquest.” (Ibid. 206-208) (I think it is telling that the official bird of the US is an eagle.) In writing of the Holy Spirit descending, Matthew also links the Holy Spirit responsible for Jesus’ conception with responsibility for his ministry. As Warren Carter says, “This emphasis on birds as indicating the importance of a figure or event underscores Jesus’s identity as God’s sanctioned agent.” (ibid)

When Jesus came to John the Baptist at the Jordan River, he was acting on an inborn yearning to make things right in the world, and assuming his role as an agent of God. Recognizing that the changes that John the Baptist was calling for were needed, he went forward, ready to step into his public ministry. John was hesitant to baptize him because John recognized the power within Jesus, but Jesus was persuasive and John fulfilled his role. This story reminds us that Jesus was known by the prophet as God’s anointed one, God’s agent for good in the world, God’s beloved Son. In being baptized, Jesus accepted his mission. “The first generations of Christians were very clear about what Jesus had been. They summarized the impression he had left etched in the memory of his followers in these words, “anointed by God with the Holy Spirit…, spent his life doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil, because God was with him. (Pagola. Following in the Footsteps.pg. 45)

Thursday the New York Times printed an opinion piece by David Brooks, “The Sins of the Moderates.” Here In the article, Brooks asks moderates from the left and the right to consider how they are supposed to behave in this new world that is currently being created. He refers to theologian Reinhold Niebuhr’s 1944 book, The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness: A Vindication of Democracy and a Critique of Its Traditional Defense saying: “The children of darkness … are the moral cynics who believe life is all about power. The children of light are those driven by ideals to build a just civilization… In Niebuhr’s view the children of darkness are brutal but realistic about human nature while the children of light are admirable but naïve about entrenched human selfishness.” Brooks suggests that moderates today have not yet decided to step into ‘public ministry’ (my words) preferring instead to hide in the hope that things will go back to being what they were used to in prior administrations, or perhaps, hoping to hang on to the mostly comfortable life they are living even as life falls apart for others.

It does seem that the children of light and the children of darkness are in an open war, and it may no longer be possible to just stay out of the way. Brooks says that such times should cause “moderates to become immoderate.” Those words tell me that Brooks, like many other moderates on the right (and left) are realizing that people must step up rather than sit back.

It is a moment for believers to move forward as Jesus did in a time when imperial Rome made life treacherous for ordinary people. In every age the followers of Jesus are to continue his ministry “proclaiming and embodying God’s just and liberating reign in the face of the opposition that inevitably results from those with (in)vested interests in defending the status quo.” (Carter. Matthew and the Margins. Pg. 105) It is always more difficult to follow when society is falling apart.

May the Holy Spirit empower the children of light to confront the darkness with holy commitment and non-violent means.

The church celebrates Epiphany this weekend, also known as Three Kings Day or the Coming of the Magi. The Magi only appear in Matthew’s Gospel, so every year the Epiphany Gospel is the same. Matthew 2: 1-12. This presents a bit of a conundrum in Year A, or the Year of Matthew, which we are in, because the narrative of chapter two is chopped up and the last verses, 13-23, with the exception of verses 16-18, are read on the Sunday before the first verses, 1-12, which we hear this weekend. This allows the church to celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family as we did last weekend with the story of the Holy Family fleeing into Egypt, but without any explanation for Herod’s desire to destroy the child. Herod’s anger and jealousy of the new born king, according to Matthew’s narrative, is not explained until this week when we celebrate Epiphany. And the direct threat heard in verses 16-18 is saved for the Feast of the Holy Innocents which is never celebrated on a Sunday. Thus, the continuity of the story is fractured. (I suggest reading the whole chapter to gain a clearer understanding of what Matthew is telling his readers.)

There has been a great deal of work by scholars and Christian archeologists and scientists in the attempt to prove the historicity of the coming of the Magi and in particular the appearance of the Bethlehem Star – another feature found only in Matthew’s telling. But this research misses the point of the narrative told in the first two chapters of Matthew. The chapters were written as a kind of preface and overview using language and images that come from the Hebrew Scriptures which would have been familiar to the people who first heard the narrative as Matthew told it. I tend to agree with scripture scholar Bernard P. Robinson when he wrote: “It is difficult to view Matthew’s magi story (as it stands) as history, but it may well contain an historical substratum. Perhaps a group of magi did find their way to Bethlehem and discern in Jesus an omen of the overthrow of western imperialism. For Matthew, the principal importance of the story lies in what it says about Jesus’ kingship and his divine sonship.” (“Matthew’s Nativity Stories.” Bernard Robinson. New Perspectives on the Nativity. ed. Jeremy Corley. 2009. Pg.126)

From the beginning, the Christian Story has been a challenge to imperial power. This should not be a surprise considering the oppressive conditions that existed at the time the story was written, which echoed the oppressive conditions that existed when Jesus walked the land. Storytellers rely upon traditions that people know in order to evoke a wider range of knowledge and emotions than would otherwise be possible. Matthew wrote of Jesus who had lived approximately 50 years before Matthew wrote. Important stories were passed down orally through the generations, but many details would have been left behind. In setting the stage for the narrative of Jesus’ public ministry, his death, and resurrection, Matthew wanted people to understand the context of Jesus’ life – which remains as valid for people today as it was for people in the first century.

Jesus stood against imperial power.

Imperial power seeks to control and dominate less powerful people and nations as it seeks more power and wealth for its inner circle. Some of our sacred stories have been deliberately overlooked or misinterpreted to appease the powers that be in any given era. God’s Reign, the Kingdom or Kin-dom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, and eternal life all alluded to a world where communities of people shared goods, and cared for, and respected one another in ways that, if implemented, would defy the possibility of the wealth, health, and justice gap that now exists.

As imperialists seek power, they also seek public affirmation of their power. We have seen this in our own time as public officials go out of their way to flatter and inflate the egos of would-be emperors with the hope of getting what they want or need. Visitors who are not willing to be supplicants are treated poorly. Robinson, speaking of similar issues in the first century said, “Many scholars think that Matthew was influenced by a journey to the court of Nero in 66 C.E. by Tiridates to be formally invested as King of Armenia. According to Suetonius (Nero 13.2), Tiridates was made to walk up a ramp and prostrate himself in supplication before Nero. With him, says Pliny (NH 30.6.17), he had brought magi. The party returned home by a different route, says Dio Cassius (hist. 62.7).” (ibid. pg. 122).

Imagine this scene. We know that Nero was not a nice guy, and so did Matthew. Nero is the emperor who burned Jerusalem and destroyed the temple in 70 C.E. just before Matthew wrote his gospel. Tiridates was made to prostrate himself before Nero – not something that leaders generally like to do. Tiridates had to do so as a condition of being crowned by Nero. Crowning Tiridates was a way to end a conflict between Rome and Parthia over Armenia and in effect made Armenia a client kingdom. Matthew was rejecting such imperialism along with any homage given to an overreaching, imperial monarch or monarch wannabe who sought to oppress others. Instead, Matthew was telling his community that obeisance belonged to God alone.

Matthew did this by telling a story of three magi who came with gifts and prostrated themselves before the child Jesus – whom Matthew recognized as the Messiah and Son of God. Matthew knew Jesus to be the Messiah and Son of God not because of the royal genealogy or the miraculous birth or the coming of the Magi or the Star or even the dreams and visions that Matthew described. Matthew recognized Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God because of the way that Jesus lived, what he said, and what he did. Matthew already knew the story and the implications it had for the oppressed people of his time. He wanted his readers to know it too.

Matthew gives us a powerful preface for the life-altering story that he will tell in the chapters that follow. May we take his message to heart and allow it to shape and reshape our lives

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