Fr Kevin Kilgore

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Gospel: Luke 1: 26-38

The angel Gabriel was sent from God
to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,
of the house of David,
and the virgin’s name was Mary.
And coming to her, he said,
“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”
But she was greatly troubled at what was said
and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
Then the angel said to her,
“Do not be afraid, Mary,
for you have found favor with God.
Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you shall name him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,
and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,
and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”
But Mary said to the angel,
“How can this be,
since I have no relations with a man?”
And the angel said to her in reply,
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
Therefore the child to be born
will be called holy, the Son of God.
And behold, Elizabeth, your relative,
has also conceived a son in her old age,
and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;
for nothing will be impossible for God.”
Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.”
Then the angel departed from her.

The Gospel of the Lord.

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There’s no way Mary could’ve reasoned her way to “yes.”

This was a trial of the heart.

At the Annunciation, Mary is faced with the greatest – yet most necessary – challenge that every believer faces: to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, mind, body, and soul. 

In saying to the angel Gabriel, “Let it be done unto me according to your word,” Mary proves that she loves God more than anyone – more than Joseph, more than the opinion of others, even more than herself.

If any other person, hope, dream, or thing occupied first place in her heart, then God’s plan for salvation would’ve come to a screeching halt. 

Thus, this is Mary’s greatest moment. Her “fiat,” her “yes,” is greater than the moment she gave birth to Christ at Christmas; it’s greater than the moment she found Jesus in the Temple at twelve; it’s greater than her standing at Calvary or seeing the empty tomb.

It’s greater because her “yes” fulfills all of religion, leaving us a model to follow.

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Mary smuggled God into this world, first sheltering him safely within her womb for nine precious months. She experienced the surprise and joy of motherhood while facing an uncertain future, living under the political darkness of Herod’s tyrannical reign. 

She then carried the Christ-child in her arms out of her homeland into the unknown, into the strange and foreign land of Egypt. As the child aged, Mary remained docile, attentive to Jesus’ every word. 

She was his first, and most devout, disciple.

I imagine Mary proudly claimed Christ as her own, until that providential wedding in Cana when she knew it was time to let go and share him with the world. 

“They have no wine,” she said to Jesus, and so the Lord revealed his glory, turning 150 gallons of water into wine, initiating his public ministry. Christ then followed the sacrifice of his mother, who thirty years prior surrendered her own body to the will of God.

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Mary asks us today, “How have we welcomed Christ into our own lives? How have we enfleshed him for others?”

As Saint Teresa of Avila reminds us, “Christ has no body now, but yours.”

May the example of the Blessed Mother not only inspire us, but also compel us to welcome Jesus – in a sense, to be Jesus – bringing peace, hope, and love into a world desperate for it.

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Image credits: (1) Madonna and Child, William Bouguereau (2) Exeter Cathedral (3) Aldersgatechurch.com

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Gospel: John 8:21-30

Jesus said to the Pharisees:
“I am going away and you will look for me,
but you will die in your sin.
Where I am going you cannot come.”
So the Jews said,
“He is not going to kill himself, is he,
because he said, ‘Where I am going you cannot come’?”
He said to them, “You belong to what is below,
I belong to what is above.
You belong to this world,
but I do not belong to this world.
That is why I told you that you will die in your sins.
For if you do not believe that I AM,
you will die in your sins.”
So they said to him, “Who are you?”
Jesus said to them, “What I told you from the beginning.
I have much to say about you in condemnation.
But the one who sent me is true,
and what I heard from him I tell the world.”
They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father.
So Jesus said to them,
“When you lift up the Son of Man,
then you will realize that I AM,
and that I do nothing on my own,
but I say only what the Father taught me.
The one who sent me is with me.
He has not left me alone,
because I always do what is pleasing to him.”
Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.

The Gospel of the Lord.

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“You will die in your sins,” Jesus says to the religious authorities. That’s a grim promise. 

But Jesus is reading their hearts. It isn’t that God will not forgive their sins. Rather, the authorities do not see Jesus as the way to God.

They see him as in the way.

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Jesus is in the way of their religion.

He’s in the way of their egos.

He’s in the way of their convenient lifestyles.

He’s upsetting their plans, flipping tables, and turning their belief system upside down, while dining with tax collectors and prostitutes, forgiving sinners, and breaking the Sabbath.

On Palm Sunday we will see the scribes and Pharisees’ frustrated desire to remove Jesus from their way finally begin to unfold. 

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It’s a humbling question to consider, but when do the Lord’s teachings, or the pull of our conscience, get in our way?

For example, Christ’s command to, “forgive, not seven, but seventy-seven times,” gets in the way of holding a grudge.

His command to, “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” gets in the way of judging or condemning other people.

His command to, “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect,” gets in the way of giving into temptation.

His command to, “Follow me,” gets in the way of charting our own destiny or taking the driver’s seat.

As we approach Holy Week, may show the Lord that he is never in the way; rather, he is the way to God, where we discover true life in abundance.

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Image credits: (1) Jesus, Pantocrator, Sinai (2) Jesus Cleansing the Temple, Bernardino Mei (3) Group Bible Study

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Gospel: John 8:1-11

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
But early in the morning he arrived again in the temple area, 
and all the people started coming to him, 
and he sat down and taught them.
Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman 
who had been caught in adultery 
and made her stand in the middle.
They said to him,
“Teacher, this woman was caught 
in the very act of committing adultery.
Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.
So what do you say?”
They said this to test him,
so that they could have some charge to bring against him.
Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.
But when they continued asking him,
he straightened up and said to them,
“Let the one among you who is without sin 
be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Again he bent down and wrote on the ground.
And in response, they went away one by one,
beginning with the elders.
So he was left alone with the woman before him.
Then Jesus straightened up and said to her,
“Woman, where are they?
Has no one condemned you?”
She replied, “No one, sir.”
Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you.
Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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The woman caught in adultery is a harrowing story, which we’ve all heard before. After being caught in the very act of adultery and publicly humiliated, she is thrown at the feet of Jesus, as the religious authorities ask him to issue a verdict.

Should she be stoned or not?

Withdrawing, the Lord begins doodling in the dirt. What, exactly, was he writing? Some say he was buying time to collect his thoughts. Others say that he was writing a personal account of each of those men’s sins, reminding them that they, too, are human.

Perhaps the Lord was doing something even greater, issuing a sweeping verdict against the entire nation of Israel, accusing everyone of being imperfect – and in need of change.

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In the Old Testament, God made several covenants with his people, which demanded mutual fidelity, lest blood be shed. 

As it’s written in the Book of Exodus, “You shall not have other gods besides me.” Yet Israel repeatedly breaks their end of the covenant by worshipping false idols and giving into the desires of their flesh. 

As the Lord cries out through the prophet Hosea: “She [Israel] is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove her adultery from my face.”

In spite of Israel’s infidelity, God reveals himself to be a loving and forgiving God, “down to the thousandth generation.”

All Israel needed – or, in the case of today’s Gospel, all these men and this sole woman needed – was to repent and Jesus would wipe away their sins like a palm sweeping across dirt.

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If the Lord were kneeling before us today, what offenses might he write against us?  

Jesus can wipe all of these away just as easily as he can write them – if only we repent.

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Image credits: (1) Bishop Craig Schweitzer (2) Adobe Stock (3) Pinterest