Friday, March 27, 2009

5th Sunday of Lent Year B 2009


In the first reading from the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah it becomes so clear that God longs to be a part of our lives.

God is not just some powerful force to be reckoned with.

He is not some vengeful God waiting for us to screw up,
rather He longs for a relationship with us.

And in this relationship…
He doesn’t want us to do the right thing just because we are afraid of being punished.

He doesn’t want us to do the right thing just because it’s the rule or the law.

In this beautiful passage we learn that God wants us to do the right thing because we love Him.

He longs for us write his name on our hearts … just like to two young lovers carve their initials in a tree.

As Jeremiah said so beautifully

I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts;
I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

When a person is in love… they are never satisfied with giving the bare minimum, rather they willingly and happily pour out their lives for the other.

People in love often pour out their lives until there is nothing left to give.

Love, real love allows us to do heroic things.

Look at loving parents who make sacrifice after sacrifice for their children.

Look at saints whose heroic lives could only be motivated by love not fear.

Look at the martyrs who heroic deaths clearly testify to the incredible power of love. No one gives their life away just because of a law.

The Catechism says that this new covenant…this new relationship that God longs to have with us
begins on Calvary.

It begins on Calvary with the death of Jesus God’s Son.

With this cross God shows us just how far he is willing to go.

With the cross he shows how much he is willing to give.

With the cross he proves how much he is willing to pay for the price of each and everyone of our souls.

With the cross God teaches us how we should love.

“Unless the grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies it remains a simple grain”

When we hear that all of us should ask ourselves am I willing to fall to the ground and die ?

Do I love anyone enough to fall to the ground and die for them?

St. Thomas More Parish – Boynton Beach FL senior-hands

They were always late for Church they usually made it in the front pew for the handicapped around the opening prayer.

He would hold her with his hand around her waist and guide her into the front pew…

Her shuffle and her absent gaze spoke volumes.

When communion time came he would guide her up the communion line and he would always say the same thing to the priest..

Please Father just give her a little piece just a little piece.

Then he would beg her
Come on honey… open your mouth open your mouth sweetheart and I would place a tiny piece of the Body of Christ on her tongue.

Then from somewhere he would produce a sippy cup with water and he would place it at her lips and she would almost instinctively drink from it.

Then he would guide her back to the pew.

One day after Mass everyone was standing outside talking …

It was too early for the early bird specials in the local restaurants that all the senior citizens loved.

The man and his wife were there… a woman came up to the man began to talk…

After a while she said to the man

You are a “young” man and you still have your health
you should put your wife in a home and enjoy life.

There was an audible gasp from the people standing around her.

We were all trying to figure out how someone could say something so inappropriate.

The man looked angry for a second and then he responded to her very gently.

This is my wife and I love her
I love her when she is sick and I love her when she is healthy
and as long as I can manage, as long as it is good for he,. she is going to live with me in her home.

Then he looked the woman right in the eye and he said.
Even now as sick as she is she is God’s greatest gift to me.

That man’s heroic care for his wife was not motivated by any law or rule.

Rather it was motivate by a covenant of love.
His witness was so powerful to everyone present.

Holy Ones…

God longs for us to love Him

And he wants our actions and lives to be motivated by love.

St. Augustine understood that he said..
Love God and do whatever you want.

On the Cross God teaches us what love is
and He shows us how much He loves us.

How much do we love each other?
How much do we love God?


Unless the grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies….

Amen

2 comments:

HLS said...

What wonderful words Fr. Bob! I am doing children's litergy tomorrow, surfing for some ideas - once again CUA campus ministry touches me.
HLS,CUA '86 '89 '92

LPatter said...

beautiful couple story immortalized in my wedding homily on dvd - will watch it on anniversaries to come!! :) Thanks FB