People came to Jesus with concerned over the deaths of some Galileans whom Pilate had killed. Their questions came from a familiar Old Testament-related fear that suffering was the result of sin. Remember in the Book of Job that his friends accused him of being a sinner because of his suffering. God rebuked them for that belief.

Jesus said to them in reply,

“Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans? By no means!
But I tell you, if you do not repent,
you will all perish as they did!
Or those eighteen people who were killed
when the tower at Siloam fell on them—
do you think they were more guilty
than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem?
By no means!
But I tell you, if you do not repent,
you will all perish as they did!”

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As St. Paul tells us, there are many who,

conduct themselves as enemies of the cross of Christ.
Their end is destruction.
Their God is their stomach;
their glory is in their “shame.”
Their minds are occupied with earthly things.

Their god is their stomach, … they should be ashamed – – and they only think about earthly things.

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We begin Lent. Together. Lent is not an individual journey, but a communal journey. We don’t resurrect to eternal life alone, but together. If you don’t get there, perhaps there is no hope for me, either.

There have been a lot of people in my life, even in my own family who claim, “I don’t need organized religion. I can find God on a mountain top or in a sunrise.” That is selfish, lazy spirituality. Of course we can experience God in nature. But there is much more than that involved. Salvation takes a lot more effort than that. We can’t save ourselves, but, if we separate ourselves from our brothers and sisters in faith, our salvation becomes more difficult. God always intended us to seek salvation as a community formed by him. It’s rather like a lifeboat after a shipwreck. We need to stick together, not separate.

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Once in a while I reflect, “Why I am a Christian?” Or, “Why am I Catholic?”

The answer almost always takes me back to the Gospel and the impact of the Gospel in my life.

Now, I have to clarify that we are not just talking about the four books at the beginning of the New Testament in the Bible, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. We need to understand what Saint Paul meant by “Gospel” in his letters. When Paul wrote his letters in the 50’s or 60’s in the first generation of the church, these four books we now call “Gospels” did not exist. These books were written much later, perhaps even in the 70s, 80s and 90s.

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