Acts 9:1-20 / Jn 6:52-59

In virtually all cultures, there are few ideas more repugnant and few taboos more inviolable than those regarding cannibalism. Most people would rather die than eat the flesh of a fellow human being. Hence, we can understand the consternation that Jesus followers felt when he told them that unless they ate his flesh and drank his blood they would have no life in them. What a jolt that must have been! He hadn't given them the class on the eucharist yet.

There is a saying in our culture that gives a good insight as to where Jesus was leading them. It says, "You are what you eat." In a spiritual sense, that is exactly what Jesus wants for us, to become a part of him and to replicate in each part of our life and character his goodness. Our bonding with him, especially by sharing the eucharist, will give us the strength and energy to grow into his goodness. That strength and energy is what we call "grace."

What a remarkable destiny we have: To become brothers and sisters to the Lord Jesus, in the truest and fullest sense. How loved we are! Let us give thanks and love in return.

Acts 8:26-40 / Jn 6:44-51

Trying to comprehend who and what God is, is a project doomed in advance to failure, and the process of trying can make our heads hurt. The idea of an infinite, utterly transcendent being is just too big to wrap our minds around. And at the other end of the spectrum, the idea of an immanent God who actually dwells within us feels almost too good to be true. But true it is, as Jesus told us. The Holy Spirit of God dwells within each one of us at all times. Even when we sin, the Spirit does not abandon us, but whispers to us and guides us back to Jesus way.

Todays reading from the Acts of the Apostles gives us an instance of the indwelling Spirits active guidance of Philip the Apostle. What is important to note is not just that the Spirit spoke to Philip's need for guidance at a specific moment, but that Philip heard and acted upon the Spirits guidance. That's the real marvel! And it is also our challenge. Few things are more vital to our lives as followers of Jesus than developing the habit of listening to the Spirit and the skill of discerning whether its the Spirit speaking or just our own wishes and desires trying to make themselves heard.

The Spirit is offering us wisdom and insight -- all for free. Listen carefully and watch your life gain a whole new dimension.

Acts 8:1-8 / Jn 6:35-40

Saul, the future St. Paul, was a man of extraordinary talent and energy and a born leader. On top of that, he was a devout Jew who strove with all his heart to do the right and to defend the right. When the Christian heresy began to spread within Judaism, Saul set about to root it out, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles. He dragged people out of their houses and had them thrown in jail, and he presided with satisfaction at the execution of St. Stephen, among others. He did it all because he was so sure that he was right.

Saul was very sure ... and very wrong! That can happen when our hearts are closed, when we become so full of ourselves and our way that there is no room for anything or anyone else. A good measure of the extent of Gods compassion not only for Saul but for all of us is the breakthrough-gift of grace that God gave him when his heart was so thoroughly closed and he was on the way to Damascus to kill yet again. He was thrown off his horse and at last came face to face with his own longstanding blindness. He repented and God forgave him, embraced him, and gave him the gift of true sight.

God offers the same gift to all of us who are too full of ourselves and our own way. He offers the breakthrough-gift of grace. Accept His offer, and watch your heart grow.

Acts 7:51-8, 1 / Jn 6:30-35

What an extraordinary circumstance we find in today's reading from the Acts of the Apostles, a whole crowd of people so disturbed by what St. Stephen was saying that they ground their teeth, put their hands over their ears, tried to drown him out with their shouting, and finally killed him. How afraid they must have been to hear what he had to say. The truth he spoke could have set them free, but they closed their hearts to it, and in doing so they closed their hearts to the Lord who only wanted to give them life.

It happens all the time, people ducking and dodging to avoid the truth, as if it were an enemy. To be sure, the truth can sometimes wound us very deeply. But if we receive it and accept it, it can free us both from foolish illusions and from sinful paths. "The pain will be more than we can bear," we silently object. But we are wrong, for God never gives us more than we can manage. With every challenge comes the grace to face the challenge and to prevail.

Trust in the power of God's grace, embrace the truth, and be free!

Acts 6:8-15 / Jn 6:22-29

One of the nastiest mistakes we can make is to forget about some especially tasty leftovers in a dark corner of our refrigerator. Eventually they reappear, and it's not a pretty sight! What warmed our heart and delighted our palate only days before has been transformed into a ghastly mess which threatens to walk out of the refrigerator on its own power. The costly ingredients and the hours of preparation are a total loss.

One wonders how much of our labor and striving falls into that same category -- huge efforts leading to nothing. Jesus warns us about that in today's gospel, "You should not be working for perishable food, but for food that remains unto life eternal." Indeed so.

The problem is that we forget to ask that simplest of all questions: Is what I'm doing taking me where I really want to go? Will it last, or will all my hard work turn to dust in my hands? Even when we remember to ask the question, we sometimes get the wrong answer, because we answer too fast.

So take some time every day to look at what you're doing and where you're going. Remember the big vision that Jesus gave you. Being faithful to that vision and to Him and He will keep you on track and keep you moving forward. And when your days are done, there will be more in your hands and in your heart than dry dust and spoiled leftovers. Much, much more, indeed!

ACTS 6:1-7 / JOHN 6:16-21

If we were on a boat in the middle of a tempestuous sea, we probably would also be very afraid and anxious. Perhaps we would be close to panic as we sat helplessly at the mercy of the waves of a dark ocean. And if we saw Jesus walking on water, what would our reaction be?

Perhaps for many of us, it would be a sense of awe but at the same time that of fear. For no matter how much we believe in Jesus, and because of our being human, we would not be prepared to accept a man capable of walking on stormy water.

Jesus' walk on water was how Jesus tests the faith of his disciples. Even as their faith falters, the disciples would remember this experience and learn from it. Perhaps their unrelenting faith in spreading the Good News after Jesus' Ascension was built on this experience.

Jesus walks towards us every day. Do we respond to him? Have we experience Jesus walking towards or with us especially during our darkest times? Do we acknowledge him and build our faith in him? Or do we try to deny and turn away because of fear?

Acts 5:34-42 / Jn 6:1-15

There are certain things in our lives and in our surroundings that have always just been there: various members of our family, familiar streets, precious possessions rooted deep in our past. Lovely or not, they're all a part of the familiar landscape of our lives and we rarely look at them all that consciously. Our faith as Christians may well fall into that same category -- part of the landscape that's always just been there. And a likely consequence of that is that we may not yet fully appreciate what life would be like without Him who gives us life.

Today's first reading challenges us to think about this. In the Sanhedrin's debate about what to do with the Apostles, a wise man urged that they do nothing, reasoning that if the Apostles' teaching was not of God, it would soon die of its own accord, but if it was of God, nothing could destroy it. Two thousand years later the verdict speaks for itself.

That confronts us with some serious questions. Have we yet received the Jesus-gift which God sent us? Have we taken Him into our lives and formed a bond so deep that nothing can break it? Have we let Him guide our growth toward wholeness and joy? If we haven't, we're acquiescing to a life of spiritual poverty while vast riches are within our reach. And that would be crazy.

Don't be crazy! Receive the gift our Father sent personally to you, and live!

Acts 5:27-33 / Jn 3:31-36

Today's reading from the Acts of the Apostles gives us a scene that should be quite familiar to all of us. The apostles were spreading the Good News of Jesus, that God is a loving Father who never looks backward but always forward, and who wants to help people find life instead of condemning them for not finding it. That is wonderfully good news, but the high priests couldn't hear it because they were still stuck in an argument about the past, an argument which made them so angry at the Apostles that they wanted to kill them. And the tragic result of their staying stuck in the past was that they locked God out of their present.

It can happen to us all, cherishing old grievances, harbouring old wounds, waiting to get even. As a wise man once said, "Harbouring old grievances is like taking poison and then waiting for our enemy to get sick." Living in the past is the surest way of locking God and everyone else out of our present, and that would be the greatest tragedy of our life.

Even when our past presses heavily upon us, there is a way of escaping it, and that is to give it to the Lord for His healing. Give it to the Lord to dispose of as He sees fit. Give it all to Him, and let Him help you build a new life, a life with a future that's worth waiting for and worth working for!

Acts 5:17-26 / Jn 3:16-21

It's a standing joke that many housewives expend considerable efforts at cleaning their houses before the hired cleaners come. And any doctor will tell you that their patients regularly withhold unflattering parts of the truth about their lifestyles because they're ashamed or embarrassed. In both cases, we're being pretty foolish, acting as if the cleaning person or the doctor had any other agenda except to help us and to make our lives better.

Foolish, indeed, but worse yet, it's exactly what we so often do with God, wishing we could hide things from Him because we just know He'll be angry and want to punish us. We couldn't be farther from the truth. As Jesus said in today's gospel, "God didn't send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save it." And unlike us, God never wavers in His commitments. He is always the same, yesterday, today, and forever. And even on our worst days, His desire is to help us find life.

Trust Him. Trust the depth and breadth of His fatherly love for you. And work with Him. He will give you life!

Acts 4:32-37 / Jn 3:7-15

Life is full of things that can get us down and even cause us to despair. The list of potential tragedies is almost endless: catastrophic illness, accidental death or maiming, inescapable poverty, mental illness, senility. On and on the list goes, but probably the most common source of weariness and despair is the simple ordinariness and repetitiveness of daily life. Sometimes that can overwhelm us all.

That's why the nickname the apostles gave to Joseph the Levite is such high praise. They called him Barnabas, which means "Son of Encouragement." What a positive and hope-filled man he must have been, to be awarded a name like that. And what an impact he must have had upon the people whose lives he touched, helping them to transcend their weariness and their fears, helping them instead to engage fully the soul-stretching challenges which life brings to us all.

Being a real encourager is major heart work. It comes from a heart that is profoundly convinced of the immense spiritual power available to those who are connected to the Lord, and it comes from a heart that truly wants to help others to thrive. Being an encourager is at the centre of our vocation as Christians. It's a precious gift that is yours to give every day. Why not give it -- today!

Is 7:10-14 8:10/Heb 10:4-10/Lk 1:26-38

Ahaz said "I will not ask. I will not tempt the Lord."

Notice how pious he sounds. After all, Jesus made a similar statement when under temptation from the devil: "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test."

It is worse than different perspectives here. We have different goals. The devil was trying to goad Jesus into a display of His power as God as a way of proving His credentials. This was also true of the desire of the Pharisees later in Jesus' ministry who were looking for a sign. Jesus would not rise to these "expectations" because He knew a show of power for power's sake would never satisfy those without a longing heart.

Ahaz, on the other hand, did not want God to display His faithfulness. He was quite happy ignoring Gods call to the nation while he busily fooled around with false gods and their immoral rituals. If God made Himself present through some miraculous intervention, then Ahaz would be forced to take Him seriously. Not something this secularist/pagan-in-Jewish-clothing was willing to do.

Let me bring yet another example pair into the picture: the "yes" of the Blessed Mother and the "what" of John the Baptist's father. In her trust in God, Mary did not hesitate to look forward to the movement of the Holy Spirit. When she was visited, not by a prophet but by an angel, she was willing to accept -- at value -- what was being proposed. Zechariah -- also presented with an announcement of a son -- could not accept the implausibility of such an action.

So here are our contrasts:

Ahaz who didn't want to see God move, the Pharisees and the devil who demand a show of Gods movement, and Zechariah who could not imagine God moving versus Mary who trusted God's movement for her and Jesus Who is the very Movement of God.

Where do we stack up in this?

Are there times when we are afraid to let God move because, if we have to acknowledge His Presence, we would have to change?

Do we demand a movement of God as a proof of His love for us, or that He is at least listening?

Do we refuse to accept it when we see God moving for us and those around us?

Or do we trust in the movement of God around and for us? Have you ever heard of the title of Mary: Our Lady of Trust?

Today, as we acknowledge Mary's yes and her trust in the Lord, we recognize she is the perfect antidote for:

a secular world that is afraid to trust God

a demanding world that wants Him to step in and correct things, if He really loves us

a refusing, unseeing world that lacks the imagination to trust

Immaculate Heart of Mary, true model of every holiness, grant us trust to become saints. -- prayer by Bishop William Giaquinta, founder of the Pro-Sanctity Movement.

ACTS 4:13-21 / MARK 16:9-15

The Apostles saw Jesus die. They at first refused to accept that their master, their Rabbi, their friend, was gone just like that. Then, they became very depressed when they realised he was really dead. It seemed all was lost and there was no longer any hope for redemption, which they perceived as freedom from the Roman Empire.

Thus, one of the first things Jesus did after his Resurrection was to chastise his Apostles for their lack of trust and faith. Did he not tell them repeatedly that he would come back from the dead? And did he not tell them that the Good News he brings is for the salvation of the whole world and not just for the Jews?

We may not realize it but Jesus also chastises us for our lack of trust and faith. We have read the Gospels repeatedly; we know the parables and their respective messages. Why are we not aggressive in spreading the Good News to others? Why do we continue to argue, to quarrel, and bicker? Why do we continue to focus on our economic freedom instead of our spiritual salvation? Let us heed our Christian calling -- to go out to the whole world to spread God's message to everyone.

Acts 4:1-12 / Jn 21:1-14

In the days immediately following Jesus' death and resurrection, the apostles weren't quite sure what to do next, so they made their way back to their boats and went fishing. And they caught nothing until Jesus intervened and showed them where the fish were. The abundant catch they made then is legendary.

But this gospel is about something a lot more important than fish. The abundant catch is a metaphor for the abundance of God's gifts, most especially the gift of His friendship, which we call grace. And when exactly did they find that super-catch of fish? When they let the Lord, who sees all things clearly, guide them.

If we develop the habit of listening to the Lord who at every moment dwells within us, He will guide our hands and strengthen our hearts to know the good and to do it.

Trust that and listen.

Acts 3:11-26 / Lk 24:35-48

The resurrection of Jesus thoroughly transformed the Apostles. Not only were they able to step outside their fears and preach the good news of Jesus courageously, but they were able to look at the world and at their fellow countrymen with more generous hearts. After both the anguish and the fright of Jesus' death, followed in turn by the vindication of Jesus' resurrection, they could easily have settled into a vengeful "I told you so" attitude.

Instead, they extended to one and all the hand of friendship and forgiveness, just as Jesus had done to them when they didn't deserve it either. That was a real change of heart and a dawning of wisdom for those men who had so often bickered about who would get the best places in Jesus' kingdom.

It is the kind of change of heart and dawning of wisdom that we all hope for, and it can be ours if we lay ourselves open to the touch of God's grace.

Open your heart to the risen Lord, and let Him raise up what's best in you.

Acts 3:1-10 / Lk 24:13-35

There's something thrilling about attending a wedding or a baptism. All of life's possibilities seem stretched out before us, and most of their costs are still hidden from view. It's so much like the beginning of a summer day: soft breezes, sweet smells, lush lawns and flowers. And then before you know it, summer ends and it is time to prepare for the siege of winter.

If we're working hard to be faithful to God and to one another, to do our best and to share our gifts, we get tired. And sometimes after a while, things that used to be easy and even a joy become a burden instead. Somewhere along the line, we lose the joy and we find ourselves echoing those two apostles in today's gospel, "We used to hope," but not anymore.

How does that happen? Is it simply a matter of working too hard and getting tired? Not really. The real problem is losing our vision, our sense of purpose, which can come only from a trust-connection with the Lord.

If you find yourself burning out and finding life burdensome, spend some time renewing your vision and remembering where you're going. And the only place to do that is in His presence. He'll help you remember, and He'll give you back your joy.

Acts 2:36-41 / Jn 20:11-18

It is hard to face our mistakes, and most of us would really rather bury them or run the other way. But that just delays the inevitable. It retards our healing and growth, and it very often leaves us almost certain to repeat the same old mistake.

In today's reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we find the unusual phenomenon of a crowd of 3,000 facing up to a major mistake, namely, getting caught up in the hatred of a mob and crying out for Jesus' execution only a few days before. When they cooled down and looked at what they had done, they were appalled and cried out in distress,

"What are we to do?" The Apostles responded as Jesus would: "Reform and be baptised that your sins may be forgiven."

God never looks backward but always forward. Even when we are still wallowing in our mistakes, He is extending the hand of forgiveness and the promise of life. Take His hand and live.

Acts 2:14,22-33 / Mt 28:8-15

Since the beginning of time, the mortality rate for the human race has been a perfect 100. The only question for each of us is "when" not "whether." But just to make sure we don't forget our mortality, life has a way of reminding us from time to time. We get sick, we get depressed, we lose our loves, we experience dramatic reversals of fortune. And we feel as if we may die, or even wish that we would. Into all of those circumstances, the resurrection of Jesus speaks eloquently: Though it may feel like it, this is not the end. You were made for something much more than suffering and death.

God does not inflict troubles and sufferings upon us, but in ways that we often cannot fully understand, God allows these things for a larger purpose yet to be revealed. Somehow, everything that happens can in the long run be made to work for the good, if we trust the Lord's promise of life and then lay ourselves open to working through life's inevitable pains and disasters with His help. There is no predicting how long it will take. Only God knows that. But it will happen.

If we go with God, there is a purpose in every event and in every day. Trust that and your own entrance into the Lord's resurrection will begin now and will draw nearer day by day.

An old soldier, blind and paralysed, lay in his bed at the Veterans' Hospital. He'd been there a long time, sad and lonely, and now he had yet another roommate. Unlike the grouches who had gone before, the new man seemed jolly and friendly. So the old soldier asked the new man, whose bed was by the window, to tell him what was going on outside. The man responded with gusto. He described the flowers bursting into bloom, the birds hopping across the lawn, the postman making his rounds, the children riding their bikes, and much more.

It became a daily ritual, the man by the window helping the blind old soldier connect with the wonderful world outside. But one day the man by the window died, and his bed was taken by a new man. With some trepidation the old soldier asked him, "Would you describe for me what's going on outside our window."

The new man looked out the window, paused awhile and then said, "I don't know what good it'll do. There's nothing outside this window but a blank wall."

Nothing there! Nothing but a blank wall! That's the fear that eventually haunts every heart, the fear that we're boxed in by the blank walls of our mortality: we're born, we live, we die, and there is no escape. Just nothing, forever and ever.

That's our fear, but it's not the truth. And somehow that happy old soldier by the window knew that in his heart. "There's more," whispered his heart, and he saw through the wall of that hospital and through the wall of his own mortality and his own dying.

Our hearts are whispering the same words, "There's more than you can see right now, much, much more on the other side of the wall. You are not made for nothingness." That's what our heart is whispering. And all our life long we've hoped against hope that that whisper is not an illusion.

Now at last God himself speaks to us out loud -- not in words but in mighty deeds: He has raised our brother Jesus from the dead. And in doing that he is saying to us, "You can trust that whisper in your heart: Life is what I made you for. Not death, but life. Life with me forever!"

That is God's promise to us this Easter: To live with him forever! Let us rejoice in him and be glad!

Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper

Ex 12:1-8, 11-14 / 1 Cor 11:23-26 / Jn 13:1-15

As the last supper drew to a close, Jesus had less than 24 hours to live. It was time to speak His last words to His friends. But what could He say, when the sadness was so great? So He simply acted. First, He gave them his own body and blood as food, so that as long as they lived, they would never be without the comfort and strength of His presence. Then He washed their feet -- a tender reminder of His undying affection and a quiet plea for them to do the same for each other. He fed them, He washed their feet, and then He went out to die.

This evening, in Catholic churches in every corner of the world, priests, bishops, and even the pope at St. Peters in Rome, are doing yet again what Jesus did on that first Holy Thursday, not out of nostalgia, but as a holy remembering -- remembering that we will never be alone because He will always be near, and remembering that our vocation is to take care of one another as He always takes care of us.

Remember and give thanks!

Is 50:4-9 / Mt 26:14-25

"I have set my face like flint" Is 50:7.

So many times we put on masks to try to hide ourselves from others, or from ourselves, or even from God. But Jesus used no mask in His life.

Indeed, He set His face like flint in a way that no one else ever had, or ever could. And He has passed that ability on to each one of us. When we look at all the masks we place in front of the world, how do we really compare to the One whose face was set like flint?

We have all set a face of some sort before the world. The question Isaiah would ask us is: who formed the face you are showing to the world? Is it a face that is designed to protect you? Or is it a face designed to reveal God to the world?

"Your attitude must be that of Christs..." Phil 2:4. Read the entire hymn Paul quotes here.

Through all the messes of this life, there is only one face we really need: the face of Christ -- even if it means enduring some of what He did.

As we approach the days of His Passion, turn your face to His. Allow the Father to conform you to Him. Set your masks aside. "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind" Rom 12:2.

Then you will discover what it means to be set like flint. Who knows what sparks may fly to start the fire of the Spirit flowing again in our world? Our masks, our faces cannot do it. Only the face of Jesus can -- and we are His face today.

Is 49:1-6 / Jn 13:21-33, 36-38

Judas Iscariot. Have you ever wondered what Iscariot means?

One suggestion is "man of Kerayoth" which is believed to have been a town or cluster of towns in Judea -- not Galilee where most of Jesus earliest followers were from. Some have suggested that is why Judas seemed marginalized among the Apostles. I am not sure I buy into that explanation.

I think there is a better explanation, based on a Latin word, and the possible twisting of that word in the various translations as they occurred in the early Church. The Latin word is sicarii, which means dagger. As an extension of this word for dagger, the Romans came up with sicarius, or dagger-man, one of a group of assassins among Jewish rebels intent on driving the Romans out of Judea. These may also have been known as the Zealots.

There's another word we know. "Simon, the Zealot Party member" Mt 10:4. So, did Jesus have two assassins among His chosen Twelve? If that is so, what can we learn from this?

First of all, Simon remained faithful. As he heard the Good News from Jesus, he realized his need for a conversion -- a turning away from his past life. He embraced the work of Jesus and came back to the Lord after the Resurrection, along with the Eleven.

Judas, on the other hand, became a betrayer. Almost any number of guesses have been made to find the motives of Judas. Some have been sincerely trying to understand. Some have been unwilling to understand. Some have been too willing to excuse.

May I suggest we stay away from these inclinations? Isn't it enough to say that Judas betrayed Jesus that he -- for whatever reason -- took his eyes away from the work Jesus was doing?

Simon the Zealot -- in fear -- left Jesus as most of the Apostles did at His arrest. Simon, though acting fearful during the Passion, did not abandon what he had learned: he stayed with the Apostles, though in hiding.

Judas "the Zealot" -- for reasons we can only speculate on -- left Jesus before His arrest.

What about us?

Do we find the gospel hard to take -- as it is? Do we try to manipulate what we think the gospel is? Do we choose to leave it when it seems to be getting too hard? Do we act like Judas "the Zealot"?

Or...

Do we find the gospel at times so hard that we shrink away for a while? Do we hide our commitment to the gospel -- for a while? Do we choose to stand up when the Lord calls us by name to enter the tough work of sharing His Good News? Do we act like Simon the Zealot?

If we take the meaning of Iscariot to be tied to the Zealot party and dagger-men, it seems clear that there is a risk we must be willing to take to follow Jesus. Will we let Him lead us out of a way of death into His eternal life, or will we abandon what we have begun because of something unknown, misunderstood, misapplied?

Today, we need to set our faces toward the cross -- regardless of what that might mean for the future -- because we know that embracing the cross is our only true future.

s 42:1-7 /Jn 12:1-11

Isaiah 42:3 ...A smoldering wick he shall not quench.

Today, how about trying a sermon in science? Light a candle. Then with your lighter still handy, blowout the candle. Now touch the flame of the lighter to the trail of smoke.

The flame should "jump" from the lighter to the candlewick.

This little sermon in science is actually a great promise to us. As Easter is drawing close to us now, we all know some people who will show up in church for their once- or twice-a-year visits.

The promise of the candle is that God has not abandoned any of these people. Indeed, the flame is still smoldering within their soul, even if it is not able to be seen as clearly as we would hope it would be.

The challenge of this Easter season, as it approaches us, is to bring that flame from our soul to the souls of those who are smoldering. We need to trust that Jesus, with the flame of His Spirit inside us, will be willing to jump from us to them. We just need to get close enough to let that happen.

Here during Holy Week, lets take the time we need to prepare ourselves to bring that flame of faith into the hearts of those who desperately need it in our world today. And when the Lord has someone drawn near us because of the warmth of the fire of His Spirit within us, lets open ourselves up so that the flame of faith can jump from us to those around us.

May the holiness of this week fan the flame of faith in you that you may be a firebrand burning brightly for others to see. May His Easter joy, won through His Sorrowful Passion, fill you with a light of His glory.

Isaiah 50:4-7 / Philippians 2:6-11 / Matthew 26:14-27:66

As we are about to start the Holy Week which climaxes in the Holy Triduum of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday, we are given the opportunity to reflect on the suffering of Christ.

We are no strangers to suffering. As individuals, we are pained when we have misunderstandings with family, relatives, co-workers, and friends. We suffer when we get sick or see someone whom we love is seriously ill and constantly in pain. As a people, we feel helpless in the face of calamities and tragedies. We continue to suffer with the endless rise in gasoline products that result into higher prices of goods that weigh heavily on one's budget.

And so, amid such suffering, many questions are raised, one of which is why do we have to suffer? Why do people have to resort to actions that may cause them their freedom and even their life? Similarly, why did Jesus allow himself to suffer death by crucifixion? Why did he submit to such a horrendous ordeal?

One clear answer is simply and essentially because of love. Jesus wanted his death to be a revelation, that is, love entails suffering. This becomes all the more significant in our tunes of pain killers and instant gratification. There is a tendency for us to forget, that life entails suffering, love entails suffering.

In his teachings, Jesus always and constantly reminded his followers that love entails suffering in that "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself take up his cross and follow me." He proved his love when he suffered his ignominious death on the cross, a symbol of scandal for the Jews but a symbol of love for us.

Jesus then invites us to try to love others in the same way. He assures us that true love inevitably involves suffering. Do we accept this? It is good, however, to remind ourselves that suffering and death are not end in themselves. There is always the promise of the resurrection. Let us allow ourselves in the coming days to dwell on this theme of love and suffering.

The following is a beautiful and familiar prayer which was paraphrased:

"Lord, teach us to love.
Teach us to love others as you love us.
Teach us to love and not to keep score;
Teach us to love and not to heed the pain;
Teach us to love and not to insist on an equal return;
Teach us to love and not to ask for any special reward,
except to know that we are doing your will."

2Samuel 7:4-5A,12-14A,16 / Romans 4:13,16-18,22 / Matthew 1:16,18-21,24

We credit Mary for her leap of faith in accepting God's wish to be Jesus' mother. In many churches around the world, Christians love, respect and revere Mary for her selfless commitment and her purity of heart.

But what about Joseph? Joseph did his own leap of faith by standing by Mary despite the threat of being rejected for her pregnancy. He also gave his whole-hearted "Yes" to God by accepting his foster fatherhood for Jesus, even as he would learn Jesus would have to die for mankind's salvation.

Not much credit but no less important, we look up to Joseph as the perfect human father and husband. Joseph showed love, commitment and perseverance in providing for his family despite the challenges he faced. We, too, should model ourselves after him. For in love, commitment, and perseverance, we become the perfect Christian disciple.

Jer 20:10-13 / Jn 10:31-42

For too many of us too often, conversation is a game, whose only goal is winning. It is a deadly game, and both truth and love are its victims. How clearly we can see that in today's gospel. Jesus wanted to give his listeners life, but all his listeners wanted was to win an argument. It was a short-sighted, fear-driven choice to be sure, and it left them empty handed in the end.

Jesus is making the same offer to us now. "Come with me," he says, "and I will show you the way to a life thats not only full and rich but everlasting as well. Just walk with me, listen to me, watch what I do, and then you do the same. It will take some close listening and some re-thinking of old habits, but I will help you," says Jesus.

What a great offer Jesus is making to all of us: To be our mentors as we try to grow up and grow whole. But our selective listening, our hearing only what we want to hear or expect to hear, can frustrate even Jesus' best efforts. If the re-thinking that we are supposed to be doing in Lent is to have any value, our listening skills have to improve and our hearts have to become much more open, and much less fearful.

Trust the Lord and take the risk of listening to everything he has to tell you. After all, he knows it all. Wouldn't you be foolish not to listen?