An inspirational story of a man who serves his community

3rd Sunday of Lent 2012

 My Brothers in Christ,

This weeks Gospel Reading is the only time where Jesus is seen losing His temper. He is visibly upset and drives the merchants out of the Temple using a whip, overturns tables, and berates all who are present. Why was this situation different? Why with all the wrongs in the world and situations that Jesus interacted with within His ministry was this circumstance so different that he actually got physical? There is a messsage here in His actions. He obviously wanted to get our attention and sometimes actions do speak louder than words. It is like Jesus has grabbed our face with His hands and put His face two inches from ours. He is trying to tell us something.

One of the biggest feasts on the Jewish Calander is the Feast of Passover. In the time of Jesus, Jews from all over the world would come to the temple in Jerusalem to offer sacrafices to God and fufill their religeous obligations. What was once a very solemn event had turned into a money-making opportunity. The Jewish Community had lost their focus and the true meaning of the ritual was lost. The temple was becoming a center of commerce. Its true purpose was blurred. What was once a testament to their faith had become a cultural center. Jesus was sending a clear message: “You have lost your focus!”

Today, Jesus is sending that message to us in the form of a warning: “Don’t lose your focus!” We have just passed the Third Sunday of Lent and our journey has just barely begun; yet with the lures of society and the lures of sin it is very easy to forget why we are here. It is very easy to forget our religeous obligations. We need to keep ourselves empty of everything except for Jesus. It must be the central aspect of this season as we journey with Him carrying our own crosses to Calvary. It is so easy at this point to throw down our cross and abandon the journey. That is what temptation is all about: we are here because we want to be here. We have responded to Jesus’ call for us to love Him. Yet, we can always ignore Him instead of confronting our own pain, sin, and short-comings. We can always forget that we are part of something far bigger than ourselves. We do not need to help our brothers and sisters and treat others as we expect to be treated: with love and compassion.

It is so easy to take the road that offers no challenges and lowers expectations. Christian Life is not easy. It is arguably the hardest life that one can choose to live; but the rewards our endless. We become one with our God and that relationship becomes so intimate and personal like no other realtionship we can ever comprehend having. Let the Holy Spirit move you and let Jesus love you. There is no better feeling than being moved by the Spirit and knowing that Jesus is with you always.

“DON’T LOSE YOUR FOCUS.”

DEACON TOM

2nd Sunday of Lent 2012

My Brothers in Christ,

 Through the Transfiguration, Jesus reveals himself to Peter, James, and John  on a mountain in all of His glory. From that point on, there is no doubt as to who He is: the Son of God. His kingship is also solitified by the presence of Moses, Elijah, and God himself.

It is important to understand why Peter, James, and John were there and no one else. It is also important to understand why Elijah and Moses were there. Peter, James, and John were the key disciples of Jesus’ “Inner Circle” of 12. After Jesus left this earth, it was Peter, James, and John who were instrumental to spreading His message of everlasting life and salvation. Peter was “The Rock” from which the Church was built upon, James brought the Faith to Spain and evangelized throughout Jerusalem. He and his brother John were known for their fiery tempers and passion for the Faith. In the end, this caused him to be the first Apostle to be martyred. John, the Apostle whom Jesus loved, was the only one who did not suffer matyrdom. He lived well into the next century until the age of 94. He was central to the founding of the Early Church at the end of the Apostolic Age. Saint Polycarp, one of the most important Bishops in the Early Church, was a disciple of John.

The signifigance of Moses and Elijah being present with Jesus in the center is an indication that Jesus is indeed the Son of God: Elijah represents all of the prophets whose messages point to Jesus’ coming and Moses represents the Law of God. Then there is God Himself reveiling Jesus as His Son.

During this Lenten Season we all can relate to the Transfiguration. As Jesus and the three climbed a mountain to its peak, we are climbing our own mountains to reach a greater glory through our own suffering and struggles. To get to the peak and to the Easter Glory that waits us, we must first challenge ourselves physically, mentally, and spiritually to achieve our own Transfiguration that awaits us. Jesus is at work in all of us. We need to recognize this and let Him influence our lives. The more we ajoin ourselves to the Suffering Christ during this season the more we will understand our relationship with Christ.

There is a special kind of Grace that can only be experienced through suffering and pain. All of us here are in a unique poisition to experience it. All of us here have had something taken away from us and have experieinced a crisis in our lives that have brought us to this point. The challenge now is to let it affect us in a positive manner and to prevent it from destroying us. Through this Lenten Season we will then be able to experience our own Transfiguration and become closer to Jesus.

Yours in Christ,

Deacon Tom