RE: 03.15.`12~Readings for Sunday, March 18th-2012

Saint Max Bible Study Meets at the back of the church in the Mother Cabrini room 9AM-10AM on Fridays…Please join us!

http://facilitator-stmaxbiblestudy.blogspot.com


________________________________________
Leaven XVIII Conference coming March 24
Each year the faithful of the Diocese of Venice are given a special opportunity to participate in a conference that deals solely with issues related to peace and justice and their impacts on the local, state, national and global communities.
________________________________________
THIS YEAR’S LEAVEN CONFERENCE WILL BE HELD AT NEAR-BY San Pedro Parish in North Port, FL… SAT 3/24/12
PLEASE JOIN US!!!

http://mkpjusticeministry.blogspot.com\


Fourth Sunday of Lent
READING 1 2 CHR 36:14-16, 19-23
In those days, all the princes of Judah, the priests, and the people
added infidelity to infidelity,
practicing all the abominations of the nations
and polluting the LORD's temple
which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.

Early and often did the LORD, the God of their fathers,
send his messengers to them,
for he had compassion on his people and his dwelling place.
But they mocked the messengers of God,
despised his warnings, and scoffed at his prophets,
until the anger of the LORD against his people was so inflamed
that there was no remedy.
Their enemies burnt the house of God,
tore down the walls of Jerusalem,
set all its palaces afire,
and destroyed all its precious objects.
Those who escaped the sword were carried captive to Babylon,
where they became servants of the king of the Chaldeans and his sons
until the kingdom of the Persians came to power.
All this was to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah:
"Until the land has retrieved its lost sabbaths,
during all the time it lies waste it shall have rest
while seventy years are fulfilled."

In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia,
in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah,
the LORD inspired King Cyrus of Persia
to issue this proclamation throughout his kingdom,
both by word of mouth and in writing:
"Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia:
All the kingdoms of the earth
the LORD, the God of heaven, has given to me,
and he has also charged me to build him a house
in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
Whoever, therefore, among you belongs to any part of his people,
let him go up, and may his God be with him!"
RESPONSORIAL PSALM PS 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6.
R. (6ab) Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
By the streams of Babylon
we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.
On the aspens of that land
we hung up our harps.
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
For there our captors asked of us
the lyrics of our songs,
And our despoilers urged us to be joyous:
"Sing for us the songs of Zion!"
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
How could we sing a song of the LORD
in a foreign land?
If I forget you, Jerusalem,
may my right hand be forgotten!
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
May my tongue cleave to my palate
if I remember you not,
If I place not Jerusalem
ahead of my joy.
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
READING 2 EPH 2:4-10
Brothers and sisters:
God, who is rich in mercy,
because of the great love he had for us,
even when we were dead in our transgressions,
brought us to life with Christ -by grace you have been saved-,
raised us up with him,
and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus,
that in the ages to come
He might show the immeasurable riches of his grace
in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
For by grace you have been saved through faith,
and this is not from you; it is the gift of God;
it is not from works, so no one may boast.
For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works
that God has prepared in advance,
that we should live in them.
GOSPEL JN 3:14-21
Jesus said to Nicodemus:
"Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
And this is the verdict,
that the light came into the world,
but people preferred darkness to light,
because their works were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light
and does not come toward the light,
so that his works might not be exposed.
But whoever lives the truth comes to the light,
so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.

SUNDAY READINGS - 4th Sunday of Lent
FIRST READING: 2 Chronicles 36:14-16; 19-23. All the leading priests and the people likewise were exceedingly unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations; and they polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Jerusalem.
The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place; but they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words, and scoffing at his prophets, till the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, till there was no remedy. The Chaldeans burned the house of God, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burned all its palaces with fire, and destroyed all its precious vessels. He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbath. All the days that it lay desolate it kept sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.
Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: "Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, 'The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him. Let him go up.'"
EXPLANATION: The Book of Chronicles (now divided into two books) is an historical summary of the history of the Chosen People. Although it begins with Adam, and covers the same ground as that covered from Genesis to 2 Kings, its chief emphasis is on David and on the Levites. Hence, of the descendants of Abraham, the tribes of Judah (David's tribe) and Levi figure with greater prominence than all the others. Of all the kings of Judah, David and Solomon have pride of place (the northern kings being omitted), and after them the "good" kings only, Jehosaphat, Ezechiah, and Josiah, who promoted or reformed the observance of the law and the divine cult in the temple. This summary history comes down to the decree of Cyrus giving the Babylonian exiles permission to return to Jerusalem. It is Generally agreed that the books of Ezrah-Nehemiah are the continuation of the same work written by the same author around 400 B.C. Today's extract refers to the edict of Cyrus, the king of Persia, permitting the exiles to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple, which had been burned by the Chaldeans as a punishment from God for the infidelities of the Chosen People.
leading...people: The last three kings of Judah were unfaithful to God and his law. The priests were no better. Pagan practices were allowed in Jerusalem and even in the temple of the true God "the abominations of the nations polluted the house of the Lord in Jerusalem."
Lord...messengers: In his mercy God kept sending his messengers, his prophets, pleading with them to mend their ways, but they ignored and even scoffed at his interventions "till there was no remedy."
The Chaldeans: King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia (also called Chaldaea) invaded Palestine, captured Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and took the king and most of the citizens off to Babylon as prisoners of war (597-587 B.C.). In this the chronicler saw the hand of God whose wrath had been aroused by the stubborn disobedience and disrespect of his Chosen People.
until...Persia: The Jews remained prisoner in Babylon for almost seventy years.
land...sabbaths: The sabbath law which prescribed rest for the people and the land (for no servile work could be done in it) had been ignored. Now this same land will have seventy years of rest for there will be no Jew to till it. Jeremiah the prophet had foretold this (see Lv. 26: 34; and Jer. 25: 11; 29: 10).
first...Cyrus: Cyrus set free all foreign prisoners of war in Babylon including the Jews. In doing this he fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah mentioned above.
the Lord...Cyrus: The God of the Jews, who was God of the Universe, was able to influence the now ruler of Babylon to set his people free, as he had influenced the previous king to punish them for their offenses against himself and his temple.
The Lord...heaven: These words do not mean that Cyrus recognized the God of the Jews as his own God and Benefactor. He respected all gods for he knew that a people obedient to their god would be obedient to himself too. Cyrus anticipated by centuries the syncretism of the Roman empire.
Let him go up: The Jewish prisoners were now free to return to their homeland and encouraged to rebuild their temple in Jerusalem. Now that they had no king and no intention of having one, the temple would be the focal point round which the nation would gather; in it their faith and their hopes for a glorious future would be centered.
APPLICATION: When this world of ours shall end and we shall see the complicated and multicolored tapestry that the history of men on earth has woven, we shall clearly recognize the hand of God putting the varied and intricate strands of that history into their proper place. "The old order changeth giving place to the new and God fulfills himself in many ways," says the great poet Tennyson. Yes, even those who now think that they are running this world themselves, without any assistance or what they call interference, from God, will see who moved them---for his own long-distance purpose. The history of the Chosen People of the Old Testament is evident proof of God's big part in the regulating of their world. He worked extraordinary miracles to bring them into Canaan, the land he promised Abraham. But on the way and during their sojourn there, again and again, he used their enemies, and his, in order to make them realize their dependence on him. God's plan was that the future Messiah would come from his Chosen People in the land of Canaan, yet he allowed the northern tribes, because of their disloyalty, to lose all ownership of their part of the territory. As we saw in today's reading, Judah (Benjamin) and Levi almost suffered the same fate. "Almost only," for here God’s plan steps in. While they had to be punished for their infidelities, the punishment was to be a purification, they would be chastised. In later days, we see Cromwell of England and Bismarck of Germany unwitting doing more to spread the Catholic Church in the western continent than all the zealous Catholic missionaries who had gone there up to that time.
The history of the Christian era is no different. God's Chosen People of the New Testament have often, been disloyal to him. They have often provoked his wrath, and God allows their enemies and probably his own enemies to purify and cleanse them. There have been times too When God allowed sinful despots to torture and kill innocent Christians for their own criminal motives, but out of the sufferings of his faithful ones God built a bigger and more loyal following. Nero, Caligula and Diocletian, for instance, sent more martyr saints to heaven than even the great Apostle St. Paul---saints, perhaps, who might otherwise not have got there.
What holds true of people and nations is true also in the life of each individual. God is working in our lives in a way that we do not always realize. He has an active interest in each one of us from the cradle to the grave. The devout Christian family which was ever loyal to God is suddenly deprived of the bread-winner, the mother of a young family is called away leaving a helpless father to face the difficult future. The young boy or girl in whom the parents had set their hopes and on whom they had spent much of their limited income, and most of their love, is stricken down as he or she graduates from college. These do not look like the doings of a loving and benevolent God when seen from our side of eternity. But when we shall see the tapestry of our life on the last day, we shall then see why such "misfortunes" had to happen. In fact, we shall see that they were blessings from God in disguise---someone or other of the actors in the scene would not have reached heaven had these so-called misfortunes not occurred in the family.
God is looking after us, he can write straight with "crooked" lines, the crookedness indeed is the result of our angle of view. When the whole picture is painted we shall see how necessary it was for our salvation that we should take the rough with the smooth. Fair-weather sailors are not fit for long and difficult voyages. Our journey to heaven is a long and often stormy voyage we need to be trained in dealing with storms if we are to arrive safely in the place that God has destined for us. While very often we can attribute the storms of life to the wickedness of evil neighbors or anti-religious governments, let us not forget it, God is using these crooked lines and these worldly agents to write for us that beautiful sentence: "well done, thou good and faithful servant ... enter into the joy of the Lord." So may it be for all of us!
________________________________________
SECOND READING: Ephesians 2: 4-10. God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God---not because of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
EXPLANATION: St. Paul preached the gospel in Ephesus during his third missionary journey. He spent over two years in that city (54-57), and had a very large group of converts there. This letter was written from prison (most probably Paul's Roman imprisonment 61-63), and is a calm, studied exposition of the Christian doctrine he had already taught them. The doctrine of the Blessed Trinity and the part each of the divine persons plays in our salvation is stressed. The mutual love between Christ and his Church is compared to the mutual love between husband and wife. The kingdom of Christ is already here on earth, each member shares in it through baptism, but it is only in the future age that it will be a full reality. In today's extract from this letter, St. Paul is emphasizing the gratuitousness of the gift of faith which the Ephesian converts have received. This gift which God gave them, even when they were sinners, had united them to Christ, and has given them the right to share in his glorious resurrection and inherit heaven with him and through him.
God...mercy: This infinite mercy or goodness of God is the explanation of everything we have and will have.
he loved us: What a startling idea this must have been for the Gentile converts especially. Their pagan gods never loved them---they were always a threat and had to be placated by sacrifices but the true God loves his creatures, "even when dead through trespasses."
alive...Christ: Through being united to Christ, that is, to the God-man, human beings are made to live with a new life, a higher life, a life of adopted sonship with God.
raised up with him: St. Paul sees Christians as already participating in the blessings of the resurrection of Christ. They have through baptism the qualifications necessary to obtain for them, after death on this earth, a place with Christ Jesus in heaven. They have their citizenship papers and their passport, all they need is to travel on the right road.
in...ages: At a future date all true Christians will share in "the immeasurable riches" that God has prepared for us in and through his incarnate Son.
by grace...saved: He now stresses the gratuitous character of the heavenly gifts which Christ and their Christian faith will earn, and has already earned in part, for them.
not because of works: No natural powers or works of man are able to merit the supernatural gifts---eternal life in glory with all that follows from that but God alone in his infinite goodness makes a free gift of these blessings to us.
his workmanship: As he created us in the natural order, so he has now created us in the supernatural order.
created in Church Jesus: Through the incarnation we have been made "a new creation," this truth occurs often in St. Paul (see 2 Cor. 5: 17; Gal. 6: 15; Tit. 3: 5; Col. 3: 10; Eph. 4: 24).
for good works: Our natural works cannot merit anything supernatural for us, but because we are raised by baptism to a supernatural state our good works are meritorious.
that we...them: God himself has laid down for us in our Christian religion a certain line of action, a form of life that we must follow in our living. Through our fidelity to these prescriptions, we shall reach the rewards prepared for us by God's gratuitous love.
APPLICATION: The holy season of Lent ends with the great drama of the "Triumph of Failure" on Calvary. On that first Good Friday the Son of God as man died the most shameful and painful death on the cross. He did so that we men might live forever. It is, therefore, most fitting that in our preparation during Lent for the worthy commemoration of that world-shaking event, we should be reminded of the immense and almost incredible love of God for us which caused this to happen. Think on it as we may, and meditate on it as often as possible, we could still never fathom the depths of pure, unalloyed love which made God go to such lengths for our sakes. But we can see and understand enough of that divine love to make us utter frequently a heartfelt and sincere "thank you" to our heavenly Father.
Having created us and having given us the intellectual gifts which raise us above all other created things on earth, God could have left us in that natural state. We could have a certain amount of happiness, mixed with suffering of course, and we should be grateful for this, but could we really have any true happiness, any real contentment in a life which moved irrevocably and swiftly toward its eternal end in the grave? The merciful and loving Creator saw this before he ever created us. We were never intended for a mere natural life on this earth. The special faculties that he intended giving us deserved and, one could say, almost demanded something immensely greater than a few fleeting years of joy mixed with sorrow on this little planet. Therefore, our loving Creator ordained from eternity that we should share his eternal happiness with him.
That God could have found many ways of doing this, there is no sound reason to doubt, but the way he chose---the uniting of our human nature with the divine in his incarnate Son---was surely the way that expressed his true and fatherly love in the most emphatic manner possible. This is what our heavenly Father has done for us. He did so, as St. Paul says today: " out of the great love with which he loved us." The superior intellectual faculties which he gave man in creation can now have, as their object, infinite love and happiness, infinite truth and beauty. Multiply any earthly joy and happiness you have ever experienced, by infinity (if that can be done) and you have some vague idea of what your future life in heaven will be.
To help us appreciate how privileged we are---God's friends on our way to God's home---let us think often during Lent of our unfortunate neighbors, who have no such faith, no such hope, no such consolation in their day after day struggles. This may be their own fault or that of their parents or grandparents, but it matters not who is responsible, these neighbors of ours were created for heaven, God wants them there and unless they get there, their life on earth has been a dreadful failure. We can help them in many ways and if we really appreciate all that God has done and is doing for ourselves, we will gladly do a little bit for him in return, by assisting his prodigal sons on the road back to their Father. This act of true charity toward our fellowman in need will not impede us on our journey to heaven. It will be an immense help to keep us closer to God and more faithful to our Christian calling. A very special additional joy for us in our eternal life will be to have with us in heaven those whom we helped to bring there with us.
________________________________________
GOSPEL: John 3:14-21. Jesus said to Nicodemus, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God."
EXPLANATION: In chapter three of his gospel, St. John tells us of a nocturnal conversation which Jesus had with a leading Jew, a man of wealth and position. This man, whose name was Nicodemus, had, been impressed by Jesus' preaching and miracles, but being afraid of his fellow-Jews, in the circle in which be moved, he came to speak to Jesus at night. Nicodemus is told that to enter into the kingdom of God, a man must believe in Christ and be baptized. He is born anew of the Spirit in baptism. Jesus also tells him that it is God's will that he himself should be lifted up on the cross and die so that those who believe in him may have, eternal life. It would seem that Nicodemus believed in Jesus to a limited degree. He tried to defend him later on when the Pharisees were condemning Christ (Jn. 7: 51), and he assisted Joseph of Arimathea in the burial of Jesus and supplied expensive aloes and myrrh for the embalming of his body (Jn. 19: 39).
serpent...wilderness: During their wanderings in the desert the Chosen People often rebelled against God. On one such occasion, described in the Book of Numbers (21: 4-9), God allowed poisonous serpents amongst them. Anyone bitten by one of these serpents died. The people then repented, and God told Moses to make a bronze image of a serpent and raise it aloft on a pole. Anyone bitten by a serpent who looked on the elevated bronze serpent was instantly healed of his poisoning.
so must...Man: The "Son of Man" (the half-hidden messianic title that Jesus used of himself) must also be raised aloft (on the cross) in order to earn eternal life for all who will believe in him. In John's gospel the phrase "to be raised up" referring to Jesus has always a double meaning, to be raised up on the cross and to be raised up in glory at the resurrection and ascension.
gave...Son: These are most probably John's interpretation and explanation of the role of Jesus in our salvation. It is entirely due to the incredible love of God for us. He did not spare his own Son but sent him as man amongst us to live and die for us.
shall not perish: Death will not be the final end of those who truly believe in Jesus.
not...world: Neither God nor his incarnate Son condemns men. Men condemn themselves by their refusal to accept God and his Son whom he sent to open heaven for them.
He who believes: Belief in Christ put into daily practice is indicated here. Saying "Lord, Lord" will save no man, "but he who does the will of my Father, he shall be saved."
condemned already: The atheist, agnostic and disbeliever who persevere in this frame of mind are already writing their own sentence of condemnation, just as the true believer who perseveres in his faith is already writing his sentence of approval.
believed in the name: That is, in the person of Jesus, who was God's divine Son.
light has come: Christ as the light of the world is an image frequent in St. John. Christ himself says: "I am the light of the world, he that follows me shall have life and will not walk in darkness" (Jn. 8: 12, see also 9: 5; 12: 35-45; 12:46). Christ has come to illuminate, to give light to the minds of men, so that they can know the true facts regarding their purpose in life.
men loved darkness: That is, the negation of light and what it means. Men preferred not to know their destiny lest they should have to go to the trouble, the self-restraint necessary to reach it.
deeds were evil: They were sinners and loved their sins.
does...light: The vast majority of evil deeds are done in secrecy and in the darkness.
he who...light: The innocent man who does what is right has no fear of being seen by everybody.
deeds...God: Good works are done by the aid and under the inspiration of God, if they are truly good and meritorious. Works good in themselves, can lose all merit and spiritual value because of the evil or wrong intention of their author.
APPLICATION: This man Nicodemus had a half-open mind as regards Jesus. He was moved by his teaching and miracles. He defended him when his companions were out to have Jesus arrested. He helped to have him properly buried when his enemies had him put to death, but that was as far as he went, apparently. There is no mention of him in the first Christian community of Jerusalem. What held him back, what kept him from giving himself fully to Jesus who spoke so kindly and told him so clearly that he himself was indeed a teacher who had come from God, that he had been offered by God as the sacrificial victim who would save the world? All Nicodemus had to do was to accept his word, "believe in him" and be baptized and he too would have eternal life.
Why did he not do this? The answer is given in the beginning of his story: "He came to Jesus by night." He was one of the leading Pharisees and evidently was afraid of what they would think of him had they seen him associating with Jesus. How much more so did he dread what their reactions would be had he become a follower of him whom they called "this impostor." Nicodemus had only half of his mind open to the truth, the other half was closed and barred by his fear of what his own class---the leaders of the Jews---would think of him. He risked his own future happiness in order not to lose the present respect of his sinful associates.
What a foolish man we would all say! Yet, are not many of us often like Nicodemus, when it comes to living up to our following of Christ? There are Catholic men who would like to, and should, go much more often to Holy Communion but are afraid of what their fellow-parishioners, who receive but rarely, would think of them. There are many, far to many, Christians who will not defend or stand up for their religion when it is insulted and attacked in their place of work or in a saloon. There are Christians who stand idly by, and give at least implied, approval, when grave injustices are being carried out by individuals or by local or national groups. These and many more like them are Christian types of Nicodemus, who through fear of losing the approval, the worthless esteem, of their sinful associates, are prepared to forfeit the esteem of God and their own eternal welfare.
Nicodemus probably thought he had made reparation for his lack of openness to Jesus when he assisted at his burial. What value, however, had that work of mercy for one of his frame of mind? There are amongst us today, humanists, most of them ex-Christians, men and women who make assisting their neighbor, while excluding Christ and God, the essence of religion. While the, assistance the neighbor receives will benefit him materially, what spiritual or religious value can it have for the humanist who excluded God and our Savior Jesus Christ? Humanism or concentrating on our neighbor to the exclusion of God, is an imitation of religion and a very false imitation at that. Helping our neighbor because he is a son of God is part of our true religion, and the second of the two great commandments of love; but helping a neighbor from whom we have effaced the image of God has not and cannot have any religious value or significance whatever. It is as meaningless as lighting a candle before the photograph of a wife one has deliberately deserted.
Thank God, we have accepted Christ with our whole heart and our whole mind. It is through him that we have been made sons of God. It is through him that we have learned to love God and learned of God's infinite love for us. Because all men are God's sons also, and our brothers in Christ, we will gladly help them whenever and wherever we can because God has commanded us to do so. This is true humanism which sees in the neighbor the workmanship of the almighty Creator, and what is more important the elevating effects of the divine Savior, as well.b139
Click to return to our Home page