Fr. Mike's Gospel Reflection - March 16, 2025

In the story of the Transfiguration, Jesus took Peter, James and John up the mountain to see Him with Moses and Elijah as the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. His face shone like the sun and his clothes were dazzling white. We read this Gospel during Lent because it reminds us that the fasting and repenting of Lent are meant to lead us to the glory of the Lord at Easter. On this mountain, Jesus was temporarily transformed into His glorious presence. Then, the apostles heard God’s booming voice telling them, “This is my chosen Son, listen to Him.”

Just as God spoke to the apostles on the mountain, He speaks to us here today. His words clearly instruct both the apostles and us to listen to Jesus. If we really listen, we will be transformed by His words and by His presence. After being transformed, we invite Jesus to be with us in our hearts. Just as the disciples were accompanied by Jesus when they returned to their daily lives, so Jesus also accompanies us when we receive Him in the Eucharist. Then, as we leave church and “come down the mountain,” He accompanies us as we face the harsh reality of the world around us.

Although the apostles were walking with Jesus every day, they may have grown too comfortable with His presence, maybe even taken Him for granted. Perhaps, they were too comfortable seeing and hearing Him teach or, more likely, they were not really listening to His message. The Transfiguration strengthened their faith so that they would be better able to endure the confusion and grief they were about to experience at the crucifixion.

The Transfiguration wakes up the apostles and reminds them that it is an amazing privilege to accompany Jesus each day. Like the apostles, we know that Jesus is always in our midst. Yet, many of us also take His presence for granted. Like the apostles, maybe we need to see God’s glory or to hear God’s booming voice to remind us of who Jesus is and what he has done for us so that we wake up and listen to Jesus. If we truly appreciate this great gift, we will leave each Mass amazed, energized, and transformed by our experience.

Fr. Mike

Fr. Mike's Gospel Reflection - March 9, 2025

Lent is a period of forty days. During the Great Flood, heavy rain poured down on the earth for forty days. After Jesus was baptized by John, the Spirit led Him into the desert for forty days.

The forty days of the flood allowed Noah to prepare for the new world that would await him. The forty days of fasting and temptation by Satan in the desert allowed Jesus to prepare for the ministry that he was about to undertake. The forty days of Lent allow us to prepare for the great feast of Easter. We cannot properly approach Easter and joyfully share in the great mystery of Christ’s resurrection unless we prepare. We do this in two ways – we recognize our sinfulness and we take steps to overcome that sinfulness.

Before the flood, God looked over the earth and saw a lot of sinfulness. If we are honest with ourselves, we would also see a lot of sinfulness if we look carefully at how we live our lives. A good examination of conscience helps us to identify sinful behaviors.

When we identify sin, we can confront it and try to overcome it. We don’t overcome anything by running away from it. We have to recognize our demons and then face them. That is what Jesus did in the desert. He faced the devil. By facing our demons, like Jesus did in the desert, we can conquer them.

One way to conquer our demons is to introduce good behaviors into our lives. During Lent, we have the chance to become better people by praying more, doing more for those who are less fortunate, focusing on others instead of ourselves. Our Lenten Outreach program gives us the ability to financially support important charitable causes. Alternatively, entire families can come together to perform good works in support of those in need.

We also pray the “Way of the Cross” during Lent. This is also called “Stations of the Cross.” If you look on the back wall of the church, you will see fourteen images of end of Jesus. We focus on these images to prepare for Easter by reminding ourselves of His great sacrifice. Join us each Friday as we pray the Stations and then have a light dinner of soup.

I wish you all a blessed time of Lenten preparation.

Fr. Mike's Gospel Reflection - March 2, 2025

Praise no one before he speaks, for it is then that people are tested. (Sirach 27:7)

It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt of it. (Attributed to various sources)

These two quotes help us to appreciate the value of sometimes remaining quiet. Yet, we rarely value silence. We are thrilled when our children begin to speak and we celebrate our child’s first words. We are decidedly less enthusiastic about how well our children listen. This tends to be reversed when our children are teenagers. At that point, we would be ecstatic if they would argue less and listen more carefully.

Much of our prayer tends to be us talking to God, often seeking specific outcomes – a better job, a higher grade, a cure, etc. Sometimes, we are simply reading “standard” prayers with minimal attention to the substance. For me, this happens when I recite Morning or Evening prayer in a distracted way. When I catch myself mindlessly saying the words, I have to start over to even know what I was praying about.

Often when we pray, we are totally focused on speaking about ourselves. Yet, true prayer should not be a litany of all that we believe is good or bad. If prayer is a conversation with God, it has to be more meaningful than our mere listing of what we like and don’t like about our lives. We must allow time for God to speak. Of course, during prayer, the time that we are “listening” for God’s response is often filled with silence. That generally makes us uneasy and we feel compelled to once again begin babbling on about our problems, hopes and dreams.

If you went to visit a doctor, rambled on endlessly about your ailments, and then left the appointment without hearing a word from the doctor, your visit would not have been very productive. Yet, that is precisely how many of us engage in prayer with God. We recite rote prayers for some specified amount of time or some specified number of repetitions, but we never set aside time to simply be quiet. The next time that we pray, we may want to remember the excellent advice of Psalm 46: “Be still and know that I am God.”