Fourth Sunday of Lent

March 30, 2025

GOSPEL MEDITATION

A man looking a bit downtrodden approached me as I filled my car’s gas tank. He asked, “May I share with you my testimony about how good God is?” “OK,” I  skeptically answered. He went on to tell me that he had been an alcoholic and drug addict, and that God had healed him; now he was four years sober. He said, “I didn’t deserve it, but now I’m a different person. God is so good! Have a terrific Tuesday!” A few minutes later, as I drove away, I saw him smiling and handing a homeless person some money. I was confronted with a choice: either he was a total fraud or God had changed him. Something had happened to him, and it didn’t seem fake. Maybe it was God.

When Jesus heals the man born blind, the man becomes a challenge to everyone who meets him. They must decide. Is he the same blind person who they knew  before? Who healed him and how? And what is the status of the one who can heal such infirmities? We shouldn’t be surprised at the storm of doubt, hatred and animosity that swirls around the healed man — so it often goes when Jesus heals someone even to this day.

Like we often do, the religious leaders confronting the healed man declare that God is not at work. They ask with mocking superiority and dismissive disdain, “You were
born totally in sin, and are you trying to teach us?” (John 9:34). And they cast him out. When Jesus clearly works in our lives, in us or around us, we should accept it, and give praise and thanks for this wonderful manifestation of his goodness.

Lenten challenge: Think of one way the Lord has healed you. Perhaps he healed a form of selfishness, a physical ailment, or something else. This week, find a person to
whom you can share that testimony, and share it. Don’t worry if they don’t accept it was God who did it.

–Father John Muir

 

EVERYDAY STEWARDSHIP

For too many of us, Lent is a season of doom and gloom, a time to feel bad about all the ways we are not “measuring up” in our spiritual lives. But this view could not be further from the truth. Lent is a season of refreshment and love, of awakening and rebirth. In fact, the word “lent” comes from the Old English word, “lencten,” which means spring. Lent is intended to be a springtime for us in our spiritual lives where all can become new again.

We owe God everything! But let’s start by giving him one little thing. Take even a faltering step closer to Him – go to confession, join in the Stations of the Cross, call a family member or friend you are at odds with and try to reconcile. With just the  tiniest bit of spiritual “spring cleaning” we can be sure we will be swept up in our Father’s loving embrace and find ourselves feasting in His presence. That is what lent is all about

2024 Catholic Stewardship Consultants

 

PRACTICING CATHOLIC – RECOGNIZE GOD IN YOUR ORDINARY MOMENTS

When a church is raising funds for a new building or a diocese is launching a stewardship appeal, there is usually someone — or several someone’s — who serves as the face of the campaign. Maybe it’s a married couple, or a family, or a group of folks who have been particularly active in the community and can speak to the worthiness of whatever endeavor is being undertaken.

Oftentimes, for better or worse, we fill that role for God. We are the face on the front of His promotional brochure. If we call ourselves Christians, that means that people will meet Christ through us. That’s what being an Everyday Steward is — a steward, everyday; someone who conducts his Master’s business when the Master is not seen.

It can be intimidating because we have so much baggage and no capabilities of our own. But then we remember that we are offered reconciliation through Christ — that “the old things have passed away, (and) new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). We remember that we are the prodigal sons, and the fattened calf has been slaughtered on our behalf. But it’s a role that requires commitment. The story of the prodigal son is only compelling and only means something because the son, presumably, embraced his reconciliation to his father. He didn’t go on to abandon him again.

So let us think to ourselves each day, “Whoever I encounter will meet Christ’s ambassador. I was dead and have come to life again. How can I speak to the worthiness of that reconciliation? How can I make others desire it?”

– Tracy Earl Welliver, MTS