Readings for Sunday, March 16, 2025

Second Sunday of Lent

Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”

— Luke 9:35

Click here to find the daily readings on the USCCB website

Opening the Word

Editor’s Note: Fr. Peter shares insights from a variety of voices on the Sunday readings.

Embrace the Darkness

The darkness can be unsettling. As a child, my nightly bedtime ritual included checking beneath my bed as well as in the dark hall closet. One could never know what denizens of harm might be lurking there, hidden in the shadows. As adults, the darkness we fear is no longer what lies hidden about our home. Rather, the darkness we attempt to escape is the unknown forces that have the power to overturn our lives. It is the death of someone we love that plunges us into fear and loss, forcing us to somehow make our way, alone and unsure. It is the frightening medical diagnosis that has the ability to dismantle our planned future. It is the financial security that dissolves before our very eyes. In such darkness, we grope blindly to find our way.

The Book of Genesis notes that a trance came upon Abram, a terrifying darkness that enveloped him. The gospel relays how Peter, James, and John Reflect became frightened atop Mt. Tabor when they found themselves in a cloud that obscured their sight. Yet, the darkness became for each of them a place in which they came to know their God in a totally new way; it set them on a new path of faith. It is then that we, too, are forced to surrender trust in our own wisdom. Unable to see clearly what is in store for us, we can only rely on a new path, trusting that we will be accompanied by our God.

~Fr. Joseph Juknialis

Reflect

When has life’s darkness brought me to a new and deeper faith in God?

 

Fr. Joseph Juknialis, a retired priest of the Milwaukee Archdiocese, is the new author of reflections for Liguori Publications’ Our Parish Community bulletins. Fr. Joe has served in ministry as a parish priest and a teacher of homiletics at St. Francis de Sales Seminary in Milwaukee. Retirement has given him time for hiking, canoeing, writing, poetry, gin rummy, the Green Bay Packers, and pursuing his appreciation of nature. In noting the most amazing aspect of his life, Fr. Joe says, “God has always brought me to the place I should be.”