Abraham's Faith, Transfiguration of the Lord, and Paul's Assurance of "God for Us" for Our Lenten Journey: Second Sunday of Lent- B

 Now we are on the Second Sunday of Lent to start the second full week of our Lenten journey. And where our journey of Lent will take us?

Of course, to the Calvary and to the Cross with Jesus.

But, the Cross is not the destiny of our journey of Lent, though Lent itself ends with the sundown just before commemorating the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday).

In fact, Lenten journey will take us beyond the death of Jesus on the Cross and all the way to the empty tomb of Jesus on the day of his Resurrection.

To complete our Lenten journey beyond the Last Supper, through the Paschal Triduum, to the day of Resurrection, we must keep our faith steadfast and enduring, like the faith of Abraham.

And this is what is reflected in the Scripture Readings for this Second Sunday of Lent (Genesis 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18; Psalm 116:10, 15, 16-17, 18-19; Romans 8:31b-34; Mark 9:2-10), reading on Abraham’s faithfulness (Genesis 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18) and the Transfiguration of the Lord (Mark 9:2-10) – steadfast faith, exemplified by Abraham (First Reading) and a preview of the Resurrection glory in the Transfiguration of Jesus (Gospel Reading).

God sure knows so well that it is not easy for us to return to him after spending some time entertaining Satan by our sins. Our return journey back to God for Lent (Joel 2:12) can be just as difficult as the prodigal son’s journey back to his father, whom he betrayed by his sin (Luke 15:11-32).  So, God wants to encourage us with what is awaiting us upon our completion of our journey of Lent to return to God and to be with Christ in his climax of the Paschal Mystery: his death and resurrection. So, we know it is worth fighting temptations from Satan to lure us back to his domain of sins by keeping our faith as steadfast and enduring as Abraham’s to make it through this challenging journey of Lent – so that we, too, will rejoice over the Resurrection in Christ’s glory.

Anyone who have run a marathon knows from his or her own experience, how keeping a victorious vision of himself or herself crossing the finish line can help overcome all obstacles on the course and temptations to quit as bodies ache with fatigue. Spiritually, we keep the glorious vision of Christ’s resurrection, as prefigured in his Transfiguration, so that we can truly complete our Lenten journey.

In regard to the Gospel Reading description of the Transfiguration (Mark 9:2-10), it is important to know what precede to this event.

Around the middle point of the 3-year period of Jesus’ public ministry, in Caesarea Philippi, a hub of pagan deity worship in Galilee, Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?”(Mark 8:29a) to make sure they know who they were following. It was Simon, who gave the correct answer, proclaiming, “You are the Messiah”(Mark 8:29b). Then, Jesus warned the disciples not to tell anyone about this Christological identity of Jesus and foretold his death and resurrection (Mark 8:30-31). This is to fulfill Isaiah’s “Suffering Messiah Prophecy”(Isaiah 52:13-53:13) so that we may be justified (Romans 4:25). To this foretelling of Jesus’ resurrection and resurrection, Peter tried to deter him from going to Jerusalem (Mark 8:32) but was rebuked by him (Mark 8:33), as Jesus took Peter’s such attempt was an interruption of his mission on earth. That is why Jesus scorned Peter, saying, “Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do”(Mark 8:33).

Obviously, Peter did not understand what Jesus really meant by his foretelling of his death and resurrection. That is why Jesus took him, along with James and John, to witness his Transfiguration, after 6 days from the foretelling (Mark 9:2).

The glorious Transfiguration of Jesus is a prefiguration of the Resurrection. While the Transfiguration was taking place, Moses and Elijah appeared, and Jesus was conversing with them (Mark 9:4).

What this conversation among Jesus, Moses, and Elijah was about?

It was about what Jesus was to accomplish – what Peter tried to stop: his death and resurrection so that both the Law and prophecies are fulfilled. For this reason, Christ came (Matthew 5:17), as sent by the Father out of His love (John 3:16) by incarnating the Word (John 1:1, 14). Moses represent the Law, while Elijah represents the Prophets to be fulfilled by Jesus’ death and resurrection.

So, now, we understand that our Lenten journey will take us, beyond the Cross, to witness the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophecies through Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Paul in the Second Reading (Romans 8:31b-34) gives us an encouraging remark to make sure that we will not drop out of this challenging journey of Lent, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”(Romans 8:31b). So, we know God is for us, as we journey to the Cross of Christ and beyond in order to witness the glorious fulfillment of the Law and the Prophecies by the risen Christ, as previewed in the Transfiguration.

After all, knowing that God is for us (Romans 8:31b), we can keep our faith like Abraham’s (Genesis 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18), no matter how challenging our Lenten journey may become, and keep walking, even afflicted by Satan’s attacks to pull us back to sins, as God’s faithful servant, as reflected in the Responsorial Psalm (116:10, 15, 16-17, 18-19) all the way to witness what the Transfiguration (Mark 9:2-10) points to.

Let us keep on going forward on our Lenten journey to where the Transfiguration points to, keeping our confidence that God is for us. Amen.

Loving Neighbors – Loving Enemies for Perfection in Righteousness – Authentic Teaching of the Law by Jesus: Saturday of the First Week of Lent

 Today’s Gospel Reading (Matthew 5:43-48) concludes with these encouraging words of Jesus, “Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect”(Matthew 5:48) from the Sermon on the Mount . There is a Lucan parallel of Jesus’ words: Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful (Luke 6:36) from the Sermon on the Plain.  Both of these juxtaposable phrases of Jesus are in the context of his teaching on loving not just our neighbors but also our enemies.  Jesus wants us to be like the Father in heaven in terms of love and its derivative, mercy. And love and mercy are inseparable. Without love, no mercy. No mercy, which comes from love, no justice.

In yesterday’s Gospel Reading (Matthew 5:20-26), Jesus challenges us to raise the level of our righteousness above that of the Scribes and the Pharisees to be ushered in the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 5:20). In biblical Greek, “righteousness”( δικαιοσύνη /dikaiosune ) is derived from δίκη/dike, which means “justice”. Thus, righteousness is a sense of justice, and it is driven by love to incorporate mercy.

In today’s Gospel Reading (Matthew 5:43-48), Jesus calls us to be perfect, as our Father is in heaven, is so, by loving even our enemies, because it is also to be merciful as the Father is so, in  juxtaposition to Luke 6:27-36.  And, being perfect as the Father is so means being perfect in love, from which mercy is derived, by loving even those who we tend to hate. And it goes along with raising our righteousness above and beyond that of the Scribes and the Pharisees, whose interpretation, teaching, and observance of the Law is superficial and, therefore, hypocritical.

For us to be perfect, Jesus picks a well-known commandment (mizvah) on loving neighbor, Leviticus 19:18, and said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘ You shall love your neighbor ‘” (Matthew 5:43a). And Jesus added, “and hate your enemy”(Matthew 5:43b), perhaps reflecting Psalm 139:21-22 (cf. 1 QS 9:21) assuming that people interpret these verses of Davidic Psalm to justify their hatred of enemies. When David penned these two verses of Psalm 139, he might have thought of an ancient treaty of loyalty between a king and his servant, acknowledging, “With my friend you shall be friend, and with my enemy, you shall be enemy”.  In this Psalm, David expresses his loyalty to God by hating people whom God hates. And, people could have used these verses to think that it is a righteous thing to love those whom they consider as their neighbors or friends while they hate those whom they considered as enemies. So, this is where Jesus’ teaching on the Leviticus 19:18 kicks in to assert that loving our neighbors does not mean hating our enemies but this commandment to love our neighbors also means to love even our enemies – those whom we tend to hate.  Dualism is not in Jesus’ thinking and teaching. To Jesus, loving certain people but hating others is not a genuine way of loving – authentic way of observing Leviticus 19:18.

In Jesus thinking and teaching, loving neighbors, as in Leviticus 19:18, means to love all, those whom we like and those who we may not like and those whom we hate  - all people, regardless of our own preference, just as the sun, which God created, shines indiscriminately upon both those whom we love and those whom we hate out of our own imperfect hearts, as reflected in Matthew 5:45.

The sun does not pick and choose to whom it shines on and to whom it does not. So, our observance of Leviticus 19:10 to love our neighbors shall be likewise. It is our ego-centric imperfect hearts that pick and choose who we are to love and who we are to hate, dividing us and them.

Now, it does not mean that we have to agree or condone the evil that our enemies practice.  We must fight the evil and win this battle against evil. By loving our enemies, we can help them overcome evil and eventually become our friends through their metanoia.  There, we can establish peace with newly gained friends, former enemies, by our loving – by being agents of God’s perfect love and mercy.  Then, together we form stronger and greater army to fight evil.  And this is God’s test on our love, through Jesus’ authentic teaching on the commandment of love from the Law in the Old Testament.

Not only through today’s Gospel Reading (Matthew 5:43-48) but also through yesterday’s (Matthew 5:20-26), Jesus shows us how deep his authentic teaching of the Old Testament Law, in which there are 613 commandments, is, in contrast to superficial and legalistic teaching of the hypocrites, such as the Scribes and the Pharisees. In his authentic teaching of the Law, and it is how he fulfills the Law, Jesus challenges us to bring the spirit of the Law to the depth of our hearts, where we have all the antecedents of our behaviors, namely emotions that can be manifested in our behaviors. This way, Jesus teaches us that observing the Law is not just about making our outer behaviors in compliance but our hearts and mindsets are in compliance not just the letters but the spirit of the Law. For this reason, in today’s First Reading (Deuteronomy 26:16-19), Moses said, “Be careful, then, t observe them (the commandments in the Law) with your whole hearts and with your whole being”(Deuteronomy 26:16). Therefore, we do not observe the Law superficially by simply making our behaviors in compliance though negating our hearts, harboring all these antagonizing emotions in our hearts.  This statement of Moses reflects why Jesus teaches the Law to fulfill it. And Moses further said that this is a covenant (mutual agreement) between God and us – to observe His Law without inconsistency between our behaviors and our hearts (motives) (Deuteronomy 26:17-18). And this is exactly how Jesus wants us to observe the Law as he fulfills it in his Sermon on the Mount.

Have you noticed that we have been reading quite a lot from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-7:29) during Lent? The Sermon on the Mount is like the New Torah (Law) to Christians. And, Lent is a season to reflect on the Sermon and treat it like "GPS" or "road map" for our Lenten journey.

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18 on Ash Wednesday: How we commit ourselves to practicing the Lenten virtues of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving

Matthew 6:7-15 on Tuesday of the First Week of Lent: Prayer and forgiveness

Matthew 7:7-12 on Thursday of the First Week of Lent: Prayer with persistence and caring for one another according to the law and the prophets

Matthew 5:20-26 on Friday of the First Week of Lent: Our righteousness and the 5^th Commandment (not to kill)

Matthew 5:43-48 on Saturday of the First Week of Lent: Our perfection and the commandment to love our neighbors

Matthew 5:17-19 on Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent: Jesus as the fulfillment of the Law

Basically, the Sermon on the Mount is the manual for Christian life, according to Jesus.  In Matthew 5:17-48, Jesus shows what he meant by having come to fulfill the Law and prophecies (Matthew 5:17) by contrasting Pharisaic teaching of the Law to his teaching with “It was said….but I tell you…”  format (vv. 21-22, 27-28, 31-32. 33-34, 38-39, 43-44). In these comparisons, Jesus shows how superficial Pharisee’s teaching is as it is on the letters of the Law but how authentic and deep his teaching is as it reflects the spirit of the Law.  And this is to observe the Law wholeheartedly and without a gap between our behaviors and motive in our heart, as Moses said in Deuteronomy 26:16.

Jesus’ Call on Our Metanoia for Righteousness beyond the Legalistic Mind – Lenten Challenge: Friday of the First Week of Lent

 Today’s Scripture theme is the level of our righteousness.

In light of the New Testament Greek, righteousness  (δικαιοσύνη /dikaiosyne) has a nuance of just  verdict or approval, stemming from δίκη/dike, which is generally understood  as justice or execution of justice.  This background is important to appreciate today’s Gospel text (Matthew 5:20-28) as Jesus addresses our righteousness in the legal and judicial context.

Jesus has straightforwardly made it clear that the Kingdom is only for those whose righteousness (δικαιοσύνη /dikaiosyne) is great enough to act with the spirit of the Law rather than letters of the Law by saying, “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven”(Matthew 5:20). What is clear from this passage is that Jesus wants us to be better than the Scribes and the Pharisees in terms of our take on the Torah (Law), in which there are 613 mitzvot (commandments). In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus picks one mizvah, from the Aseret Hadibrot (Ten Commandments ) (Exodus 20:13; Deuteronomy 5:17) , and connect this commandment to another one, Exodus  21:12, in saying:

You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, “You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment”. Matthew 5:21

Then, in the same breath, Jesus also said:

But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raqa,’ will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna.  Matthew 5:22

Basically, Jesus was telling, “As your ancestors have learned from experts of the Law, such as the Scribes and the Pharisees, you have also learned the commandments about not killing because it would result in your fatal judgement. But, now I am here to tell you that you may face the same fatal judgement, even though you did not kill anyone, if you hold anger toward your brother.

The letters of the commandment say, “You shall not kill”. So, the Scribes and the Pharisees may not hold you legally accountable if you are angry at another fellow, as long as you do not act out of your anger and kill this person. However, Jesus is telling that you may be judged guilty for holding anger toward another person and may be subject to the same judgement as the judgement for those who have committed murder (Matthew 5:22). Jesus indicates that this is how God may judge, while Pharisees in the Sanhedrin, which is the Jewish judiciary, may not find an angry person guilty or in violation of the commandment of “You shall not kill”(Exodus 20:13; Deuteronomy 5:17), as long as he or she did not kill anyone.

So, what is the problem of the Scribes and the Pharisees, for Jesus to say that our righteousness must surpass that of the Scribes and the Pharisees?

It is the way they interpret and teach the Law, given Matthew 6:21-22. In these two verses, Jesus indicates that the Scribes and the Pharisees have taught the Law only as it is worded. On the other hand, Jesus gives a better teaching of the Law for us to be able to focus on the spirit of the Law, beyond the words or letters of the Law, because the spirit of the Law reflects what God intends in the Law. And Jesus tells that what God intends in the commandment of “You shall not kill”, namely the spirit of Exodus 20:13; Deuteronomy 5:17 is on our abilities to manage our anger or any other emotions that may prompt us to act violently and to kill.  The spirit of the Law goes much deeper than the letters of the Law. The righteousness that is superior to that of the Scribes and the Pharisees enables us to resolve anger or other emotions that are potentially dangerous to result in murder.

Yes, Jesus has much higher standards of righteousness for us to be entitled to his Kingdom. Through our Lenten journey, we are called to attain this level of righteousness – to be able to resolve anger and other harmful emotions.

Now, it is also important to note that Jesus wants us to understand how our words or verbal expressions can hurt others and, therefore, make us legally liable in the eyes of God. So he said in the second part of Matthew 5:23:

Whoever says to his brother, ‘Raqa,’ will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna.

Saying “raqa” to someone is like telling this person, “You are empty-headed”. It is insulting and belittling.

We live in the age of verbal bullying resulting in suicides. Behind the cyber anonymity, people say senseless things to others. Their verbal insults soon escalate to threats and curses, driving victims to suicides. To stop this tragedy resulting from verbal insults, we need to heed to this teaching of Jesus and repent and go through metanoia, which is a deep psychospiritual conversion, as the word “metanoia”, literally means “beyond (meta) the mind (nous)” so that we become more sensitive to each other in our verbal expressions. We must have metanoia in light of today’s First Reading (Ezekiel 18:21-28), not to be subjected to “death sentence” by God, the Judge.

Yes, God is the Judge. But, he does not want any of us to receive “death sentence”. So He said:

Do I find pleasure in the death of the wicked—oracle of the Lord God? Do I not rejoice when they turn from their evil way and live?  Ezekiel 18:23

This is why God urges us to turn away from sins and work on righteousness. And it takes genuine metanoia, which is deeper than superficial obedience to the letters or words of the Law.  Metanoia results in change in our emotions, and its natural consequence is improvement of our righteousness, evidenced in our verbal expressions and non-verbal actions, acceptable to the Kingdom of Heaven.

As we can see in Matthew 5:23-26, Jesus wants us to settle our interpersonal conflicts out of our righteousness, keeping them from the presence of God, Sanctuary (Matthew 6:23-24) and settle them outside the legal system, such as the court, like the Sanhedrin.

Settle a conflicting matter through the law in the court is costly, emotionally and financially. It makes only lawyers happy. Jesus knows this. And he also wants to save us from all the emotional and financial burden of relying on the legal system, which is symbolically represented by the legalistic thinking of the Scribes and the Pharisees. This is why Jesus encourages us to work on our righteousness, making it better than that of the Scribes and the Pharisees.  Let our Lenten metanoia go beyond the superficial legalism and affect the depth of our God-given conscience to make our righteousness surpass the legalistic righteousness of the Scribes and the Pharisees.

Ask, Seek, Knock for Our Community! Queen Esther’s Prayer and God’s Deliverance of the Jews from Haman’s Genocide Plot – Thursday of First Week of Lent

 Today’s First Reading (Esther C:12, 14-16, 23-25) begins with this sentence: Queen Esther, seized with mortal anguish, fled to the Lord for refuge (C:12).

Who is Queen Esther? And why was she in anguish? What was tormenting her?

The First Reading text per se does not say. But, it really focuses on how Esther sought out God amidst her severe anguish.

Esther was a Jewish orphan raised by her father’s nephew, Mordecai, and became wife of Persian king, Ahasuerus (a.k.a. Xerxes I, Artaxerxes), whose reign spanned 486 – 465 BC, without revealing her Jewish identity, replacing his previous wife, Vashti (Esther 2:1-18). 

Imagine what it was like to be a diaspora Jew in Persian Empire. Think why Mordecai advised Esther not to reveal her Jewish identity (Esther 2:10).

It was Mordecai, who saved Ahasuerus from a possible assassination, as it was he who found a plot to assassinate the king  and told Esther, who was already queen,  to inform the king (Esther 2:19-23). However, Ahasuerus promoted Haman, rather than honoring Mordecai, and all of his servants to kneel and bow down to Haman (Esther 3:1-2). But Mordecai refused to kneel and bow to Haman (Esther 3:2).

Mordecai’s refusal to bow to him prompted Haman’s anger and hatred, escalating to the point of his plot to kill all the Jews in the empire and eventually persuading Ahasuerus to make it a king’s decree (Esther 3:5-13, B:1-7).  And, this really distressed Mordecai as he expressed his anguish by tearing his cloths and putting ashes and sackcloth (Esther 4:1-2) and Esther, as well (Esther 4:4).

Now both Esther and Mordecai are in severe distress about the fate of the fellow Jews in the empire. In this distress Mordecai sent this message to Esther:

Do not imagine that you are safe in the king’s palace, you alone of all the Jews. Even if you now remain silent, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another source;* but you and your father’s house will perish. Who knows—perhaps it was for a time like this that you became queen? Esther 4:13-14

In reply, Esther sent Mordecai this message:

Go and assemble all the Jews who are in Susa; fast on my behalf, all of you, not eating or drinking night or day for three days. I and my maids will also fast in the same way. Thus prepared, I will go to the king, contrary to the law. If I perish, I perish!  Esther 4:16

Mordecai prayed to God (Esther C:1-11), and so did Esther (Esther C:12-30).

And, this is the background of today’s First Reading (Esther C:12, 14-16, 23-25), Esther’s prayer to God.

Now an important question, in reading this text for Lent, is: did Esther seek God for herself to be delivered from the anguish that had been killing her, or for a different purpose?  This question is important to read this First Reading text (Esther C:12, 14-16, 23-25) in conjunction with the Gospel Reading (Matthew 7:7-12), which is drawn from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount  and is about prayer.

Esther was not asking God’s help amidst her anguish simply for her own relief but to save her fellow Israelites from the genocide threat plotted by Haman. And her anguish was due to Haman’s evil scheme to exterminate all Jews in the Persian Empire.  Haman was like Hitler, hating the Jews to the point of extermination.

It is also very important to note that Esther did not ask God to stop Herman from executing his plot against the Israelites but asked God to give her what is necessary to let her work as His instrument against Herman’s evil scheme. There is a huge difference in simply asking God to do something for us on our behalf and asking God to enable and empower us with His providence to work and fight as His instrument.

“Put in my mouth persuasive words in the presence of the lion, and turn his heart to hatred for our enemy, so that he and his conspirators may perish” (Esther C 24).

God sure made Esther His instrument to save the Israelites in the Persian Empire from Haman’s genocide plot.  So, Esther hosted banquets and had her husband, king Ahasuerus, use his power for God, not to destroy Jewish people, though he once honored Haman’s plot.

The Book of Esther is a great story about how faithful persons, like Esther and Mordecai, work with God as His instruments, through their faith.  And, the happy end of this collaboration of faithful individuals, Esther and Mordacai, is the reason for Purim celebration to the Jews.

Jesus in the Gospel Reading (Matthew 7:7-12) calls us to pray like Esther and Mordecai, who did not let her extreme anguish stop her praying. And, she kept “asking, seeking, and knocking”, making her prayer persistent and thus persevering in her prayer. And, she did not simply asked God to remove the source of her distress but to give her what she needed to fight the source of the distress.

The Gospel Reading assures that God provide us with what we asked for, what we sought out, and knocked on for, in our prayers (Matthew 7:8-11). And God did so to Esther and Mordecai. The fact that God gives what we asked, sought, and knocked for does not necessarily mean that all we need to do is to pray. As we read Ester 5 to 10, we are reminded that Esther and Mordecai worked through what God granted in response to their persistent prayers.

Finally, Jesus in the last line of today’s Gospel (Matthew 7:12) calls us to treat others as we want them to treat ourselves:

Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets.

In connection to our need to pray with perseverance, especially during difficult times, as Esther and Mordecai did, we need to keep this “golden rule” of Jesus. It means that our persistent prayers are not just for our own interests but rather oriented to the wellbeing of others in light of Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 23:31-46; John 13:34.  

The way Esther and Mordecai prayed is a good example of how we pray with persistence (Matthew 7:7-8), trusting God’s providence (Matthew 7:9-11), to care for others (Matthew 7:12). And, this reminds us that salvation is communal rather than individual.

*A, B, C, D texts in the Book of Esther are Septuagint Greek texts inserts to the Masoretic text of the Tanakh.  These texts are part of the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonical books).

Seeking Something Greater than the Sign of Jonah from Jesus for Lent – Wednesday of the First Week of Lent

 God certainly despises those who come to God with wrong motives.  That is why Jesus warned us not to begin our Lenten practice with wrong mindset through the Gospel Reading for Ash Wednesday (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18) and further reflected on the  First Readings for Friday and Saturday after Ash Wednesday (Isaiah 58:1-9, 9-14). This is why we must enter the season of Lent, as led by the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the Judean wilderness (Matthew 4:1//Mark 1:12//Luke 4:1).

The Gospel Reading for Wednesday of the First Week of Lent (Luke 11:29-32) reminds us that Jesus rejected to show miraculous signs to those who asked him with wrong reasons or motives, except the sign of Jonah, while regarding these people as “wrong generation”(v. 29). In other words, Jesus made it clear that the only sign given to those who are wicked is not a miraculous sign like the seven signs in John’s Gospel ( 2:1-11: 4:46-54: 5:1-15: 6:5-14: 6:16-24: 9:1-7: 11:1-45 ) but the sign of Jonah.

Why?

Because, the wicked, who ask for a miraculous sign out of wrong motives, need to repent first with the sign of Jonah.

Those who ask Jesus for a miraculous sign out of wrong motives are like Satan who asked Jesus to turn stones into bread (Matthew 4:3) , as well as, those who mocked Jesus on the Cross, saying him to “save yourself” (Matthew 27:39-44). What they need first is the sign of Jonah, which is a sign that prompts us to repent. And it is reflected in the First Reading (Jonah 3:1-10), the fact that Jonah converted the wicked in Nineveh, thus, saving them from God’s burning wrath.

If we do not want to be rejected and do not want our request be rejected by God, the, we first need to repent with the sign of Jonah. As we are with contrite heart through our repentance, God will not reject us, as reflected in the refrain of the Responsorial Psalm:

A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn (Psalm 51:19b).

Unless we repent and become humble, God will reject even our offerings (Psalm 51:18), as Jesus rejects a request for a miraculous sign by the wicked (Luke 11:29).

In the Gospel Reading (Luke 11:29-32), in addition to how the sign of Jonah (Jonah 3:1-10) led the Ninevites into repentance and conversion (Luke 11:30), Jesus also reminds how Queen of Sheba (queen of the south) sought for Solomon’s wisdom (Luke 11:31), referring to 1 Kings 10:1; 2 Chronicles 9:1. Thus, through vv. 30-31, Jesus tells us that Jesus has come to give a sign of miracles to those who deserve for their repentance and humility but to give only the sign of Jonah for repentance, as Jonah brought repentance to the Ninevites – so that the wicked of his generation may be like Queen Sheba, who sought King Solomon’s wisdom – so that they may seek the wisdom from Jesus, who is greater than King Solomon and listen to Jesus, who is greater than Jonah, for penance.

Otherwise, our hearts would not be contrite during this Lent. If that is the case, then, we must let wrong spirits led us into the season of Lent. Consequently, then,  our practice of the Lenten virtues, such as prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, would be in vain, as such are not acceptable to God, just as offering by the wicked to God are rejected by God.

God’s Grace and Prayer – Tuesday of the First Week of Lent

Isaiah 55 is about God’s invitation to His grace.  It begins with an expression of God’s desire to provide us fulfill us with His grace so that we would not seek to satisfy ourselves in a wrong way.

In the First Reading for Tuesday of the First Week of Lent (Isaiah 55:10-11), we are reminded that the Word that comes of God’s mouth, dabar, is not wasted in us but rather to be received by us but rather to bear fruit to please God – just as rain and snow fall on earth so that the earth can produce abundant fruits. So, the First Reading calls us to make our Lenten journey fruitful. Perhaps, we can call our Lenten season a pregnant time.

God provides for us. And with grace of God, our needs are met. Therefore, we are satisfied. Right?

So, if we are satisfied by grace that God gives, as reminded by the First Reading (Isaiah 55:10-11), why do we need to pray?, as some may ask. And if you happened to be one of them who ask such a question, you are reminded that we do not pray to God to demand Him to give us whatever we want but to pray with our confidence that God already knows of what is necessary for us and provides us as He wills. That is all. And that suffices.  This is what Jesus tells through the Gospel Reading for Tuesday of the First Week of Lent (Matthew 6:7-17), which is the part skipped in the Gospel Reading for Ash Wednesday (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18).

As we are reminded by Jesus of the right mindset for our practice of the Lenten virtues of prayer, fasting, almsgiving – to have selfless mindset – on Ash Wednesday from Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18, today, Jesus teaches us what our prayer is and is about in Matthew 6:7-15.

Because it is not about us but about God, when we pray, Jesus tells:

In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him (Matthew 6:7-8).

Those who pray in their verbal babbles are letting their internal insecurity manifest and project it to God. It is as how an obsessive-compulsive person speaks, being so repetitive because of his or her excessive anxiety inside.

Do we pray to God out of our anxiety and project our insecurity to God in our verbal babbles?

No.

We pray out of our confidence – our confidence in God’s providence, as poetically reflected in Isaiah 55.

That is why we need to have a mature faith that enables us to have our confidence, not anxiety, as we pray.

With our confidence in God’s providence, Jesus invites us to pray:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one.  Matthew 6:9-13

Notice, we begin our prayer to God by honoring God the Father in heaven, as it is not about us but about God. So, first and foremost, we express our admiration to God for His greatness and for His holy name out of our love of God (Deuteronomy 6:5) and in the spirit of Psalm 99:3:

Let them praise your great and awesome name: Holy is he!

And we express our confidence in the coming of God’s Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

This is the first part of the prayer (Matthew 6:9-10), solely on God.

Then, we bring ourselves in the second part of the prayer (Matthew 6:10-13).

As we now connect ourselves to God in the second part of the prayer, we ask what we need:

* Daily sustenance, represented by daily bread

* Mercy of God to be forgiven so that we can forgive as God does to us, and not to be abandoned in πειρασμόν/peirasmon, which means “temptation” as well as “test” or “trial” but to be rescued from evil, if it subjects us to our “trials” or “temptations”.

Both our daily sustenance and mercy of God that we ask to God in this prayer are provided for us as rain and snow waters the earth so that the earth can produce abundant fruits, as Matthew 6:7-15 is reflected in Isaiah 55:10-11.

Do we focus on God in our prayer and commitment to other Lenten virtues: fasting and almsgiving? Is something pleasing to God being generated through our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, during Lent? God continues to pour His grace for our daily sustenance through the Bread of Life (the Body of Christ in the Eucharist) and the Word of God, along with His mercy, pouring down like rain and snow, on us. Let us not waste any of God’s providence. Let our Lent be a season for us to make ourselves fruitful in returning God’s unconstructed grace as our constructed grace.

To make sure we pray with the right mindset for God’s grace to be received in us as God wills, let us also reflect on the Suscipe prayer of St. Ignatius of Loyola, reflecting 2 Corinthians 12:9, taken from the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola #234:

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,

my memory, my understanding,

and my entire will,

All I have and call my own.

 You have given all to me.

To you, Lord, I return it.

 Everything is yours; do with it what you will.

Give me only your love and your grace,

that is enough for me.

Suscipe, Domine, universam meam libertatem.

Accipe memoriam, intellectum atque voluntatem omnem.

Quidquid habeo vel possideo, mihi largitus es;

id tibi totum restituo,ac tuae prorsus voluntati trado gubernandum.

 Amorem tui solum cum gratia tua mihi dones,

et dives sum satis, nec aliud quidquam ultra posco.

First and foremost, we surrender to God’s will and let Him take (suscipe) whatever becomes an obstacle in the prayer that Jesus has taught in Matthew 6:9-13, reflecting this prayer of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam.

The Feast of the Cathedra Petri (Chair of Peter) - Christ, Church, and Pope

 January 22 is the feast of the Cathedra Petri  for the Ecclesia Catholico Romanum. It does not mean that the Roman Catholic Church (Ecclesia Catholico Romanum) celebrates the Cathedral of a bunch of petri dishes. Cathedra Petri  means the Chair of Peter.  In the Roman Catholic Church, cathedra is referred to bishop’s chair.

When Jesus asked his disciples, who were to be the presbyters of the nascent Church upon Pentecost, “Who do you say that I am?”(Matthew 16:15), Peter acclaimed Jesus as “the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16), because this Christological truth about Jesus was revealed only to Peter. So, Jesus blessed him (Matthew 16:17) with these words:

You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven (Matthew 16:18-19).

Prior to this, Peter was Simon, which was the name he had since the time he was a fisher man in Galilee, before he met and followed Jesus. But, upon this blessing of Jesus on him, he was no longer Simon but Peter to be destined to be the first holder of the Cathedra Ecclesiae Christi (the Bishop’s Chair of Christ’s Church). The keys given by Jesus to Peter signify the supreme presbytery authority given to Peter, among his fellow presbytery brothers upon the birth of the Church on Pentecost. The supreme bishop among fellow bishops, other Apostles who played presbytery roles in the nascent Church, is namely the Pope, the supreme bishop among the bishops. That is why the keys, the Papal authorities, were given only to Peter. Therefore, the Gospel Reading for the feast of St. Peter (Matthew 16:13-19) is a description of how Jesus appointed Peter to the chair of the supreme presbytery authority among all of his disciples.

As the first Pope, the bishop among the bishops of the Church, Peter has the authority given by Jesus to bind and loosed things in the Church on earth as they are bind and loosed in heaven. The First Reading (1 Peter 5:1-4) reflects how Peter as the first Pope exercising his authority in making sure all of his brother bishops (presbyters) are committed to their presbytery leadership in pastoral ministry roles in their respective dioceses in juxtaposition to how shepherds take care of the sheep that they are responsible for their welfare.

In John 21:15-21, you can see how risen Jesus entrusted and commissioned Peter not just to feed but to care for the sheep that he had been ministering to as the Good Shepherd (John 10:1-18), as Jesus the Good Shepherd was about to depart through Ascension.

At first, risen Jesus asked Peter:

Feed my lambs; Tend my sheep; Feed my sheep (John 21:15,16,17).

Then, after rise Jesus ascended and the descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, upon the birth of the Church, Peter exercising his papal authority, given by Jesus, in delegating his pastoral authority to his fellow bishops (presbyters), who are also his fellow disciples, commissioned as the Apostles:

Tend the flock of God in your midst, [overseeing] not by constraint but willingly, as God would have it, not for shameful profit but eagerly. Do not lord it over those assigned to you, but be examples to the flock (1 Peter 5:2-3), reflecting what Jesus commanded to him in John 21:15-17.

One leadership authority of Pope is to delegate is pastoral roles to his fellow bishop brothers, as Moses once did his authority as the judge to the entrusted elders (presbyters) among the fellow Israelites as advised by Jethro, his father-in-law (Exodus 18:1-27).

Then, Pentecost followed Ascension of the risen Christ, giving birth to the Church (Acts 2) , which Jesus has built upon the Apostles and the prophets, while he is her cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20). As described in Acts 2:14-41, Peter immediately began to serve in his supreme presbytery role – papal role - on the very day of the Church’s birth. 

In terms of the Gospel Reading (Matthew 16:13-19), on v. 18, in particular, there has been a debate if Jesus meant to build his Church on Peter, just because he has given the keys to him, calling him Πέτρος (Petros- Peter) and telling that he will build his Church (ἐκκλησία/ecclesia) ἐπὶ (epi – on ) ταύτῃ τῇ (taure te – this) πέτρᾳ (petra – rock) .

It seems that the debate is rooted in a seeming confusion in interpreting πέτρος (petros) and πέτρᾳ (petra) , as sometimes these Greek words are translated as “rock”.  

Jesus named  Simon  as Πέτρος (Petros), which is interpreted as a “rock”. But, Jesus did not call he would build his Church on Πέτρος (Petros) but, instead, on πέτρᾳ (petra). These are different things, besides the fact that the former is a masculine noun while the latter is feminine. Πέτρος (Petros) refers to a small rock, more like a stone, while πέτρᾳ (petra) means a large rock, with a nuance of “mother rock”, more like a bluff.  Therefore, in naming Simon as Πέτρος (Petros) and proclaiming to build his Church on πέτρᾳ (petra) in Matthew 16:18,  Jesus seemed to have thought that Peter is one of the stones,  standing on the bedrock, on which the Church is to be built.

If we interpret πέτρᾳ (petra) in Matthew 16:18 as the foundation rock in connection to θεμελίῳ (themelio) (foundation or foundation stone) in Ephesians 2:20, Peter Πέτρος (Petros) is the representative stone πέτρος (petros) of all stones that make up the large bedrock πέτρᾳ (petra) which functions as the foundation θεμελίῳ (themelio) θεμελίῳ (themelio) on which Jesus builds his Church. Therefore, even though Jesus did not call Peter to be the foundation rock of the Church, he is nevertheless a foundation stone, while his fellow Apostles are other foundation stones, making up the great bedrock of the Church. And, of course, the cornerstone (ἀκρογωνιαῖος/ akrogoniaios) of the Church is Christ (Ephesians 2:20), as he is the cornerstone פִנָּה (pinah) mentioned in Psalm 118:22.

In terms of the πέτρᾳ (petra) in Matthew 16:18, on which Jesus claimed to build his Church, some interpret this as a huge rock in Caesarea Philippi.  The geographical location is Caesarea Philippi (Matthew 16:13).  This place had been known for large rocks (petras), in addition to being a hub of pagan worship, pagan deity of pan, when Jesus came with his disciples. Thus, some interpret the rock (πέτρᾳ /petra) in Matthew 16:18 can be referred to a rock of Caesarea Philippi, which symbolically means a place of paganism to be Christianized.

Christ’s desire is to bring Gentile sheep wondering in pagan world to his fold (John 10:16).  And, Peter’s Apostolic journey as Vicarius Christi (the Vicar of Christ), Primus inter pares (first among equals), Petros among petroses of the foundation petra led him in Rome in light of what Jesus said to him in John 21:18-19. And, it is where the Roman Catholic Church was built, the pagan city where Peter martyred for Christ.  And it is where the Cathedra Petri  (Chair of Peter) remains, and the spirit of Peter remains in the Church’s papacy.

Unfolding the Symbolic Meaning of the 40 Days of Lent: First Sunday of Lent, Cycle B

On this First Sunday of Lent, we reflect on symbolic significance of 40 days of Lent, in connection to Noah spending 40 days in the Ark during the Great Flood (Genesis 8:6) and Jesus spending 40 days in the Judean desert (Mark 1:13).  And, in this Sunday’s Scripture Readings (Genesis 9:8-15; Psalm 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:12-15), the symbolic theme of 40 days of Lent is also associated with Baptism and the Resurrection of the Lord upon his death.

In the Second Reading (1 Peter 3:18-22), Peter connects the salvific effect of Baptism to God’s saving of Noah’s Ark from the great flood, which is reflected in the First Reading (Genesis 9:8-15). And, it is God’s way of love and truth to guide us in His truth and to remember us in His compassion with His love, as reflected in the Responsorial Psalm (Psalm 25:4-5).

The Gospel Reading (Mark 1:12-15) describes that Jesus began his public ministry after John the Baptist was out of the public, having spent 40 days in the desert, among wild beasts, and tempted by Satan but ministered by angels. And Jesus himself was baptized by John the Baptist before he was driven by the Holy Spirit to the Judean desert, where he spent 40 days, before he began his public ministry, proclaiming to repent and believe in the Gospel.

Noah and his companions in the Ark spent 40 days to prepare themselves for a renewed life upon the great flood through the covenant with God, symbolized with rainbow, as reflected in the First Reading (Genesis 9:8-15). And the 40 days of the great flood were the period for the cleansing of the wickedness of the earth, resulting from our sins, thus renewing the earth, rather than destroying it (Genesis 6:1-7).  As reflected in the refrain of the Responsorial Psalm from Psalm 25, this is God’s way of love and truth to those who keep His covenant. Those who keep God’s covenant will be renewed by His love to His truth, kept in the Ark for 40 days.  So, these Lenten 40 days are for being renewed by God’s love into His truth, being cleansed of our sinful filth as we open up our heart with contrition.

As the Gospel Reading (Mark 1:12-15) describes, the 40 days that Jesus spent in the Judean desert, as led by the Holy Spirit, were to prepare himself for his public ministry, upon being anointed by the Father with the Holy Spirit though his Baptism (Mark 1:9-11). And, as he began his ministry in public, he first proclaimed the Gospel of God (Mark 1:14) and called us to repent and believe in the Gospel (Mark 1:15).

In fact, Jesus’ public ministry, which began with his proclamation of the Gospel and call for our penance, after spending 40 days in the desert and having overcome temptations from Satan, was consummated through his death on the Cross and the Resurrection. This is to bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18). What is dead on the Cross is his body but it is made alive by the Holy Spirit with his Resurrection (1 Peter 3:19a). Furthermore, between his death and resurrection, Jesus reached to those who have been kept in the world of the dead – to the spirit in prison, namely those deceased (mortal) children of God, as wiped out by the great flood in the days of Noah (cf. Genesis 6:2,3)(1 Peter 3:19b-20). This is why Peter sees the great flood in the days of Noah, in particular, the water, as a prefiguration of the Baptism (1 Peter 3:21,) and the water has gained its salvific effects in its cleansing utility because of the Resurrection (1 Peter 3:22).

Remember, as Jesus’ public ministry began to consummate through his passion toward death, from his Cross, the blood and water gushed from his body upon being pierced (John 19:34). And, Jesus explained to St. Faustina: his blood is to give life to the souls of the faithful, while the water from his body is to make our souls righteous, out of the depth of the Divine Mercy (Diary of St. Faustina, 299). So, through the death of Jesus on the Cross, the water is truly salvific as it comes with the Blood of Christ to wash us into the eternal blessing (Revelation 7:14; 22:14). And these 40 days that Jesus spent in the desert among wild beasts, as ministered by the angels, fending off Satan’s temptations, were ultimately to prepare for the 3 years of his public ministry from Galilee to Jerusalem, to make the water truly salvific, in addition to cleansing.

Now, knowing about symbolic meaning of  these 40 days of Lent in connection to the 40 days of great flood in the days of Noah and the 40 days that Jesus spent in preparation for our salvation, making it truly effective with the blood and water gushing out of his body on the Cross, let us humbly submit ourselves to be baptized by the Divine Mercy: the blood and the water of Christ.

Lenten Virtues: Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving Shall Lead Us to God’s Delight and Blessing – Friday and Saturday before the First Sunday of Lent

 A main theme of the Scripture Readings across the first Friday and first Saturday of Lent may seem to be fasting, which is one of the three major Lenten virtues, along with prayer and almsgiving, as reflected in the Gospel Reading for Ash Wednesday (Matthew 6:1-6,16-18). In fact, it is rather about how we take on our Lenten virtues, focusing on the example of fasting, in practice for 40 days and what may come out of the practice. Thus, it confronts how our innermost part takes on practicing these Lenten virtues.  For this reason, we read the first 14 verses of Isaiah 58 over these two days (vv. 1-9 on Friday; vv.9-14 on Saturday) before the First Sunday of Lent.

On these two days of Lent, following Thursday after Ash Wednesday and preceding First Sunday of Lent, we reflect on the right way of our Lenten practice as God wants us to in juxtaposing Isaiah 58:1-9 to Matthew 9:14-15 on  Friday and Isaiah 58:9-14 to Matthew 5:27-32. And we realize that our practice of Lenten virtues, especially fasting, out of our observance of Deuteronomy 6:5 (loving God with our whole selves, nothing withheld to ourselves) in the context of charity (Leviticus 19:18 cf. 1 Corinthians 13:3),therefore,  not out of our own self-righteousness. Namely, our practice of the Lenten virtues is in the spirit of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 22:37-40, in which Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 are put together, to reiterate Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18, especially vv. 16-18 on our Lenten practice of fasting.

Fasting, along with prayer and almsgiving…our commitment to the Lenten virtues is to be carried out as out act of love: love of God and love of our neighbors, especially in greater need. This love is charity – agape. Therefore, our Lenten commitment has nothing to do with making ourselves appear righteous to be saved by God. If we truly want to be saved by God, then, we must let selfless love of God and of our neighbors deeply affect our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. This way, we can do fasting without getting lost in asceticism (Matthew 9:14-15) and obsession with righteousness (Luke 5:27-32). Then, we can appreciate every blessing we receive, in including our daily bread, and share it with our neighbors, while giving thanks to God, the provider, making our Lenten prayer, fasting, and almsgiving truly meaningful and transformative in love. And this leads us to be in the delight of the Lord (Isaiah 58:14).

If we engage in practicing the Lenten virtues, even we think repenting, out of our concerns to be saved, we may inadvertently practice the virtues in a wrong way, as our obsession with personal salvation means self-centeredness, blinding us from true charity effects of the practice. And, as reminded in the Ash Wednesday Gospel Reading (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18), we need to keep our ego out of the picture in practicing virtue. Also, as reminded in the Gospel Reading for the Thursday after Ash Wednesday (Luke 9:22-25), we really need to overcome our ego, which can become a stumbling block to carrying our daily cross in following the Lord. So, in Isaiah 58:1-14, God warns our ego-tainted wrong practice of virtue and reminds us of the authentic way of the practice, leading to His delight and blessing. So, it is really important to we regularly reflect and examine the way we practice the Lenten virtues of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving in light of Isaiah 58:1-14 in juxtaposition to Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18, in connection to Luke 9:22-25.

Scripture Lesson on the Day After Ash Wednesday: Losing Life to be Saved by Christ and San Ludovico Ibaraki of Japan

 On Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, the Scripture Readings (Joel 2:12-18; Psalm 51:3-4, 5-6ab, 12-13, 14 and 17; 2 Corinthians 5:20 - 6:2; Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-18), we were called to turn away from a sinful path toward destruction to return to God, whose mercy is waiting for our contrition and reconciliation. So, we will be cleansed of our spiritual filth from sins and renewed for the original purity. And, we were also reminded by Jesus from the Gospel Reading of the importance of not practicing our Lenten virtues of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving to draw attention to ourselves. To make sure that we do this right, being free from public attention, we need to overcome our ego-centric disposition.

To build further on his teaching on keeping our egos out of Lent from Ash Wednesday, Jesus further  teaches us, in fact, commands us, on self-denial, to make our Lenten journey truly salvific.  So, let us explore the Scripture Readings for the day after Ash Wednesday.

The Scripture readings for Thursday after Ash Wednesday (Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Psalm 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6; Luke 9:22-25) give a juxtaposition of our Lenten journey of 40 days, punctuated with 6 Sundays, to the 40 years of Exodus in the wilderness. It was Moses, commissioned by God the Father, to lead the Israelites from Egypt to the promised land of milk and honey. And, it is Jesus, the Son, sent by God the Father, who shepherds us on our Lenten journey from the state of sin to the state of salvific beatitudes.

In the First Reading, Moses tells the Israelites that they have a choice: to faithfully follow God’s Commandments to be blessed in the promised land or to turn their hearts away from God and go on their own way to get lost.

Moses said, “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then”(Deuteronomy 30:19).

Choose life over death, choose the blessing over the curse.

The Responsorial Psalm reflects what a life of the blessed is like. 

He is like a tree planted near streams of water, that yields its fruit in season; Its leaves never wither; whatever he does prospers (Psalm 1:3).

And, it is also projected in our ultimate and eternal promised land at the end of time.

Then the angel showed me the river of life-giving water, sparkling like crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of its street. On either side of the river grew the tree of life that produces fruit twelve times a year, once each month; the leaves of the trees serve as medicine for the nations (Revelation 22:1-2).

Reflecting our wise choice for life over death and the blessing over the curse, in the Gospel Reading, Jesus asks us if we are willing to follow him on our journey by our self-denial and carrying our cross every day.

If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself? (Luke 9:23-25).

We must deny ourselves and take up our cross every day to be disciple of Jesus, the incarnated Theos-Logos. And, this is a commandment that has come out of the mouth of God the Son.

Are we willing to follow this commandment of Jesus, our Lord?

So, why we are to follow Jesus by denying ourselves and carry our cross daily?

Jesus explains our reason to follow him in this paradoxical statement: whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

Basically, Jesus reminds that we cannot save ourselves by ourselves. Not even by any worldly means. Only following his way can save us. This is just as only those who listened to Moses and follow the commandments of God in the Torah made it through the 40 years of Exodus to the promised land.  And, our Lenten exodus from the state of sin to the renewed state of purity with the risen Christ is shepherded by Jesus, and he is now asking if we are willing to follow him – his commandment of self-denial and carrying our daily cross, to be saved.

To deny ourselves and to willingly lose our lives for Jesus demands not superficial ascetic life or even a heroic self-sacrifice but our total submission of ourselves to him all the way to his Cross. 

In other words, Jesus is asking us now through the Gospel Reading:

Are you willing to lose yourselves in me and journey in me to the Cross, sharing the Paschal Mystery with me to death and resurrection  to be saved and to inherit the ultimate promised land, the Kingdom, envisioned in Revelation 21-22?

Why self-denial is so important?

Remember Jesus’ teaching for our commitment to the Lenten virtues: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving in the Ash Wednesday Gospel Reading (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18)?

Our practice of these Lenten virtues would be in vain if we do to gain attention to ourselves. And, there is always a temptation for attention, especially in doing righteous deeds. So, Jesus has also given similar teaching on guarding ourselves against this temptation in Matthew 23:1-12 when he was in Jerusalem nearing the day of his death on the Cross.

If think it is better to save your life and rather not to follow Jesus so that you can gain the whole world, then you may fool yourself like the rich fool in Luke 12:13-21.

There was a 12-year-old Japanese boy, whose name is Ludovico (Luis) Ibaraki, back in the 1590s.  He worked as a volunteer in the Franciscan hospital in Kyoto, established by Frey Pedro Bautista, a Spanish Franciscan priest-prier from the Philippines. When Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the chancellor-regent ruler of Japan at that time, ordered Christians in Kyoto and its vicinities to be arrested for execution, both Ludovico and Frey Pedro, along with 22 other Christians in the Kyoto-Osaka area, were arrested, cut their left ears cut off, and dragged around Kyoto. Then, they were forced to march nearly 800 kilometers (500 miles) from Kyoto to Nagasaki, except a sea route over the Kanmon Straight and the Ohmura Bay. And, two more Christians were added to this march for the execution, when the 24 arrived in Shimonoseki on their way to Nagasaki, thus, making the number 26 from there on.

Also en route, Ludovico met the official in charge of the execution, and the official took pity on such a little boy and told him:

“Ludovico, your fate, your life, is in the hands of mine. Why you have to die in haste now? Why don’t you become my son? I can adopt you as my son. And you will grow to be a great samurai warrior. So, you can be saved”. 

To this tempting offer from the official, Ludovico first consulted his confidant, Frey Pedro Bautista. And, this Franciscan priest-friar told Ludovico:

“You have no need to be in haste to die. So, you may consider that option to be adopted by the official. However, on one condition. And it is to keep your faith in Christ”.

Ludovico replied to Frey Pedro:

“I understand. Of course.”

And to the official:

“Sir, thank you for thinking of me. I would like to take up your kind offer to adopt me as your son.  You know, however, there is no way I let go of my faith in Christ. So, I will remain to be Christian.”

The official said to Ludovico:

“No, no! I cannot accept that you remain to be Christian. You must let your belief in Christ go.  If you do so, you can do whatever you wish. But, you must abandon your belief in Christ!”

Then, Ludovico smiled, pointing to heaven, and said to the official:

“Then, in that case, I decline your offer. I will go to paraiso with my Lord Jesus Christ”.

But, the official still wanted to “save” this little Christian boy from the scheduled execution by his administrative power and said:

“Ludovico, think again, you are still young.  You have at least 50 more years to live. If you become my son, you can eat what you want, you can wear what you want. And, you can walk in town with your own swords as a great samurai.”

In response, Ludovico rather looked at the official sternly and said:

“Sir, what could we gain for living 50 years in this world by losing the eternal life given by Christ? I rather desire to go to paraiso with Christ. Sir, why don’t you also go to paraiso with me, believing in Christ?”

With these words from 12-year-old Christian boy, Ludovico, the official no longer was able to look at him.

And, both Ludovico and Frey Pedro, together with 24 other faithful, including Paul Miki, Gonzalo Garcia, Felipe de Jesus, Antonio (13-year-old Japanese Christian boy), were executed on February 5, 1597, on the Nishizaka hill of Nagasaki, and they have been known as the 26 Martyr Saints in Japan.

They say that Ludovico was not so well-educated as he was not from a wealthy family. Because of this, perhaps, Latin could have sounded like “Greek” and the Bible and the doctrine in catechesis were not easy to understand. Nevertheless, as you can see from the above words of Ludovico in response to a worldly temptation to “save” his life at the cost of forfeiting the eternal life given by Christ, this 12-year-old Japanese Christian boy really understood the command of Jesus in today’s Gospel.

As reflected in the above words of Ludovico and as in the Gospel Reading, Jesus wants us to follow him by submitting our total selves to him and journey with him to the Cross so that we can enjoy all the benefits of the eternal life given by him in paraiso, which is envisioned in Revelation 21-22.

We have a choice to make.

To follow the command of Jesus to submit our total selves to him all the way to the Cross and beyond, as Moses wanted the Israelites to follow God’s commandments to settle in the promised land in Canaan, and as San Ludovico Ibaraki chose above the tempting option to “save” himself for his gain of a “good life” on earth.  And, we must make our decision as we proceed forward on our Lenten exodus journey.

San Ludovico Ibraki not only carried his daily cross but really embraced it before he was lifted up to paraiso - being free from egocentric gravity and attachment to life on earth. Lent shall transform us to be like San Ludovico Ibaraki as we follow Jesus on our Lenten journey.