Corpus Christi Blog

I am preaching at all the Masses this weekend to let the whole parish know about something important, but before I get into that, I wanted to say a few words about today’s readings. 

In the Gospel of John chapter 12, just before the verses from today, a large crowd had come to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover.  Upon hearing Jesus was on his way into the city, they took Palm branches and went to him and cried out “Hosanna, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel”.  And Jesus then came into the great capital city riding on a donkey, which as we know fulfills the prophet Zechariah writing.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, as I was praying over and thinking about these readings, I was inspired to share with you the immense joy that comes in being real with Christ.

Our 2nd reading begins, “God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ”.  But in order to know the God who is rich in mercy and love, we must know the consequences of our sins.  The book of Romans tells us that ‘the consequence of sin is death’.  The consequence of sin is death, every sin, no matter how big or small, is against God, and anything that is against God is not worthy of God.  Because of Adam’s sin, and in turn, because of each of our individual sins, we are not worthy to share in God’s life- that is we deserve death.  And so, as our 2nd reading says, we are dead in our transgressions.  And there was nothing we could have done about it, no amount of good we could ever do could make up for just one sin.  There was nothing we could have done to make us be happy and have life in us.

This Sunday we are about half way through Lent.   On this 3rd Sunday, the Church gives us such powerful readings from our Lord in order to intentionally focus our hearts on what this season of Lent is all about.  The focus of Lent should be to root sin out of our lives.  By reflecting on and applying our readings today we can do just that. 

These 3 readings are probably somewhat familiar to many of you, for they are well known stories by themselves, but the Church gives us these 3 readings today, on this 2nd Sunday of Lent, for a reason.  This season of Lent calls us to grow closer to God, to grow in trust and dependence on God, and to grow in love for our neighbor.  And these readings we are given today help us to do just that.  So let us look into and relate our lives with our 1st reading in order to help us understand the reason for our 2nd reading and Gospel.