Palm Sunday on Friday of the Fifth week of Lent

May the Peace and joy, the love and blessing of Christ be with you!  
I have been allowing this entry to percolate throughout the day as I reflected on what I wanted to share.  Today, I sat with the thought of having celebrated Palm Sunday yesterday with a group of 150 inmates in the Eden Detention Center.  It was a powerful moment to enter the gates of the center, and to hear the loud click as the gate shut behind me.  Slowly, I entered a world that is both foreign and new to me.  After the initial formalities of signing in, going through the X-ray and having our ID's taken up, Deacon and I were escorted through the facility to where the simple metal chapel is. Upon entering, I was amazed to see that so many men had come for mass, I was even more touched to see that there was a full band that had come together for the celebration!  The place was abuzz because for the first time in many years, the inmates were to participate  in the mass in their native language, Spanish.   The celebration itself was beautiful in its own rite and while there were few men who received communion, every one of them participated to the best of their ability.  Today, I have also had the opportunity to watch the movie "Of God's and Men," again.  This is a film about seven Trappist monks in Algiers who were kidnapped and killed by terrorist in the mid-nineties.  After much persuasion and threats, the monks had decided to listen to God's call as they continued to serve in the monastery where they were.  This refusal to leave eventually cost them their lives, but in reality, they had long ago decided to give those lives up for the sake of Christ.  
I write about these two incidents because in some ways, the readings for Passion Sunday are about discipleship and our call to follow Christ even when the road ahead is filled with uncertainty.  Unlike Judas, who believed himself able to manipulate God, discipleship is about Peter, and being willing to constantly turn toward God even in the face of death and destruction, clumsiness and denial.  Discipleship is being able to follow the Master and to be open the His call even if it seems to end at Golgotha.  It is precisely about trusting that God's call will  not lead me astray, but rather, to a place where life and love will prevail, even in the midst of fear or for those prisoners, behind bars.  My thought throughout today was about the ability to give up my life for the sake of the Kingdom, not only in service as a priest, but as a faithful witness to a love that calls me beyond the cross, beyond the tomb, to the glorious moment where new life prevails, the Resurrection!  Discipleship is having the courage, if not the understanding, the continue following the Master, our Master, even as he Himself takes up His cross.  Discipleship is being able to encounter God's love, not only in the bluebonnet covered fields of Texas, but also within the scary and institutional walls of a prison.  May we each continue to follow our Master, and from Him, may we be filled with love so as to proclaim that Christ is Risen, not just in good times, but always!  As always, remember that I love you and may God bless you.  Fr. Rick

the money changers in our midst

This was supposed to be a reflection on the Third Sunday of Lent, but as it turns out, there is something far greater than just one Sunday at play in my meditations and prayers.  As I imagined Jesus going up to His beloved Temple and being compelled by His love for God to undo the great sin that had taken root at the Temple in the form of the money changers, I kept wondering about the modern day money changers and God-manipulators.  Obviously, the easy targets become those who use the name of the Lord to get their own, but this is too easy.  Instead, I thought about the Commandments and their proclamation of a life that is deeply rooted in God.  Many people believe that these Commandments are "must- dos" that God imposes on us from on high.  In actuality, I believe they are humble proclamations of one who knows God's love.  Having this in mind, the question then arises, who are the money changers, or rather, who are those people who look at God and mock Him and His followers?  At the moment, one major player in this, includes those who are trying to impose on our religious liberties.  Ironically enough, its those who are manipulating a truth for their own gain.  In calling it a "choice," there are those who would rather see to the death of millions of unnamed but unforgotten babies (called fetuses) instead of reaching a point where we understand the beauty and sacredness of humanity and the delicacy of sex.  Instead, they fill the minds of many people as they proclaim these crimes to be necessary and a part of our modern world, and as they impose the payment for these crimes on those faithful men and women who try to proclaim the Good News of Christ with their lives. As such, I truly believe that we are called upon today to take on the zeal of Jesus as He overturned the tables, we are called upon to profess our faith and to do so with the knowledge that we are God's beloved children.  No longer must these money changers be allowed to deface God, as His children, and in our faithful living, may we be witnesses to a truth far greater than any government or any unjust law, a Truth in whom is our life, a Truth who is way, a Truth whom we love, a Truth to be lived beyond this, the Third Sunday of Lent!  Peace to you and God bless you.  Love you. Fr Rick