The Friar Podcasts - preaching prayer and spiritual reflections

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.

How often is it we have been told, "One person can really make a difference." And how often is it that we can see this is true. Whether big or small, what we do makes a difference somewhere. Whether or not it makes a positive difference is the point of the second reading today. But the power of one is made clear.

Through one man, Adam, sin entered the world. Through one man, Jesus, sin was overcome and salvation was offered. One person can really make a difference. But we need to acknowledge that Jesus is the one man who can really make a difference.

It can be the case that we do not hold in happy tension the incarnation. Jesus was fully human. Jesus is also fully divine. How these two distinct natures combine in the one person of Jesus is a mystery. But thanks be to God it is true.

Everything about Jesus has power. He makes the unclean clean. He heals physical sickness and condition. He facilitates conversion. He takes sin upon himself so that he can die for our sakes, paying the ransom of sin, saving us from eternal death if we accept what it is he can do for us.

At this start of Lent, we need to make the point that Jesus is powerful indeed. Not only does he show us that one person can make a difference, but that he is the only one who can make the ultimate difference.

On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

"Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky, and so make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered all over the earth."

At first glance, it can seem to be the case that the desire of the people to speak one language could have all kinds of benefits. Think of how much easier it would be if without effort we could understand the words that anyone else on the planet was speaking. What's wrong with that?

On the surface, nothing. But as with all things, the problem is under the surface. Sometimes the problem in our spiritual life is not what happens on the surface, but has more to do with our internal motivations. It is not unlike the question I used to ask as a child about whether or not I had to continue whatever I did for Lent on Sundays. Were Sundays really a part of Lent?

It was not that I was really trying to celebrate the resurrection, and so an act of penance would not be as appropriate. Rather, I wanted to find the loophole that meant I did not have to sacrifice so much. I wasn't trying to grow in holiness, I was trying to find a shortcut and to take the easy way out.

The motivation for the people in this reading is to make a name for themselves. But their name has already been made into something great. They have been created by God for something wonderful and outstanding. It is really amazing what God has done.

But the temptation is that sometimes we want all the credit for ourselves. Name something that you have not been given, reminds Saint Paul. While we are all secondary causes, the primary cause which enables us to do and to have all we do and have comes from God. The relationship by the people in today's first reading is really about changing places with God.

The people think they are the ones who are really important. They forget that all they have comes from God. And all good actions only happen when we cooperate with God's grace.

On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

Thus says the LORD: Return, O Israel, to the LORD, your God; you have collapsed through your guilt. Take with you words, and return to the LORD; Say to him, "Forgive all iniquity, and receive what is good, that we may render as offerings the bullocks from our stalls. Assyria will not save us, nor shall we have horses to mount; We shall say no more, 'Our god,' to the work of our hands;
for in you the orphan finds compassion."

Hosea the prophet had a challenging time in being a prophet. The people would not listen. And they forgot the source. They believe they could save themselves. Yet only God can save.

Assyria will not save us. We cannot look to a political power for salvation, as tempting at it may be sometimes. Nor shall we have horses to mount. We cannot look to weapons for salvation, even though in the short term they make us feel safer. We shall say no more, 'Our god,' to the work of our hands. We cannot look to our own efforts to save us. No, there is only one source of salvation. God.

But we need to allow God to save us. We need to know and accept that we need salvation. We need to surrender to God, so that with God's grace, we can really be changed. We are made in God's image, but we do not always act like we are made in God's image.

We need to allow our God to be God. Period. Jesus is our savior. Jesus is the way. And God's grace shows us the way, which is the only way we are saved.

But if it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.

How dramatic. Jesus is doing miraculous things. The Pharisees are jealous. The actions of God are being done without their approval. The purpose of the Jewish Law was to provide fertile ground in the soul for a relationship with Jesus. It is not to slavishly follow rules and to control others. The kingdom of God is about freedom.

This was the great insight of Saint Paul. The Law, in and of itself, could only demonstrate sin. It could not save in the strictest sense, for the relationship with God is what salvation is. And only fidelity to the relationship with God, and to God so we can accept his grace is what salvation entails.

The problem with rules alone is that it has the tendency to make us proud on the one hand, and full of despair on the other. In everything Jesus does, he shows forth the Holy Spirit. He does the work of the Father. And fidelity to a relationship with Jesus allows us to see clearly where God is at work in the world.

But more importantly it allows us to see where God is active in our personal lives. It enables us to see that what Jesus says to the Pharisees in the gospel he says to us. "The Kingdom of God has come upon you." What does this mean? It means that when we accept God's grace, we find ourselves transformed. It so changes us that we too can do the things of God. We can feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, and we can visit the prisoner or hospital patient.

We do not do this only because we choose to do so, but rather, because who so allow God's grace to penetrate our hearts and souls that it becomes who we are. Others notice, and they want what we have. And so get on with it. There are a lot of people who need to know the Kingdom of God is upon them.

In every way, God is about life. God tells us he does not want the sinner to die. God desires all people to be saved. Jesus spends so much of his time seeking out and searching for the lost. The sinners, those on the margins, those who have little or nothing except brokenness. He assures us that ultimately those who follow him will be well.

It can be easy in our own life to forget this. When brokenness enters into our life, into our body, into our relationships and into other aspects of our life, we can feel that God is far away. It can be the case that God hardly feels like the God of the living.

And yet, in the story of Noah we have been following the past few days, we learn that it is the case that when God is at the center of our life, it is then that we are able to bear any hardship. Julian of Norwich reminds us of this truth. "All will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well."

It is, however, only with a deep relationship with God and abiding trust in his grace that we can really, deep down, know that this is true. Because there are a lot of times when the world can feel anything but well. But when we are in right relationship with God, then it is the case that there is order even in the midst of chaos and darkness.

Moreover, when we are in this time of order, we are also better able to express gratitude for all it is that God does. For there are times when our lives are not filled with brokenness. There are times of happiness and joy too. God does all he can to save life and us. On that, we have God's Word.

On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

"However, take care and be earnestly on your guard not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen, nor let them slip from your memory as long as you live, but teach them to your children and to your children's children."

The word tradition means to hand on, or to hand over. And this "handing over" is an important aspect of the spiritual life. Moses warns the people to "hand over" to their children and their children's children the religious truths they have learned. What is it we feel compelled to hand on?

This is a complex question, the question of what values and truths we share with the next generation. Consider how fast things are changing. Hardly a day goes by without there being some new amazing piece of technology being announced. It seems moral questions about what we should and should not do seem to be arising more and more often.

And so the answers to the big questions can get lost just in trying to live the day to day. Life is hard. Life is busy. We might have a whole host of legitimate concerns that take us away from even thinking about what it is we should pass on to our children and grandchildren.

What Moses suggests to the people is not to forget the law they have learned, and the experiences of God they have had. Not bad advice. Open your heart to learn more about your faith, and seek Jesus to grow into deeper and deeper experiences of his love for you.

They stood up for their beliefs and found themselves in a fiery furnace. Hotter than normal. Punished by a selfish and mean king. But as they stood in the fire, they remembered the most important thing. They remembered it all depends on God.

The three heroes in today's first reading are all about remembering the good things God had done for them. In exile, serving a brutal king, they remembered their true king was God. And in this, they remembered something far more important. They remembered that in all things, God would never abandon them.

This is particularly remarkable when one considers that all they really needed to do is to obey Nebuchadnezzar. Couldn't they have just pretended to follow Nebuchadnezzar? Of course not. If they wanted an authentic relationship with God, then what they needed to remember is that they could not pretend. They believed in God, even if it meant being thrown into the fire.

For it is often in the fire that we are most tested. When things are really challenging, we may not even believe that we can survive. Who can imagine being a martyr? Who sees themselves as easily standing up for what is right? How will we confront that person who treats others badly?

These situations, and others like it, put us into the fire. But if we remember the story, there are not just the three, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. No, there is a fourth, like a son of God, also in the fire. Even in the flames, they are cool, because they are not alone. God is with them.

“My father,” they said, “if the prophet had told you to do something extraordinary, would you not have done it? All the more now, since he said to you, ‘Wash and be clean,’ should you do as he said.”

Wash and be clean. Just as I observed yesterday, whenever we read about water we should immediately be attuned to a reference about baptism. As Saint Augustine said, the New Testament is hidden in the Old, and the Old Testament is revealed in the New." And so when we read about Namaan the Syrian today, and his being told to wash and be clean, we should recognize exactly what it is that baptism did for us.

For it is the sacrament that washes us of our brokenness and makes us sons and daughters of God. We are made clean. And with the cleansing of Baptism, we are also reminded just how much it is then that we have to accept of God's love. As Saint James reminds us, faith without works is dead.

Baptism makes us new, just as the water made the skin of Namaan the Syrian new. We are made new when it is we see the grace of God and what it can do not only in our life, but also in the lives of others.

But there is an even more important lesson we are to learn today. Namaan almost missed the presence of God because he had a preconceived idea of what it meant for God to act in our world. In the sheer ordinariness of the request, Namaan almost closed his ears to the voice of God.

How often is it that we do the same? Hearing the voice of God in the thundercloud seems far more dramatic than caring for the people he has created. Giving a thirsty person a drink? Bah. Feeding the hungry. Bah. Recognizing that it is far more glorious that we give drink to the thirsty and food to the hungry, and in so doing are able to see the glorious God of all eternity? That indeed is magnificent!

We boast in hope of the glory of God. And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

The world needs hope. There is no doubt about it. All around us we see brokenness. All around us there are broken relationships, violence, war and poverty. Fortunately this season of Lent reminds us there is reason to hope.

And it is not a type of foolishness. We are well aware of the difficulties and challenges, including poverty that have always existed. It is not even a personal foolishness where we see that sin will no longer be a part of our lives. We know what we are and who we are.

And both can be answered by the acknowledgement that we are beloved sons and daughters of God. Just as those who will come into the Church at baptism will be beloved sons and daughters, so too are we now. It is not that it is because we work hard, have put in a lot of effort, or even that we have done limitless numbers of good works to earn it. No, that is not the case.

Rather, it is the case that we have responded to God's grace by simply accepting him into our lives, accepting the gift of salvation he wants all to accept. And that is enough for us to have hope.

Who is there like you, the God who removes guilt and pardons sin for the remnant of his inheritance; Who does not persist in anger forever, but delights rather in clemency, And will again have compassion on us, treading underfoot our guilt? You will cast into the depths of the sea all our sins; You will show faithfulness to Jacob, and grace to Abraham, As you have sworn to our fathers from days of old.

His son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son.' But his father ordered his servants, 'Quickly, bring the finest robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.Take the fattened calf and slaughter it. Then let us celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found.' Then the celebration began.

It is amazing when you consider it. We get two very powerful testimonies to the forgiveness of God. First, there is the reading from the prophet Micah. Rightly Micah's name means "Who is like God?" And this is the very question Micah is asking as he considers the great forgiveness God constantly pours out on his people.

The gospel today from Saint Luke is probably familiar to us. It is the story of the prodigal son. There are many things that are interesting about this gospel story. First, it is a gospel story that involves the Gentiles, as the younger son who goes through his father's inheritance quickly is tending pigs, something a devout Jew would never do.

It is a story about the Pharisees, the older son who feels that his simply following the Father's commands was enough, rather than developing a loving relationship with him, represents the anger of the Pharisees who are jealous of the ministry of Jesus, and cannot recognize how it is that God is building the Kingdom of God through his son.

We can probably relate to both readings ourselves. How is it that God can forgive us? How is it that our sins are not so serious that they are beyond God's love? Because when I think of it, I can recognize that I do not so easily forgive. But God can. His forgiveness is beyond anything we can imagine.

Just as the father in the story runs out to meet his repentant son, so too is God eager to meet us when we seek his forgiveness. The season of Lent is a time for us to recall that love God has for us. It is a time where prayer, fasting, and almsgiving become the means for us to see more clearly the face of Christ.

It is also the proper time for us to hear the call of salvation. For this is a very acceptable time, this is a very good time to seek the forgiveness of God. As we are reminded by the name of Micah, and by the love of the Father, perhaps this is a very acceptable time not only to ask, Whos is like God?, but in the sacrament of confession to hear the answer. No one.