Anamchara

HOMILY FOR 3RD SUNDAY OF LENT--3/27/11--SEARCH FOR LIVING WATER

3^rd SUNDAY OF LENT–3/27/11

     by Msgr. Eric R. Barr

READINGS: EXODUS 17:3-7; ROMANS 5:1-2, 5-8; JOHN 4:5-42

I. What Do You Thirst For This Lent?

A. Have you ever gone camping and run out of water from a canteen? What kind of water do you look for? While you are thinking of that question remember:

1. Jacob’s well, where that Samaritan woman was talking with Jesus was a well of standing, still water.

2. Jesus says to the woman, "I have living water, (meaning running water) to give you if you only ask."

B. Back to the question–when you are camping and looking for water, what kind of water do you look for?

1. Good campers just don’t look for stagnant, still pools of water. Why?

a. Have you ever seen what grows in those pools? Look at a drop of that water under a microscope. There’s lots of little critters in there, and they are better there than in your body. Not to mention those great big globs of slimy algae that always seem to congregate whenever the water is still.

b. A drop of running water under the microscope is so much more disappointing–the water is much purer.

2. The answer is simple. If you want to live in the wild, running water has a greater chance of being pure than standing water.

C. Do you catch the hint of Jesus in the Gospel today? He’s offering this Samaritan woman a purer life, a real life. After fussing and fuming and being indignant and giving all sorts of excuses–she decides that Jesus, the Living Water, is going to give her real life.

D. What are you longing for in your life right now? What do you want to change? What do you want to be different in your life? What do you thirst for?

II. Putting Aside Our Stagnant Life And Accepting The Risk Of Living Water

A. In our lives, we have some stagnant pools lying around. Only our stagnant pools aren’t filled with the slime of algae; they are filled with sin. And if there is one thing anybody who walks in the woods knows, a pool of water filled with slime isn’t going to clear itself up. It needs emergency treatment, fresh water sources. Our lives are like that.

B. Lent is the time to get rid of the decay and slime of sin. We cannot do it by ourselves. Christ is there to do it for us, but it is painful. Just as running water sweeps away the garbage that’s been lying around, so Christ is going to clean house if we let him enter our lives. But it’s painful. Sometimes the slime of sin is a pretty comfortable blanket, and we are scared to let it go.

C. Just like the Samaritan woman, we question Christ about why we should change when we are so comfortable. Unlike the Samaritan woman, many of us have yet to hear the offer Jesus is giving us, the offer of a new kind of life, purer, fresher, holier, and infinitely more rewarding. The Samaritan woman’s Lent was nothing more than that time between Christ’s offer and her acceptance. Once she changed, her Easter had already begun. For us, we have forty days.

D. How do we go about accepting this Living Water Christ offers? How about confession this Lent/ How about a little extra penance? How about inviting Christ into your heart? If you ask Christ into your life, it will be like standing before a flood. You can’t stand before a flood. You’ll be swept along with the flowing waters. But you won’t die. Instead, you will be swept away in a flood of love, a flood of light, a flood cleansing you of any stain of sin, any decay. Christ is the Living Water. Come to the waters of Life.

HOMILY FOR SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT--3/21/11--IMPORTANCE OF THE JOURNEY

 
 
 

SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT–3/21/11

 

 by Msgr. Eric R. Barr, STL

Readings: Gn 12: 1-4; Mt 17:1-9

 

 

 I. Today the Scriptures talk about people who have made it in in this world.

  A. Abraham--became the Father of many nations with descendants as numerous as the sands on the shore of the sea. In his own lifetime he became rich and famous.

B. Jesus--transfigured in glory on the mountain. Showed Peter, James and John that he was in with the big guys--Moses and Elijah--and then God revealed that Christ was more important than them.

C. Abraham and Jesus made it, and we remember them.

D. Usually, though, we forget how they made it. There would have been no promised land for Abraham had he not listened to God. There would have been no resurrection for Christ had he not walked the way to Calvary. The road to glory is exactly that--a road, a journey, a pilgrimage--and it is not for the wishy-washy person or the wimps of this world.

1. God said to Abraham--"Leave your own country, your own kinfolk, and your father's house, and come to the land that I will show you, and I will make you the father of a great, great people."

2. Jesus said--"The Son of Man must suffer and die, before he is raised up."

E. Each was sent on a journey; each on a pilgrimage. And they loved God to the max, they were willing to trust even though they knew there would be pain and hardship on the way.

--No pilgrimage, no goal

--No pain, no gain

--No journey, no promised land for Abraham

--No road of sorrow, no resurrected joy for Christ

A CELTIC LENT--THE LORICA OF ST. PATRICK

via www.youtube.com

Enjoy this musical version of St. Patrick's Breastplate.  Sung by Angelina, it was filmed on the Hill of Slane, Ireland, where St. Patrick lit the Easter Fire to tell the High King that the King of All Creation, Jesus Himself, was now Lord of the Emerald Isle.  St. Patrick sang it when he and his companions journeyed from the hill to Tara on Easter morning.  The pagan Druids lay in wait to kill him, but as he sang, a mist rose up and all the Druids saw was a deer leading several fawn--that is why the prayer is sometimes known as "The Deer's Cry."  The prayer is a Lorica--an encircling prayer developed by the Celtics to surround us with God's power, presence and protection.  This is the most famous of all loricas and is a great spiritual way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, here in the first week of Lent.

A CELTIC LENT--ST. PATRICK'S DAY 2011

 
CROAGH PATRICK ( St. Patrick's Mountain, Co. Mayo) photo by E. Barr

 

THOUGHTS OF PATRICK

I thought about St. Patrick today,

After I climbed his mountain in Mayo.

That substantial shadow of light,

Rocky presence of reality

we often choose to ignore.

I thought about St. Patrick today.

I wondered if he thought

much of God as he climbed.

Or was he too busy breathing,

gasping for air as step by step

he approached the summit

to wrestle with the devil–

like me.

Was he proud or world-weary

as he sought to battle Satan?

Or was he like me–

Confused about his weakness,

Abashed at his nakedness

in the sight of God,

Wondering how to win

after failing so often?

Was he proud or world-weary

as he sought to battle Satan?

I thought about all these things,

Because I never really encounter

God directly on Croagh Patrick.

He’s there.

I feel his holiness,

But he is silent.

My suspicion is this:

It is not enough to climb this mountain.

God will not be found

Afloat on a vision

Above the waters of Clew Bay.

Through the mountain–

That’s the answer.

After all, it is a shadow, isn’t it–

A veil between the worlds.

I think St. Patrick knew this.

Because if you walk down

The mountain,

You walk into the sea.

Patrick did not do that.

My suspicion is this:

He turned back to the Rock,

Smiled and said,

"It was a lovely Lent,

But I have a land to fire,

And a People to win for Christ.

Let me pass.

And the mountain opened–

After all, the hollow hills are real–

And Patrick walked through

The shadow and into the light

A changed man,

With the fire of Christ

Ever before him,

And the land of Ireland

Under his feet.

            by E. Barr, Croagh Patrick, August 19, 2000

 

HOMILY FOR 1ST SUNDAY OF LENT--3/13/11--SIN SEPARATES; LOVE UNITES

 

FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT--3/13/11

By Msgr. Eric R. Barr, STL

READINGS: GENESIS 2:7-9; 3:1-7; ROMANS 5:12-19; MATTHEW 4:1-11

I.  The Weeping Father 

A. And the Father wept. As Adam and Eve walked out of the Garden of Eden, their’s were not the only tears. Behind the angel with the flaming sword that banned humanity from Paradise stood God, weeping for his children who by their own actions hurled themselves out of the Garden of Eden. And as they left, the tears of God fell in Paradise.

B. The story of the fall of humanity is not so much the tale of our paradise lost as it is of a test we failed. When Adam and Eve sinned, they shattered the bond between God and humanity. Sin separates. And because of what our human ancestors did, because of their Original Sin–sin, sickness and death entered the world. Sin separates. Yet, their sin was not some spectacular rebellion against God: they did not set themselves on thrones and rebel like Satan and his angels did. The sin that caused them to be cast out of Eden was much like the sins that we commit. They didn’t want to control heaven; they just wanted to be their own little gods in their own little garden. But just as there is only one Lord of heaven, there is only one Lord of every human being–God, and when we sin, the Father knows that somewhere, someone is denying his reign, his

A CELTIC LENT--ASH WEDNESDAY 2011

 
THE TWELVE BENS (CONNEMARA MOUNTAINS) photo e. barr

 

THE PATH TO GLORY

Therefore let us concern ourselves with heavenly things, not human ones, and like pilgrims always sigh for our homeland, long for our homeland. It is the end of the road that travellers look for and desire, and because we are travellers and pilgrims through this world, it is the road's end, that is of our lives, that we should always be thinking about. For that road's end is our true homeland...don't let us love the road rather than the land to which it leads, lest we lose our homeland altogether. For we have such a homeland that we ought to love it. So then, while we are on the road, as travellers, as pilgrims, as guests of the world, let us not get entangled with any earthly desires and lusts but fill our minds with heavenly and spiritual things: our theme song, 'When shall I come and appear before the face of my God?"

 

 

St. Columbanus (Sermon 8)

 

HOMILY FOR 9TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME--3/6/11--GOING TO MASS: THE PRACTICAL SIDE OF KEEPING THE COMMANDMENTS

9^TH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR–3/6/11

READINGS: DEUTERONOMY 11: 18, 26-28, 32; MATTHEW7:21-27

AN EMBER FROM THE FIRE

 

 

There was once a priest of a parish who knew his people pretty well and tried to shepherd them as best he could. He could tell when people missed Mass and he would worry about that. Now there was this one woman, middle-aged, who always came to Mass and sat about two-thirds the way up the right side of the church. The priest saw her every week; and then, one Sunday, she wasn’t there. He didn’t think much of it, seeing as how she might be traveling. But the next Sunday, she wasn’t there either, nor the next, nor the next. In fact, several months passed and this woman didn’t come back. The priest knew she was in town; he had seen her from a distance at the grocery store and the mall. He thought he should call her, but he felt a little awkward at intruding.

Then there came an evening, on his way home from visiting the hospital, that he happened to take a route that took him past the woman’s home. He noticed the light was on and in a spur of the moment decision, decided to stop. He knocked at the door; she opened it. "Hello," he said; she didn’t. He smiled and said, "May I come in?" Her attitude was rather cold, but she said, "I am rather busy." "Please," he said. And, reluctantly, she let him in. The priest walked into the living room where a warm, cheerful fire was burning in the fireplace. "Ah, a beautiful fire!" he said as he took off his coat and sat down in a chair by the hearth. The woman remained standing. As the silent minutes stretched by, the woman felt awkward and sat herself down on the edge of the sofa.

The priest picked up the poker and began to move the logs as the fire burned brighter. Neither said a word. And then, with a flick of his wrist, the priest knocked a burning ember off a log and watched it fall. It fell near the center of the hearth and for long silent minutes the two of them stared at this ember and at the fire. The fire burned cheerfully, the ember glowed bright. The fire snapped and crackeled with life; the red ember began to cool and darken at its edges. The fire made the room a warm and welcoming; away from the fire, the ember died. It took the longest time, but finally, the ember turned cold.

The priest stood up, put his coat on, and prepared to leave. The woman stood too, placed her hand on his arm and said with tears in her eyes, "Father, thank you for coming, I’ll be back at Mass this Sunday."

I. Sunday Is The Lord’s Day

A. I thought about enlisting us all as teachers of the faith. You all are here; obviously this day, this time is important to you. But you know that over half of us are not here. And like the priest in the story I told, we worry about the lost sheep or the ember that falls from the fire. So how do we get them back and strengthen our own commitment to the Third Commandment–Keep holy the Lord’s Day? Because the first reading talks about keeping the commandments and the Gospel has Jesus telling a story about building a firm foundation for one’s own soul on the teachings he’s given us. I use the Third Commandment because it is familiar to everyone and helps us understand that keeping the commandments, building a firm foundation is really practical and influences our daily lives.

 

B. I’m going to share with you some knowledge that you can use with your family members, neighbors, co-workers, whomever whose shadows do not darken the doorways of church hardly ever. And we start with the first reading today. Look what God says through his prophet Moses–not me, not you, not some institution but God. God says, "I set before you here, this day, a blessing and a curse: a blessing for obeying the commandments of the Lord your God, which I enjoin on you today; a curse if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God." People in our culture don’t like to be threatened with hellfire and damnation–that doesn’t take away the fact that if we deliberately walk away from God and don’t go to Church we really will not live forever. Yet, to simply threaten isn’t going to bring these people back. Most Catholics who fall away or don’t go to church do so not out of anger but out of neglect–they simply have other things to do. We have to be more persuasive. Like St. Monica, who never gave up on her son St. Augustine, we have to pray for them, speak the truth to them, but always persuasively and with love.