Preoccupations - Second Sunday of Lent C

What are you concerned about? What worries or occupies your mind? What causes fretting and preoccupation over your actions? There are numerous things happening which can weigh upon our minds. They can be the world events such as the war in the Ukraine or the pandemic; they can be closer to home such as concern over the weather or what our elected officials are doing wrong; they can be even closer, with anxiety over how we shall pay for things as prices continue to increase and our wages remain stagnant or perhaps even decrease. There is so much to weigh our minds and our hearts down in this age.

We may also feel the weight of the season upon us as well. We have finished one entire week of Lent. How many are still doing their fasting? How many have kept up with or increased their prayers? How many have indeed given alms of some sort? How many of us have struggled to do what we resolved to do? We may feel weary of our Lenten penances and sacrifices, already eager for Easter to come and things to return to normal. Yet we still have so many weeks of Lent remaining.

How might this compare to our earthly worries? We seem to labor tirelessly for the minimal things we and our families need to get by or to try to live better. Even if we have some saved up, we know in the back of our minds that everything could be turned upside down. We saw that two years ago when we panicked and locked ourselves in our homes for the supposed benefit of “flattening the curve”. How much things have changed and for the worse for so many people since then. How they continue to get worse for so many around the world; not just in the Ukraine or in Africa or in Asia, but even here at home.

With all of that in mind: how do we persevere? How do we overcome all this worry and do what we need to do? How can we sacrifice and give and work until the end? So many people just give up and do the minimum needed to get by. The anxiety is too much and they give in to despair or hedonism: despair in thinking they’ll never be able to do enough, or hedonism in thinking that the only thing to work for is to be satisfied here and now. Despair seems to grip so many young people, while hedonism grips so many of every age. They are satiated with what they get even if it isn’t much.

Holy Mother Church, in her perennial wisdom, seeks to motivate us not only to persevere in our Lenten sacrifices, but to persevere in our earthly life. After entering into the desert with Jesus last week, we hear a different sort of Gospel today in the account of the Transfiguration. We see the full divine glory of God the Son radiating through Jesus on the mountaintop. We should note that this happens not in the midst of the crowds and noise of the valley and flatlands, but above it all, removed from everything by ascending the mountain. Only when we rise above the clamor of the crowds can we begin to see Jesus for who He really is.

Why do we hear this Gospel on this Sunday? Why is it read every second Sunday of Lent? Our loving mother the Church has us hear this Gospel to spur us on towards that which we are meant to pursue wholeheartedly: eternal life and eternal glory shared with God. Why did God create you? God created you not to be miserable but to join Him in the glory of His goodness and joy. But we can be too clouded over by the preoccupations of this world, or the anxieties that come with those preoccupations. Jesus takes His closest disciples, and reveals Himself, so that they may be ready for what is to come.

Tradition tells us that the event of the Transfiguration of Jesus which we hear today occurred forty days before His passion, crucifixion, and death. Many of the ancient commentators saw in this revealed glory and majesty a strengthening of the apostles for what Jesus would endure so very soon. They might lose hope if they do not know that God is with them, that He will suffer with them, and that He will triumph for them. This glory is not just a revelation but a reminder of what awaits those who walk with the Lord in sharing the Cross with Him. The Transfiguration holds the greatest prize before us: to receive a share in that divine and eternal glory if we walk up to Calvary with Christ.

But how are we to make this journey? How are we to walk with Jesus in this life to share His glory in the next life? Saint Paul directs us how to do this: imitation of the saints. The holy apostle calls his readers to follow his own example of holiness given not only in his letters but when he was present to them in his journeys across the ancient world. He calls us to avoid being “enemies of the cross of Christ” in focusing ourselves too much on the pleasures of this age or the anxieties of this world. There is no salvation without suffering: suffering not just in the person of the Lamb of God who takes away our sins, but our own suffering as well. We either pursue comfort in this life or delay it for the life to come.

Why must we suffer? We suffer because of sin, and we suffer to overcome sin. In an age of comfort and pleasure, we must be reminded that our true happiness cannot be found in this life. The hedonistic soul which seeks only its own pleasure will always fret about looking for more pleasure or working to maintain the pleasure it has. But the soul who loves God and desires to share the glory of Christ accepts whatever comes, whether pleasurable or painful. We even willingly renounce some of those temporary goods in pursuit of the good which shall persist forever. This is how we “stand firm in the Lord”, in imitation of all the saints throughout the ages who toiled and suffered in union with the Lord.

There is no class division in the Church: there are not holy people and then those below them. There are either those pursuing Jesus or those who are His enemies, even if they are in our ranks, even if they occupy the most sacred offices. “Our citizenship is in heaven”, Saint Paul affirms, and if we wish to remain citizens, then we must be united to our King who calls us to fight, to pray, to suffer, all for His glory and ours as well.

Brethren, let us marvel at the God who dwells among us and joins us in our suffering. Let us not preoccupy our minds with the anxieties of the age but place our trust in Him and carry our crosses with Him. Let us continue our Lenten penances-our prayer, our fasting, our almsgiving-so that we may fight the good fight and imitate the saints who imitate Jesus. Let us open ourselves to His healing grace so that He may conform us to His glorified body, which has already won the victory for us and calls us to fight for our share. Let us not be enemies of the Lord by despairing of God or giving up for pleasure, but believing, hoping, and loving the God whose glory is not lost even in suffering and death. May we receive the grace to stand firm in the Lord in all times, especially in the difficult days that are to come, so that we may receive the full citizenship that awaits the faithful, the saints who persevere unto eternal life. 

The Desert - First Sunday of Lent C

Once more we enter into the desert of Lent. Once more we begin these forty days. Holy Mother Church, in her perennial wisdom and tradition, has us hear the Gospel passage of Jesus journeying in the desert before His public ministry. This is meant to be a reminder of the reality of this sacred season even if we did not assist at the liturgy of Ash Wednesday. We are walking with Jesus in the desert.

What is the desert? It is an inhospitable place to live. There is no water or so little as to support regular plants and trees. It is barren, extremely hot, and extremely lonely. The desert is an assault on our bodies; unless we take precautions against the heat and the sun and the lack of water, we will die. Not only that, but one can be tempted to think there is water there due to the mirages which make it seem like water is just over the next sand dune or hill. It is a harsh place to be.

Why does Jesus enter the desert? Why spend so long in a place so inhospitable? We should see this as Jesus entering into our weakness. We celebrated the Incarnation of the divine Word on Christmas, when God the Son joined us in receiving flesh and becoming man along with us. But we might be tempted to think that Jesus knows nothing of our struggles or weaknesses since He is still divine while becoming a man. Hence, His journey in the desert shows that He is truly compassionate with us in our frailty.

Not only that, but we ought to see in this time in the desert as an analogy for our lives in this world. For the desert is a metaphor for the sinful world in which we live. The world is an inhospitable place for a Christian to live. The temptations which surround us and even exist within us can leave us feeling spiritually parched. We can be tempted by the mirages of pleasure and comfort around us to think that we are satisfied, when our souls are thirsting for the living God who alone can satisfy us. We are in a spiritual desert, and we must not forget how Jesus walks through the real desert as we daily walk through our own deserts.

At the end of the forty days, Jesus is tempted by the devil. The Lord receives three temptations that summarize every type of temptation we receive in our lives. The first and most basic is the temptation of satisfying the flesh. Jesus is hungry, and the devil calls Him to make bread from the stones. We should note that the rebukes of Jesus are not some divine power exercised through His humanity, but His recollection of what God has revealed in the Scriptures to believe and live out. Jesus thus recalls the word of God that says, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from God.”

The devil then shows the Lord all the kingdoms of the world and tempts Jesus to adore the devil in exchange for those kingdoms. How easily we can form false idols in this world in the place of the true and living God who rules above all and in all. Whether it is the false idols of the false religions which have obscured the Gospel, or things of this world, or the ideas which run counter to the revelation of God, we can all too easily give in to devising a god we want to worship instead of the true God who calls us to something greater and better. Jesus rebukes the devil with the simple words of Scripture: “You shall worship the Lord, your God, and Him alone shall you serve.”

The last temptation Jesus receives is for the devil to take Him to the highest point in Jerusalem-the parapet or very top of the temple-and tempt Him to make a fantastical display of His divinity by throwing Himself off the temple and being caught by the angels. This gets to the root of our sinfulness, which is pride. We think we know better. We think we can do better than God. We work and toil at doing what we want to do instead of exercising humility. But Jesus rebukes this last temptation with the simple command of the Scriptures, “You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.” With the trials of temptation finished, the devil departs for a time.

We may be tempted to say that it is easy for Jesus to overcome all these temptations. However, we should recall how it is He achieves victory: not in great displays of power and authority, but simple recollection of the word of God and living it out simply. It is not impossible for us to do any of this. The witness of the saints throughout the ages show us it can be done as well. All that holds us back is our pride, our arrogance, our unwillingness to hear the Word before us and live it out. Do you want to be saved? Then you must confess with your mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe that He is risen from the dead in your whole heart, as Saint Paul commands in the letter to the Romans. This is not merely an external act, but the result of a full interior conversion from sin and temptation. Unless you do this, you will not be saved, and you will perish forever.

Brethren, let us willingly enter the desert with the Lord in beginning this Lent. Let us ponder our weakness and our frailty, and call out to the God who is with us in our times of trouble. Let us beseech Jesus for every grace we need to be able to overcome temptation in our spiritual journey so that we may survive the spiritual desert of our lives. Let us not forget that we too are on a journey while we are alive, that we will not remain here forever, but that we shall return to dust all too soon and be accountable for all our actions. Let us not tremble in the face of the devil and his hellish legions seeking our ruin, but exercise simple trust in the Lord who walks with us in our desert journey and shows us the way to overcome all enemies, so that we may fight well with Him and be worthy of the endless victory banquet which He prepares for all of His faithful soldiers. 

Lenten Practices III - Fasting & Abstinence (8th Sunday per annum/Quinquagesima Sunday)

Before the industrialization of education, the main means of learning was by finding a master who would teach you. Most masters or teachers in history did not have massive classes with multiple subjects but had a core group whom they instructed in those subjects they knew by heart: whether martial arts or philosophy or religion. The student would spend years with the teacher, going through the various exercises and rigors necessary, until he was acknowledged as an equal by the master. This is not just something that happened long ago with the knights or the samurai or whatever group you may think of; it still happens and must happen now for all who follow Christ the divine Master.

We must not regard Jesus as some historical figure who has some wisdom to hand down to us through the ages. Rather, Jesus is the divine Master really alive and still teaching us how to live our lives, and what our priority should be. Jesus teaches us not merely by His words but by the supreme example He gives in His earthly life, demonstrating His teachings so that we can follow and be equal to Him. He is the good tree which produces much fruit, and we must be grafted on to Him if we are to be good as well.

What is the greatest example which our Master or our Teacher gives to us? He shows us how and why to suffer. If the latest news about the war in the Ukraine should awaken us to anything, it is that suffering is not so far away from us who live in the comforts of the modern world. If anything, we are increasing that suffering or switching it from the merely physical to the psychological or spiritual, which can have a far deeper impact and hurt worse than anything physical. God the Son opens Himself up to this suffering by taking on our flesh, by becoming Jesus, by joining us in this valley of tears. He teaches us that we must suffer well if we are to share in His victory over sin, over Satan, and over death. Only through suffering may we become capable of bearing good fruit.

But how can we suffer well? We do it first by embracing the sufferings that come our way in our daily lives. We do not have to go far to experience this, even if we may not be suffering physically like so many in the war-torn or impoverished places of the world. We will suffer because we are hated by people who hate Christ or His Church; we will suffer from the sins of others; we will suffer even from our own sins. It is in the acceptance of these sufferings that we will begin to see the beam removed from our eye so that we may begin to be capable of pulling the splinter from our brother’s eye.

Yet we must follow the divine Master’s example by not only accepting the sufferings that come to us just as the Cross came to Him. We must also embrace some sufferings of our own. We will hear in next week’s Gospel the account of the journey of Jesus in the desert for 40 days and nights. In that time, He willingly fasted and prayed. Not only that, but Jesus often accepted additional fasts or times of prayer and penance. How can we say we are above the Master when He willingly fasted so much or prayed so often and we do not do the same?

Our age is an age of comfort and luxury, far more than any other age before it. Our country has one of the highest rates of obesity and sickness from obesity in the entire world, and it does not affect merely the rich. Even with the sharp rates of inflation in the past few months, we can still find food all too easily and cheaply. If there is great danger of damaging our bodies from all this excess, is it not so surprising that our souls would be just as damaged in our gluttony? When our stomachs are too full, our hearts are too congested to rise up to God in prayer and thanksgiving.

This is why the Church calls us to fast in the holy season of Lent. Beginning with our mandatory fast and abstinence this Wednesday, we are meant to join ourselves in voluntary suffering with Christ in order to follow the teachings and example of our good Master. We are required as Catholics to fast from food on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, along with abstaining from meat on every Friday of Lent. This is the minimum we are mandated to do, but we should willing do more than that. If Jesus gave everything on the Cross for us, then we can give up some more food beyond those two days. If the Master suffered so much in being scourged and whipped and cursed at and crucified, then we too can suffer in giving up meat on more days than Fridays.

“From the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks,” says the Lord. He also says, “By their fruits, you will know them.” Shall we embrace the path of the Master and accept the sufferings of Lent in union with Him, or shall we grumble that we must do so little? Shall we open our hearts to be transformed not just by fasting but also prayer and almsgiving so as to become the good trees producing good fruit, or shall we remain the rotten tree that remains fruitless and only worth being thrown into the fire? May the divine Master help us to remove the beam of sin from our eyes so that we may see and follow His holy example, not just through this Lent, but through the Lent of life, so that we may be worthy of joining Him in that eternal Easter where suffering shall be no more, and where we shall celebrate the victory of Christ over death, knowing that our labor here below was not in vain.

BONUS: BULLETIN ARTICLE

FROM THE PASTOR – FASTING & ABSTINENCE

   This coming week sees the start of Lent with Ash Wednesday. “Again we keep this solemn fast,” as the famous hymn begins. We begin this solemn season with the usual fasting and abstinence (see the table below). Yet this is not the only way that we can fast or abstain in this penitential time. Here are some other ideas to help you more properly observe this season.

· ADDITIONAL DAYS—Besides the mandated days of fasting and abstinence (see below), we ought to willing practice these acts on other days. The traditional days of penance are Wednesdays and Fridays. We could do more fasting on those days or more abstinence.

· SWEETS—While this has been the classic example done by children, we can and should seriously abstain from sweets in Lent. The intentional self-denial of that which is pleasing to us reminds us that our true sweetness and joy are found in God and not in the things of this life. Not only ought we to give up sweets, but we should even be willing to take on some more bitter or less pleasing foods, or not use as many spices or condiments to make something tasteful to our tongue.

· ENTERTAINMENT—We should abstain from the multitude of media which entertains us, and give that time instead to growing closer to God. Instead of the TV or the computer or the devices, spend that time in prayer or sacred reading, or go out and do some act of almsgiving.

· MATERIAL GOODS—This is the time of year for spring cleaning. We should clean out our closets not merely with the mindset of what haven’t I worn or used in a while, but whether I can get along without this thing. Let’s be honest: most of us have more than we need, and we can afford to give to others.

   This is the time to grow in God and to become holy. Let us take up the practices of prayer, almsgiving, and fasting to increase in the Lord. Let us not merely complete the minimum but strive to become all we can be, so that our earthly Lent may prepare us for the eternal Easter.

  

Lenten Practices II - Almsgiving (7th Sunday per annum/Sexagesima Sunday)

The complete message of the Gospel is founded on one primary principle: the principle of love. Everything proceeds from this love because God is love. The teachings of Jesus can be reduced to love, and we see that in the two great commandments He gives us: love of God and love of neighbor. But how do we love? Jesus teaches us this in today’s Gospel passage by reminding us that we are to love everyone.

It is very easy for us to love those around us who please us. But we are not only called to love them, but to love all of our neighbors. Jesus begins His instructions by commanding love of enemies. Yes, we must love our enemies. We must not hold ourselves back from loving just because they do not please us or we do not like them. To love is not the same thing as to like: to love is an action which must come from our whole being. How can we love our enemies? We do it just as God does, for God loves all of His enemies, all of those who go against His will; in other words, God loves all of us.

The great sign of the love of God is the sign of the Cross. Jesus gives everything He has for love of us even as we demand He be crucified and reject Him to embrace sin. But His love is so immense as to destroy the earthly man of sin and recreate us to love as we were meant to love. We must grow in the practice of this love especially in the upcoming season of Lent. Lent is the sacred time dedicated to acknowledging our sins and growing in God, and we must grow in love as well. We grow in the practice of love through the Lenten practice of almsgiving.

To give alms is not to give and expect repayment or to give and receive a favor in return; to give alms is to give without any consideration for a return except perhaps the eternal reward God desires for us. We are called to share ourselves with our neighbor not just in thoughts or words but in real actions. We not only give to the Church or to the poor, we also give to our enemies. We not only give cash but we give our sweat and blood and tears. We not only give what we have but even go beyond that to give when it hurts. This is the real demonstration of love, because love is not easy.

As we prepare for the holy season of Lent, each one of us must ask: How do I love as Jesus commands me to love? How do I love God more? Do I actually love my neighbor, whoever he may be? All of us are meant to be witnesses of God’s love to the world, to a world that increases in hatred and division and animosity. We cannot wait for someone else to do it; we must be the hands of God that give and show His love to all. If we only love when it is easy, why should we expect anything from the Lord who loved us unto death?

Let us pray, brethren, for an increase in love within us. Let us pray to see Christ in our neighbor and to love Him in them. Let us grow in love during Lent so that we may be the true children of the Father who is compassionate and merciful towards all. Let us draw others to God by our acts of love so that they may also be transformed from earthly children of sin to spiritual sons of God. Let us love in the example of love we see from Christ on the Cross, so that we may be able to enter into the fullness of love that awaits the true lovers of God in eternal life.

BONUS: BULLETIN ARTICLE

FROM THE PASTOR—PRACTICING ALMSGIVING 

   Continuing our preparation for Lent, we see how it is we ought to practice almsgiving. It is one thing to talk about giving of ourselves, but another to know how it is we can do it. What first comes to mind is, “Where can I give my money?” Yet we should remember that we can and must give more than cash in giving alms. The worn-out phrase “time, talent, and treasure” does have an echo of truth within it. Here are some ways we can offer alms not just in Lent but throughout the entire year.

· OUR PARISH—Charity begins at home. The only way any parish church stays open is by the charity of the people who live there and come to its help. The numerous ways that you all have helped out throughout the years are greatly appreciated, as will be your continued help in whatever way you can give.

· ST. VINCENT DE PAUL—The Society of St. Vincent de Paul works to help the poor and unfortunate who are in need not merely around the world, but in our own back yard. Our parish helps the Saint Cecilia chapter, but we can help the entire diocesan conference in its work of sharing the love of Christ to all. You can see what opportunities are available at svdpnky.org or calling (859)341-1212.

· CATHOLIC CHARITIES—The diocese operates a chapter of Catholic Charities which is involved in a variety of works: from homeless outreach (including Parish Kitchen which offers meals) to child & family services to housing services. See how you can help on their website at covingtoncharities.org or call (859)581-8974

· AID TO THE CHURCH IN NEED—We should not only help out in our local area but also as much as we can around the world. The organization Aid to the Church in Need provides a means of supporting various projects throughout the world: from giving Mass stipends to foreign priests as their primary source of income to funding a variety of projects for religious orders or dioceses in need. You can see for yourself what they do and how you can help at churchinneed.org.

   Above all, we must not forget the neighbor before us. Do we pray for those who we meet? Are we willing to give when someone asks, even if they seem sketchy? Do I foster charity in all my actions? The ultimate purpose of almsgiving is not self-promotion or self-aggrandizement, but for the increase in charity within us. Let us pray about how we can give of ourselves just as Christ gave Himself completely on the Cross for our salvation, then let us give without counting the cost, hopeful that our reward will be great in eternal life.

  

Lenten Practices I - Prayer (6th Sun per annum/Septuagesima Sunday)

There is a bit of a religious revival in our area today, with all the excitement over the Super Bowl. People all over will be hoping for a win for the local team, yet there is nothing they can do to help make that happen. It seems rather frivolous to beseech God for such a thing: what is a team’s victory in comparison to so many other things happening in our lives and around us? Yet this moment of excitement and anticipation is a good reminder to us of the two things today’s readings prompt in us: trust in the Lord and prayer.

We must remember as Christians that there is nowhere else we can place our trust for anything good or necessary to happen except in the Lord. God is in control of everything, and not in a secondary manner; God is intricately involved in the operation and existence of all things. Nothing exists without His willing it into existence; nothing moves outside of His will; nothing happens beyond His sight. God in His infinite providence, omnipotence, and eternal existence has seen everything happen before the universe even existed. There is no one else in whom we can place our total trust and reliance for all things except in God.

This is what Jesus praises in the Gospel passage in which He enumerates the Beatitudes according to Saint Luke. Only those who are poor will turn to God for their every need; only the hungry will seek the food of God; only those who weep will seek their consolation in the Lord who suffers with them and conquers every enemy; only the persecuted will place their hope in the Lord who triumphs in His resurrection and will have the final revenge on all enemies on the Last Day. Those who do not desire or need these things do not turn to God, they do not seek the Source of all goodness and truth, they do not pray.

We are only a few weeks away from Lent beginning, and joining in the journey of the Lord to Calvary and the tomb. This season is our time to reevaluate our relationship with God, to rectify our sinful lives, and to walk more closely to Christ than before. This walk must begin by placing our total trust in God in all things. If nothing happens outside of His will, if every good and perfect gift comes from the Father, then we must orient our lives towards God and not towards any lower or weaker power or authority. We must hope in God for all things, above all for the graces we need for everlasting life. This hope, this trust, must begin to be expressed in the primary action of the Christian: prayer.

We must pray. There is simply no alternative to prayer for the disciple of Jesus Christ. We are obligated to pray, and to not just pray for ourselves, but to pray for all. Yet we must remember the purpose of prayer is more than just the asking for things. We can and ought to ask, but prayer is far more than that. Prayer is our primary means of communication with God. It is not only a means of speaking to God, but it is also our means of hearing Him. Many will complain that they do not hear God in their lives, but how much time do we give Him to speak to us? How much do we retreat from the noise of the world to pray purposefully before Him? It is not that God doesn’t speak, but that we do not listen.

Prayer is the means whereby we are conformed to God. We adore the living God who loved us into being and loved us enough to die and rise from the dead for us. We praise Him who has done such immense marvels. We beseech Him for all that we require for ourselves, mindful that He is the ultimate source of all things. We ask on behalf of others for what they need, especially to encounter God through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit so that they may enter into the way of salvation. All of this is what God desires for us, but it must begin in prayer.

Our lives must be infused with prayer not just in the church but in the totality of our lives. We not only pray here at Mass but we ought to pray in our work, in our rest, in the fun times, in the sad times, in the ease of life which so many of us have in these days, in the difficulties that will come as we draw nearer to the crucified and risen Lord.  Whether it is short quick prayers offered in a moment or dedicating ourselves to an extended period of prayer, we must pray in a spirit of hope and trust in God. Whether it is for victory in the big game today, whether it is for more serious requests, whether it is in thanksgiving or in sorrow, we must pray. For if we do not pray now, why would we want to spend eternity with the God we avoid encountering through prayer?

Brethren, let us become a people of trust and prayer in all things. Let us hope in the Lord who has won everything for us in His passion, death, and resurrection. Let us be inflamed by the Holy Spirit to pray as we should so that we may become holy, so that we may become like God. Let us ask the saints to help us to pray as they prayed to God and grew closer to Him in their lives so that we may follow after them. Let us pray to live as Jesus calls us to live, not in a spirit of arrogance and disregard for the Lord, but in humility and trust, that we can encounter God through prayer in this life and be prepared to receive the fullest answer to our prayers in eternal life.

BONUS: BULLETIN ARTICLE

FROM THE PASTOR—PRAYERS AND DEVOTIONS

   With only a few weeks remaining until Lent begins, it is time to begin thinking about how we are to observe this sacred season. This Sunday in the traditional liturgical calendar starts the season of Septuagesima: the period of three Sundays and the accompanying days in-between until Ash Wednesday which are a reminder to us that Lent is approaching and gearing us up. While the current liturgy does not have this venerable tradition in it, we should still begin to orient ourselves towards the three Lenten practices of the Church: prayer, almsgiving, and fasting.

   This week, to supplement my homily on prayer, I would like to offer some various ideas to help you grow in your prayer life. While we priests may often preach on prayer, we may not offer many concrete ways for how to do it. Here are some practices that I heartily recommend.

· EUCHARISTIC ADORATION—What better way do we have to pray than to spend time before Jesus really present in the Eucharist? Beyond our reception of the Eucharist at Mass, the Church encourages us to spend time before the Most Blessed Sacrament in true prayer: to adore the Lord who humbles Himself to become our living Bread. I will be organizing some times for formal Eucharistic adoration during Lent, so I encourage you to join me in spending time with the Eucharistic Lord.

· THE ROSARY—One of the greatest tools for devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Rosary is also an opportunity to prayerfully consider the mysteries of our redemption: from the conception and birth of our Savior to His passion, death, and resurrection. Through the Rosary we can pray to and about Jesus through the help of His blessed mother Mary.

· THE BIBLE—The Sacred Scriptures are not a textbook on salvation, but the writings inspired by the Holy Spirit to sanctify us. We should read the Bible in a prayerful manner, not merely seeing the words but praying about what we read. We should not only hear what it says, but adore the God speaking to us through this text and calling us to Himself.

· DAILY DEVOTIONS—We should have a regular routine of prayer in our daily lives. We should wake up and immediately pray to give the day to God. We should pray at meals. We should take time to pray to particular saints who we are close to. It should grow to become as natural as breathing to us to pray throughout the day.

   No matter what, we need to pray. Lent is our opportunity to increase not only our prayer time but to grow better at it. The only real way to grow is to do it. How will you begin to pray this Lent? Let us pray as Jesus commands us to pray so that we may be close to Him in this life and receive the desire of our prayers in being with Him forever in the next life.

 

5th Sunday of Lent - Death and Life

What do we fear most about life? What is it that we dread most about our mortal nature? There is one thing common to all people of all ages that we dread and fear: death. We fear death, that undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns. We hate death because we fear it, because we want to avoid it as much as possible. Our generation continues the quest for immortality, seeking the fountain of youth not in some mythical land far away, but in a pill or in a computer. We will do anything rather than die.

But death comes for us all. We cannot avoid it, we cannot pretend it will never happen. Yet there is more than one way to die. Certainly, our physical bodies can die. However, we can also die spiritually. How does this happen? It is the same as our physical death: we lose life. But how can we lose our spiritual life? We lose it when we remain enveloped in sin. We lose it when we are consumed by sin. We lose it when we choose sin over God. Our spiritual death is never just a death, but is always a suicide, for we choose that death for ourselves. Yet God desires not the death of the sinner, but that he live.

We hear about the greatest of Jesus’ miracles in the Gospel today, when He raises His friend Lazarus from death, and not just any death: Lazarus had been dead in the tomb for four days, a sign taken by the Jews to mean that one was completely and totally dead. Jesus, who is the resurrection and the life, by His power and authority restores Lazarus to life. It is probably the greatest sign that Jesus offers up to this point in the Gospels. But it also has great meaning for us: it demonstrates that God is the Lord of life, and that He can restore life whenever He wills.

We hear in the psalm today that with the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption. God desires life for all of us, as we see in the vision of Ezekiel in the first reading. For indeed, who can truly stand in innocence before the Lord? As the Psalmist puts it, “If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, Lord, who can stand?” None of us are totally innocent before God: all have sinned, both as individuals and as the human race. Yet God desires not death, but life. Knowing our weakness, knowing our infirmity, God desires to revive humanity by redeeming it from the bonds of sin and Satan, and this work will be accomplished so very soon in the passion and death of Christ our Lord.

Yet this redemption is not a ticket easily purchased, nor is it merely a free gift. God does offer us redemption and salvation, but it comes at a cost: our death to sin. Saint Paul recognizes this as he writes to the Romans in the second reading. Salvation is not something that is merely bought with a few words: it is something that costs us our life in sin. Saint Paul is not rejecting the physical world in saying this, but the truth that we are not meant to live for this world, to live for the flesh. We are meant to be animated by the Spirit of God to live for Christ. We cannot have the Spirit if we remain dead in sin. We cannot be lead by the Spirit if we cling to sin. We cannot live in the Spirit if we reject that same Spirit.

The raising of Lazarus from the dead serves as a sign that Jesus can raise any soul to life, even a soul that has been steeped in sin, wallowing in sin for decades. The history of the Church is filled with scandalous sinners who converted and became great saints: egotists, sex addicts, murderers, heretics, drunkards, even worshippers of Satan. Yet their eyes were opened to the error of their ways by the grace of God, they repented of their sins, and lived their lives with the same confession we hear on the lips of Martha: that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the one coming into the world to save it. And we can do the same as them, if we believe as Martha and Mary did, that this same Jesus who weeps over death desires us to live and to live fully.

As we enter the last two weeks of Lent, we are plunged more deeply into the mysteries of these days. We are preparing for all that Jesus did and suffered from this day until Easter Sunday. Let us not merely listen to these actions and events, but let us be moved by them. Let our hearts be filled with contrition for our sins and a true desire to repent of them. Let us seek the mercy that can only be found in the confessional, for God desires us to have a sure sign of our pardon. Brethren, do not let your hearts remain dead to sin, but let them be alive in Christ Jesus, in His Holy Spirit. As Jesus raised Lazarus from death, so too will God raise our souls from the death of sin, but only if we respond to His grace and seek His mercy. Let us indeed seek His mercy, so that we may have the fullness of redemption in the life to come.

4th Sunday of Lent - Blindness

Which sense would you be least willing to lose if you had to lose one of your five senses? For most people, sight is the sense they would pick to keep most out of the five. While we don’t want to lose any of them, sight seems to hold sway because it is the most useful for everything we do. Without sight, we cannot experience beauty, we would never know the faces of those we love, we would lose a tremendous amount of knowledge. Could you imagine not knowing colors?

Yet we not only possess physical sight via our eyes but rational sight from our minds. Unlike the rest of the animal world, we are able to possess knowledge and wisdom, to grow in our experiences and shape the reality as we have made it up to this time. But, just as our physical eyes can suffer from glaucomas, our rational sight, our inner eye, can become darkened. We can lose that pristine vision we once had of right and wrong, good and evil, holy and wicked and begin to see the world in bland greys. What causes this inner eye to lose the light? It is sin that darkens this eye, and only one can cure us.

In our Gospel, we hear that a man who was blind from birth receives his vision by the healing power of Jesus. This man can represent each one of us, for we too were born blind, not due to a physical defect, but to the defect of original sin upon our souls. And just as Jesus lifts the blindness from the blind man’s eyes, so too does He lift our original blindness from our souls in baptism. But we can lose that original vision over time, and we can even become blind once more, only we are trapped in a worse blindness because we had seen the Light of the world and beheld His glory, yet rejected it for something else.

We all have something that blinds us to the total truth which Jesus teaches us. For some, it is a favorite sin. For others, it is arrogance. Some are blind because of ignorance while others are blind from apathy. Whatever it is that stands in the way of clear vision, it is something that can be removed. But do we want it removed? We may be like the child who sits too close to the TV and doesn’t want to lose that spot, even though we may gain better vision because of it. We may be like the Pharisees in the Gospel, who do not believe that they are blind, which is the worst kind of blindness.

Jesus Christ is the Light of the world, the light proceeding from light, as we profess each Sunday in the Creed. He does not want us to remain in darkness, the darkness of ignorance, the darkness of pride, the darkness of sin. He wants us to see clearly, to be the children of light, as Saint Paul wants also, as we hear in the second reading. But to remain in the light means that we must be freed of sin, for the light only “produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth”. It means that we must cast off that which blinds us or keeps us in the darkness, and walk in the light. We cannot have it both ways, pretending to be children of light while assisting at Mass but living as if we belong to this world, the world of darkness, remaining secret and hidden rather than visible to all.

Brethren, let us be the children of light! Let us not remain in our sins or in our pride or whatever makes us blind. Let us be healed by Jesus the divine Physician so as to see clearly the Son of Man leading us to God. Let our hearts not find their rest in the filth and darkness of sin, but in the glory and light of God. Let us see the dawn of Easter rising on this day, the midway point of Lent. If we have done little to amend our life, let us not delay! The sun of the Resurrection rises in the east. Do we look for it eagerly, or do we cower in our blindness? Do we wish to remain in the darkness, or shall we be healed of our blindness, so that we may see the light in this world, and rejoice in that same light in the world to come?

3rd Sunday of Lent - Living Water

What is the most essential element we need in order to live? Water. Without water, there is no life. NASA has a motto in their search for life beyond our planet: “Follow the water.” Wherever there is water, there is life. Humans can survive better without food than we can without water. It comprises most of the material in our body and is essential to almost every activity we do in order to live. Without water, there is no life. Jesus in our Gospel today offers the Samaritan woman not just any ordinary water, but “living water”, as He tells her. What is this living water? How do we get it? And can we lose it?

The living water which Jesus offers is our union with God in the Holy Spirit, who is poured out for us in the sacraments. We should automatically think of baptism whenever we hear about water in the Scriptures, for just as water gives us earthly life, baptism gives us heavenly life, opening for us the gates of heaven to be joined with God. We listen to this Gospel on this Sunday of Lent in order to help our catechumens prepare to receive baptism, hence the beginning of the scrutinies on this Sunday. We should recall our own baptism which gave us this living water to drink. But this is not the only sacrament in which we receive this living water, in which we receive the Holy Spirit.

Brethren, it is possible to lose this living water, to allow the well to dry up and become spiritually parched. And just as we have no physical life if we lose water, so too do we have no spiritual life if we do not have the living water of the Holy Spirit. How do we lose this water? How do we become spiritually parched? This happens when we fall into sin, when we violate our baptismal promises to reject Satan and all his works and all his empty show. It happens when our hearts become hardened by sin, as were the hearts of the Israelites in the first reading and the psalm. It happens when we lose faith in God, and thus begin to lose our justification, as Saint Paul says in the second reading.

Is it possible to regain these living waters? Is it possible to regain our faith and thus regain our justification? It is quite possible, but there is only one means of doing it. How? Through the confessional. God does not pour out His Spirit upon us only once at baptism or confirmation, but He desires to renew us constantly, just as the earth is renewed by rain. Yet we must not seek rain where it cannot be found. Would it not be foolish to build a house in the Sahara Desert and plant a garden and wait for the rains to come? Then is it not also foolish to ask God to increase our faith and pour out His Spirit upon us if we remain in the spiritual desert of sin?

Brethren, I spend one hour before this Mass in the confessional not because I’m bored or I need to be somewhere. I am in there because God has given me the authority to forgive sins and to restore the living water to you. I am in there because, like Jesus, I thirst for your salvation. In my nine months of being here, there are many of you whom I have never seen nor heard in there. Why? What prevents you from coming and receiving the mercy of God? What prevents you from being refreshed with the living water that Jesus wishes to give you? What prevents you from being free of your sins in the ordinary means God has given to you?

Many of you go to confession perhaps once a year yet come up to receive Communion every week. Would to God that it were the reverse! What’s the point of receiving Communion if you’re still parched by your sins? Why receive the Bread of Life if you still eat the bitter herbs of sin? Jesus does not want you to remain in your sins, that’s why He died on the Cross. But we must imitate the Samaritan woman and acknowledge our sins before Jesus if we wish to be truly refreshed by His living water. We must imitate her humility in order to be elevated to glory.

Brethren, let your hearts not be hardened! Hear the voice of the Lord calling you to repentance, calling you to drink deeply of His living water. Do not be like the Israelites at Meribah - testing God, challenging God. Do not remain in the desert of sin but come and be refreshed by confession. Yet we should not do this only in Lent, in this season of penance and sorrow. We need to take every opportunity to be freed of our sins and refreshed by the Holy Spirit so as to continue to be justified. I encourage you not only to go to confession this week, but to also go at least once a month. Then we can be like those who heard the Samaritan woman’s testimony and encountered Jesus themselves: they not only believed because of what she said, but because they joined her in humbling themselves and recognizing Jesus as the one true savior of the world. May we do the same, so that we may boast not in arrogance but in hope of the eternal and joyful glory of God.

2nd Sunday of Lent - Transfiguration

NB: This homily is short due to the bishop's video for the Diocesan Parish Annual Appeal.

We hear the story of the Transfiguration on the second Sunday of Lent. Tradition tells us that this event occurred about forty days before Jesus’ passion and death. St. Luke in his Gospel sees this event as the moment when Jesus sets His face toward Jerusalem, towards the sufferings of Good Friday. Why does Jesus do this? This happens for two reasons. First, Jesus wants His inner circle, His closest disciples and us to see Him as He really is. Who will be suffering that Passion? Who will be undergoing that cruel death? It’s not just any man, but it is God in the flesh. Jesus reveals who He is so that we may be comforted in knowing that He suffers with us.

But Jesus also reveals His full glory so that we may know the end of our journey. We like to know where we’re going. If we know our destination, we will make a greater effort to reach it. What Jesus reveals is not just His glory, but the glory that we will share with Him if we survive our passion. Our life is like Lent: we have many struggles with only a few moments of joy. But Jesus’ passion and death is not the end, for He rises on the third day. So too will our Lent come to an end, and if we have been faithful, we will experience our own Easter Sunday.

Let us rise and be not afraid to follow Jesus, to carry our cross daily. Let us remember the glory of the holy mountain, the glory prefigured for us in the Holy Mass. Let us be strengthened by the Eucharist to toil away at the work of our lifetimes, just as Jesus did after this day. Let us endure the toils of our daily Lent, so that we may join Jesus in receiving the wondrous glory when we join Him in the resurrection on the last day.

1st Sunday of Lent - The Desert

We are the children of temptation. As we enter into the first full week of Lent, we should reflect on this sentiment first: we are the children of temptation. We hear in the reading from Genesis and in the Gospel about temptation. Genesis shows us that first temptation of our parents Adam and Eve, and their giving in to the tentation. This is the original sin, the sin in which we were conceived, the sin in which we were born, the sin in which we lived in need of a Redeemer.

The Gospel shows that Redeemer beginning to do His great work of redemption, but the first battle He wages is not against any human foe; it is against the one who first tricked our parents into sin, the one who tricks all of us into sin: Satan, the devil. It was the devil who took the form of a serpent and tricked Adam and Eve to eating the apple and disobeying God. It is the same devil who tries to tempt Jesus away from obeying His heavenly Father. Satan tries using the three usual temptations, as outlined by our Saint John: the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, and the lust of the eyes (cf. 1 John 2:15-16).

First, the devil tries to make Jesus make bread of stones. He is hungry after fasting for forty days; why shouldn’t Jesus eat? But Jesus reminds the devil that we live not by bread alone, but by the will of God. Next, the devil tries to make Jesus proud by demonstrating His power before all the people in the area of the Temple in Jerusalem. If only Jesus would throw Himself off the top of the Temple, the angels would save Him, and everyone would believe whatever He said. But Jesus, throwing Scripture back at the devil’s Scripture, reminds us that we shall not tempt God into signs and wonders, but humble ourselves before His majesty. Finally, the devil demonstrates his so-called power by showing all the worlds in his supposed control, calling Jesus to worship him and receive a reward. But Jesus forcefully reminds the devil that God alone has full dominion and power, and that everything truly belongs to God.

In undergoing these temptations, Jesus is beginning to unravel everything that was done in the garden so many millennia ago. Saint Paul in our second reading highlights this, reminding us that by the first Adam, we all have sinned, we are all children of temptation, but by Jesus our new Adam, we all have the possibility of justifying ourselves. We are all the children of temptation, but we can become once more, through the redemption of Jesus Christ, the children of God.

Brethren, let us throw off sin once and for all. Let us imitate our Redeemer and fight against Satan and all his temptations. Yet, even if we have sinned, let us rush to the sacrament of mercy, let us rush to the confessional, be freed of our sins, and strengthened by God’s grace to fight Satan once more. Let our Lenten penances not be a means of pride, but the seed of humility by which we shed off the old man of temptation and sin, and are clothed in Christ. Let us not remain the children of temptation, but let us be the children of God, the children of His promise, the children of heaven.

Ash Wednesday - Darkness

NB: On the morning of March 1st, a powerful storm blew through Carrollton, knocking out power for at least 12 hours. The morning Mass became the distribution of ashes and Holy Communion. This is the context in which this homily was composed in the afternoon. I half feared that I would be saying Mass by candlelight!

  Many of you experienced the darkness of the power outage today. Some of you may still be experiencing it, just as we are here in church. We never like it when these things happen. We feel weak, helpless, incapable of doing anything. We'd do anything to get rid of this feeling. And once the power returns, life goes on like normal. What if we experienced sin in this same way?

  Sin has the same effect upon our souls as the loss of electrical power. When we commit sin, we lose the light of Christ which we received in baptism and are plunged back into the darkness in which we were born. Only when the sin is removed from us does the light of Christ shine once more in our hearts and minds and we can return to our holy lives. But we must desire to return to this condition of freedom from sin, just as we must desire to return to living with electrical power once more. To wish to remain in sin is like wishing to remain in darkness, and who really wants to reject the light?

  The Church calls us to penance once more on this Ash Wednesday, to pray, to fast, to give alms, to discover once more the day of salvation. Repent, sinners, and return to the light! Weep over your sins and beg God for mercy. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and be marked with ashes, the sign of humility and penance. Go to confession and be freed of the spiritual darkness in which you are currently stuck, so that Christ’s light may shine once more. Let us seek to make this Lent the opportunity to be freed of our sins so that we may joyfully receive the light of Christ once more at Easter, to rejoice that. We are not just sinners sitting in darkness, but repentant sinners moving towards the light.