How Easter Transformed the Universe (Easter Sunday - Cycle C)

We see in the Book of Genesis that God created a perfect world, free of any defect or imperfection. Clearly, however, we do not live in such a world today. Reflecting on the human condition might leave us with bleak thoughts. Our lives are beset with sorrow. Society is in the grip of destructive forces. The natural world tends toward decay. Our brief journey upon the earth ends in death. But there is much more to our story than such despairing thoughts. The message of Easter gives us true hope, true meaning.

The Fall of humanity had marred all of the world. But the death and resurrection of Christ changed the course of human history and set in motion the transformation of the entire universe. The restoration and renewal brought about by Christ has three aspects: our personal salvation, the healing of society, and the remaking of the natural world.

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Two Powers Opposed Each Other on Palm Sunday (Palm Sunday - Cycle C)

As the Passover approached, two opposing powers entered Jerusalem. The first was Pontius Pilate, with a strong force of Roman soldiers. The Romans always strengthened their presence in the city in preparation for the Passover feast. The Passover celebrated the deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery by the miraculous intervention of God, when Moses was given the power to lead the Israelites to safety.

But at the time of Christ, the Israelites were celebrating the great feast of their liberation under the foreign occupation of the Romans. Unrest was very likely. The city was like a tinderbox that could go up in flames any moment. The Romans made a show of raw military power to reinforce their occupation and the oppressive order that the Empire had imposed upon the land. Pilate himself, the local Roman governor, was in town to oversee the demonstration of dominance.

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The Flaw in Our Compassion (Lent V - Cycle C)

Whenever the religious leaders come to Jesus to ask him a question in the Gospels, they are setting a trap for him. They present him with a situation where no matter how he answers, he is bound to give a response that they can use against him. In the case of the woman caught in adultery, the penalty prescribed by the Mosaic Law was death by stoning. If Jesus tells them not to stone the woman, they can accuse him of breaking the law. If he tells them to proceed with the execution, they can claim that his message of mercy was hollow and meaningless.

In each of the traps set by the religious leaders of his time, Jesus deflects the attack by responding in an altogether different way from what his antagonists are expecting. In the situation involving the woman caught in adultery, Jesus replies by exposing the hypocrisy of the men seeking judgment against her.

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Which Son Are We? (Lent IV - Cycle C)

The Parable of the Prodigal Son, the Gospel Reading for this Sunday, is one of the most celebrated and commented on passages from the New Testament. The story is the third of three parables about God's boundless forgiveness in the Gospel of Luke, the first two being the Parable of the Lost Sheep and the Parable of the Lost Coin. These specific lessons are not necessarily instructions on how we are to manage human affairs but are about how God acts towards us. All three parables depict the unfathomable love of God for us.

Interpretations of the Parable of the Prodigal Son have usually focused on the younger, dissolute brother, as evidence by how the parable is named. But Pope Benedict XVI had proposed that we rename the passage to the Parable of the Two Sons, since they both show problematic behavior. The sins of the younger son are certainly more glaring. In his cultural context, respect for and deference to elders was paramount. A person's identity was, moreover, defined by belonging to a family and by attachment to ancestral land. By leaving his family and the land behind, he cuts himself off from all his relations and friends. By asking for his inheritance up front, he shows that he wishes his father dead and destroys completely their relationship.

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Christ Is the Only Source of Eternal Life (Lent III - Cycle C)

In the First Reading for this Sunday, God reveals his name to Moses, saying, "I am who am" (Exodus 3:14). At first blush, the name might sound evasive or dismissive, as if God didn't really want to give his name. But a closer consideration shows that God's words to Moses convey a deep philosophical and theological meaning.

God doesn't just exist. He is existence itself. He is being itself. The world exists only because God wills it to exist. All of reality is rooted in God's existence.

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The Cross Comes Before the Glory (Lent II - Cycle C)

Over the years, I have traveled to many holy sites, including the Holy Land, Rome, Assisi, and various historic Marian shrines. Of all the places I have visited, the one that stands out the most is the Marian shrine at Medjugorje, in Bosnia-Herzegovina, a place I have visited five times. Why? Because of a deep, all-pervading sense of peace that reigns in the whole town. When I am there, I wish that I would never have to leave.

My desire to stay in Medjugorje is perhaps similar to Peter's desire to stay on the mountain with Jesus. He experiences an intimation of Heaven -- of the glory, the beauty, the joy, and the peace that await us in eternity. But much like I have always had to return from Medjugorje to the day-to-day vicissitudes of life, Peter too must come down from the mountain and face what is to come next.

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How the Tempter Seeks to Destroy Us (Lent I - Cycle C)

In the Gospels we see that, before starting his public ministry, Christ goes into the desert for 40 days and 40 nights, praying and fasting as he prepares for all that is to come. At the end of his sojourn, he is tempted by Satan. Jesus came among us to be like us in every way but sin. He too undergoes the experience of temptation so as to enter into the human condition fully and also to show us a model for how to resist such spiritual attacks.

Jesus is presented with three temptations - food, power, and glory. Each temptation is a warning to us about a specific spiritual danger and brings to the fore an idol we might be drawn to worshipping in the place of God. Each temptation is furthermore designed to derail Christ's mission as the Messiah in a specific way.

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