March 15, 2026: 4th Sunday of Lent Homily
 
The Louvre museum in Paris is one of the most popular museums in the world and also one of the largest. Hidden down one of its endless hallways is a small room where a dark stone is on simple display. The stone is shaped a bit like a tombstone and it's about four feet high and three feet across. It’s called the Moabite Stone and has a deep connection to today's first reading.  
 
It was discovered in 1868 by a German missionary in the area east of the Dead Sea in modern- day Jordan. The stone dates from about 840 BC, meaning its ancient letters were chiseled into the basalt stone just 130 years or so after David died. Along with just a few other pieces of archeological evidence, the Moabite stone establishes a solid historical foundation upon which the biblical story of David firmly rests. This rock-like evidence provides a powerful counter argument to any argument that the Old Testament is a mere collection of fables.  
 
The Moabite Stone is of great interest for a number of reasons: It contains some of the earliest non-biblical references to the Kingdom of Israel; it specifically mentions the Jewish god “Yahweh” and that images of him were stolen by the Moabites; and it also references the House of David, which was established with his modest anointing in today's first reading at Mass. 
 
When does this anointing of David occur? Probably around the year 1,000 BC. We need a little bit of history to set the context. 
  
After returning from their long exile in Egypt the Jewish people slowly populated the land of Canaan, more or less the western part of the modern Middle East.  
 
They were for a few centuries governed by judges., These judges, or local leaders, were non dynastic, that is, their power and authority did not pass on to their heirs. Their authority was probably over just one or two tribes and often temporary.  
 
After perhaps 300 - 400 years of being ruled by judges, the Jews asked asked God to be ruled by a king since so many of the neighboring tribes had kings. So Saul is anointed by Samuel as the first king of Israel. The era of the judges comes to a close, and the Jews, at least the two southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin, will be ruled by kings 586. At that point, the start of the Babylonian exile, the last king with the blood of David in his veins, named Zedekiah, is killed after being taken into exile. This is when the house of David ends. 
 
David serves for approximately 40 years as king, and dies around the year 970 BC. He is followed by his son Solomon. This chain of Saul-David-Solomon is the well-known but short-lived United Monarchy of the Jews which will fracture in the time of Solomon's sons.  
 
Why does the history of the Jewish people matter? Because the church matters. The Catholic church, in its theology, worship, sacraments, and structure, grows out of that ancient chosen people. If the church is the tree, then the Jews are the roots. We fulfill, and are fulfilling, the promises God made to the Jews without canceling that promise.  
God's new and eternal Covenant, as we say at the consecration at Mass, brings to greater fruition and universality the Old Covenant God made with the Patriarchs.  
 
Theology is not a ship in a bottle or a precious diamond resting under a glass canopy. Theology happens in history for a real religion. Real people. Real dates. Real places. Real events. No castles in the clouds for us. No cosmic dreamcatchers or “the force be with you.” We are rooted in historical truth. 
 
Notice in the reading how David is not the first choice of Samuel. His choice is Eliab, the oldest of Jesse’s sons. He is tall and of a fine appearance, while David is the youngest, not present, and busy working the herd.  
 
In other words, a good appearance does not always translate into competence or leadership abilities. We often universalize, instinctively, physical and personal gifts, thinking that they indicate skilled competence or somehow translate into other areas of life. But there is no intrinsic relationship between competence and charm or personal attractiveness or athletic skill.  
The Bible reiterates this lesson. The best leader might be the physically least impressive person.  
 
And why do the Jews want a king in the first place? Partly out of jealousy and partly out of a natural human instinct. They want a king because every group wants a good leader. The ship needs a captain, the platoon a lieutenant, the team a coach. Groups thrive under good leaders and do things they would never be able to do when governed by committe.  
 
And if that leader is chosen and anointed by God, all the better. The anointing of Saul and then David, in fact, become the model for the anointing which is part of the coronation ritual for all kings, even down to today in the western world. Kings in the middle ages were even thought to have the gift of healing due that anointing.  
 
Samuel anoints David with oil and, presumeably, with words. The reading doesn't record exactly what Samuel said as he anointed David but there must have been a formula recited as the oil dripped down his scalp.  
 
Words and oil. Gestures and blessings. Water and bread and wine. It sounds familiar to Catholic ears. We see in this typology an echo of the seven sacraments. In the sacrament of Holy Orders the priest’s hands are anointed to consecrate the body and blood of Christ. In the ordination of a Bishop his head is anointed with sacred chrism, a very direct recalling of a king’s christening.  
 
Turning to the Gospel from St. John in the story of the unnamed man born blind, we see the same sacramental typology at work. Jesus could have just said “Abracadabra” or “Open Sesame” but he didn't. His touch would have been enough. The Divine finger placed on the human eyelid would have been enough. He is God after all. But Christ does some prefiguring of the sacraments here.He mixes his saliva with dirt and then smears the clay on the man's eyes in order for the man’s sight to be restored. How Sacramental! Our seven sacraments have deep roots! We see them in the anointing of David. We see them in the passage from John’s Gospel.  
 
The recipe of our sacraments is not incidental. The material, or matter, cannot be changed. It cannot be rice instead of bread for the Eucharist. It cannot be ginger ale instead of water at baptism, in the same way that Samuel could not have anointed David with honey instead of oil. The life giving grace of the sacraments are God’s gifts to the church, and the church’s gift to her faithful. They are not mere markers of the seasons or of life’s turning points. They are not equivalent to a birthday cake or the high school prom. 
 
David's anointing by Samuel is still with us in many ways: In the never ending geopolitical fights over Jerusalem; in the anointing of modern kings; in the sacraments, in the church hierarchical structure, in the sacred election of the bishop of Rome by ordained cardinals.  
 
The past is not so past for those paying attention. Much more unites us to our Jewish roots and to the ancient world than divides us. Christ, the founder of the church, is repeatedly called the “Son of David” in the Gospels. We are the sons and daughters of the Son of David, then. Through Creed, through baptism, through Holy Communion, we practice our ever ancient and ever new faith in beautiful and harmonious continuity with our religious forefathers. Amen. 

4th Sunday of Lent 3-15-26 Readings

A Reading from the 1st Book of Samuel

The LORD said to Samuel: “Fill your horn with oil, and be on your way. I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem, for I have chosen my king from among his sons.”As Jesse and his sons came to the sacrifice, Samuel looked at Eliab and thought, “Surely the LORD’s anointed is here before him.”
But the LORD said to Samuel: “Do not judge from his appearance or from his lofty stature, 
because I have rejected him. Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance 
but the LORD looks into the heart.” In the same way Jesse presented seven sons before Samuel, 
but Samuel said to Jesse, “The LORD has not chosen any one of these.” Then Samuel asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?” Jesse replied, “There is still the youngest, who is tending the sheep.” Samuel said to Jesse, “Send for him;  we will not begin the sacrificial banquet until he arrives here.” Jesse sent and had the young man brought to them. He was ruddy, a youth handsome to behold and making a splendid appearance. The LORD said, “There—anoint him, for this is the one!” Then Samuel, with the horn of oil in hand, anointed David in the presence of his brothers; and from that day on, the spirit of the LORD rushed upon David.

The Word of the Lord

Responsorial Psalm

The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.

R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.

He guides me in right paths
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side
With your rod and your staff
that give me courage.

R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.

You spread the table before me
 in the sight of my foes;
 you anoint my head with oil;
 my cup overflows.

R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.

Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.

R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
 
A Reading from the letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians
 
Brothers and sisters: You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth. Try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the fruitless works of darkness; rather expose them, for it is shameful even to mention the things done by them in secret; but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore, it says: “Awake, O sleeper,
and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”

The Word of the Lord

A Reading from the Holy Gospel accoring to John

As Jesus passed by he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him. We have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and smeared the clay on his eyes, and said to him, Go wash in the Pool of Siloam” —which means Sent—. So he went and washed, and came back able to see.His neighbors and those who had seen him earlier as a beggar said, 

“Isn’t this the one who used to sit and beg?” Some said, “It is, :but others said, “No, he just looks like him.” He said, “I am.” So they said to him, “How were your eyes opened?” He replied,
“The man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’
So I went there and washed and was able to see.” And they said to him, “Where is he?”
He said, “I don’t know.”They brought the one who was once blind to the Pharisees. Now Jesus had made clay and opened his eyes on a sabbath. So then the Pharisees also asked him how he was able to see. He said to them, “He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and now I can see.”
So some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, because he does not keep the sabbath.”

But others said, “How can a sinful man do such signs?” And there was a division among them.
So they said to the blind man again, “What do you have to say about him, since he opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.”Now the Jews did not believe  that he had been blind and gained his sight until they summoned the parents of the one who had gained his sight. They asked them,
“Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How does he now see?” His parents answered and said,  “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. We do not know how he sees now,
nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him, he is of age; he can speak for himself.” His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed  that if anyone acknowledged him as the Christ, he would be expelled from the synagogue. For this reason his parents said, “He is of age; question him.”So a second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give God the praise! We know that this man is a sinner.” He replied, “If he is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know is that I was blind and now I see.”

So they said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered them,
“I told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?” They ridiculed him and said,  “You are that man’s disciple; we are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but we do not know where this one is from.” The man answered and said to them, “This is what is so amazing,  that you do not know where he is from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if one is devout and does his will, he listens to him. It is unheard of that anyone ever opened the eyes of a person born blind.
If this man were not from God, he would not be able to do anything.”

They answered and said to him, “You were born totally in sin, and are you trying to teach us?”
Then they threw him out.When Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, he found him and said, Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered and said, “Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, the one speaking with you is he.” He said, “I do believe, Lord,” and he worshiped him. Then Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, 
so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind.”Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not also blind, are we?”
Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin;  but now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains.

The Gospel of the Lord

March 12, 2026 Thursday of the 3rd week of Lent  

Helen Keller said that blindness cuts you off from things but deafness cut you off from people. How true it is that hearing loss, especially severe hearing loss, leads to withdrawal, isolation, depression, and reduced independence. 

A world without sound is a much more flat, one-dimensional world. Although sound is invisible, we all live in a sound world as much as a visual world. In the same way that our eyes take in the landscapes all around us, our ears take in the soundscapes that surround us as well. 

To be cut off from this engrossing sound scape, from the voices and bird song and music that populates our world is to be reduced. We have a sound mind that yearns for the dense reality offered through all the gifts of the senses, especially hearing. 

It is a relatively short step to go from “I can't hear” to “I'm all alone.”  

A close cousin to not being able to hear is choosing not to listen. What is the point of the faculty of hearing, after all, if it’s used only to listen to your own voice and none other?  

In the first reading at Mass today the prophet Jeremiah speaks for his boss, God, and says “Thus says the Lord, listen to my voice then I will be your God and you shall be my people.” 

Jeremiah then complains to the Lord about his fellow Jews: “When you speak these words to them, they will not listen to you either. When you call to them they will not answer you.”  

Finally, he gives the Lord some advice: “Say to them, This is the nation that does not listen to the voice of the Lord its God or take correction.”  

And in the Psalms we hear this: “And if today, you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” 
How important it is to listen to God, to the church, to others in order to give meaning to our lives. Otherwise, we become a personal echo chamber, isolated and never growing or improving. 

How do we listen to God? Is He the call of the loon on the morning lake? The huge waves crashing on the rocky shore? The crackling fire? The wind threading through the trees? Nature has its soundtrack. But God is more than his creation in the same way that we are more than our bodies.  

We listen to God by listening to his church. The church and God are not strictly synonymous but to restrict God’s voice to nature’s symphony is to disembody him and to leave His will open to any and all interpretations.  

There's a wonderful scene in the 1980s movie The Mission. An indigenous chief from a rain forest tribe is arguing with a church cardinal. He asks the Cardinal: “Do you speak for God?” The Cardinal responds, pensively, “I personally do not speak for God, but I do speak for the church, which is his instrument on earth.” 

The church indeed is the instrument of God on earth. And this instrument, both beautiful and flawed, has a mind and has a voice, and has plenty to say.  

She speaks at mass. She speaks in the readings and in her liturgical prayers. The church speaks in her sacred music and in her homilies. We listen to the voice of God when we listen to the church. Even her liturgical body language is meaningful for those who can’t hear or who don’t speak the local language of the Mass.  

Most people who suffer from hearing loss wait about 10 years to do anything about it. It’s often too late - relationships have dried up, work ends, family members become distant. If we isolate ourselves from the voice of God in the church, we too will be cut off from the beneficial spiritual and moral formation the Church offers to all of her faithful.  

Solitary confinement is a punishment in prison partly because of the silence which reigns over the prisoners in their cells. Not everyone is good company for themselves.  

Many people are in a form of modern solitary confinement. Cut off, dwelling in a cell where the ancient voice of God does not reach.  

Jeremiah commands his fellow Jews to listen, not just to hear, the voice of God. Listening to the multi-track voice of the Church enriches our sound scape, contextualizes our existence, and gives more meaning to our life.  

Heaven will be beautiful for many reasons, and partly because of the hum and whistle of a great cloud of witnesses offering God sound worship and sound praise of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Hell may be very quiet, or perhaps a mere echo chamber of narcissists glorying in the voice they love the best – their own.  

3rd Sunday of Lent 3-8-2026

Taking place at a well...taking time at a well... 

In the early 300s a Church bishop in Palestine name Eusebius ran a book production factory and library in a city on the mediterranean coast called Caesarea. Eusebius of Caesarea built on the innovative legacy of two scholars – Origen and Pamphilus – who, basically, invented the book. The predecessor to the book, the scroll, was cumbersome, old-technology, and ripe for creative destruction. The book was to the scroll what a digital spreadsheet is to a paper ledger. A book, or codex, was a technological innovation which presented information in a much more efficient and searchable manner than a scroll could.  

Of the many books published by Eusebius was one called the Onomasticon. It sounds a bit like a mouth disease or the name of a dinosaur but it’s just a long Greek word meaning “book of names.” The Onomastican is a book- length list of many of the places named in the bible, alongside a list of what those places were called at the time Eusebius wrote. 

Today’s gospel from St. John begins with a place-name which is referenced in the Onomasticon: “Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.” 

If Sychar were large or well-known, there would’ve been no need to tell the reader that it was a town or that it was in Samaria. Sychar was small and off the radar, so John has to tell us where it is. Sychar is not otherwise mentioned in Holy Scripture. 

Before probing the theological and spiritual depth of this multi-layered gospel, it’s worth pausing over what this opening line is telling us.  

The town of Sychar is mentioned because it’s close to a reliable water source – the well of Jacob. Important things happen near wells in the Bible and elsewhere. Moses meets his wife near a well. Isaac’s wife Rebekah is found at a well. Towns and castles and forts are built over wells. No water, no life. The memorable opening scenes of the movie Lawrence of Arabia revolve around a well in a stark desert landscape. A man is murdered for drinking from the wrong well. When asked why he shot the man, the gunman replies “He was nothing – the well is everything.”  

A well doesn’t move, any more than a mountain moves. A well is a local landmark, and you can pull water from Jacob’s well today. It's still there, in the exact same spot as it was two thousand years ago. The town of Sychar was absorbed into the Roman city of Neapolis, which became modern Nablus. And you can visit modern Nablus in the West Bank, at some risk, and visit the large Orthodox church in which the well is found. A church has been built over the well since the 4th century, as attested to by St. Jerome. 

The meeting of Jesus with the Samaritan woman at the well embeds Scripture in history. No New Testament events occur “once upon a time” or “in fairytale land.”  Even parables, which are stories and not necessarily historically true, were told by actual people at actual times in actual places. So the recounting of a parable is always a historical event even if the parable itself is not. 

Today’s gospel “takes place” in Sychar. What an interesting phrase that is! What does it mean to “take place.” It can mean something metaphorical when we say that someone “took second place or third place” in a race, but here it means something much more tangible. Where does Star Wars take place – In a galaxy far far away. That is, Star Wars doesn’t actually take place. It takes celluloid, it takes film. Where does Rome & Juliet take place – it’s set in Verona, Italy, but it takes place at your local theater. Today’s gospel “takes place” in Sychar in the sense that it grabs reality, in the sense that it also “takes time” in Sychar too. This conversation happened in time and in space and in reality.  

Our faith is sticky, isn’t it? It’s easily remembered because all real memories are inseparable from places. How strange it would be to say that you loved your grandma’s cooking but had no idea where you ate it. You remember where you ate those meals in the same instance in which you remember the meals themselves. A memory, a real memory, and its location are inseparable.  
This is another way of saying that we naturally link historical truth with time and place. To verify an event, we ask where and when. Isn’t that perhaps the deeper reason why we place a town-name after Jesus’ given name. He is Jesus of Nazareth, not Jesus of the 4th realm or of the heavenly spheres. He is from somewhere because he is real. Uncle Sam is not from anywhere because he doesn’t actually exist. And we have Teresa of Avila and Francis of Assisi and Anthony of Padua. Where is Thor from, really? Where are Spok or Captain Kirk from, really? 

So... today, we are eavesdroppers on a conversation, at a well, in the town of Sychar around 32 A.D. We can feel the sun on our face and hear the exhaustion in the voice of Jesus. If we didn’t go to Mass, we probably would never have heard this conversation. But we do go to Mass, and so the words of the Word are offered to us by the priest or deacon who speaks with the force of the one he quotes because he shares in his same priesthood. 

In this dialogue between Jesus and the Samaritan woman there is much to digest. She, interestingly, is left unnamed, indicating perhaps that she remained a Samaritan and never became a follower of the Nazarene. 

Part of this holy conversation concerns temple worship. Once again, geography matters. The Samaritans had their temple on Mt. Gerizim, which overlooked the cities of Shechem and Sychar. So when the Samaritan woman says to Jesus “Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain...” she is likely pointing her finger at the low mountain so conspicuous to both of them. The northern Jews – the ten tribes who had separated from the two southern tribes - had built a temple on Mt. Gerizim about 400 years before Christ. These northern Jews - eventually known as Samaritans – refused to worship at the temple in Jerusalem, perhaps because at one point they were prohibited from worshipping there and so built their own temple at a location with a solid biblical pedigree.  

But Jesus is not a Samaritan. He is a thoroughbred, a member of that broader family of Jews descended from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, so he worships at the Temple in Jerusalem.  
Yet Jesus states to the Samaritan woman that not even that temple in Jerusalem is the ultimate end of true worship: “the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.”  

Real worship of God, then, is not the spilling of an animal’s blood in one temple in one place. To worship in spirit and in truth means that Shechem and Jerusalem will be replaced. It means that true religion will no longer be transmitted by tribe or by bloodlines but by baptism and creed throughout the world. Jesus is both the heir of a great religious tradition as a Jew and the founder of an even more profound, more universal successor religion.  

Perhaps we don’t think of him in these terms, but Jesus is the founder of Catholicism. And as its founder, he wants joiners. He wants people to join his religion. He wants believers and belongers. As St Augustine says, Jesus “thirsted for the faith of that woman” just as he thirsts for the faith of us all. 

The woman concludes her conversation with our founder by saying "I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Anointed; when he comes, he will tell us everything." Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who is speaking with you." 

Our founder never said that he was the Christ to anyone else so explicitly in the gospels, not even to his own apostles. And he has told us everything as the woman predicted. At least everything necessary for salvation. He was speaking with her eye to eye. He is speaking with us today. We now know much, much more than she knew then. We don’t see through a glass darkly. We see clearly after two thousand years. We are capable of making the right decision to be followers, and joiners, of so great a founder. Amen.

A Reading from the Book of Gensis


The LORD said to Abram: “Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you.“I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you.”Abram went as the LORD directed him.






The Word of the Lord

Responsorial Psalm

Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.

Upright is the word of the LORD,
and all his works are trustworthy.
He loves justice and right;
of the kindness of the LORD the earth is full.


R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.

See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him,
upon those who hope for his kindness,
To deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine.

R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.

Our soul waits for the LORD,
who is our help and our shield.
May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us
who have put our hope in you.

R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.






A reading from the 2nd letter off St. Paul to Timothy

Beloved: Bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God.He saved us and called us to a holy life, not according to our works but according to his own design
and the grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus before time began, but now made manifest
through the appearance of our savior Christ Jesus, who destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.







The Word of the Lord 






A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew

Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I w ill make three tents here,
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, behold,
a bright cloud cast a shadow over them, then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

When the disciples heard this, they fell prostrate and were very much afraid. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and do not be afraid.” And when the disciples raised their eyes,
they saw no one else but Jesus alone.As they were coming down from the mountain,
Jesus charged them, “Do not tell the vision to anyone until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

The Gospel of the Lord

Second Sunday of Lent – 3-1-2026 Year A – The Transfiguration  

The Cloud of Knowing 

The oldest surviving depiction of Christ’s crucifixion is in Rome. It dates from the 430s and  is carved into the wooden doors of the church of Santa Sabina on Rome's Aventine Hill.  The carving is not particularly expressive of Christ’s suffering. He is alive and rather dignified. He is between two thieves, and his arms are extended in the traditional pose of the crucifixion.  
It’s a bit surprising but showing Christ crucified was uncommon in the first few centuries of the Church.  Crucifixes, and even paintings and icons of the crucifixion, did not proliferate until the 6th through the 9th centuries, and even then, very slowly. It wasn’t until the dawning of the high Middle Ages, around 1000 AD, that the suffering, bloodied, forlorn Christ on the cross became common in churches throughout the known world.  

Before he was shown pinned to the cross, Christ was more commonly shown as the Good Shepherd, young and sometimes beardless, or at the table of the Last Supper flanked by his apostles. He was very often shown in the orans, or praying, position. Sometimes he was shown in a Roman toga holding a book or a scroll, resembling a philosopher. Or he was shown as he appears in today’s gospel – Transfigured on a high mountain. 

It makes sense, culturally and sociologically, that early Christians were reluctant to depict their founder struggling, pained and dead.  Crucifixion was an act of capital punishment. And in a world of barbaric cruelty towards prisoners and criminals, showing your leader on a common instrument of torture would probably have been counter-productive. Imagine displaying a painting in your home of a man dying in an electric chair, or wearing a gold medal showing a man with a noose around his neck, hanging from a branch. We have become habituated to the crucifix, but for early Christians it may have been too raw and too confusing to bend their knee or bow their head toward a bloody man stuck to a wooden beam.  

Not showing Christ on the cross also made sense theologically for early Christianity. A crucifix is easily understood by us today because we have a wealth of teaching and solid traditions to help us interpret it – the God-man dies for our sins and then opens for us the doors to paradise through his bodily resurrection.  

Christ’s immolation was a multi-layered theological event. It took many centuries for the Church’s best minds to cogently plumb the depths of Christ’s great act of redemptive suffering in its full biblical, historical, liturgical, and philosophical richness. 

Christ’s miracles, His resurrection, His preaching, and His transfiguration, as opposed to his crucifixion, require less theology to grasp. These events explain themselves. They don’t require knowledge of the Old Testament to make sense. And so the most common artistic motifs of the first millenium show Christ praying, performing miracles, being transfigured, teaching, or rising from his tomb.  Centuries were to pass before Christ’s self-offering on the cross could be fully understood by the common mind and fully displayed in common art.  

Roughly speaking, very roughly, the second millennium church gathered around Christ’s death on Calvary in Jerusalem, while the first millennium church gathered around his crib in Bethlehem.  

Christ’s humble self-gift in the incarnation led, over centuries, to a deeper comprehension of his self-gift on the cross. The spiritual refreshment pulled from the well of the incarnation is based on humility, a humility witnessed by Peter, James, and John in today’s gospel 

Christ shows this select core of three apostles his radiant glory – and the apostles are dumbfounded. They have not met this man before. What happened to the carpenter’s son from little Nazareth? The Church fathers consistently commented that the real miracle of the transfiguration was not this one moment in which Christ revealed his divinity but that he consistently suppressed his divinity throughout his life. His ordinariness, the mundane, day in and day out humdrumness of his life was the real miracle to behold.  

Christ could have been surrounded by today’s super-halo as He planed a board in his workshop. But he wasn’t. He could have walked around in the midst of a cloud of witnesses such as Moses and Elijah. But he didn’t. The voice of His father could have thundered in appreciation at every holy act he performed. But it didn’t.  

Christ wore a common tunic. He slept on the ground. He ate fish baked over a campfire. He walked long miles on dusty trails. And few discerned his divine nature until his resurrection and ascension.  

Christ’s first and most significant transfiguration was becoming a baby. His sustained suppression of his divinity was what made him unique. Like superman ripping open his shirt to reveal the big S underneath – Christ at the transfiguration reveals to those closest to him his truest self. It was there all along – he was just holding it back. He blended in with the crowd, he harnessed his knowledge and powers, he throttled his glory to the level where his followers could take it – could understand him – could not be overwhelmed.  

Christ on the mountain doesn’t change into someone else, but reveals who he has always been. He is the square that becomes a cube or the triangle that becomes a pyramid. He retains his original shape but now transfigures into his multi-dimensional self, his true self. 
“Master, it is good that we are here” says St. Peter in a charming understatement.  Indeed. We, two thousand years later, know as much and more than St. Peter. It was good that he was there at that time, but it is better that we are here at this time. Progress is not just technological. Progress is theological and spiritual as well.  

We hopefully see in the transfigured Christ a preview of coming attractions, a goal to aim at. And we hopefully also see in the humble Jesus of Nazareth a model of hiddenness, of not revealing all that we know, or are, in every moment to everyone.  Our restraint, our sublimation, our discretion, can be God like. There are times to shine in the reflected light of Christ and there are times, many times, to retreat from that bright light as well and to work in the humble shadows.Amen.
 

First Sunday of Lent Readings 2-22-2026 Year C 

A reading from the Book of Genesis 

The LORD God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being. Then the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and placed there the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the LORD God made various trees grow that were delightful to look at and good for food, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals that the LORD God had made. 
The serpent asked the woman, “Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?” The woman answered the serpent: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; 
it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘You shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman: “You certainly will not die! 
No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is evil.” The woman saw that the tree was good for food, 
pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom. 

So she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. 

The Word of the Lord

Responsorial Psalm
 
R. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned

Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness; 
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense. 
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt 
and of my sin cleanse me. 
R. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned

For I acknowledge my offense, 
and my sin is before me always: 
“Against you only have I sinned, 
and done what is evil in your sight.” 

R. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned. 

A clean heart create for me, O God, 
and a steadfast spirit renew within me. 
Cast me not out from your presence, 
and your Holy Spirit take not from me. 

R. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned. 

Give me back the joy of your salvation, 
and a willing spirit sustain in me. 
O Lord, open my lips, 
and my mouth shall proclaim your praise. 

R. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned. 
 
A reading from the letter of St. Paul to the Romans
 
Brothers and sisters: Through one man sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all men, inasmuch as all sinned— for up to the time of the law, sin was in the world, though sin is not accounted when there is no law. But death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin after the pattern of the trespass of Adam, who is the type of the one who was to come. But the gift is not like the transgression. 

For if by the transgression of the one, the many died, how much more did the grace of God 
and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ  overflow for the many. And the gift is not like the result of the one who sinned. For after one sin there was the judgment that brought condemnation; 
but the gift, after many transgressions, brought acquittal. For if, by the transgression of the one, 
death came to reign through that one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of justification come to reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. 
In conclusion, just as through one transgression condemnation came upon all, so, through one righteous act, acquittal and life came to all. For just as through the disobedience of the one man 
the many were made sinners, so, through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous.

The Word of the Lord

A reading from the Hoiy Gospel according to Matthew

At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry. The tempter approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.” He said in reply, “It is written: One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.” Then the devil took him to the holy city, and made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: 

He will command his angels concerning you and with their hands they will support you, 
lest you dash your foot against a stone.” Jesus answered him, “Again it is written, You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.”

Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, and he said to him, ""All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.” At this, Jesus said to him, “Get away, Satan! It is written: The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.” Then the devil left him and, behold, angels came and ministered to him. 

The Gospel of the Lord

First Sunday of Lent 2-22-26 Homily
 
We, the hearers of today’s mass readings, find ourselves in a primordial garden this First Sunday of Lent, ear witnesses to the first conversations of mankind. After blowing life into the nostrils of man, God quickly follows with a prohibition: “You shall not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil” ...and it’s all downhill from there.  

The mouth is a source of many and varied sins. The mouth, in fact, may be the cause of damnation more than any other part of the human body. The mouth of Eve opens wide in today’s reading from Genesis and closes again on a piece of fruit, changing the world forever.  

That “opening” act was preceded by Eve opening her mouth for a different purpose - to jaw with the serpent. That superfluous exchange of words formed the glide path to the original sin of eating.  
Mankind eats. We must eat. The necessity of eating is part of all animal life, down to bacterial life. Even amoebas eat, though not with mouths. The need to eat pulls man out of his home, compelling him to search for food, to gathering the material needed to nourish his body. This search for food is a fundamental reason why mankind engages with the broader world in the first place and becomes a social animal.  While on the search for food, we cross paths with people we would otherwise never meet...at the market, the store, or the restaurant.  Eve herself is in a garden looking for food when she runs into the devil himself. If she had stayed home, she may never have met her match.  

And what does man eat? Anything and everything. We are omnivores. Our jaws, our teeth, and our appetites consume bark, clams, liver, mushrooms, grasshoppers, snake eggs, monkey brains, frog legs, and sheep eyeballs - the list of strange foods and delicacies is endless.  We are greedy for food and devour almost all that the earth offers us. 

Nearly all that our eyes behold is fit for consumption, especially when in dire need, except when our eyes fall on our fellow man. We see our cousin, our neighbor, even our enemy, and we know that him we cannot consume. Only the most primitive man, he most untrained in religious and human virtues, will consume his neighbor.  

When I conclude that I cannot eat my fellow man I am also concluding something else - that my fellow man should not eat me. My neighbor is not edible for the same reason that I am not edible. My dignity surpasses that of a carrot, a lobster, or a cow. Eating, clearly, is more than caloric intake.  

The pan-cultural prohibition against canabalism hints at an important insight - that there is a moral code embedded in our choice of what to eat and what not to eat. And if there are layers of meaning to so fundamental a biological function as eating, then it follows that there are also deeper layers of meaning to every human activity, especially those acts superior to basic biological functioning, activities like willed actions.  

God’s commandment to Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil does what all moral codes do – it sets a limit. All morality starts with setting limits on our behavior or even on our thinking.  These guardrails, and the effort to live life within these guardrails, forms the essential drama of every human soul, every household, and every community.  Without limits, life is less interesting, and its deeper layers remain buried and unseen. The ultimate limit, or deadline, is death.  

The final frontier of death, that dark curtain, gives all of life a sense of urgency and purpose.  Our being towards death, our life as hemmed in by the constraint of our biological end, makes us pay closer attention to all of reality. An endless life on earth, after all, would be essentially without purpose, without punishment, without reward, and without moral drama. If Eve had not sinned our lives on earth would still have ended, just not through the pain of death, but through some other form of departure perhaps similar to Mary’s, the only creature never..

First Sunday of Lent 2-22-26 Homily
 
We, the hearers of today’s mass readings, find ourselves in a primordial garden this First Sunday of Lent, ear witnesses to the first conversations of mankind. After blowing life into the nostrils of man, God quickly follows with a prohibition: “You shall not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil” ...and it’s all downhill from there.  

The mouth is a source of many and varied sins. The mouth, in fact, may be the cause of damnation more than any other part of the human body. The mouth of Eve opens wide in today’s reading from Genesis and closes again on a piece of fruit, changing the world forever.  

That “opening” act was preceded by Eve opening her mouth for a different purpose - to jaw with the serpent. That superfluous exchange of words formed the glide path to the original sin of eating.  
Mankind eats. We must eat. The necessity of eating is part of all animal life, down to bacterial life. Even amoebas eat, though not with mouths. The need to eat pulls man out of his home, compelling him to search for food, to gathering the material needed to nourish his body. This search for food is a fundamental reason why mankind engages with the broader world in the first place and becomes a social animal.  While on the search for food, we cross paths with people we would otherwise never meet...at the market, the store, or the restaurant.  Eve herself is in a garden looking for food when she runs into the devil himself. If she had stayed home, she may never have met her match.  

And what does man eat? Anything and everything. We are omnivores. Our jaws, our teeth, and our appetites consume bark, clams, liver, mushrooms, grasshoppers, snake eggs, monkey brains, frog legs, and sheep eyeballs - the list of strange foods and delicacies is endless.  We are greedy for food and devour almost all that the earth offers us. 

Nearly all that our eyes behold is fit for consumption, especially when in dire need, except when our eyes fall on our fellow man. We see our cousin, our neighbor, even our enemy, and we know that him we cannot consume. Only the most primitive man, he most untrained in religious and human virtues, will consume his neighbor.  

When I conclude that I cannot eat my fellow man I am also concluding something else - that my fellow man should not eat me. My neighbor is not edible for the same reason that I am not edible. My dignity surpasses that of a carrot, a lobster, or a cow. Eating, clearly, is more than caloric intake.  

The pan-cultural prohibition against canabalism hints at an important insight - that there is a moral code embedded in our choice of what to eat and what not to eat. And if there are layers of meaning to so fundamental a biological function as eating, then it follows that there are also deeper layers of meaning to every human activity, especially those acts superior to basic biological functioning, activities like willed actions.  

God’s commandment to Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil does what all moral codes do – it sets a limit. All morality starts with setting limits on our behavior or even on our thinking.  These guardrails, and the effort to live life within these guardrails, forms the essential drama of every human soul, every household, and every community.  Without limits, life is less interesting, and its deeper layers remain buried and unseen. The ultimate limit, or deadline, is death.  

The final frontier of death, that dark curtain, gives all of life a sense of urgency and purpose.  Our being towards death, our life as hemmed in by the constraint of our biological end, makes us pay closer attention to all of reality. An endless life on earth, after all, would be essentially without purpose, without punishment, without reward, and without moral drama. If Eve had not sinned our lives on earth would still have ended, just not through the pain of death, but through some other form of departure perhaps similar to Mary’s, the only creature who has never tasted death. 

There are endless layers of meaning to the Genesis narrative. Its depths have been plumbed, its nuances have been unpacked, by many impressive and creative theologians, artists, and philosophers. As people of the modern west, we have been schooled in the suppositions of the Enlightenment, and biased by our hyper technological, democratic culture. So we are sensitive to any restrictions on our freedom, which we tend to understand as an ultimate good.  

The seprent in the Genesis narrative today frames God as man’s enemy. But God is not our enemy. He’s not even our rival. God is not happy to the extent that we are sad. He is not pleased to the extent that we remain unpleased or unsatisfied. Our happiness, our fulfillment, is more likely when our will concurs with His. When our gift of freedom is exercised in accordance with His will, as expressed through the voice of his Son in the Church, we are more likely to live a kind of challenging self-fulfillment similar to the self fulfillment experienced by an elite athlete, a skilled craftsman, or an experienced musician.  

These professionals bend and shape their wills over long periods of time to conform with the laws of their arts. And precisely in that curtailing of their own desires, of their own wants and needs, are they able to sing an aria, vault over a high pole, or shape raw marble into the serene face of a saint. If we refuse to learn from the saints, or see them as too remote or impersonal, let us at least learn from other elite warriors – the athlete, the artist, or the craftsman. They live in our world. They do wondrous things. We admire their works so we should admire their focus and disciple in going for the gold. 

The fundamental temptation of all sin is the deification of the will. The conviction that my freedom, my expressed will, is superior to anyone else, or anything else, is the root of much sin. But my freedom is, in fact, not a royal decree. It can err. Freedom is also so conditioned by a
thousand human factors that our choices are never pure and our reasons never as dryly rational as we like to imagine.  

Adam and Eve exercise their freedom poorly today, turning a garden into a desert. They become the focus of their own lives, realizing, suddenly, that they are unclothed.  And they make this bad choice from a state of perfection, making our already fallen state seem ever hopeless. 
 
But we have more helps than them. Perfect nature is bested by perfect grace. We have God’s son. We have the catechism. We have Mary and the tombs of the saints. We have 2,000 years of learning. We have processions and devotions and rosaries and ashes on our foreheads. We are well and fully arrayed to resist the powerful temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil. We are equipped to shape our will to God’s, to climb the podium at the end of our lives not to wear a small round medal of gold for a time, but to be crowned with eternal life for eternity. That’s our goal. That’s our mission possible. Amen.  
 

Ash Wednesday Readings & Homily 2026





First Reading: Joel 2:12-18

Even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God. For gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment. Perhaps he will again relent and leave behind him a blessing, Offerings and libations for the LORD, your God.

Blow the trumpet in Zion! proclaim a fast, call an assembly; Gather the people, notify the congregation; Assemble the elders, gather the children and the infants at the breast; Let the bridegroom quit his room and the bride her chamber. Between the porch and the altar
let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep, And say, "Spare, O LORD, your people,
and make not your heritage a reproach, with the nations ruling over them!
Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their God?'"

Then the LORD was stirred to concern for his land and took pity on his people.

The Word of the Lord






Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 51:3-4, 5-6ab, 12-13, 14 and 17

R. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.

Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me.

R. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.

For I acknowledge my offense,
and my sin is before me always:
"Against you only have I sinned,
and done what is evil in your sight."

R. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.

A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me.

R. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.

Give me back the joy of your salvation,
and a willing spirit sustain in me.
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.

R. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.






Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:20—6:2


Brothers and sisters: We are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us.
We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.Working together, then,
we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says: In an acceptable time I heard you, and on the day of salvation I helped you. Behold, now is a very acceptable time;
behold, now is the day of salvation. 

The Word of the Lord







A reading from the Holy Gospel According to Matthew (6:1-6, 16-18)

Jesus said to his disciples: "Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father. When you give alms,
do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets
to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your almsgiving may be secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

"When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

"When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting,
except to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you."







The Gospel of the Lord

Homily

Normally the first word that a baby learns, unsurprisingly, is “mama.” One of the next words that most babies learn is “more.” A baby wants more food, more drink, more mom, more dad, more everything.  

We never forget that word, do we? From our infancy we simply want more and more. We even want more of non-tangible, non-physical things. We want more feedback. More compliments. More leisure. More knowledge. We very naturally want more. And no one has to stoke the fires of more, to remind us to desire more. We want more sleep, and no one needs encouragement to hit the snooze button, or to spend more time online, or to eat more ice cream. All of these things come to us naturally. 

The opposite of “more” may not be “less” but simply “no” or “none.” The beginning of Lent is a good time to remind ourselves that the word “no” can be a loving word.  When a mom or dad tells their teenage daughter to be home at 11, she might say, “but why can't I stay out until 12? Don't you love me?” And they could respond “Yes, we love you, - be home by 11.” In other words “We love you, no, you can’t stay out until 12.” “I love you, no” is an alternative to “I love you, yes.” Our body often demands that we respond to its desires with yes. But in Lent we tell our bodies “I love you, no!”
 
On Ash Wednesday and throughout Lent the Church encourages us to say “no” to ourselves more often. She teaches us that “more and more” is not beneficial for our bodies or our souls. The more we say “no” to food and drink and pleasure, the more capable we are of saying “yes” to God. 
We don’t seek to free ourselves from external chains just for the sake of being free. Freedom is not a goal as much as a means. Freedom is like time or money. It’s meant to be used, otherwise it loses its meaning. Freedom from the demands of the body has a positive more than a negative purpose. We are free “from” so that we can free “for.” We are free from self-focus, self-aggrandizement, self-coddling, so that we can be free for service to the church and others. To liberate ourselves from the incessant demands of our own bodies frees us for service to others. When we are not slaves to our bodily desires, we are more available, more willing, more capable, to serve those around us and to practice our faith at full throttle.
 
On Ash Wednesday our undying church smudges ash on our forehead and whispers “You’re gonna die.” We can almost feel the priest’s breath on our face as he says, in effect, “You're no bigger or better than this little pile of dust.” And this is not a virtual or digital encounter. The priest doesn’t appear through a screen. Receiving ashes is a real encounter between two real people, and if someone doesn't believe that Catholicism is true, today at least they know that Catholicism is real, and that realness may, down the road, lead to belief. Ours is not a fake or a counterfeit religion. There's nothing more real than wearing a scuff of ash on your forehead at lunch today.
 
The deep religious sentiment conveyed today is not too intellectual. A smudge on our forehead is not an idea or a concept. It’s simply there...all..day...long, a temporary Catholic tatoo. And we can’t outrun our forehead. 

On archeological digs, it’s very common that as the workers tunnel down through the layers of dirt and rock and broken shards of pottery, they find an ash layer. This shows where a fire burned down the castle, the city, the fort, or the house. This is where everything before came to an end. This layer demarcates destruction and a new beginning. A bed of ash separates one era from another.  
May today be our own personal ash layer. From today’s ashes may we start again. Today - may we drop our sins like a murder weapon. May we leave behind the old man and start the Chrisitan adventure again, harnessing our desires. We will return one day to the dust from which God made us. And when we return to that state there will be judgment, there will be mercy, and there will be condemnation. There will be heaven, hell, or purgatory. And there will be eternity. May we prepare well for that endless day. Amen.