Author: Al

Text: John 11
Date: Lent V + 4/6/14

Are you looking forward to Easter? The catechumens have been slowly drawn and taught and enlightened by the Word of God in preparation for their Holy Baptism at the Vigil and joining the fellowship of believers that is the Church. Recall with me briefly the curriculum: Lent 1—Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness and won the battle. We are preparing for a constant battle with Satan being equipped with the very same weapons that Jesus had, namely, the Word of God and the Spirit of God. Lent 2 – like Nicodemus we were told that we would receive God’s Word and Spirit by means of being born again by water and the Spirit. Lent 3—like the Samaritan woman at the well we were told that Holy Baptism isn’t just a one-time thing, even though it is administered only once, because the Christian life is supplied and empowered by living water, that is, by God’s gift and working and creation and sustaining of faith in your heart. Lent 4—more than that, like the man born blind, we were told that this faith lifts the veil of our former blindness and receives “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor 4:3-4). So now today, Lent 5, on our last Sunday before entering the Great and Holy Week you may be getting a little excited anticipating almost a miracle to happen to you as you are baptized. And it is, and you will. (A little note here that some have suggested that, in ancient times, the candidates were not told beforehand that they would be plunged under the water, a sort of surprise that would not be forgotten). Continue reading “"Never Was Love Like Thine"”

Text: John 11
Date: Lent V + 4/6/14

Are you looking forward to Easter? The catechumens have been slowly drawn and taught and enlightened by the Word of God in preparation for their Holy Baptism at the Vigil and joining the fellowship of believers that is the Church. Recall with me briefly the curriculum: Lent 1—Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness and won the battle. We are preparing for a constant battle with Satan being equipped with the very same weapons that Jesus had, namely, the Word of God and the Spirit of God. Lent 2 – like Nicodemus we were told that we would receive God’s Word and Spirit by means of being born again by water and the Spirit. Lent 3—like the Samaritan woman at the well we were told that Holy Baptism isn’t just a one-time thing, even though it is administered only once, because the Christian life is supplied and empowered by living water, that is, by God’s gift and working and creation and sustaining of faith in your heart. Lent 4—more than that, like the man born blind, we were told that this faith lifts the veil of our former blindness and receives “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor 4:3-4). So now today, Lent 5, on our last Sunday before entering the Great and Holy Week you may be getting a little excited anticipating almost a miracle to happen to you as you are baptized. And it is, and you will. (A little note here that some have suggested that, in ancient times, the candidates were not told beforehand that they would be plunged under the water, a sort of surprise that would not be forgotten). Continue reading “"Never Was Love Like Thine"”

Text: Ephesians 5:8
Date: Lent IV + 3/30/14

In our Lenten discipline of the catechumenate so far we have learned that to be a Christian means to enter a spiritual battle with the devil. But we do not fight that good fight by our own powers alone but by a new birth, being born again. Being a Christian means becoming a brand new person. We discovered that baptism is the foundation of this new birth, as Jesus said, “by water and the Spirit.” Our attention to water then expanded our understanding that faith is that living water, that our new person is the creation of God the Holy Spirit. Today our focus shifts from the image of water to the image of light and darkness. As new persons of God’s re-creation and new birth, today we consider everything in life that is against God as darkness and the grace and salvation of God as our light. St. John takes the entire ninth chapter of his Gospel to tell us the story of a man born blind and how Jesus’ gift of gaining his sight allowed him to see the true darkness, the blindness of sin, and to discover the vision of saving faith, saying to Jesus the same confession that we are asking of you, “Lord, I believe.” St. Paul comments in our Epistle today, saying, “For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.” Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord. Continue reading “Children of Light”

Text: John 4:5-26
Date: Lent III + 3/23/14

Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord. When you began the Lenten process of becoming a Christian you heard as of first importance that you would be entering a spiritual battle. We heard our Lord’s temptation by the devil in the wilderness. There you learned that you are given the same mighty weapons Jesus used in His defeat of Satan, namely, the Word of God and the Spirit of God. Continue reading “More Than Water”

Text: John 3:1-17
Date: Lent II + 3/16/14

“Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.” That invitation of Isaiah 2:5 comes from the revelation and because of the conviction that salvation does not originate with man but with God, not from our wisdom but from God’s as it says, “‘that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion shall go the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Is 2:3). Continue reading “Born of Water and the Spirit”

Text: Genesis 3; Matthew 4:1-11
Date: Lent I + 3/9/14

Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.

It’s not just a matter of getting older. Things really are worse than they used to be. Yet there seems to be nothing new under the sun. St. Paul wrote of the universal sinful nature of all human beings, saying, “since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done,” and, “though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them” (Romans 1:28, 32). In other words, the best way to make a sin not to be a sin anymore is to bring it out into the open. Continue reading “First Things”