Homily: 1st Sunday of Lent - Year B

Readings: Gn 9:8-15; Ps 25; 1 Pt 3:18-22; Mk 1:12-15 

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Back in 1968, a few weeks after Diane and I were married, the United States Navy ordered me to San Diego; so, the newlyweds set out on the cross-country trip. 

One afternoon, driving through Arizona, we pulled off the highway and stopped the car, captivated by a distant thunderstorm moving across the desert, truly a remarkable sight. It was so distant, we could see the entire storm as sheets of rain poured down and bolts of lightning struck the ground one after another – a spectacular display, but so far away it just didn’t seem real.

This same sense of unreality can affect us when we’re confronted by distant events. Wars in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, terrorist attacks, the persecution of Christians in place like Nigeria, crime in our cities – yes, storms like these can also seem very distant. After all, they’re not happening here…at least not yet. A lot of us simply push it all aside, unmoved by what’s happening in the world. In a word, it’s easy for us to become indifferent.

But then there are those who look out at the world and its troubles and sinfulness and see nothing else. Wearing blinders of pessimism, they forget God is Emmanuel, who promised to be with us always. Indeed, in Genesis, we heard one of the first of God's promises – His covenant with Noah – a promise He’ll renew and expand throughout salvation history, anticipating the Incarnation of the Word of God among us. Yes, it all points to Jesus.

Dear friends, there’s no place in the mind and heart of the Christian for either indifference or pessimism; for the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ, is a message of unabashed optimism, and certainly not one of indifference. This, sisters and brothers, is what Lent’s all about: a time of optimism, a time of renewal, a time to turn away from yesterday, focus on today, and look expectantly to tomorrow.

In today's Gospel passage, Jesus is driven into the desert by the Holy Spirit, by His Spirit, to do the will of the Father, His Father. Here we witness the work of our triune God. Yes, the Trinity is at work. So often we compartmentalize our God, forgetting that Father, Son, and Spirit are One. Jesus, sacrificially, willingly throws Himself into the heart of a spiritual storm. Why does He do this? Why subject Himself to Satan’s direct and personal temptations? He does it for us. For Jesus, it’s a time, in His humility, to suffer, to experience the same temptations you and I encounter. He becomes our model.

For Jesus, those 40 days were a time of prayerful communion with the Father, a time of radical formation to prepare Himself for His ministry and, ultimately for His passion, death, and resurrection. It was a defining moment in His humanity, sharply dividing His hidden private life and His public ministry. God has given us a Redeemer whose love for us is boundless. In our sufferings, pains, and temptations, He leads us, extending mercy and forgiveness, since He too has experienced it all. Listen again to the words of our Psalm 25: 

"He shows sinners the way." 

And how did St. Peter put it in our 2^nd reading?

“Christ suffered… that he might lead you to God.”

In this season of Lent, Our Lord leads us as His Spirit led Him, so we too can confront our own very personal deserts. We each have a desert or two, those barren pieces of our lives, that we’d prefer not to confront, or, at best, to just look at from a distance.

Is our relationship with God a desert? Is our prayer life arid, neglected except once each week on Sunday? Or perhaps we‘re like those who claim friendship only when they need help? Do we pray only in time of need? St. Paul instructs us to "pray without ceasing" [1 Thes 5:17]. What can he possibly mean by this? Are we supposed to be on our knees all day? No. Paul’s just telling us to offer all that we do to God. To place everything – our plans, burdens, worries, pains, our sufferings and our joys – at His feet. He’ll share them with us and bear them for us. Can you and I deepen our prayer life this Lent? Talk to and with God. Share your sorrows and joys with Him. Taste His goodness.

What about our family life? Is it like that chaotic storm roaring across the desert? Has mutual respect and patient understanding been replaced by the thunder of arguments and bolts of bitterness aimed at the hearts of those we love? Unkind words leave wounds. My dad used to say, “The strongest among us bite their tongues a lot.” You and I must learn to forgive as the Father forgives, to love as He loves. When we pray together daily, God unfolds miracles in our families.

Another desert: the habitual sin that plagues so many lives. And yet, God’s mercy and forgiveness await in the sacrament of reconciliation – a remarkable gift, too often refused.

Or do we live in a desert of self-absorption, focused on ourselves, while others remain unseen. People hunger for more than bread. There’s a lot of loneliness in our community, so many who hunger for a kind word, for someone to listen, to visit, for they too await the taste of God’s love in their lives.

Then there’s pride, the great temptation: to imagine we can achieve through our own efforts what only God can give. Interesting how we so often exhibit pride while God, in humility, became one of us. Remember how they taunted Jesus on the Cross: 

“He trusted in God; let God deliver Him if He loves him” [Mt 27:43].

No angels came to Jesus on the Cross, but God’s plan wasn’t suspended. Although Jesus seemed abandoned, nothing separated Him from the Father, certainly not Satan or the desert or even the Cross. Jesus set His heart on the Father and trusted. The Father vindicated the Son when and where He chose. But He did vindicate Him. 

Through His resurrection Jesus assures us that victory is ours if only we persevere in faith and trust. Lent, then, is really a joyous season. What did Jesus say? 

"This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel." 

“Repent and believe in the Gospel,” the Good News, and good news is always joyful.

Brothers and sisters, the Good News is life, the life God shares with us. Believe in life! Christ's life, your life, my life, life here and now and forever. Come alive! Let Christ live in you and through you. Open your life to Him and to the will of the Father. Like Jesus, we can use these 40 days to confront our deserts, and leave them behind. For Lent isn’t about yesterday. It’s about today. And today is life.

Yesterday is sin. Today is love. God's love for us and the love He calls us to share with others. It’s the love that keeps His commandments, the love that overcomes even death, the crucified love that takes away the sins of the world.

We tend to complicate everything, and yet God likes to keep things simple. He told us to do two things:

Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength; and your neighbor as yourself. [Lk 10:27]

So, if you want to repent, to convert, to allow God to change you, love! Love God and love one another.

Yesterday is the despair of a world that rejects our living, loving God, the despair of the faithless, and of gloomy theologians who always seem to condemn. What words do we pray after each decade of the Rosary? That little prayer of Our Lady of Fatima:

“Oh, my Jesus. Forgive us our sins. Save us from the fire of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of Thy mercy.”

Do you and I believe God can lead all souls to heaven? If not, why then do we pray for it? For me, salvation is God's business, not mine. I just pray for others and myself, and hope; for today is hope — hope in God's message of love and forgiveness, the Good News of eternal life. So, if you want to repent, hope! Come to know the mercy of God.

Yesterday was slavery, slavery to sin, to pride, to fear. But today is freedom! Not the false freedom of doing whatever we want, but true freedom -- the power, the gift, to choose good over evil. So, if you want to repent, be free! Open yourself to God in free obedience to His commandments, and to each other in unforced love.

And do you know something? The wonderful thing about all this is you and I don’t have to do it alone. Indeed, we can’t do it alone. But if we call upon our God, the Father and the Son will send their Spirit to lead you and me out of those barren deserts into eternal life. 

God love you…and have a joyful Lent.

Homily: Tuesday, 6th Week in Ordinary Time

Readings: Jas 1:12-18 • Ps 94 • Mk 8:14-21

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Yesterday we saw the blindness of a Pharisee asking Jesus for a sign of His authority from God. Today we see the blindness of Jesus’ own disciples, still struggling to understanding who He is. They were neither evil nor stupid; they just hadn’t grasped that Emmanuel – God with us – quite literally meant that God was with them. Of course, this points to you and me as well, to our own blindness in not always recognizing the clear Presence of God in our own lives.

The disciples are traveling across the lake in the boat.  You would think that with 12 of them someone would remember to pack a lunch. But no. They had only one loaf of bread. As they cross the lake, Jesus is talking to them:

“Keep your eyes open; be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.”  

For the Jews yeast was a corrupting agent because it caused fermentation.  That was why at Passover they ate unleavened, incorrupt, bread. As Paul tells the Corinthians: 

“Get rid of all the old yeast, and make yourselves into a completely new batch of bread, unleavened as you are meant to be” [1 Cor 5:7].

Jesus is simply telling his disciples to avoid two opposing kinds of corruption: that of the Pharisees which is based on narrow-minded and intolerant legalism and that of Herod, is based on amoral and hedonistic pleasure-seeking. Of course, the disciples don’t listen; like us they tend to focus on their own little problems. They latch on to the word “yeast” and link it to their current obsession – not enough bread for them all. All they can think about is their lunch.

Jesus knows what is going in their minds. And so, he chews them out, scolding them for being so self-absorbed, for their continued worries of not having enough bread for their lunch. First, he tosses some rhetorical questions at them: Why are you worried about having no bread? Are your minds so closed, your vision so impaired you can’t see what’s right in front of you? Have you forgotten everything you’ve witnessed? Did it mean nothing?

But then He engages in a little Q&A with them: 

“When I broke the five loaves among the 5,000, how many baskets of leftovers did you pick up?” 

“Twelve,” they answer.  

“And when I broke the seven loaves for the 4,000, how many baskets of leftovers did you collect?” 

“Seven,” they reply.

“And still, you don’t understand?”

Five loaves for 5,000 people and 12 baskets of leftovers…Seven loaves for 4,000 with 7 baskets of leftovers…And you, a mere dozen men, are worried about being short of food when I am with you?

Mark tends to be hard on the disciples. They neither see nor hear, even when they witness the remarkable faith of others who encounter Jesus.They seem not to understand what is happening right before their very eyes. I suppose that’s to be expected. These were practical, down-to-earth men –fishermen, not mystics. They don’t yet know what to make of all the healings and miraculous things they’ve witnessed. A bit like you and me – so often we don’t see or understand what’s right in front of us.

But the disciples are learning…Indeed, only a few days after this event Peter makes His remarkable, Spirit-inspired testimony at Caesarea Philippi.

“Who do you say that I am? Jesus asks them.

And Peter replies, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” [Mt 16:16].

Mark, you see, isn’t really firing his shots at the disciples, because we know the end of their story. No, Mark is concerned about us, about you and me, for Mark knew what he was about. In the Acts of the Apostles, we encounter Mark as an evangelist, companion of Paul, and then Peter, a man who had seen the temptations James addresses in our first reading. 

Can we see? Do we understand? That God is with us? That He loves each of us with a very intimate, personal love? Or is our faith so weak we allow the little things in our lives to drive our thoughts and actions and blind us to the reality of God’s care for us? How about instead we focus on the big things:

On striving for holiness amidst the clutter of our lives.

On deepening our prayer life so we can stay in touch with God’s will for us.

On making disciples by taking Jesus to others

Do these things, the big things, and God will gladly lead us, and help us handle all the rest – the little things like bread, and illness, and family conflict, all the other worries that occupy our minds.

God cares for us, and He loves to take care of faithful ones.

A Lifeless President

Long ago, in another parish far, far away, I was asked by my pastor to teach a mini-course on the major heresies that have plagued the Church over the past 2,000 years. It was one of those parish adult faith-formation evening programs -- you know the kind: too much information packed into a half-dozen one-hour sessions. When I told the pastor I was by no means an expert on heresies, and he might want to choose someone else, he just said, "Well, I guess you'll be an expert soon enough. We'll schedule it to begin late next month. That'll give you six weeks to get ready." The course actually attracted more parishioners than expected, and nobody threw soft fruit at me, so I guess it went well enough.

As I prepared the course, I probably learned far more than I wanted to about heresies and heretics. But one of the most revealing things that stuck with me was a basic attitude apparent among those who developed and propagated their heretical ideas. They seemed driven by a self-focused attitude, in effect declaring: "I am smarter and holier than the Church; listen to me." Most of these heretics were very smart people (I can't speak to their holiness. We'll leave that to God.) But none were smarter than the Holy Spirit whose inspiration guides the Church and its teachings. They were, then, destined to be heretical and not orthodox. 

Another thing worth noting: because heresies, by their very nature, originate within the Church, most of the Church's serious problems and attacks are internal. The Church's ecumenical councils -- at least the first 20 of them -- were dogmatic councils addressing heresies and other dogmatic issues, internal problems faced by the Church. 

All of this came to mind recently while reading a couple of news stories about our president. Both stories focus on his public comments and actions related to abortion and seem to reflect deeply held beliefs that ignore the magisterial teaching of the Catholic Church. This is especially troubling since President Biden often refers to himself as a "devout Catholic" even while undermining, or actually attacking, the Church and its teachings.

I suppose I’ve always expected him to experience a true metanoia, an inspired moment leading to repentance and true conversion, a moment when he publicly turns back to his Catholic faith. But so far, nothing. When it comes to virtually all moral issues, Joe Biden just takes on the role of heretic, apparently assuming he, too, is smarter and holier than the Church. In his case, however, I think we can dismiss any thought of his being smarter, and as for his holiness, I can judge only by the fruits of his words and actions. I will keep those judgments to myself.

You may have seen these stories, but each is truly cringeworthy when you realize they represent the policies of a self-declared "devout Catholic" president.

Official Guest at State of the Union Address. President and Mrs. Biden have invited Kate Cox to be one of their official guests at the next State of the Union Address. Ms. Cox recently aborted her disabled, unborn child. She was the key figure in the recent abortion case that centered on a Texas law preventing the abortion of a 20-week-old unborn child. The state Supreme Court upheld the law, so Ms. Cox went to another state for the abortion. The White House Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, stated that the president and his wife have "thanked her for her courage and sharing her story and speaking out about the extreme abortion ban in Texas. The First Lady invited her to join her as a guest at the State of the Union and Kate accepted." Here's a link to the story: State of the Union.

How sad that our Catholic president and his wife have publicly praised this woman who actually took the life of her disabled, unborn child. No doubt President Biden will honor her during his State of the Union Address. It would seem the nation's first family is openly taunting the Church's bishops: "We, not you, are the new arbiters of morality. From now on we will decide what is good and what is evil. The people will listen to us, not you." Yes, indeed, it gives new meaning to the words of Satan in the Garden:

"God knows well that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, who know good and evil" [Gen 3:15].

Pray for our president, for his family, and for Kate Cox, asking God to lead them to the conversion he desires for them. 

President Biden: Christian Doctors Must Perform Abortions. Our president just can't endure anyone who's opposed to abortion. He has taken on the prime directive of the radical left: We cannot tolerate those who disagree with our beliefs and our policies. Yep, those who disagree with us must be forced into agreement, or simply cancelled. 

A case in point involves President Biden's Department of Health and Human Services. In July 2022, shortly after the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, HHS issued guidance claiming that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTLA) required hospital emergency staff to provide abortions. This rule change by Biden's HHS altered the previous policy protecting doctors and nurses from having to take part in medical procedures that conflict with their moral or religious beliefs. The new policy removes these protections which were actually strengthened by the Trump administration. Fortunately, a U.S. Appeals Court ruled that the "Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act does not require hospitals to provide abortions" thus blocking the administration from enforcing this new rule.

But this is just a temporary victory. The Biden administration is not letting this go and is fighting for so-called "abortion rights" at every level. I expect this will, at some point, end up before the U. S. Supreme Court.

The President recently stated that he will make abortion the key issue in the upcoming presidential campaign. I suppose this means he will focus on the goodness of abortion and on the evil of all pro-lifers, as personified by former President Trump. I'll admit, I voted for Donald Trump twice, in 2016 and 2020 (but not in the primaries), simply because I always vote pro-life. I've long been a policy voter who sometimes must overlook annoying traits and personal weaknesses. After all, I have quite a collection of these myself. But abortion will always be a major determinant because it is among the greatest of sins, the willful murder of the most innocent human lives. At Mass every Sunday and Solemnity we pray together the Nicene Creed, affirming our belief in the "Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life." If we believe this, to take a living, human life before it even has a chance to breathe the air of Creation must be the most horrendous of sins.

Pray for our world, our nation, and our people.