Covid-19 pandemic has challenged the status quo of the contemporary society on several fronts. Its impact has been felt across almost every aspect of life, including healthcare services, economics, entertainment industry and sports, work and family life, and in religious and educational practices. Amidst these global disruptions, the winners have been the contemporary twins, Information Technology (IT) and internet (webinar Zoom). I really appreciate and thank you all for your great support towards our parishes during this uncertain times. I remembered all your family members and your intentions in my daily private mass.

PENDING APPROVAL BY THE DIOCESE OF LA CROSSE

We are about to embark in possibly dangerous seas. The Covid-19 continues to threaten the lives of many people and we are faced with a challenge to reopen our churches for public worship. We cannot allow fear to dictate an abandonment of our churches, but must rely on faith in the divine physician to walk with us, to protect us, and if need to, heal us. Our faith in Christ Jesus is the life preserver in this pandemic ocean. That being said we must also take precautionary measures to insure our well-being.

My Dear Family,

How great it is that our God loves us. Not only does God continue to love us, God chooses to abide within us. This is the Good News!

It's not only good news – we're also given some helpful direction in how to share this news with others. Paul helps us with that most difficult of all church concepts, evangelization.

Paul treats the Athenians with courtesy and seriousness. "I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship." He didn't rush into their temple and begin by tearing down what was sacred to them. Paul took the time to walk around, to see who they were and how they prayed. He noticed the altar to an unknown god, and he built on this. His thoughtfulness allowed the Athenians to hear him with open minds. What a lesson for us all.

My Dear Family,

When have so many people, everywhere, felt so uncertain, had so many unanswered and unanswerable questions all at the same time? When have so many plans been upended, suspended? When have so many guidelines been provisional, temporary, subject to revision? How long will this last? When will we get to attend Mass/go out/gather/travel/work normally/work at all/hug/feel safe again? Grief, illness, this unseen virus with its terrible tentacles that reach into our homes, churches, schools, hospitals, economy all leave us feeling adrift, even more than we often do as humans. We may feel suspended, floating (not in a good way), unable to get a foothold on something solid and dependable, concrete and unshakeable. It’s all up in the air.

Welcome to the 3rd Sunday of Lent! As I have pointed out in my reflection of last week, during the first two Sundays of Lent every year we have the same themes. The gospel text of the 1stSunday of Lent is always about the temptations of Jesus – from the three synoptic Gospels according to the three year cycle. Similarly, the 2nd Sunday of Lent invites us to reflect on the story of Transfiguration. The remaining three Sundays before the Palm Sunday in Cycle A are special. The gospel passages are taken from the Gospel of John and they develop three central themes of our experience of Jesus that are particularly important for the catechumens – those adults who are preparing to be baptised during Easter:

Welcome to 2nd Sunday of Lent! The gospel reading of Ash Wednesday, proposed a program for the spiritual journey of the season of Lent: fasting, prayer and almsgiving. These three 'strategies' are relevant not only for the season of Lent, but throughout our Christian life. The season of Lent is but an intense way of living out our Christian life. Therefore fasting, prayer and almsgiving are ways to go beyond ourselves, extend our hearts to God, and to stretch out our hands to our neighbors. These two dimensions of our Christian life journey are like going up the mountain and coming down it.

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Season of Lent. It is a season of penance, prayer and fasting which is our preparation for the Easter celebration of Jesus' resurrection. Excluding Sundays it is a season of forty days, in imitation of Jesus spending forty days in the desert. Jesus fasted in the desert, and overcame the devil's temptations. By observing the forty days of lent, the individual Christian imitates Jesus' withdrawal into the wilderness for forty days and at the same time contemplates on the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is an invitation to look into our hearts and make the ancient prayer our own: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me."

The scripture readings give us a goal today. 1st reading tells: "Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy". 2nd reading asks us: Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" And in the gospel Jesus tells us: "So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect. All the readings point to one theme, "Universal call to Holiness".

Jesus tells in today's gospel: I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." This is the time of New Dispensation. Righteousness is not legalism. The word 'righteousness' could be translated as justice, uprightness, virtue, perfection. Matthew is constantly proposing a new and deeper meaning of righteousness. It is not mere conformity to law, but a response to the plan of God. Let us consider just a few examples in the Gospel of Matthew to illustrate the meaning of righteousness which will serve to help us even understand the whole of the Gospel(s).

Today's Readings place an emphasis on Christian faith and call every Christian to be the shining light in the world. In Matthew's Gospel everyone is called by Jesus to be salt and light for others, for the world. Our lives, what we do and the way we do things, should be a source of light and meaning for others. Our actions should be a visible sign for others of God's presence in the world. A Christian has to be outstanding before everyone through his deeds and must enlighten all.

Today we are celebrating the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord and the feast of Purification of our Lady in the Temple at Jerusalem. Their offering was later to find complete and perfect fulfillment in the mystery of the passion, death and Resurrection of the Lord. The liturgy of the day opens with the blessing to meet Christ and to recognize him "in the breaking of the bread" until he comes again in glory. Today is also the day of consecrated life which necessarily passes through participation in the cross of Christ. This is how it seeks out Mary Most Holy. Hers is the suffering of the heart that is one with the Heart of the Son of God, pierced by love. This feast proclaims Christ as the Light of the World.