Numbers 21:4-9 & John 8:21-30

                                              
Whether writhing with sins of complaint and nostalgia like the Israelites, or dealing with a global pandemic of fear, death and disconnection named Covid-19 the results are the same in their timelessness: suffering and death. Suffering and death are always a feature of human life; it’s just that in our recent times of prosperity, we conveniently forgot about them, and have now forgotten God’s remedy.  Now that we cannot ignore suffering and death that are much closer to home, and even within us as we struggle with ‘cabin fever’ or other overwhelming circumstances, it is time to get real and find the truth, the light and the love of the matter. Jesus, Son of God who became the Son of Man, came into the world and was willingly lifted up like a serpent on a pole to die for our sins. This is the remedy! Christ Jesus is our Redeemer, and is alone and forever our salvation.  Suffering and death do not ever have the last word.  Jesus crucified and raised from the dead always and forever holds out life, light and love to men, women and children, no matter how dark the times may be.  When the serpents of sins and despair bite me, will I turn to Christ crucified for my salvation?  Christ Jesus, help me turn and look to you to be saved.
 
For an excellent short homily by “Fr Steve” on these readings see today’s daily Mass from Word on Fire at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsByY59OwWI&feature=youtu.be
 
 
The Lord looks on those who revere him, on those who hope in his love, to rescue their souls from death.  (Psalm 33)
 
You know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep.
St. Papul in Romans 13:11  
 
 
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Soli ad gloriam Dei

 
Daniel 13: 1-64 & John 8:1-11
                                              
As I work my way through these slow days of Lent, disconnected in seemingly endless ways from familiar faces and places, there is time to check out my connection to my own heart, and there, my connection to God.  “What have I been doing?!” I ask myself when I discover habits of avarice, pride, and a casual acceptance of social norms that have grown into my life, choking out the good ‘plants’ of truth, holiness and love I have so often realized I should be and do. ‘What have I been doing?’ is the same question the Israelites elders who preyed on women, and the righteous Susanna in particular, must have asked themselves. And it is the same question that Jesus encouraged the woman to ask herself, when she caught in adultery, and brought to him for ‘punishment’ by the scribes. Such an examination of conscience often turns up large strongholds of foolish attitudes that need to uprooted so I/ we can turn back to God and fully receive his mercy. Without the redeeming death of Christ at work, the Old Testament prophet Daniel condemned the two abusive elders to death.  But Jesus, as Redeemer, demonstrated a different way of handling guilt.  To the woman caught in adultery he said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on, do not sin again.” As I confront my own dissipation and despair, my distancing and misaligned affections with others, and my desperate sadness for time, talents and treasures wasted, Jesus says to me, as well, Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on, do not sin again. Will I, in my troubled spirit, accept Jesus’ healing – and wisdom? Christ Jesus, where I am guilty, call me to account and heal me.
 
He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff- they comfort me.  (Psalm 23:3,4)
 
“Jesus, I trust in you...”
St. Faustina  of Poland 
 
 
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Soli ad gloriam Dei
 

 
John 5:18-37
                                       
It is tempting to think that I will I can find life on my own, by saying more prayers and reading more scriptures, or following a rigorous wellness plan. But what Jesus told his disciples and tells us is that he longs for a relationship with us, and to give us life. He longs that we turn to him, to consider him in spirit and in truth, and see him face to face, believing that he is who he said he is - the Son of Man who is the Son of God. He proclaimed himself the saviour of the world, who lived and died on a cross and rose again to life on earth, and then ascended into heaven to bestow upon as many as receive him, the Holy Spirit of God - that is life in all abundance. It is in having a friendship, a relationship, with Jesus, that I find life. Whenever I take time to pray and to follow Jesus, that is when I find love, and peace and joy in life, no matter what temporal tempests are swirling around and through my life.  Will I look to Jesus to spend time with him, and through the Holy Spirit of Jesus find life? Christ Jesus, I come to you to have life.   
 
Let the hearts that seek the Lord rejoice; turn to the Lord and his strength; constantly seek his face. (Psalm 104)
 
[Christ Jesus] what a joyous mystery is your presence within me, in that intimate sanctuary of my soul where I can always find you, even when I do not feel your presence.
St. Elizabeth of the Trinity  
 
 
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Soli ad gloriam Dei
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

John 4:5-42
 
Several times over the past week, I have returned to the Gospel for the 3rd Sunday of Lent. That was the last time most of us attended Church, when we were all being encouraged to take steps to meet the Covid-19 pandemic head on, including having no public Masses, or even public funerals being celebrated throughout most of the world By the following Sunday we were banned world-wide and across all denominations from gathering in places of worship. Was that just yesterday?  Even time seems to have collapsed as we all enter into this extraordinary Lenten season!   
                                       
The Gospel for the 3rd Sunday of Lent every year is the extraordinary story of Jesus talking to a Samaritan woman at a community well, as he and his disciples travelled by foot through this non-Jewish territory. They were clearly thirsty and hungry after a morning of walking, and the Samaritan woman who was somewhat of an outcast from her community, was getting water at noon when no one else was at the well.  We, like the Samaritan woman, needed to hear a few things from The Son of Man who was the Son of God, to help us in our current journey forward.
 
First Jesus made it clear that he is the source of life-giving water. Water from a well is one thing – to cleanse, to wash, to hydrate our bodies, and to allow us to cook our food, clean our homes and wash our dishes.  The water that Jesus gives from his well-spring of life, is no less, and is indeed much more, life-giving.  It is super-important to each human life, and we, like the Samaritan woman can so easily not even taste it, not even know it exists. Jesus holds this life-giving water of his life and his mercy to each man, woman and child, to slake our thirst, to cleanse our lives, to wash our minds and strengthen our bodies. Will we be wise enough to go to Jesus, and ask for this life-giving water while we are ‘locked down’?
 
Secondly, Jesus calls us to truth in our hearts; we are to accept the Truth, written over eons into the Holy Scriptures and we are to speak the Truth to our selves, and to God. Jesus conducted an informal ‘confession’ with the woman of Samaria.  Will I, will we, take this opportunity of spending time isolated from the rat-race of our ‘normal’ daily lives, to speak truthfully, face to face, with Jesus, and there find healing and help for all those areas of ‘rot, mold and punk’ in our lives?
 
Thirdly, Jesus had an interesting discussion with the Samaritan woman about where one needs to be to worship God, to go to God for help, and to exercise our spiritual muscles.  She said to him that he, as a Jew, always thought one had to go to Jerusalem to worship Yahweh, and that Samaritan people knew that that wasn’t true – they could go up on their mountain, just as well.  Jesus counters, that “the time is coming and is now here when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him.” Indeed, Jesus here seems to be speaking directly to us, in March 2020:  The time is already here when true worshippers can’t go to Jerusalem, to Mass, to any building of worship.  We have no choice but to worship the Father in spirit and in truth. What does this mean for me? What does this mean for us, as followers of Jesus? 
 
Fourthly Jesus address in this passage, the issue of food supply.  The disciples had gone into the town’s market to purchase some food for themselves and Jesus while he was talking to the woman at the well.  When they came back, he refused the food, telling his disciples that he had ‘food to eat that you don’t know about’. The disciples were confused, thinking that someone else had brought him something to eat.  Jesus ended that discussion by teaching us about real nourishment.  “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.” This sentence gives us pause to consider the Carmelite nun who lived simply on daily holy communion for a decade or more, St. Padre Pio who was reputed to eat only a little each week, and St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who ate ‘like a bird’. Perhaps as committed and disciplined followers of Jesus, we need to focus on doing the will of Father God, rather than on stock-piling food on our shelves. 
 
Fifthly,  at the end of this scene, Jesus directs his disciples to actively go forward, to see how the fields of life are ripe for harvesting , to find the fruits of the labours of godly men and women, beggars as much as church people, who have sowed the seed of the Word of God into all the societies, cities and communities of the world.  Will I enter into this work, during this time of social isolation and the pestilence that is in our land, to ‘do the will of him who sent Jesus and complete his work’ ?
 
Finally, do I know, do we know, like the Samaritan people of Sychar on that warm day, that Jesus is truly the Saviour, the Redeemer, the Messiah, of the world? 
 
Let us enter into the wisdom of Jesus as we head into this as-yet-undefined period of a serious purging of our land, our society, and our own human hearts.
 
Sing aloud to God our strength; shout for joy to God! (Psalm 81:1)
 
 
Come back to me, with all your heart
Don’t let fear keep us apart.
Long have I waited for your coming home to Me
And living deeply our new life
Gregory Norbert,  quoting Yahweh through the prophet Hosea, and throughout Judeo Christian scriptures  
 
 
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Soli ad gloriam Dei

Hosea 14:1-9
                                     
It makes sense as human beings, who are the creation of God that was made in his image, that we would turn to our Creator to give him thanks and to learn from him how to live our lives and manage creation. But as societies have moved away from nature, choosing instead to build empires on a complex system of capital, control and consumerism, we have turned farther and further away from the Holy Spirit of God. Indigenous elders and spiritual leaders in our own country and across the globe have been voicing concerns and warnings, underscoring the prophesies of Old Testament seers and New Testament saints, including Jesus himself, who warns us in Luke’s Gospel of the days of vengeance brought on by collective hard-heartedness towards our Creator and all of Creation. What to do? Hosea proclaimed the solution years ago: “Take words with you and return to the Lord saying, “Take away all guilt; accept that which is good, and we will offer the fruit of our lips (that is praise and obedience)... For the ways of the Lord are right, (even this purging virus that is the present pestilence), and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them.” It is being reported that as the earth is cleaning up, waterways are beginning to run clean again, birds, fish and sea mammals are returning to places they haven’t been appearing for years, and deer are thronging cities. Am I walking through these times of purging with my head up, looking for God’s salvation, or am I stumbling?  Holy Spirit of God heal my disloyalty to you; heal our disloyalty to you!  
 
Sing aloud to God our strength; shout for joy to God! (Psalm 81:1)
 
People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. … Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, watching for your redemption because it is drawing near.
Jesus to his disciples Luke 21
 
Come back to me, with all your heart…
Yahweh through the prophet Hosea, and throughout Judeo Christian scriptures  
 
 
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Soli ad gloriam Dei