Author: WebDept ParishAdmin

I am a child of two very disparate worlds.

My mother grew up in the American South, raised by staunchly Southern Baptist relatives, and she absorbed some odd practices: no drinking, no dancing, church services lasting for hours twice on Sundays. 

My father grew up Catholic in Angers, France, a medieval city with a cathedral dedicated to St. Maurice; his family had been part of the fabric of the city and of the cathedral for, literally, centuries.

It was an odd space in which to grow up, even after my mother’s conversion and my going to a Catholic school. Because every parent carries baggage their children must make sense of. Both my parents’ religious backgrounds came with rules. Sometimes the rules overlapped, and sometimes they diverged. For my father, it was about strict adherence to Catholic practices; for my mother, it was about behavior (no idleness, no activities without a moral purpose, no pleasure for the sake of pleasure).

When I was ten or eleven, I did what many girls of that age do: I fell in love with horses. My family had the means to indulge me, and I spent every free moment around stables. I started riding, getting good at it, competing in horse shows. And then an opportunity came along to be in a really significant show. On a Sunday.

My father shrugged it off. Sundays start with the vigil; all I had to do was go to Mass on Saturday evening. My mother was deeply shocked; she carried with her the indelible memory of sermons that lasted for hours, and we’d always as a family gone to Sunday Mass. 

They argued about it. And I was thinking of those arguments when I read today’s Gospel story, in which Jesus dared to cross the line, cross the boundaries, do something he wasn’t “supposed” to do—out of love and caring.  

There was good reason for the Jews, then and now, to keep the Sabbath. God had ordained it. It was a day of refreshment, of recollection, a day unlike the other six days in the week. A Jew himself, Jesus knew the value of such a practice and its connection to his Father.

So why did he heal on the Sabbath? He must have known he was crossing a line. He must have known his action would come back at him in some way.

What we can see clearly throughout Jesus’ life and ministry is a call to being genuine. His message was simple. Whereas the Hebrew Bible is filled with specifics—measurements, times, what is and isn’t acceptable—the New Testament is notable for its simplicity. Love your God and your neighbor. Return good for evil. Turn the other cheek. Feed the hungry. And it all comes back to one thing: love. Through love of humanity God sent his son. It’s all about love.

God’s laws were given to help people love him with all their hearts and minds, but centuries of history tend to create distortions. By Jesus’ time, religious leaders had turned the laws into a confusing mass of rules. The point of the rules—a loving relationship between God and humanity—had been lost. By example, then, Jesus is showing that the rule of keeping the Sabbath only makes sense insofar as we don’t lose that point, as long as it does not exclude love. The sick man needed love and help, right then, right there, not when it was more convenient. 

When Jesus talked about a new way of understanding God’s law, he was actually trying to bring people back to its original purpose. Jesus wasn’t challenging the law itself. It’s a matter of striking a balance—or, perhaps, of perspective. If the greatest law of all is to love, then taking risks to put that love into the fabric of our daily lives is what we’re called to do. He showed it was better on the Sabbath to help someone in need than it was to stand around looking holy.

Because it really is that simple. It’s about love.

I ended up going to that horse show, where I ignominiously fell off after the third fence. And my parents were both there to support me, having overcome their differences… out of love.

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Does it seem like your prayers are unanswered, or your petitions are tossed into a void? Do you weary of asking for things because it seems you will never receive them? Do you ever wonder whether Christ’s Heart can be moved toward you?

What moves the Heart of Christ?

In today’s Gospel, a royal official who is concerned for his dying son travels 20 miles to ask Jesus to come and heal him. Jesus seems to brush him off, but the official is undeterred and asks again. Then Jesus tells him that he can go, his son will live. What moves Jesus to grant this healing? Perhaps the answer is found in the next line: “The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.” The man believed. Clearly, he believed from the beginning or he would not have left his dying son to find Jesus. He would not have insisted when Jesus seemed to dismiss him. He would not have headed back home without Jesus, if he did not believe that Jesus’ word is also ACT. He must have also had a level of humility, as his traveling to find Jesus would have been ridiculed by many.

On his way back, the man’s humility and faith were rewarded when his slaves met him with the happy news that his son was recovering – and had begun to recover at the precise hour of Jesus’ word to him. This miraculous healing was the catalyst for conversion for the whole household!

So, is Jesus’ Heart moved to act for you?

What do you have to do to make sure God hears your prayers?

It’s important to remember that this is the oldest temptation on record! In Eden, the Enemy convinced Adam and Eve that God was not really FOR them, that He was holding something back from them, and so they reached for something that was not meant for them. They seemed to forget every good thing God had poured over them, and grasped for more, letting trust in God shrivel up in their hearts.

This Lent, we again have the opportunity to focus with the whole Church on the many and great gifts God has given us in Christ, and to see anew that Jesus really loves us and gave himself FOR US. This should feed our loving trust, strengthen our faith, and embolden our prayers, knowing that God gives us everything we need and more. But He does not simply give us everything we think we need; He gives us everything He knows we need to fulfill His will for us.

So it can be helpful to remember that God has three answers to prayer:

1. Yes!
2. Not right now.
3. Actually, I have a better idea.

How is the Heart of Jesus answering your faith-filled prayers right now?

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