The lectionary readings that correspond to the Sundays of February and March take us through pre-Lenten reflections to the middle of that penitential season. Various biblical themes emerge in the texts for these weeks and play like a symphony of spiritual meditations. They range from the prophetic vocation, lived in ancient times and today, to God's transcendence; from the divine mandate of forgiveness, to God's Word that unerringly attains its end and the Messiah's roadway toward Calvary and the resurrection.
Reflection on the Word of God as presented to us from week to week never reaches a finality. There are always further depths to plumb; God's living revelation is as limitless as the divine.
May our journey in these weeks from pre-Lent through the time of preparation for resurrection Sunday nurture and sustain us in our efforts to know and follow Jesus.
February 2
Jeremiah 1:4-10; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13; Luke 4:21-30
This Sunday's Hebrew scripture and the reading from Luke's gospel seem particularly appropriate for people of faith today in the United States. In both texts we find the phenomenon of prophetic vocation.
Jeremiah is called at a time when his nation has fallen into idolatry and faces the terrible prospect of exile. For some 40 years he exercises his ministry, through a time of hope (King Josiah's reform) and a time of despair (the Babylonian captivity). Jeremiah had the enormously unpopular vocation of warning the Jewish people of impending doom.
Similarly, in the reading from Luke's gospel, we have Jesus claiming that same prophetic calling, with a strong and unpopular message for the people. Having just made reference to the Jubilee time for restoring equity, he foretells the rejection he will experience in Nazareth: "No prophet gains acceptance in his native place."
Prophets in our society today experience similar rejection. Yet their message rings with the same clarity and urgency as in the days of Jeremiah and Jesus. "The world isn't working. The Earth is gasping for breath; the poor are dying; and the middle class is urged to keep shopping." Unless our nation listens and repents, can we escape the fate of ancient Israel? We are living pre-exilic times today in America.
Prophecy is an act of love. Paul's hymn of love in today's reading underscores the prophet's qualities: patience, kindness, selflessness, rejoicing with the truth, forbearance, trust, hope, and endurance. We pray for prophets and ask God to raise up yet greater ones in a country still mostly without ears to hear them.
February 9
Isaiah 6:1-13; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; Luke 5:1-11
Occasionally in the lectionary we are challenged to concentrate solely on God's transcendence. Today is one of those moments. The reading from Isaiah reminds us of a recurrent theme in his teaching: God's holiness. This divine quality connotes complete otherness, transcendence, apartness from anything sinful or merely finite. We moderns do not like to consider God in these terms.
At worst God is considered a sort of chairman of the board, the "big guy" with whom we can wheel and deal throughout life. At best God is a warm and fuzzy daddy/ mommy, capable of only the most benign sentiments. Yet healthy respect for the One whose name was not even uttered by the ancients fills the Isaian text this day.
The gospel of Luke teaches the same lesson in more familiar terms. Jesus, who brings Yahweh into our line of vision, often reveals in his life aspects of God's transcendence. Of course Jesus celebrates God as Abba, parent; but at the same time the Lord causes wonder. In today's lesson Peter recognizes the limitless distance between himself and the Lord: "Leave me, Lord, I am a sinful man." We can all say the same, and in such moments of clarity before God's majesty we rely on Jesus' answer: "Do not be afraid."
Paul, not one who minimizes his own accomplishments, nevertheless echoes the same sentiments of unworthiness before God's grandeur in his letter to the Christians at Corinth. "I am the least of all the apostles; in fact because I persecuted the church of God, I do not deserve the name."
February 16
Jeremiah 17:5-10; 1 Corinthians 15:12-20; Luke 6:17-26
Today's reading from Jeremiah, together with the Luke version of the beatitudes, remind me of an experience I had during my years in Peru. Once in a remote part of the Andean highlands, representatives from base Christian communities prepared with me the lessons for Sunday worship. As painfully slow readers, they labored over today's passage from Jeremiah, finally agreeing that it held a significant teaching for them.
During those days famine threatened the communities due to a months-long drought in the region. These unschooled, desperately poor Indian folk centered on the image of "the one who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is the Lord. S/he is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream." They concluded that the scripture that day was telling them to be fruitful trees for one another; that those who had somehow harvested a crop, however meager, must share it with those who had not. If there was no abundance to share, then at least they could share in the paucity.
This was not theoretical. The inhabitants of that area faced hunger, even starvation. Still they found the inspiration to challenge one another in living God's Word to the fullest.
Luke has Jesus proclaim, "Blessed are you poor. The kingdom of God is yours." It was not difficult that day for me to understand Jesus' meaning.
February 23
Genesis 45:3-11, 15; 1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50; Luke 6:26-38
God's Word today confronts us with that mysterious, demanding, and, yes, elusive divine mandate--forgiveness. Joseph, with the multicolored coat, receives with open arms the very brothers who had plotted his death and sold him into slavery. This giant of the Hebrew scriptures is a Christ-figure, forgiving even those who would kill him, thereby bringing salvation to his own.
Jesus' command in Luke's gospel today that we love even our enemies was directed, scripture scholars tell us, to economically deprived and politically threatened Christian communities. It has, then, special relevance for us, the non-poor: If the poor are expected to forgive injustices suffered, how much more are we to do the same?
The image of economically deprived and politically threatened people forgiving injustices stretches us further. Those who have traveled to places such as Central America, where U.S. policies cause so much suffering, know the humbling experience of receiving forgiveness from the very people we oppress. Despite their pain, those blessed poor have put into practice Jesus' teaching about turning the other cheek, doing good to those who hate them, blessing those who curse them. They ask us only to stay the hand of our government against them.
March 1
Isaiah 55:10-13; Corinthians 15:51-58; Luke 6:39-49
Of the several themes highlighted in today's readings, that of God's effective Word stands out. Isaiah claims on behalf of Yahweh that the Word which goes forth from God's mouth shall not return void but shall do God's will, achieving the end for which it was sent. Reflection on this prophetic claim sets the stage for this Sunday's gospel text, the conclusion of Jesus' great discourse in Luke. "Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and not put into practice what I teach you?" Jesus asks. The Word must be operative, acted on, efficacious. We are called to be doers of the Word, as Paul says, and not hearers only.
This theme has received intense attention by liberation theologians. It is one of their principal gifts to the universal church. Orthopraxis--right action--ranks higher in importance than orthodoxy. Said another, more startling, way, it is more important to follow Jesus than to know him. We have heard it so often: Our call is to faithfulness.
The consequences of this biblical teaching are numerous. They can perhaps be summed up in that celebrated text from Matthew 25. Jesus rests the full weight of judgment on all human's lives upon how we responded to hunger, thirst, nakedness, loneliness, and imprisonment among our less fortunate sisters and brothers.
March 8: First Sunday of Lent
Deuteronomy 26:1-11; Romans 10:8b-13; Luke 4:1-13
Quite fitting for beginning another Lenten time of holistic austerity, the gospel today presents us with that incredible occurrence in Jesus' life--his temptation. This event has to be seen on at least two levels: as a proof of Jesus' humanity and as a paradigm for his struggle to the death with evil.
In human terms Jesus has just heard himself called the Lamb of God by John the Baptizer--a clear reference to the suffering lamb in Isaiah. It is he who will carry the sins of his people. Surely to reflect on this startling revelation, the Spirit leads Jesus to the desert for 40 days, during which time he fasts. It is no surprise then that he is tempted by food, by power, and by pride. We find consolation in the fact that in a moment of crisis even our Lord suffers temptation.
More shrouded in mystery is the further dimension of Jesus' temptation, that of his cosmic struggle with evil. We can describe it this way: After 40 days and nights of Jesus' intense communion with God, evil engages Jesus in battle. It is an eschatological moment, as God confronts the world of diabolical power.
The struggle centers on what kind of messiah Jesus will be. Will he win the people by granting what they immediately desire, or will he invite them/us to share in his suffering and resurrection? This is the great question Lent puts before us as well. Will we recommit in spirit and body to Jesus' unique way?
March 15: Second Sunday of Lent
Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18; Philippians 3:17-4:1; Luke 9:28-36
The timing of today's gospel event is almost as important as the story of Jesus' transfiguration itself. All of the Synoptic gospels place this event six days after the Lord's first stunning announcement that he is to suffer and die: "He began to teach them that the Son of Man had to suffer much, be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, be put to death..." (Mark 8:31).
Peter has objected to such a barbarity and receives a stern rebuke from the one who will not be dissuaded from the path of obedience. In the presence of Peter and the two others, Jesus manifests his glory on the mountain top.
Today's is a classic Lenten theme. Glory can come to the Messiah only if he walks the road of suffering and death. Similarly, his followers are promised an equal part in his destiny: "If any wish to come after me, they must deny their very selves, take up their cross and follow in my steps" (Mark 8:34). Lent challenges us to choose that same path again.
Moses, the lawgiver, and Elijah, the prophet, appeared alongside the transfigured Jesus "and spoke of his passage which he was about to fulfill in Jerusalem." The law and the prophets prepared the way for this sort of messiah.
This Sunday's first reading gives us a look back over the whole sweep of salvation history to Abram's call in Genesis 15. Now, centuries later, the man of Nazareth brings that history to fruition through his obedience even to death on a cross.
March 22: Third Sunday of Lent
Exodus 3:1-15; 1 Corinthians 10:1-13; Luke 13:1-9
Among ancient Semites one who knew another's name supposedly had power over that person. God answers Moses' request to know the divine name with a description, the celebrated "I am who I am." Scholars tell us that this reply from God occasioned the title Yahweh, which in turn is rendered "He causes to be."
All of this is significant when we meditate on Yahweh's direct intervention on behalf of the enslaved Israelites and the selection of Moses to lead them through the desert into the promised land. The One who is, the One who causes to be, acts as the great liberator in that people's history.
With reason, then, Jewish people through the centuries have seen in the Exodus story their lasting entitlement to that same promised land. Tragically, modern Israel cannot conceive of the possibility that another people, the Palestinians, might justifiably share a similar entitlement.
In our times, that Exodus event has inspired freedom movements throughout the world. Many who find themselves enslaved personally or socially by political, racial, sexual, or classist oppression take heart and action from the words: "I have witnessed the affliction of my people...and have heard their cry of complaint against their slave drivers, so I know well what they are suffering. Therefore I have come down to rescue them...." Lent gives us the opportunity to reflect on personal and corporate enslavements and acquire the spiritual and physical ability to deal with them.
March 29: Fourth Sunday of Lent
Joshua 5:9-12; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11-32
Some years ago, sectors of the Catholic Church in Latin America asked permission from Rome to celebrate Lent and Easter in October and November, which is springtime in the Southern Hemisphere. Theirs was a clear understanding of what Paul tells us in his letter to the Corinthians today: "The old order has passed away; now all is new." Lent and Easter celebrate the fact that "all is new," and they are best observed when the Earth itself is in renewal.
The gospel today underlines this lesson with Luke's account of the prodigal son. It is indeed a new order when an ungrateful offspring, after squandering his inheritance, can return and be welcomed with open arms by the parent who images God. And if elder sons cannot understand such largess and forgiveness, neither are they/we rejected: "You are with me always, and everything I have is yours."
The new order is made possible by our brother "who was dead and has come back to life. He was lost and is found." We have here a wonder-filled identification between the wayward son and Jesus: "For our sakes God made him who did not know sin to be sin...."
We look forward this Sunday to the approaching springtime feast of humanity's renewal by Jesus. With his taking on evil itself at Calvary and conquering it on resurrection Sunday, nothing again will ever be the same. "The old order has passed away; now all is new!"
Joe Nangle, OFM, was outreach director of Sojourners when this article appeared.
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