Homily, February 18, 2024
From The Pastor
Lent has many faces and has taken on different expressions through the years. As a youth, Lent was a time of sacrifice, fasting, giving up, and hanging on until it was over. It was characterized by a focus on sin, penance, and efforts to be closer to Jesus and his Cross. More recently, Lent has become a time of attentive awareness to the life of Christ, the meaning of his Cross, and the great gift of our redemption.
Liturgically, the Church calls us to a time of increased prayer, fasting, and service to the poor as we prepare to renew our profession of faith at Easter. The core purpose of the season is to journey with the Lord Jesus toward a renewed commitment of faith through the Passion of Holy Week and the new life of Easter Sunday. Given the nature of sin and grace, the season wisely provides us the with opportunity to attend more closely to Jesus as Savior and Christ in how our profession of faith impacts our lives as we journey toward the promise of eternal life.
Rather than deciding what you are going to do for Lent, I liked how I heard this recently. What are you and Jesus going to do for Lent? Big difference. God needs nothing from us. We do not do things for God during Lent for God’s sake. Lent is for our sake to sharpen our attentiveness to the unending love God has given us in the human-Divine Christ who offered himself in sacrifice for our sins. This is the approach I will take today.
We begin with Jesus. Immediately after his Baptism, the Holy Spirit drove Jesus into the desert. At his Baptism, Jesus is confirmed as the beloved Son with whom the Father is well pleased. In the confirmation of his identity, Jesus is sent forth to fulfill his mission as the Divine Son. To prepare for this mission, the Spirit drives Jesus to the desert. Why? To take an extended period of prayer with attentive awareness to the Father’s love in the communion of the Divine will to save the world. Could he do it? Was he willing to surrender his life against the weight of evil, sin, and death? Did he have the strength, faith, and trust in the Father to fulfill this mission? Jesus fully shared the Father’s will, but could he accomplish it through the flesh of his human person in obedient surrender? Jesus successfully resisted every temptation of the Devil and was fully prepared to serve the Father’s will in death to new life.
With Jesus, what are we to do with our forty days? Pretty much the same thing Jesus did. We are invited, with Jesus, to spend time in attentive awareness of God pondering our faith, our life habits, our ways of loving, and the hope we hold in the mystery of Christ. This attentiveness calls for a mature disciplined sense of presence. It is a call to self-awareness that will lead us to a greater awareness of God in our way of life. Such awareness will naturally bring to mind faults, sins, or non-lifegiving activity. We can bring this to the Lord and have conversation, both speaking then listening. It can also be a time to ponder the grace and blessings you have known, and all the ways you feel God’s love and care for you.
These forty days are a time to deepen our love for God in the awareness of the redemption given us in the Lord Jesus. Our sacrifices of the season are not so much an offering for our sin, as they are a willing desire to offer God our love, sorrow, and repentance. We cannot give God anything to merit the mercy God freely gives to us. What God wants is our desire to know, love, and serve him in the model and example of Jesus. To do so is to make God more present in the world through our imitation of Christ. God wants us to want to freely love him and to follow the way of the Son.
Pondering our sin or our unloving ways is one important way to renew our relationship with God. Name your sin, confess to God with sorrow, and resolve to do better. More deeply, how invested are you in the gift of God’s personal love for you? Are you aware and attentive to this love? Does God’s love for you and your awareness of this love express itself in meaningful ways in your life? Does the love of Christ and his redemption play an active role in your self-awareness as you engage in daily activities and relationships?
Where do you see an active desire to love God in your life? How does that love express itself? Do not always look through the lens of sin, faults, or failures. Consider your inner truth, your goodness, and light. How do you bring that light, love, and goodness to others, to the world? This may come through active engagement and connection with others. It may come through a mature commitment to pray for those in need. It may come in a deep desire to pray for the world and all the suffering, war, and oppression that surrounds us. You may feel a deep desire to know and do God’s will supported by prayer that leads to action.
Lent can be so much more than giving up this or that and denying yourself a favored pleasure. Lent is a rich opportunity to deeply realize the love that sustains you in life, the love that forgives your sin, and promises eternal life. Lent can renew us in the love of Christ that could change the world. Consider what you could do to help that happen.
Father John Esper
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