C - Third Sunday in Lent

Today is the third Sunday of Lent and so we draw near to the midpoint of our Lenten journey. Before we know it, Holy week will be upon us. Having made the effort to keep to our disciplines, to pray, fast and to be more charitable, we may have changed - even if only a little. We may have learned a little about ourselves. Do we have the stick-to-itiveness to remain disciplined? Are we able to be resilient in the face of many and varied forces, both spiritual and other, that pull us away from encountering the graces that appear to be abundant at this time? If not, the simple solution is always to start again.

By means of the disciplines we may experience two things: a desire to know God in a deeper way while interestingly, we recognize ourselves to be only less perfect, less worthy. For example, we want to pray more and to experience God more intimately, but prayer becomes difficult, distracted, or not how we thought it would go for us. We can draw comfort that perhaps this may be the expected experience. We begin to see ourselves for who we are, as we begin to recognize God as Holy God. Our readings today confront our modern-day idea that God is, but a friendly face and I don't have to worry so much, since God will forgive me, right? That is not wrong, we are loved, but the reality and impact of mortal sin is very real, and it can destine us for hell. In our first reading Moses encounters God and God tells him to remove his shoes for he is standing upon holy ground. God is holy, and nothing dirty will trespass on holy ground. Just as nothing unclean will enter the New Jerusalem or heaven, as we read in Revelation (21:26). God is Holy and we are his creatures. Because God is the great I AM we must acknowledge his holiness, and respect the holy places, such as this very sanctuary.

Our second reading from Corinthians warns us, not to be complacent, satisfied with ourselves, or to feel secure just because we are part of the church. The reading notes that the blessings of God were on all the ancestors, all were baptized, and all ate the spiritual food, and all drank the spiritual drink, just as we are and just as we do. Yet God was not pleased with many of them and so many were struck down. The reading goes on to say that this was an example for all and for us. God requires us to leave sin and evil behind. To believe we are somehow preserved due to just being catholic, would be the same mistake the Pharisees and Sadducees made by assuming that because they were descendance of Abraham, their salvation was assured. John the Baptist calls them to repentance and to show the fruit that corresponds to it. Just as we are called to repentance and to show the fruit of being a true disciple of Christ.

The Gospel reading reinforces this point. “Those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them, do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem?” “No, they weren’t.” Jesus tells us, and goes on to warn us, that if we do not repent, we too will perish as those who died in Siloam. Bible scholars, reading the Gospel of Luke in Greek, tell us that the two uses of the term, “if you do not repent”, use two different verb tenses, with one noting a need to repent once and for all, and the second referring to a continuing repentance.

God is perfectly Holy; God demands repentance if we are not to be lost. Being simply a declared catholic is not enough. These are stark truths. Our Lenten practice can make us more sensitive to them. But the Lord is Kind and Merciful as we all just declared in the psalms. He pardons our inequities and heals our ills. He is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in kindness. And so, He holds back the hand of the gardener who is ready to cut down the fruitless tree. Graces will abound to help each of us become trees that bear fruit.

“Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling”, we read in Philippians 2:12. Repent and believe in the Gospel, we heard spoken to us on Ash Wednesday. So, we return to the sacrament of reconciliation often, we eschew complacency and make of our catholic life one that bears much good fruit. Our continued Lenten practices, despite the challenges, help us to do just that.

Deacon Peter Bujwid
St. Agnes Church, Arlington, Massachusetts
Sunday 23rd March 2025

C - Ash Wednesday

Gratitude is the natural response to a gift.  We see this particularly at Christmas or on birthdays when family and friends gather, and gifts are exchanged.  We respond to these gifts with gratitude, words of thanks, hugs and kisses.   No one, however, can surpass the gifts of God, the greatest of which we recall and celebrate at every mass - God’s gift of his one son.  The Divine son who teaches us, that, ‘greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends’.  This gift breaks the chains of sin.  This gift enables us to know the freedom of forgiveness in this life and to taste the peace and joy waiting for us in the next.  God has given us great gifts and we should reflect on these and, as we do at Christmas or on a birthday, we should express our thanks.  We have so much to be grateful for. 

Now, as we begin our Lenten journey, it is time to make a greater gift of ourselves.  Lent is a time to journey further and in a more purposeful way into the mystery of God by wondering off the well-worn worldly trail and into the foothills of holiness.  During Lent, we are told to pray, fast and to give alms.

We commit to prayer.  So often prayer time can become a checkbox item.  But with a renewed sense of gift giving, we can place ourselves before God despite all the demands of our busy lives.  We should begin our prayers with the attitude of gratitude and with words that say, “this time, these ten or twenty minutes, I give to you dear Father despite the distractions and inevitable interruptions.  Time is a precious gift, and we only have so much of it, or so little of it.  By giving God our time, we acknowledge him as Lord of our life and make clear that we place Him first.

We fast.  Christ’s church asks so little of us; today and Good Friday are obligatory days of fasting and abstinence.  And Fridays during Lent are obligatory days of abstinence.  But should we strive for the minimum or should we do more?  What other gifts of fasting can we offer?  Perhaps we can fast from entertainment, the endless hours of TV, of sports, or YouTube?  We can also fast from some of the usual activities of our day, by committing to daily mass, or to reading scripture, the lives of the saints, or other spiritual books.  So, we pray, we fast. 

We also perform works of love and charity, quietly and unseen by others.  This can be gifts of money, gift cards for the needy, and so on.  Having practiced giving our time to God, we now give time to our neighbor and to the stranger.  A phone call to someone that needs to hear a friendly voice, a chance meeting with someone needing a friendly ear to really listen to them.  Love is willing of the good of the other.  During Lent we commit to seeing others in a new light and to love them.  For what we do to the least of these we also do to our Lord.

Our Father has given all things to us including his one and only begotten son, our brother.  We should consider this truth deeply.  By reflecting on God’s gifts to each of us, we hopefully respond in gratitude and with a growing freedom to give more of ourselves.  Our practices of prayer, fasting, and alms giving, give praise to our God, help transform our hearts and our lives. They prepare us to celebrate the Easter season with joy.   A joy that extends into every aspect of our lives, here and now, and goes on and into eternity. 

Deacon Peter Bujwid
St. Agnes Church
Arlington, MA
March 5, 2025

C - Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

If we are not intentional in our Christian life, we inevitably find ourselves indistinguishable from non-Christians as we fall victim to the dictates of the world, and to the social pressures which work to mold and define us.    

Our readings today describe the sort of life we are called to live.  A life that becomes a beacon of light and hope for others who hunger and thirst for something which the world is unable to offer.     

In our first reading David finds himself with the upper hand, despite being chased by Saul and his 3,000 soldiers.  Saul was the first King of Israel and a man without equal.  But David was wise and prospered and Saul grew increasingly jealous.  One night, surrounded by a sleeping army, David had the power to kill his enemy, but instead chose life for him. For Sual was the Lord’s chosen one, anointed to be King by the prophet Samuel.  Saul hated David and wanted to kill him, yet David responded with mercy, in a manner that was pleasing to God, and did not succumb to his natural response to the threat upon his life.   

David let Saul live but Jesus instructs us to be even more radical when dealing with our enemies.  David would spare Saul’s life convicted by his sense of community ties and obligations to God.  But Jesus tells us not only to spare our enemy, but to love them and to pray for them, and to offer our other cheek when one has already been struck.   Does Jesus really mean, if someone assaults me, I am to remain impassive, non-responsive, unmoved, even to defend myself?  There is no one answer since we are also obligated to preserve our God given life.  And husbands, you are obligated to protect your wife and children; even giving up your own life should the need arise.    Having said that, it is also very true that we possess a power that helps us transcend the natural options.   For we are born of dust, men and woman of the earth, and as such we demand retribution; an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.  But as Paul tells us in the second reading, we bare the image of the heavenly one.  By way of our baptism, we assume a mantle where simple force, is replaced by wise humility, and judgment is balanced by mercy.  We bare the image of Jesus Christ upon our hearts and souls and so we can be moved, motivated, and called to action in the way of our Lord.  When persecuted we are not taught to do nothing, like a pacifist.  Rather we are called to act in union with the principles of the Kingdom of God.  In doing so we encounter and know God more intimately, since we are entering His life and see as He sees, and know as He knows, even if only dimly.  At the same time, we are being changed, from the earthy Adam to the spiritual or heavenly Adam, that Paul writes to us about.   

But what of justice?   Are my enemies getting away with something?  What of redress and making it right?  What is very clear is that God is kind to those who do not deserve it.  “Do you begrudge my generosity?”  Matthew writes of the vineyard owner, when speaking of the men who did not start work until late in the day.  Recall the father who celebrates the return of the prodigal son with a feast.  Recall Jesus who chooses to eat with prostitutes and tax collectors.  God has mercy on those that do not deserve it.  We seek that same mercy for ourselves, but we are also called to give as we have received.  And by this to enter further into the mystery of God.   

Is it not awesome that God is love?  Is it not awesome that the creative power of all we see, know, and understand, comes from an eternal wellspring of love?  And here we are called to encounter it, to know it, to share it, and become it.  

As I close consider someone who has hurt you.  For a few short seconds think of them, forgive them, and exercise that same mercy for the rest of today.  By means of the Holy Spirit living in us, we can begin a healing, and so, decisively step upon the path that leads to a truly radical Christian life.  A life that becomes a beacon of light and hope for others who hunger and thirst for something more than the world offers.   

Deacon Peter Bujwid Saint Agnes Church, Arlington, MA. 

Sunday 23rd February 2025