Twilight Twitches

Dear Family,
Lent THREE, FOUR and FIVE: we heard the won¬derful stories: living water promised to the Samaritan woman; physical and spiritual sight given to the man born blind; life given to Lazarus. No wonder today that we hear the people shout “Hosanna!” For us, a heartbreaking knowledge underlays the shouts because in today’s liturgy, only moments after hearing about the hosannas, we hear Matthews’s version of the passion and death of the Lord.

It would be so easy to have an attitude about “those fickle people.” I found myself wondering how and about what I am “fickle.” Well, if I look at Merriam-Webster’s definition, I read “lack of steadfastness, constancy, or stability: given to erratic changeableness.” I know I qualify least partially. The fear is that if I am fickle in little things, then what about big things. (Sounds almost biblical, doesn’t it?)

Dear Family,
Irish Domincan Donagh O’Shea writes: Jesus faced death to give life to Lazarus. This is John showing us the meaning of Jesus' life, or applying the first brush-stroke in this scene.

An alternative (or more accurately, a disjunction) is not a paradox. Life or death is not yet paradox; the paradox is life in death. Johann Tauler (1300–1361) wrote: “If only we could seek joy in sadness, peace in trouble, simplici¬ty in multiplicity, comfort in bitterness! This is the way to become true witnesses to God.”

Dear Family,
We met the woman at the well, and we saw the amazing change that let her drop her burden of being ostracized. She who was shunned became the way in which her townspeople met Jesus, and even kept him around. I wondered if I would be able to experience anything to the depth that she did that would cause me to radically change the way I act.

Today we meet the man born blind, a guy who got caught in the middle of a religious-political tension that nevertheless brought him more sight than simply his eyes could have ever given him. For us the question might be, ‘What are our blind spots?’

Dear Family,
Today we would normally celebrate St. Joseph’s Day, a solemnity in the church. (That means it is a very important feast.) We celebrate St. Joseph tomorrow. The transfer makes the point that these Sundays of Lent are super-important. They are telling us an important story.  We began with the temptations of Jesus. Last week we heard about the Transfiguration. Every year those two events begin Lent no matter whose gospel we are reading. This year we are in cycle A with Matthew.