From the Pastor's Desk | March 3, 2024

Diocesan Services Appeal

“The offering of the just enriches the altar” (Sirach 35:8). Last week was DSA announcement weekend, and this week is commitment weekend. Thank you all so much for your continued generosity to St. Martha Parish and School but also to the wider Church of the Diocese of Lansing. I invite all members of our parish community to join in support of our annual appeal. Our parish goal is $116,319.51.

No gift is too small as every dollar helps those in our parish and in our unified efforts of the wider Church. Further, one half of all contributions received over our goal will be returned for our own local use!

You can submit your DSA pledge envelope during Mass this weekend or take your DSA envelope home to prayerfully consider what your contribution level might be. Those contributing by check or cash are invited to return your completed pledge form, in the DSA envelope, to our parish office or in the offertory basket. Those who wish to contribute by credit card or electronic funds transfer may enter your gift online at www.dioceseoflansing.org/appeal.

I encourage every one of our parish households to reflect on the many blessings we have received from the Lord and share these blessings through a generous gift to DSA.

Gospel Reflection

In our first reading on this Third Sunday of Lent, we hear that our God is a jealous God. There are thirty five references to God’s holy jealousy in the Old Testament. But, wait! Isn’t that an oxymoron - a contradiction in terms. Afterall, God warns us against jealousy in the ninth and tenth commandments. So, what exactly is going on here? 

One of my favorite scripture verses is Exodus 14:14, “The Lord will fight for you, you have only to be still.” We can look at this from two perspectives. First, the Lord will fight for us as someone who defends us in battle. The Lord is constantly fighting for us in the many and varied battles we fight in this life and in the spiritual life. He sent the Holy Spirit as our defender, counselor, and advocate. Second, the Lord never stops fighting for us in the sense that He won’t give up on us even though, from time to time, we give up on Him. He is constantly fighting to call us back to Him.  

We see both perspectives in the Gospel this weekend. Three times a year, all male Jews were required, at least those who were able, to travel to Jerusalem and offer sacrifice in the temple during the three pilgrimage festivals otherwise known as the Shalosh Regalim - Passover, Weeks, and Booths. Scriptural scholars and historians say that you could smell Jerusalem from miles away because of all the sacrificing of animals that was taking place during these three festivals.

In the Gospel today, it says that the Passover was near, so Jerusalem would have been very busy - bustling with people traveling from miles away to offer their sacrifices. Traveling with animals for the sacrifices was prohibitive for practical reasons so there would be much selling and exchanging around the Temple area where people would purchase animals for their sacrifices during Passover. However, the liturgical Law became more important than the point of the sacrifice itself. Now, following the Law was (and remains) certainly important. Jesus did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it. The Lord gave the Law to His people for a reason - to give them a means of showing their fidelity to the Lord. But, their fidelity to the Lord became secondary as the emphasis became following the prescripts: In Psalm 40 we read, “Sacrifice and offering you do not want, you opened my ears. Holocaust and sin offering you do not request…” (Psalm 40:7). Furthermore, in Psalm 51 we read, “For you do not desire sacrifice or I would give it; a burnt offering you would not accept. My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit; a contrite humbled heart, O God, will not scorn (Psalm 51:18).

The Jewish people had forgotten why God gave them the Law in the first place. God wanted their hearts not their sacrifices. And, in Jesus’s righteous anger, we see the jealousy of God the Father. It is a jealousy of a Father who won’t give up on His people. He will constantly and consistently call us back to Himself.

Brothers and sisters, the Law is not for God but rather for us. Our liturgical laws give us a means to unite our sacrifices to the Lord’s once and for all sacrifice on the Cross. Our liturgy of the Mass provides the means for the Lord’s once and for all sacrifice to be re-presented to us in an unbloody manner. In the same manner, the Mass is the means for us to give the Lord our heart, and every sacrament is an extension of the Mass.

As we pray into this Third Week of Lent, perhaps we can spend some time praying with Psalms 40 and 51 begging the Lord for the grace of a humbled, contrite heart

Know of my prayers for you all! 
Fr. Ryan