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?