SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT

From 2019:

Being half-Irish, thanks to my mother, I wish all of you, Irish and non-Irish, a “Happy St. Patrick’s Day” tomorrow. And I share with you an Irish blessing that our grandmother would pray over us every St. Patrick’s Day: 

May your neighbors respect you,

Troubles neglect you,

The angels protect you,

And Heaven accept you.

Yes, my grandmother’s wish was that her grandchildren would make it to heaven.

Despite grandpa’s dementia, he enjoyed telling us his favorite Irish story about six retired Irishmen playing poker.

Paddy Murphy loses $500.00 in a single hand. He clutches his chest and drops dead at the table. Out of respect, the others stop playing cards for a short prayer. Then Michael O’Conner looks around and asks, “Who will tell Paddy’s wife?” Sean said he would do it. The others remind him to be gentle and discreet. Sean brags about how discreet he is and how discretion is his middle name.

Sean goes over to Paddy’s house and knocks on the door. Paddy’s wife comes to the door. “Hello Sean, where is my husband?”  

“Your husband just lost $500.00 and is afraid to come home; what do you want me to tell him?” Sean asks.

She responds, “You can tell him to drop dead.”

“I’ll go tell him.”

I would imagine that the Peter, James and John almost dropped dead when Jesus was transfigured right before them. They were seeing Jesus in his glorified body. It seems to me they would be terrified.

Peter, James and John had seen Jesus perform many miracles from restoring sight to the blind, to walking on water, to raising the dead back to life. They were probably more amazed than terrified; like watching a caterpillar being transfigured into a butterfly or seeds becoming flowers or eggs into chickens. Transfigurations are much more common than we realize.

One of the first transfigurations I witnessed happened over 40 years ago when I was ministering at the Federal Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.

It was during the early days of rehabilitation and restorative justice. I was supervising an Alcoholics Anonymous Recovery program. At one of the midday meetings, a senior inmate stood up, grabbed his chest, and was obviously struggling to breathe.

A young inmate, who had never spoken at any of the AA meetings and always kept to himself, immediately leaped to aid the elderly inmate. He took complete control of the situation. He tapped the man on his shoulder, calmly asking, “Are you OK?” No response. He automatically instructed us to call 911. I called the prison control center for emergency assistance. These were the days before Automatic External Defibrillators (AEDs). The young inmate laid the victim on his back, tilted his head, lifted his chin, checked his breathing and immediately began CPR and continued until the prison medical staff arrived and took over.

I learned that day that the young inmate had been a paramedic before he became addicted to heroin. His training took over in this emergency situation, and he acted to save another person’s life. He spontaneously transfigured himself from a loner inmate into a confident paramedic. I remember thinking, “This is the way God sees us.”

Rabbi Kushner, the author of “When Bad Things Happen to Good People,” tells us the story of his transfiguration. His own son was born with a rare disease in which his son never grew physically or mentally beyond the age of three yet he lived to fourteen. Kushner tells how he felt hurt, cheated and angry with God. Only in the course of time, did Kushner transfigure his thoughts, feelings and judgments to come to believe that God was testing his ability to take care of and love his son. 

When bad things happen to good people, like you and me, we can be transfigured into believing that the litmus test of Faith comes in our ability to continue to trust in God even if we do not understand why bad things happen to us.   

Our failure to trust in God during times of crisis is one of the main reasons so many of us turn away from God. When we ask ourselves, “Why would God allow this recent mass shooting to happen?” it is like asking, “Why would God allow his only Son to die on the cross?”

It is because God gave us free will, and some people choose to do bad things to good people.

Another reason people are turning away from God is the rise of a new atheism and Biblical literalism that conflict science and Faith. In her recent book entitled “iGen,” Dr. Jean Twenge quotes one young person as saying, “I knew from church that I couldn’t believe in both science and Faith, so that was it. I chose not to believe in God anymore.”

When young folks ask me about the balance between Faith and science, I make it a point to let them know Catholics do not interpret the Scriptures literally. That is, we do not understand them word for word, but rather look at the context of the passage, what comes before and after certain scriptures, and try to understand the passage in its historical context. In Catholicism, belief in science and Faith are compatible. Catholicism is a science-friendly religion. 

This Lent, we have been focusing on caring for people and for creation.  This week, we are encouraged to transfigure the manner in which we care for people and creation. For the First Week of Lent, we suggested you reduce anything that would harm people, such as negative gossip or misjudging. We urged you to reduce things that could harm creation such as the use of plastic products, bags, and bottles.

This Second Week of Lent, we are invited to go a step further, beyond reducing and advance to refusing.  Consider refusing whatever is harmful to others by refusing to belittle others or feel sorry for ourselves. Protect creation by refusing to use any plastic products like straws, utensils, plates or cups and expand that even more to include microfibers like nylon or polyester.

We Care for God’s People; We Care for God’s Creation.