Homily for the week of March 20, 2011

Second Sunday of Lent, 2011

Genesis 12:1-4a

Psalm 33:4-5, 18-19, 20, 22

2 Timothy 1:8b-10

Matthew 17:1-9

The word obey from gives each one of us a set of experiences and emotions. To obey means to comply with the wishes, requests or commands of another person or law. To many it means to comply with the requests of others such as our father or mother or teacher. We have to behave in a special way. The word obey comes from the the word obedience which means to listen intently and understand. But obedience is much more than submitting to what another person wants us to do. It is an act of our will. We must want to do a certain thing or action. Being truly obedient is a wilful response. It is a response of love. No matter how young or old we are, most persons at one time or other are “hard of hearing. “ We refuse to hear, and are disobedient. But if we all decided not to obey we can imagine the confusion and destruction all around us.

Being a Catholic means that we have personally decided to obey Jesus Christ and his teachings. Our Catholic religion revolves around one event, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ which is what Lent is all about. Everything we think and believe about God always has to be with this event in mind. Jesus was obedient to God’s will. During Lent we are called to observe Jesus’ act of obedience. He listened to the Father intently and did not merely submit to God’s will. He lovingly embraced it.

Our first reading today gives us a summary of the story of Abraham. It is a story of trust and obedience. Abraham listened to a God he did not know, and he listened so intently to this God that he heard, understood, trusted and obeyed.

Consider the depth of trust that was required of Abraham. Because Abram lived in a patriarchal society, he lived in the home of his father. No son ever left this home. Who you were, your whole sense of self, was rooted in this sense of ancestry and family. To leave would be social suicide or a suicide of personal identity. Further, people at the time believed that gods were attached to a specific land. If you left the land, your god did not follow. If you left your land, the land of your gods, you adopted the gods of the new land in which you chose to live. God, who was heretofore unknown, reached out to Abraham and asked him to leave the land of his ancestors and his gods. Abraham’s encounter with God had to have been powerful, for Abram did what everyone else thought to be unthinkable: he trusted and obeyed this strange God!

Even when we are young and able, few of us are willing to leave our family and friends to start over. The Bible tells us that Abram was 75, an age when most people are looking at the last stage of their life, not starting a new one. We know how frightening it is for older parents to leave their homes and friends to move to a strange city even when they are going to a city with their children who love them! What Abram did was simply too frightening, too risky.

At first glance our first reading from the book of Genesis seems to be all about Abram, but it is not. It actually reveals a lot about God. Unlike the gods of Abram’s youth who demanded “Obey or else!” our God’s request to trust and obey is a request made out of love. Our God seeks more than submission; He seeks loving obedience: Obey because we are loved. Obey because to do so is to return God’s love. We can also look at what God offered Abram in return. The greatest promise to Abram’s thinking was to have many descendants in order to continue his family, his tribe.

The Gospel passage that I just read is known as the Transfiguration story of Jesus. Transfiguration is a religious word that means a CHANGE IN APPEARANCE. On the mountain Jesus saw the cross on which he would be nailed, and he prayed that God would change his mind. But in the end he accepted the plan of God.

We catch a glimpse of the glory of Jesus. We see Jesus flanked by Moses and Elijah, famous persons that lived thousands of years before Jesus. We are called to listen to them intently and respond.

Each of us have transforming events in our lives. Some of these may bring darkness and anxiety into our lives. It may news of a severe illness, or the death of a loved one, or some personal or family crisis. It also could be an event like someone telling us they are sorry after years of denial, or someone returning to the practice of their Catholic faith after being away from the church for years. Each of us have such happenings. Sometimes our human plans, no matter how good or worthwhile we might think they are must step aside for God’s plans in our lives. We must obey Jesus when he invites us to climb the mountain with him. But we must stay on the mountain top forever. We must go into our world without fear sharing with others what our faith means to us.

Bulletin for the week of March 13, 2011

First Sunday in Lent, 2011

Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7

Psalm 51:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 17

Romans 5:12-19 or 5: 12, 17-19

Matthew 4:1-11

I recently saw a bumper sticker which read, “Eve was framed”. We might also say that Jesus was framed. Given today's stories about Adam and Eve and Jesus and the Devil we might call this Temptation Sunday. Most of you may not realize that each time we pray the Lord's Prayer, we say lead us not into temptation. We are asking God not to allow us to enter into any situations in which we might be tempted to do something wrong or sinful.

Temptations of any kind are invitations to do some things which are not good for us, or our conscience tells us we should not do. But we give in because we expect to get some pleasure or reward as the result of giving in. Specifically, a temptation is a test to see if we will be loyal to God. Let us look at temptations in our own life. How many of us believe that certain things or actions will make us look better, sound better, be more popular. Most of us allow ourselves to be deceived constantly. After all, there would be no advertisements if advertisers did not think they could tempt us to change our mind.

Most of us aren't faced every day with temptations that lead us to commit mortal or deadly sins. We usually face smaller temptations like passing on a little gossip or cheating on one question on a test. The worse deception of all is when we become convinced that some of our actions do not matter. What's a little lie here or there? What's an overly indulgent late night just once in a while? What's wrong with being selfish ever now and then? Who really cares if we are not too concerned about our health? Unfortunately, giving in to one temptation puts us on the wrong road. It is easier for us to give in again and again. The little white lie can lead to a bigger lie, and then an even bigger lie, all to cover up the first little lie.

In our First reading Eve tried to be convinced of her choice. Adam never questioned his. After all these years we are still not much different, though we do have better examples.

God gave Adam and Eve everything necessary for happiness. Life with God in the Garden of Eden was perfect. God's only rule was simple: DO NOT EAT THE FRUIT OF THE TREE OF LIFE NOR FROM THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL. But God gave Adam and Eve a choice, what we call free will. Adam and Eve chose to do what they wanted to do. Sin is thinking we know better than God. Temptations let us question whether we live according to God's way or our way.

God warned Adam and Eve that death would result if His request was disobeyed. The devil tempted them and they disobeyed and death came. When Adam and Eve sinned they no longer trusted God. So they were expelled from the garden. This was not just a punishment, but it was God telling them that he could no longer trust them to do what was right.

We are decendents of Adam and Eve and so have a little of their genes. How could God ever trust us again? The answer is Jesus. God entered our world. Jesus took on all of our humanity. Jesus took on our pain of human growth, the pain of human suffering and hurt, and most importantly, Jesus took on that which fully separates us from God. Jesus chose human death so that he could be completely one with us.

Like Adam and Eve, Jesus found that he had temptations. But they may not be the kinds we wrestle with. The devil comes to Jesus with the Bible in his hands and tests Jesus by asking Jesus to do some strange things. Like changing stones into loaves of bread; by jumping off a high mountain and floating gently to the earth in the hands of an angel. The devil was offering Jesus three options for life which we might refer to as the three P's leading to temptation:PLEASURE, POPULARITY, AND POWER.

The first temptation is Pleasure. After fasting in the desert for 40 days, Jesus must have been desperately hungry. The devil wants Jesus to command these stones to be turned into bread.

The second temptation is Popularity. Throw yourself down and the crowds will love youIt is the temptation to take on impossible risks and challenges because we think we cannot ultimately fail and others will know us for what we did rather than why we did it. All these people I will give you if you kneel down and adore me. .

The third temptation is a desire for Power and control over others. The devil wants Jesus to worship him in exchange for unlimited power and control. And believe it or not that is where the devil usually gets us. We think we are in control and can control everything all by ourselves. We are convinced that everyone and everything is for our own selfish desires and needs. And when we are challenged by this we then start lying or blaming others.

Jesus' simple response to these temptations is: One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God. You shall not put the Lord, your God to the test. The Lord your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.

How can we keep our desires for pleasure, popularity, and power in tune with Jesus? By beginning today to make Lent a time of prayer and reflection. Lent is a time for us to do well what we must do. If you are married be the best husband or wife; if you are a mother or father, be the best mother or father; be the best son or daughter; be the best student, or the best in your work. Our traditional practice of giving up something for Lent is an attempt to return to the basics, and to rid ourselves of some of the things that complicate our lives. During Lent our spiritual challenge is to notice the booby traps which we stumble into.

Homily for the week of March 6, 2011

Ninth Sunday in Ordinary time, 2011

Dt 11:18,26-28,32 • Rom 3:21-25,28 • Mt 7:21-27

As we are preparing to begin Lent most Catholics, young and old alike, usually come up with all kinds of questions such as:

If I give up chocolate for Lent can I eat it on Sunday? (yes)

Do I have to fast if I’m over 65? (no)

Is it a sin if I eat meat on a Friday in Lent but just forgot that it was Friday? (no)

What if I’m invited to dinner and they serve meat? (OK)

Is Ash Wednesday a holy day of obligation? (no)

These and probably a lot of other questions are all good questions. What they do, however, is to miss the importance of Lent as a reminder that someone died because he loved us. But this person also rose from the dead and promised us a place with him when we die.

We don’t have slide shows and videos of this person, but the best we can do is to walk beside him in those 14 images around all churches which we call the Stations of the Cross.

Right after Jesus left this earth his followers, call Christians, celebrated only on Sundays. Christians at that time lived in a Jewish world. Sunday was not the first day of the week but was a workday. On Sunday, however, Catholics met early in the morning before going to work. Every time they gathered they participated in what they called the “Lord’s Supper,” which was in memory of the Last Supper. The primary focus was on the Resurrection. It was quite a while before the Christian communities began to celebrate a particular day, the day we now call Easter, as a memorial for the Resurrection. For them every Sunday was a celebration of the Resurrection.

Lent is a season of soul-searching and repentance. It is a season for reflection and taking stock. Lent originated in the very earliest days of the Church as a preparatory time for Easter, when the faithful rededicated themselves and when converts were instructed in the faith and prepared for baptism. By observing the forty days of Lent, the individual Christian imitates Jesus’ withdrawal into the wilderness for forty days. All churches that have a continuous history extending before AD 1500 observe Lent. The ancient church that wrote, collected, canonized, and propagated the New Testament also observed Lent, believing it to be a commandment from the apostles.

Simultaneously, as Easter developed, Lent developed as a way of preparing, but it was not really a preparation for celebrating the Resurrection; it was a preparation to remember the passion and death of Jesus.

From the beginning Lent was always associated with a fast and often a very severe fast. Fasts were almost always associated with food and eating less. Fasts were never seen as punishment or penitential. They were for the purpose of creating awareness and focus. The “break-fast” (which we call our breakfast) was a tremendous celebration because what had been denied could then be thoroughly enjoyed. This they did on Easter.

The number 40 is important in Bible. It describes not only an amount but it also carries a symbolic meaning of enough time to complete a task, such as the Jews’ 40 years in the desert or the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness. So, from its beginning, Lent had 40 days. Because fasting was never allowed on Sunday, the day of celebrating the joy of the Resurrection, the 40 days were regarded as 40 days of fasting. Lent has more than 40 actual days because we are not to fast on Sundays.

Hundred of years ago it was a practice to be dusted with ashes as a sign that you were sorry after having done something wrong. There are many references to this practice in the Old Testament of the Bible. Because Lent is a time when we try to be better, the first day of Lent, a Wednesday, became known as “Ash Wednesday.” In our first reading today Moses tells the people to take remember the commandments of God and “bind them at your wrist and let them be a pendant on your forehead.” This was a literal practice of Jews then and now. The religious item is called a “phylactery.” It consists of two small leather boxes into which are placed four passages from the Torah. With a leather strap one box is fastened to the wrist and the other to the forehead. The point is to remind faithful Jews that God delivered them from Egypt and that they are to love Him with all their soul, heart and mind. Many people today wear items on their wrist as a reminder of some cause in which they are active.

Lent is about doing the same thing: remembering. Jesus said that the word of the Lord must be put into practice. We must not let Lent descend into the superficial questions that are so often asked. It must not be joked about that we look for ways to eat meat on Friday. Paul reminds us today about what it took to free us from sin: the blood of Jesus. We are challenged to give meaning to our Lenten practices so that, when Good Friday arrives, our hearts will be moved and on Easter morning our joy will be real. As the season of Lent approaches, it is time to examine our choices. Are we building on a rock-solid foundation by adopting daily practices that sharpen our hearing of Jesus and that convinces us to act on it?