First reading, Jeremiah 31:31-34 explained: Jeremiah lived from about 650 B.C. to perhaps 580 B.C. Most of his work was in Judah’s capital, Jerusalem. Called by God as a young man, Jeremiah lived through the tragic years preceding and succeeding the ruin of the kingdom of Judah. In 597 BC Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem and deported part of its population to Babylon (Iraq). A second Judean revolt brought back the Chaldean armies once again, and in 587 BC Jerusalem was captured, its Temple burnt and more of its inhabitants deported. When Jerusalem fell, Jeremiah remained in Palestine with his friend Gedaliah whom the Chaldeans had appointed governor. When Gedaliah was assassinated, a party of Jews, fearing reprisals, fled to Egypt, taking Jeremiah with them. It is probable that he died there.
Jeremiah lived through these catastrophic events as God’s messenger, preaching, prophesying disaster, and vainly admonishing the incompetent Davidic kings. He tried to keep the people, the priests and the kings faithful to God amidst an atmosphere of political intrigue. As God’s true spokesman, Jeremiah was accurate and blunt in his words. When the Lord God wished to convey His love and mercy to His erring people, the prophet’s words are gentle, but when He confronts the evils His people, priests, and Kings have done and caused, the prophet’s language is always firm and strong. The Lord asked questions and supplied answers: Why was there a need for God to make a New Covenant? It was because the people, priests and kings had broken the original one. How would the New Covenant be different from the old? It would be written on the hearts of the people and hence could not be erased by cowardly leaders. Why would there be no need for teachers under the New Covenant? Because the present teachers — the priests and kings — had failed miserably, and God chose to take other measures. The passage reads as follows: “I will place My Law within them and write it upon their hearts.” This New Covenant does not abolish the earlier Covenants with Noah, Abraham and Moses, for these earlier covenants are really the progressive stages of the history of the one Great Covenant between the one God and His people. Jeremiah’s prophecy of a New or Renewed Covenant has been fulfilled, at least in part, through Jesus’ life, death and Resurrection.
Second Reading, Hebrews 5:7-9 explained: This passage from Paul’s letter to the Hebrews is chosen because it fits with today’s Gospel which contains an ominous prediction of Jesus’ passion, and some details of Jesus’ prayer to his Father. The verses preceding these describe the priests of ancient Judaism, and then describe Jesus as the Priest of the New Covenant. Priests of the Sinai covenant were charged with: (1) interpreting the will of God for the people; (2) giving guidance as regards the law; (3) offering sacrifice on behalf of the community. Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man, fulfilled all these functions by authoritatively teaching his contemporaries to know God’s will and to live according to the fullness of His Law and Covenant which had been lost over the centuries. In his own death, Jesus functioned as both priest and victim to offer the one perfect sacrifice to God for the deliverance of sinful humankind. Today’s verses expand on that theme of Jesus as God’s Son and at the same time emphasize his human nature (learning obedience through suffering, thus made perfect). They also indicate Jesus’ superiority to the priests of his day in that he “became the Source of eternal Salvation” to others. Since Jesus suffered and prayed with tears to be saved from death, he can sympathize with our sufferings. That Jesus’ prayer has been heard will be demonstrated on the third day with His Resurrection. Since Jesus knows our human condition and is touched by our anguish and distress, he pleads with God the Father on our behalf.
Gospel exegesis: The Context: Some Greek pilgrims who were either new converts to Judaism or mere ‘truth-seekers’ were greatly impressed by the royal reception given to Jesus on Palm Sunday and by the subsequent cleansing of the Temple by Jesus. Hence, they approached the apostle Philip (who had a Greek name), and requested a private interview with the Master. Jesus uses the occasion to declare that he is the “Son of Man” prophesied by Daniel, and that his time of glorification is at hand. He immediately corrects the then-current and accepted, false notion of a political messiah by stating that he will be glorified by his suffering, death and Resurrection.
The hour of glorification for the “Son of Man”: The “hour” Jesus refers to is his time for glorifying his Heavenly Father and of being glorified by his Father. It is also the way by which all people will be drawn into the saving action of God. Jesus’ being “lifted up” on the cross to glorify his Father reminds us that we too can glorify God by wholeheartedly accepting the crosses our loving Heavenly Father permits to enter our lives. Jesus’ hour can be described in three ways: (1) as a death that gives Life: Jesus’ death will yield a Life which nourishes and sustains others. (2 as a crisis situation: Jesus’ hour will occasion for believers a crisis (v. 31) which will free them from “the ruler of this world” (Satan), and the power of evil. (3) as an access to Heaven. Jesus’ hour provides for all of us, available access to eternal life if we choose to have it. By being “lifted up” in his finest hour, Jesus will draw everyone to himself (v. 32) who chooses to be so drawn. We are invited to unite our personal struggles and their scars with those of Jesus and to follow him confidently to the glory that awaits.
First reading (2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23) explained: Today’s Gospel contains this lament of St. John the Evangelist: “The Light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to Light.” The chronicler in the first reading says the same thing about the chosen people long ago: “But they mocked the messengers of God, despised His warnings, and scoffed at His prophet.” He also reports, “early and often did the Lord God send messengers to the people out of deep compassion for them (2 Chr 36:15). 2 Chronicles describes the history of the period from the reign of Israel’s first king, Saul, (1030 BC), to the end of Judah’s exile in Babylon (550 BC)., presenting both the successful periods of Israel’s development (God’s reward for fidelity), and the tragedies and military defeats (God’s punishment for the people’s infidelity). Today’s passage shows us how the people’s infidelities also caused them to lose the Temple, their homeland, and their language until they “came to their senses,” recognizing their own sinfulness and crying out to God for mercy. It was then that God came to their rescue, by choosing to work through the pagan king Cyrus the Great of Persia, in order to return them to their homeland and to help them rebuild His Temple there. This short, sad summary with a hopeful ending is told from the viewpoint of a conviction that right worship will restore a people and that God is willing to use desperate measures, even the heartbreak of his people, not to hurt them, but to save them and bring them back to Him as His Chosen People.
Second Reading (Ephesians 2:4-10) explained: Both the second reading from Ephesians and the Gospel periscope remind us to focus on the mystery of salvation as a gift to sinners. Paul teaches us that, although we don’t deserve anything from God on our own merits, God has chosen to love, save, and give life to us – both Jewish and Gentile Christians – because of His great mercy and love. In the first half of his letter, Paul says that Divine grace does three things for us: a) brings us to life in Christ, b) raises us up with Christ, and c) seats us in the Heavens. The sole purpose of these Divine deeds is to show the immeasurable riches of God’s grace. In the second half of the reading, Paul contrasts what we can achieve spiritually on our own (nothing), with what God gives us as undeserved grace (everything). Paul also reminds us that all our goodness is God’s gift to us and, so, is nothing for us to boast about. Our goodness, such as it may be, is His goodness shining through us. “By grace we are saved through Faith, and this is not our own doing; it is the gift of God” (Eph 4:8-10). The second reading thus reveals “the great love [God] had for us.” Further, while this reading affirms that we are “saved through Faith,” it also makes clear that this Faith itself “is the gift of God,” given to us freely “because of the great love He [has] for us.
Gospel exegesis: The context: Nicodemus, the wealthy Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin, meets Jesus by night and begins a long religious discussion. But Jesus interrupts him, stating that rebirth by water and the Spirit is an essential condition for entering the Kingdom of God. Jesus explains to him that Nicodemus must believe Jesus’ words because Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus further explains God’s plan of salvation by referring to the story of Moses and the bronze serpent. He also reveals the Good News that God will show His love for mankind by subjecting His own Son to suffering and death.
A) The uplifted serpent: John refers to an Old Testament story given in Numbers 21:4-9. On their journey through the wilderness, the people of Israel murmured and complained, regretting that they had ever left Egypt. To punish them, God sent a plague of deadly serpents. When the people repented and cried for mercy, God instructed Moses to make an image of a serpent impaled (and so killed), on a pole, and to hold it up in the midst of the camp, so that anyone who looked upon the serpent (and so obeyed this command of God given them through Moses), might be healed through the power of God. In today’s Gospel lesson, Nicodemus learns that, like Moses’ bronze serpent, Jesus, too, must be “lifted up” (a contemporary euphemism for being crucified), and that the act of His being “lifted up” will similarly bring about salvation. This is the first of three references in John’s Gospel to Jesus being “lifted up” (cf. 8:28, 12:32-34). Specifically, this reference foreshadows the crucifixion of Jesus who carried with him the burden of the sins of the world. When humans turn their thoughts to their crucified Savior and believe in him, they too will find eternal life. Jesus was lifted up twice: on the Cross and at his Ascension into Heaven. Just as the cross was the way to glory for Jesus, so it is for us. We can, if we like, refuse the cross that every Christian is called to bear. It is an unalterable law of human life, however, that without the cross, there is no crown.
B) Believing in Jesus: This includes three elements: 1) the belief that God is our loving Father, 2) the belief that Jesus is the Son of God and, therefore, tells us the truth about God and life, and 3) the belief that we must give unquestioning obedience to Jesus. “I believe in ” means, “I put my trust in Jesus and I seek to obey Him.” The Faith of which our Lord speaks is not just intellectual acceptance of the truths He has taught: it involves recognizing Him as Son of God (cf. 1 Jn 5:1), sharing His very life (cf. John 1:12), and surrendering ourselves to Him out of love, thereby becoming like Him (cf. Jn 10:27; 1 John 3:2) (Navarre Bible). The Catholic doctrine teaches that salvation is “by grace through Faith unto good works” (Eph 2:8-10). We must do “good works” if we have been truly saved. In other words, if we are saved by our Faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, good works will follow as our acts of thanksgiving. This favor from God is constantly being offered, and our challenge is to respond to it gratefully by leading a good life. Thus, we will receive from God eternal life, the very Life of God Himself. Then we will experience peace with God, peace with men, peace with life, and peace with ourselves.
C) The Gospel of the Gospels: John 3:16 is probably the best loved verse in the Bible and it has been called “everybody’s text” and the “Gospel of the Gospels.” “For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” This is the summary of the Gospel message of salvation through Christ Jesus. This text is the very essence of the Gospel. It tells us that the God takes the initiative in all salvation because of His love for man. As St. Augustine puts it: “God loves each one of us as if there were only one of us to love. It is our God who brings us to greater belief in our daily struggles and temptations, and leads us to eternal life, thus demonstrating the depth of His love for us.
D) Love of darkness and God’s judgment: When we walk according to the teachings of Christ, we are walking in the Light. If we oppose these teachings, we oppose Christ himself; hence, we are walking in darkness. In today’s text, we are told, “Light has come into the world, but people loved the darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” There are many dark corners in our world. These dark corners include, among many others, addiction to alcohol, drugs, gambling, pornography, and sexual immorality, environmental irresponsibility, and a lack of purpose burdening many of us especially among young people. It is very easy to pretend that these dark corners don’t exist. When we do, we act like the desert nomad in the story who woke up hungry in the middle of the night. He lit a candle and began eating dates from a bowl beside his bed. He took a bite from one and saw a worm in it; so he threw it out of the tent. He bit into the second date, found another worm, and threw it away also. Reasoning that he wouldn’t have any dates left to eat if he continued to look for worms, he blew out the candle and quickly ate the rest of the dates!
Our lives matter to God, and He knows all about the dark corners in our lives. He wants us to stop hiding our sin in the dark and demands that we expose every dark corner to His Light of life, so that we will be able to receive what He is giving to us — the Light that not only shows up the dirt in our lives but cleans it away. He died so that we could be made new and clean. Freely, the Light of His forgiveness shines into our lives, brightening up every corner, forgiving every sin, and restoring our relationship with God, renewing our lives.
First reading, Exodus 20:1-17 explained: On the first Sunday of Lent, we reflected on the Covenant that God made with the world through Noah after destroying all living things on the land with the flood. Last Sunday our meditation was on the Covenant promises God made to Abraham and his descendants. On this third Sunday of Lent we consider the third Covenant God made with His chosen people through Moses at Mount Sinai. In that Covenant, God, Who had liberated His people from slavery in Egypt, promised to make the Jews His own people, to lead them to the Promised Land, and to protect them from their enemies. The people, in return, agreed to obey the Ten Commandments and other laws given by Yahweh through Moses. The Ten Commandments form a list of directives or instructions for living out our Covenant relationship. In other words, it is the Constitution of the people of God because the Ten Commandments were part of a Covenant which God entered into with a specific group of people: the Israelites. The Covenant offered these people a society genuinely free, secure, mutually respectful and trustworthy, superior to neighboring societies, and more humane than anything the earth had yet seen. The Ten Commandments are based on two basic principles, namely, the principle of reverence and the principle of respect. The first four commandments demand from us reverence for God, reverence for His Holy Name, reverence for His Holy Day (Sabbath), and reverence for our father and mother. The remaining commandments ask us to respect life, to respect the bodies of other persons, to respect their marriage bonds, to respect their property, to respect the good name of people everywhere, and our own words about them in a court of law, and to respect our neighbor’s wife and his property. Jesus summarized all the commandments into two: love of God and love of neighbor and later clarified the latter further: “Love others as I have loved you.”
Second Reading, 1 Corinthians 1:22-25 explained: Since today’s Gospel portrays Jesus as causing a scandal by his prophetic cleansing of the Temple, Paul says that Jesus’ cross is a scandal, or “stumbling block,” to the Jews and “foolishness” to Gentiles. A crucified Christ did not fit into the Jewish concept of a triumphant political Messiah. In the same manner, the idea of a suffering God Who was crucified but rose again did not appeal to the intelligentsia of Corinth who considered it an affront to their dualistic tendency to write off the body as valueless! Hence, the Apostle simply reminds the Corinthian community of something they already know: “The ‘foolishness’ of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the ‘weakness’ of God is stronger than human strength.” Though Jesus expected His disciples to adhere to the Ten Commandments, it quickly became evident to them that such adherence was simply “entry-level” Faith. After His death and Resurrection, they discovered it was essential to follow Jesus himself rather than a series of laws. The only way to live a fulfilled life was to imitate Jesus’ dying and rising, whether it scandalized others or not. Hence, this second reading reminds us that we must appreciate and live out in various ways the Divine “foolishness” of the crucified Christ and obey His commandment of love as expression of our Divine worship.
Gospel exegesis: 1) Time of the incident: While the turning of water into wine was the first sign of Jesus’ ministry, according to John, the first public act of his ministry is to cleanse the Temple. (In John, the Temple scene makes a claim for Jesus’ authority at the beginning of his ministry, while in the Synoptics, it occurs near the end.) The authority Jesus used was ultimately based on his identity as the Son of the Only God Who dwells in that Temple. As such, Jesus had the authority to disrupt the Temple’s unholy activities. Passover was a major Jewish festival. Pilgrims from all over Palestine and beyond would come to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast and to pay their annual Temple tax. Matthew, Mark, and Luke (Mt 21:12-17; Mk 11:15-19; Lk 19:45-48), report only one participation in the Passover feast in Jesus’ public life, and that was just before his arrest, emphasizing the time when Jesus cleansed the Temple. The synoptic Gospels place the “cleansing of the Temple” immediately after Jesus’ triumphant arrival in Jerusalem on the back of the colt of an ass. For Matthew, Mark, and Luke the powerful scene in the Temple demonstrates Jesus at the height of his power and popularity. His conflict with the religious establishment in Jerusalem, the religious capital, provided fuel for the fires of indignation and alarm set among the Sadducees and Pharisees. John, however, puts the incident at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry because John is not interested in telling us when Jesus cleansed the Temple, but rather in showing this cleansing as an act prophesied of the Messiah. John considers the raising of Lazarus, and not the Temple-cleansing, as the precipitating event for Jesus’ arrest, trial and crucifixion (John 11-12).
First reading, Genesis 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18 explained: Abraham’s readiness to sacrifice his son has been understood as an Old Testament type or prefiguring of God’s willingness to offer Jesus as a sacrifice for human sin. The command to Abraham to sacrifice his only child was also a real test of Abraham’s great Faith and total trust in God. God had promised that Abraham would become the father of many nations. How could this be possible if Isaac were to be sacrificed? Although Yahweh’s command was most painful, Abraham trusted that God was both faithful enough and powerful enough to keep His promise. The Lord responded by renewing His promise to Abraham that he would be the father of a great race. His progeny throughout the whole world would receive the blessing of God – Divine adoption through the Incarnation. Not only would Abraham’s descendants be blessed, but all the nations of the earth would be blessed in him. In the Divine sparing of Isaac, Israel was to learn that theirs was a God who was not appeased by human sacrifice but by the sacrifice of a contrite spirit and a humbled heart (Psalm 51:19). The story of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac carries great significance. There is a clear parallel with Jesus in this story. Abraham’s readiness to sacrifice his son is a prototype of God the Father and His Son, Jesus. But the difference is that while Isaac was spared at the last moment, Jesus had to die. Just as to sacrifice his only son did not make sense to Abraham, it made even less sense to the disciples of Jesus that God could allow their Lord and Master Jesus to be executed. It was only after Pentecost that the apostles realized that our eternal salvation was brought about by the suffering, death and Resurrection of Jesus.
Second Reading, Romans 8:31b-34 explained: This passage shares with the first reading the image of a father’s willingness to give up his son and the son’s readiness to accept the father’s will wholeheartedly. Paul assures us that it is by the perfect obedience to the will of his Father, expressed in his suffering and death, that Jesus was glorified and made our Heavenly intercessor. Paul also affirms that He who gave His Son for us will give us all things with His Son. We have every reason to have confidence in God because it is Christ Jesus at the right hand of the Father who intercedes for us, and nothing can separate us from the love of Christ for us. Paul’s argument runs like this: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Paul reminds us that God’s love has no limits, as He offered His Son to die for us. Paul argues that the greatest proof that God is for us is the fact of the Incarnation and crucifixion of His Son Jesus for us sinners. It necessarily follows that God will give us the assistance that we need to get to Heaven.
Gospel exegesis: The objective: The primary purpose of Jesus’ Transfiguration was to allow him to consult his Heavenly Father and ascertain His plan for His Son’s suffering, death and Resurrection. The transfiguration was a theophany that authorized Jesus to make his way to Jerusalem to meet his destiny, the cross, and his vindication. God’s secondary aim was to make Jesus’ chosen disciples aware of Jesus’ Divine glory so that they might discard their worldly ambitions and dreams of a conquering political Messiah and might be strengthened in their time of trial. The Transfiguration also established Jesus’ glorious identity as the beloved Son of God and placed his Divine Sonship in the context of Jewish expectations about the kingdom and the resurrection of the dead. The event took place in late summer, just prior to the Feast of the Tabernacles. Hence, the Orthodox Church celebrates the Transfiguration at about the time of the year when it actually occurred, in order to connect it with the Old Testament Feast of the Tabernacles. The Western tradition recalls the Transfiguration at the beginning of Lent, then celebrates the formal feast on August 6.
First reading, Genesis 9:8-15 explained: According to the Biblical story, God’s covenant with Noah after the Deluge was the second covenant made by God. This one-way covenant declared that God is in a providential relationship with all of natural creation and will be so down through the ages. The story of the great Deluge in the book of Genesis was also intended to remind people of their present Covenant with the Lord and to reinforce their commitment to it. It tells us how man irrevocably broke the original covenant God had made with Adam and Eve and how the merciful God found Noah and his family with whom to renew that covenant. The covenant with Noah was very simple. It consisted mainly of God’s promise to care for the earth and not to destroy it again by a flood. Through the sign of the rainbow, God promised Noah that He would love and care for Noah’s descendants and for the earth that they inhabited. The sign of the covenant with Noah was the rainbow. The rainbow often gives the impression of linking heaven and earth. That is why the rainbow is a sign of the second covenant joining Heaven and earth. The sign of the rainbow may help us to understand better the pivotal place of Jesus in salvation history. Like the rainbow, Jesus, the Incarnate Son of God, is the link between God and humankind, and between Heaven and earth. The story of the salvation of Noah and his family from the waters became an inverse symbol of Baptism: through the waters of Baptism in which we die to sin, we become incorporated into the Church, the Body of Christ, the living Christian community. Through our life in and with our parish and world-wide Christian community, we learn how to live out our commitment to Jesus. We get support in living that life from the community of which we are a part. We learn to grow into a people who are whole and complete, in union and harmony with our God, with others and with ourselves. And that is salvation. It begins here and now, and Lent is the time for us to strengthen and renew that process in our own lives.
Second Reading, 1 Peter 3:18-22 explained: Lent is the beginning of the season that culminates in our solemn remembrance of the Paschal Mystery, Jesus’ suffering, death and Resurrection (“Christ died for sins,”), and in the joyful Baptism of new members. Lent is, thus, the season of self-examination. All three elements are packed into this second reading from the letter of Peter. This letter was addressed to the persecuted Christians of the Church and was intended to bolster their Faith. It will do the same for us. Peter reminds us all of our place in the larger history of God’s providence in order to help us see our present sufferings in a larger context. He says an outward sign of the Covenant that God made with his people through Jesus is Baptism. Baptism not only removes Original Sin but is also our birth into Christ – the way we become adopted children of God, heirs of heaven, and temples of the Holy Spirit. Peter points out that the waters of Baptism are an antitype of the waters of the flood. The flood waters destroyed almost all the people except Noah’s family. The waters of Baptism on the other hand are the cleansing agent that saves all. Using already traditional formulas of Faith, Peter affirms that in the Paschal Mystery Jesus made it possible for all humankind to enter a right relationship with God (justification) and to live their new life in the Holy Spirit (sanctification). The odd picture of Christ going “to preach to the spirits in prison” (“He descended into hell” in the Apostles’ Creed), probably refers to the risen Christ making known to imprisoned souls his victory over sin and death. (The New American Bible-1970 edition).
Gospel exegesis: The context: All the synoptic Gospels agree that Jesus experienced a period of temptation. Hebrews 4:15 also testifies to Jesus’ temptation episode. While Matthew and Luke give graphic descriptions of Jesus’ temptations in the desert during his forty days of fasting and prayer following his baptism in the River Jordan, Mark just reports that the Spirit led Jesus to the desert and he was tempted by Satan. The desert was the place where, in Moses’ time, ancient Israel was tested for 40 years. The 40 days of Jesus’ fasting may also recall the 40-day fasts undertaken by Moses (Dt 9:18) and Elijah (1 Kgs 19:8). Mark does not mention that Christ fasted for the forty days and nights but the “desert” seems to imply this. Nor does Mark specify the various “temptations,” as Matthew and Luke do. The temptations described by Matthew and Luke and hinted at by Mark refer probably to the main temptation Jesus faced during his public life, namely, the temptation to become a political messiah of power and fame (according to the Jewish expectation), to use his Divine power for personal comfort, and to avoid suffering and death. The temptations Jesus faced, and defeated, help us to understand the conflicts that were in Jesus’ own life, and which will be found in ours, too. Instead of yielding to the temptations, Jesus said a firm “Yes” to his Father’s plan, even when it came to giving over his life.