Fr. Frank Majka, SJ – The Bridge

Caribbean Colors

Cleaning the Temple (Lent 3)

It wasn’t about the doves or the sheep or even the money as such, Jesus’ driving out the sellers from the Temple. It was about restoring the understanding of what the Temple was — a place where the people would meet God, reaffirm their covenant with God through ritual, and thus deepen their sense of being united with each other. Sadly, it had become a business. By cleaning out the Temple, Jesus wanted to let people recover their sense of what the Temple really was and their image if what it could be again.

What about us? I think all of us need to periodically renew our understanding that we are really children of God or brothers and sisters in God’s family. Then we can imagine what life would look like if we lived in the way God intended.

The Church, too, needs to do the same thing, all the way from the Vatican to the local parish. If it doesn’t do that with some regularity, it becomes corrupt in its vision of itself and forgets that its duty is to present the gospel to the world and to reveal God’s love for all the people in it.

As you think about your life, ask yourself what actions and attitudes need to be cleaned out. Then imagine what your life could be like if those things were missing.

Voices (Lent 2)

I’ll let you in on a secret: I hear voices. I think we all do. In fact, I think it is impossible to live in this world without hearing voices. Some of them speak about things to believe in and hope for and people to love. Others speak words that are cynical, negative, and hateful.  Yes, many voices compete for our attention.

But there’s one voice worth listening to above all, though it’s not always easy to hear. Still, if we listen carefully, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we hear it. It’s the voice God commands us to listen for, which the Father told the apostles to listen to in the gospel reading for the second Sunday of Lent. There, on the mountain of the Transfiguration, God the Father told Peter, James, and John, Listen to my Son! Listen to him!

During this second week of Lent, listen for Christ’s voice.  It may come from someone in your family, someone at your school or job,  in an overheard offhand remark or from something you see on TV or read about in the paper. At the end of the day, ask what you’ve heard Christ saying to you.

The Choice Is Ours (Lent 1)

Some people say our life is God’s gift to us and what we make of our lives is our gift back.  I believe that, and I believe what we make of ourselves is up to us. We can think and choose and, within limits, shape ourselves, and God won’t force us to be other than what we choose, even if our choices harm us or others.

The reading for the first Sunday of Lent talks about Jesus’ forty days in the desert when he made fundamental choices about how he would live and carry out his mission. He was guided by his knowledge of his Father’s desires, but the decisions were also his. He chose the way that would bring honor to his Father and help to all of us.

What about our choices? The forty days of Lent are a good time to ask ourselves what kind of people our choices are making us, whether they are choices we make as individuals or families or churches or even nations. If we see that our choices are leading us the wrong way, we can ask God to give us the courage to change them so that, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we will shape ourselves into something that we’ll be proud to offer God and that God will be happy to receive.

A Pause in the Journey