There’s No Place Like Home

Reflections on the Readings

Fourth Sunday of Lent - March 14, 2010, Year C

By Dennis Hankins

dennishankins@gmail.com

Readings For This Sunday 

There's No Place Like Home

But I have trusted in thy steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. (Psalm 13:5 RSV) 

Through Moses, God promised Israel a home of their own.  Their destiny? Their own land, from which they would eat the produce of the Promised Land.  Israel responded to God's promise.  Sometimes reluctantly.  Often in rebellion to God's promise.  Occasionally with faith. 

Moses brought them to the border of Canaan, the Promised Land.  He sent twelve spies into the territory.  It was a reconnaissance mission to determine the strength of the people, the vitality of the land, and to bring back some fruit, since it was the season of the first ripe grapes.  I remember a little grape arbor at my first childhood home.  There isn't anything quite like the first ripe grapes transformed into homemade grape jelly. 

After forty days sizing up the Promised Land, the spies returned with their report and the fruit.  They carried back pomegranates, figs, and grapes.  But the grapes were like no grapes ever seen.  One branch containing a huge cluster was carried on a pole between two spies.  Every Sunday School child has seen a picture of these two spies carrying back the grapes from the Valley of Eschol.  The sight of this fruit and its fragrance alone suggested the Israelites were home at last.

Then the report came out. 

"The Land flows with milk and honey.  Look!  Here's the fruit.  It is a beautiful place.  You couldn't ask for a better place to call home. But."

"What do you mean, 'but'?"

"Well, the people are strong, and their cities are very large and fortified and..."  

"And, and, and.  And WHAT?"

"The descendants of Anak are there. Giant people. We seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them."

You could have heard a pin drop, or whatever you hear drop when you are in the desert.  

Only Caleb and Joshua assured Moses that Israel had the resources to occupy the Land of Promise. But the damage was done.  The ten renegade spies, walking by sight and not by faith, convinced the people that the Promised Land wasn't all it was cracked up to be.  

So God sent them back to the desert to wander one year for every day the spies were in the Promised Land.  It's the end of that forty year period today's first reading is about.  A new generation of Israelites, better disposed to the Promise of a New Home, begin eating the produce of the land of promise.

The forty days of Lent help us to be better disposed to the promises of faith.  Israel's call to posses the Promised Land is similar to our call to find our new home, our new life in Christ.  Like the prodigal son and his brother, we need reconciliation with our Father and one another.  St. Paul reminds us, we are reconciled to the Father through Christ.  Lent helps us to put sin behind us as Israel finally put Egypt behind them.  Like them we sometimes crave the pleasures and attractions of a past life.  These temptations are real, but can be defeated. 

How?

By reclaiming our new life in Christ through confession and penance.  Lent is the promise that the door to Father's house is always open.  It is the Father's love for us wooing us back home.  Wherever we may roam, the fragrance of Father's house penetrates the foul, stale odor of sin.  And then we remember, there's no place like home.  

And in our Father's house we eat this bread, the body of His Son.  We drink also from this cup, which is the new covenant in his blood.  

May we never forget that there truly is no place like home.

Let us pray: Dear Father, you embrace us with a relentless love in the gift of your only Son, our Lord.  In the friendship you give us in your Son confirm us in your Holy Spirit.  Amen. 

A Season of Grace

Reflections on the Readings

Third Sunday of Lent - March 7, 2010, Year C

By Dennis Hankins

dennishankins@gmail.com

Readings For This Sunday

A Season of Grace

The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And I am the foremost of sinners... St. Paul - 1 Timothy 1:15 RSV

Lent reminds us that we are sinners. Perhaps some are worse than others, but when it comes to sin, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. This is an uncomfortable thought, but it is one that keeps things in perspective.

The mirror reminds me of my bodily imperfections. But it is the mirror of God's word that reveals thoughts and words and actions not formed by love. It is good to remember that salvation is ongoing; we are a work in progress. As St. Paul wrote, the Christian life is about pressing toward the goal; reaching for the prize and keeping our eyes on the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus. Ours is a lifetime of growing in grace.

The Galileans perished under Pilate and eighteen died at the Siloam Tower, but they didn't die because they were greater sinners than us. The message is that we too will perish spiritually unless we repent. Like the unfruitful fig tree receiving extra attention, care, and fertilizer, we also need pruning and ongoing care to be a fruit bearing Christian.

To be that kind of follower of Christ, we need confession and repentance and forgiveness! And not just one time, but more often than not. Believe me. I'm a husband and a father. I need it. And the bottom line for you and me is that we need the grace of sacramental confession. It is a means of grace and spiritual healing that connects our Lenten observances

Confession brings us the beauty and the power of grace. So let us not say we have no sin, for if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:8-9)

Even a brief review of the Ten Commandments will reveal none of us is without sin. Just as nobody suggests a single shower is sufficient for personal hygiene, so also frequent confession purifies the soul. As it has been said, confession is good for the soul. And confession during Lent is spring cleaning at its finest.

Some common objections to confession include:

"I'm saved. I don't need to confess anything."

"I can confess my sins to God. I don't need a priest."

"Only God can forgive sins."

"Christians aren't sinners; they don't need to keep repenting."

A good dose of humility is probably good about now. I understand the above sentiments. I used to embrace all of them and preached them fervently for many years. For the record, confession is not a 'get out jail free card.' The goal of confession is reconciliation with God and his Church. Always it is linked to a firm resolve to avoid the near occasion of sin. Especially the sin that most often besets us.

So where does the Church get its understanding of confessing ones sins to a priest? It comes from John the Beloved who records, ...He breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven..."(John 20:22-23) This ministry continues in the Church through her priests. A season of grace has prevailed in the Church for two thousand years. And the words of forgiveness and absolution will flow from the Church until Jesus returns in glory.

Hearing the priest give the words of absolution is to realize that Jesus keeps on saving us. Not just once or twice but always, often, and forever. Yet too many go it alone. Too many carry the wounds and scars of sinful habits, decisions, and past behavior, thinking some things are better left buried in the past. Then the festering wound gets infected and affects relationships, careers, and personal wholeness. Oh, but joy unspeakable is just one confession away.

As we come to the table of the Lord, let us remember all of Christ's benefits. He pardons all of our sins, heals all of our waywardness, and redeems our soul from destruction. And now he crowns you and me with kindness and compassion, in these gifts of bread and wine, the body and blood of Jesus.

It is a moment of grace.

Amen.

Let us pray: Dearest Father, help us to never become strangers to your love and your grace. May we come often to the fountain of mercy found in the acts of confession and contrition. Draw us to your mercy by your Holy Spirit. Amen.

A Season of Prayer - 2nd Sunday of Lent, February 28, 2010

Reflections on the Readings

Second Sunday of Lent - February 28, 2010, Year C

By Dennis Hankins

dennishankins@gmail.com

Readings For This Sunday

A Season of Prayer

...But we were eyewitnesses of his majesty...for we were with him on the holy mountain. (2 Peter 1:16-18)

Lent brings us into a season of prayer and asks us to bring ourselves more fully to prayer.  Now that sounds like a tall order, and next to impossible given our noisy and busy schedules.  But I suspect that there are many who will choose during Lent to become more intense and intentional in their communion with the Father.

St. Irenaeus, a Father of the Church, stated that in proportion to God's need of nothing is man's need for communion with God.  Imagine God needing anything that we could provide him. Now think about how much we need God and his friendship.  It is this God of love who will befriend us, because he delights in all of his creation, especially you and me.  

We often speak of giving up something for Lent, and there is much truth to that.  For example, fasting typically means to give up eating or eating something in particular.  There is another aspect to Lent that has to do with what it is we can give.  

Will I make a concentrated effort to say words of encouragement or support?  

Will I be more gracious in giving others the benefit of the doubt?  

Will I give myself more to prayer?

We might protest and ask, "Will giving myself to a season of prayer make any difference?

Let's review the gospel reading.

Peter, John, and James were with the Master on the mountain.  It was a time Jesus had set apart to pray.  This inner circle of disciples who joined Jesus on this occasion, became a little tired in the process.  However, the effects of that time with Jesus on that holy mountain never left them.  Peter in particular spoke of that time saying, "We saw his majesty." That was not all.  He also said we heard the voice coming from the Majestic Glory saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."

Now, they may not have told anyone at the time about that mountain top experience.  In time Peter wrote about it saying we were there.(1)

 

It was a season of prayer that brought into focus for these disciples about who Jesus is.  That is what praying does.  

It realigns us with the divine.  

It reorients us to the eternal.  

It restores our soul.  

You might say our spiritual GPS gets reset and we get back on the right track. 

Our son, Timothy, likes the way praying the Rosary gives prayer a path and a rhythm.  I remember the first time I attempted to pray the Rosary.  I thought how in the world would you ever get people to do this?  It seemed dull and repetitious.  Then something happened in that moment that I cannot put into words. My soul felt the eternal pleasure this prayer brings both here and in heaven.  I saw with the eyes of my heart something of the majesty of this way of praying.

Now, I understand that this is not the only way to pray.  I remember my daddy sharing about when he was being interviewed by the Board of Ordained Ministry in the United Methodist Church.  They were concerned about his Pentecostal background and how he would handle his belief and experience of speaking in tongues.  Daddy was forthright and responded to their concern, stating he could not deny what God had done for him. However, he also said that he would never push it on anybody, but he highly recommended it.  So when it comes to praying in tongues or praying the Rosary, I'll simply say I recommend it.

Whatever way you pray, give more time to it during this holy season of prayer.  Along with what I've already said, there is also the Jesus Prayer(2), the Liturgy of the Hours(3), the Lord's Prayer, and prayer and meditation before the Tabernacle or in the Adoration Chapel.  

In all the ways you may pray, be sure to invite the Holy Spirit saying, "Come Holy Spirit and kindle in me the fire of your love."

For the Church, the height of prayer is that which occurs at this Altar.  For it is here today we come to another mountain, Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering...and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant.(4)

  

Today let us feast together in this season of prayer, and receive this bread which is his body and this wine which his blood.  Amen.

Let us pray: Father, your ear is not deaf to our prayers.  Forgive us for not talking to you more often, more deeply, more honestly.  Give us a renewed sense of your presence in this season of prayer which we make in the name of Jesus by the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

1 2 Peter 1:16-18

2 Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

³  http://www.universalis.com/ For the Liturgy of the Hours

⁴ Hebrews 12:22-23

Surrendering To Love

Reflections on the Readings

First Sunday of Lent - February 21, 2010 - Year C

By Dennis Hankins

dennishankins@gmail.com

Readings For This Sunday 

Surrendering to Love

By the solemn forty days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the Desert. (CCC540)

I grew up as a Pentecostal in a community with a strong Catholic presence.  I didn't learn what Ash Wednesday was all about until I was a young adult.  I did know what Good Friday was.  And most of the town did too.  The businesses on Fourth Street, the downtown area in those days, would close from Noon until 3 p.m.  Time seemed to stand still. 

I remember that time well and the excitement I felt because I knew Easter Sunday was right around the corner.  I was excited because soon there would be Easter eggs to hunt, and Brach's chocolate Easter eggs to consume.  And how exciting it was to  linger in front of the G. C. Murphy Co. Store gazing at the little baby chicks just behind the big glass store window.

Oh, Spring was in the air, and soon we would be singing to the top of our lungs: 

He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today!

He walks with me and talks with me 

Along life's narrow way.

He lives, He lives, salvation to impart!

You ask me how I know He lives:

He lives within my heart.

But what still captivates my soul is the memory of the solemnity that filled the air in my hometown of Huntingburg, Indiana on Good Friday.  For several years now I have embraced that solemnity for the forty days that is called Lent, a period of self denial and uniting more fully to Christ's battle and agony. (CCC 2849)

Even though Lent starts in the desert, it is here with Jesus in the desert where the affections of our heart are examined and we learn to pray 'do not let me yield to temptation,' praying to be ruled by the love that is from above. (CCC 2846)   

It is no small thing to learn how we might more freely surrender to this love:

 That we might love Jesus more, better and always and others for whom He died. 

To become more detached from stuff and things and more in union with Him who loved us and gave himself for us.  

Embracing the way of the Spirit, as those who belong to Christ Jesus and have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

St. Paul describes the passions of the flesh to include fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing and the like. (Galatians 5:19 ff) 

All works of the flesh are antithetical to love.  

Standing today at the threshold of Lent we have an opportunity to meet Jesus in the desert.  

Here we will experience that in every temptation common to man our Lord provides the strength to overcome it.  

Here we will discern that the power and attraction of fame is nothing compared to faithfulness and true worship.   

It is here we will learn that it is no small thing to know how we might more freely surrender to love, the love we now receive and share with one another in this bread which is his body and this cup of blessing which is his blood of the new and everlasting covenant with us. 

Let us pray: Dear Father, bless us with a greater understanding of meeting our Savior in the desert.  As he was led by the Spirit into the desert, lead us also to meet him there and help us to not fear this holy season of Lent. Amen. 

 

Seeking First The Kingdom

Reflections on the Readings

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time - February 14, 2010, Year C

By Dennis Hankins

dennishankins@gmail.com

Readings For This Sunday

Seeking First The Kingdom

Pray then like this...Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done... (Jesus)

The package warns with big red letters: FRAGILE. Inside is a beautiful piece of pottery, carefully crafted by strong hands guided by a disciplined eye. The result is something that will serve as the center piece of a well prepared table setting, inspiring love and reverence, serving as a special dish for a special bread. It is something that will last forever; forever that is, if it is not mishandled or abused or neglected.

Handed down from one generation to the next, it continues to exhibit beauty and fulfill its destiny. The intentions of its maker lives on as this beautiful piece of pottery continues to inspire conversation about deep things. Things that last. First things.

I remember a special dish that belonged to my mother. It was a pink depression era dish with loops around the circumference and a sunburst design in the center of the plate. I remember it very well because I'm the one who broke it. It laid upright in the transept of our old house. But it didn't endure very well my running through the door way and making lay ups with the basketball on the other side of the transept. It fell to the floor and shattered into more pieces than I care to remember. Along with the shattered pieces lay the shattered memories and heart of my mother. Her words sank deeply into my teenage heart: "You will replace it!"

Many years later, on the occasion of my parents fortieth wedding anniversary I did replace it. Having searched for it through the local antique store and failing to find it I intensified my search. Finally, I located not one, but several at an antique warehouse in St. Louis. I was tempted to buy all of them as the dealer described the very dish I had destroyed as a youth. Making the deal by phone I was happy to finally restore something very special to my mother. I wish I could describe her joyful countenance as she smiled at me, her face showing the strains of Lou Gehrig's. A disease shattering her body.

I now have that dish, carefully guarded in a drawer in my house. Mother and Daddy are among those fallen asleep in Christ, having their hope in the risen Christ, he being the firstfruits of those fallen asleep. And one day they will rise perfected and restored in the image of him who makes all things new. This is the deep and enduring meaning of our faith.

The kingdom Jesus describes is everlasting and those who seek it will be like a tree planted by running water. Jesus speaks of things that will last. Deep things. First things.

Poverty or detachment from things that defile and shatter is to find the kingdom. Self denial or keeping ones affections only for him who first loved us and gave himself for us is to live in the way of the kingdom. Sorrow for our waywardness and sins and seeking reconciliation with God and our neighbor is to know true joy. If hated and despised or reviled and rejected, is to suffer for Christ, bearing fruit even in times of distress and drought.

The wicked are not so. They are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Jesus laments the rich, the overfed, and any who dismiss the dignity and plight of the poor. The poor are fragile and are very close friends of Jesus, who became poor for our sake. He is bread for the hungry, the bread of life for the world.

And blessed are we today who are called to this table. It is the center piece of our salvation. The reason for this feast of love is deep and lasting and inspires us on this first day of the week to always seek first the kingdom.

Let us pray: Dear Father, you feed us with manna that is from above, even Jesus the bread of heaven. United by this feast of love, strengthen us to build your kingdom in the power and might of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

www.dennishankins.com

Amazing Grace

Reflections on the Readings

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time - February 7, 2010, Year C

By Dennis Hankins

dennishankins@gmail.com

Readings for This Sunday

Amazing Grace

"But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain." - St. Paul

He was born July 24, 1725, the son of a commander of a merchant ship which sailed the Mediterranean.  At age eleven, he went to sea with his father, completing six voyages before his father retired.   In 1744, John was forced into service on a man-of-war, the H. M. S. Harwich.  Conditions on board were intolerable and the young John deserted.  Shortly he was recaptured and publicly flogged and demoted from midshipman to common seaman. 

At his own request he was exchanged into service on a slave ship.  This ship took him to the coast of Sierra Leone where he became the servant of a slave trader who brutally abused the young man.  Conditions here were no more tolerable than they had been on the H. M. S. Harwich.   Early in 1748, John was rescued by a sea captain who knew his father.  This led to becoming captain of his own ship, a ship which trafficked in the slave trade. 

John's early religious training came from his mother, who died when the lad was a young child.  So it is no surprise to learn he had long ago given up on any religious convictions.  However, on a particular homeward voyage, straining to steer his ship through a violent storm, all seemed lost and it seemed certain the ship would go down.  It was then he cried out, "Lord, have mercy upon us."  Later in his cabin, the young captain reflected on this experience and began to believe that God had met him through the storm and that grace had begun to work for him.

His hymn of Grace is sung all over the world.  There is no church of any denomination where his ode to Grace is not sung.  The young John, an infidel and libertine, turned priest in the Church of England.  His name is John Newton.  His song is Amazing Grace - how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.  I once was lost, but now am found, Was blind, but now I see.

John Newton's conversion began when he encountered his own insignificance and unworthiness, and cried out, "Lord, have mercy."   Isaiah, St. Paul, St. Peter, and Moses at the burning bush, like John Newton came face to face with God's mysterious presence.  

And we, when face to face with the body and blood of our Lord, are likewise convicted to affirm with the centurion of old, "Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, but only say the word and I shall be healed."

Let us pray: Dear Father, you sent your Son into our world that we might learn to grow in grace and in the holiness of your Spirit.  Amen.  

Is Not This Joseph's Son?

Reflections on the Readings

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time - January 31, 2010, Year C

By Dennis Hankins

dennishankins@gmail.com

Readings For This Sunday

He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. (John 1:11)

"Is not this Joseph's son?" Their incredulity hangs thickly in the air! Mark, writing about the same event, states the members of the synagogue 'took offense at him.' Why? Well, "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary?..."they explained. In other words, many at synagogue that day did not take Jesus or his true origin nor his rag tag disciples who followed him seriously.

Wasting no words, Jesus notes that a 'prophet is not acceptable in his own country.' The hometown folks, wasting no time, set out to prove his words by escorting Jesus to the brow of the hill at the edge of the village. This was to be, to put it bluntly, a long walk on a short pier. Enraged by their offense of him, they wished to be done with this hometown boy. For good.

Perhaps through the years, the villagers discussed behind closed doors their dismay of Mary, and Joseph as well, since he accepted Mary's explanation. They knew all of Jesus' relatives. There were aunts and uncles and several cousins. But they all seemed to be duped by 'the explanation.' So when Jesus read from the prophet Isaiah and stated "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing," it was the straw that broke the camel's back. They could take no more. Enough was enough. "Let's throw him over the hill headlong," they said. So they roughed him up a bit and dragged him before all of his relatives, including his mother Mary, and headed for the cliff out side of the village.

But passing through the midst of them he went away. Again they looked at one another in disbelief. Love incarnate rejected.

It is a choice we make, isn't it? I mean, whether we will accept who Jesus is and what he teaches. Like the people of Nazareth, we can choose what we believe about Jesus. We may not reject him outright, but there are any number of things we might think are optional about Jesus. But Jesus is not made up of pieces. He is the love of the Father in the flesh.

Hatred of him is inevitable, I suppose. However, the first reading declares, They will fight against you but not prevail over you, for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD.

Love cannot be defeated. Therefore Jesus cannot be defeated. Love can be rejected, but never defeated. If we will receive him he will never leave us nor forsake us. A popular painting of Jesus shows him standing outside and knocking on the door. If we will let him into our heart he will deliver us from all the enemies of our inner self. Jesus cannot be defeated, for love never fails.

Today, at this table we commune with Jesus, and are nourished by the matchless love of his body and blood. And as many as receive him, to them does he give the power to be the children of his Father.

Let us pray: Dear Father, thank you for the gift of love made flesh, even Jesus, whom we receive today in the gifts of bread and wine. By the power of the Holy Spirit perfect us in this love and through us our world. Amen.