The Future is bright!

6th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Cycle B

Lv 13:1-2, 44-46, Psalm 32:1-2,5,11, 1 Cor 10:31-11:1, Gospel Mark:1:40-45

Introduction
Leprosy is a sign of impurity – unclean - an unworthiness to be in the presence of God.  Yet, we find ourselves here none the less.

How are Sin and Leprosy alike?
Leprosy separates us from God.  It makes us unable to worship God because we have rejected God.

Leprosy is an image of our soul when it is disfigured.  Listen to this language from Leviticus:  “If someone has on his skin a scab or pustule or blotch which appears to be the sore of leprosy”. 

How do Lepers live?
We separate ourselves from the community – so that we can protect the community.  Lepers are contagious, they reject God’s love and they seek to be by themselves.  They live messy lives (their clothes are rent), and they muffle their beards!

I have always wondered what a muffled beard is like.  Perhaps it is this.

[[MUFFLE THE BEARD]]

If we hang out with Lepers our chances of becoming one is improved because Leprosy is contagious.  Think about Sin, if we hang out with Sinners, how much more likely is it that we will begin to rationalize and justify our sinfulness.

Whenever I fall into Sin, I feel like a leper.  When I realize that I have banished myself from God, I am down, sad, isolated.  I do not feel pure, loved, blessed, but rather alone, isolated, unworthy.

This unworthiness is itself a trap of the enemy because he wants to trap us in our sin, keep us isolated and outside the camp – away from God’s love.

St. Augustine – A decadent Sinner
St. Augustine of Hippo is a good witness to the leprosy of Sin.  Augustine struggled to know that he was loved, and the lack of love led him into deep sin.  On one occasion he stole pears from a farmer, so that he could gain the admiration of his friends.  He said that when he ate the pears, that they were not even that good and eventually, he ended up throwing the pears to the pigs.

This action from his life is deep in meaning.  We seek after those things that are sinful, not for what they are but for what we think they will get us – love, affection, admiration.

In Sin we substitute a lesser good for a greater good
What we fail to realize is that we most need this affection from God.  When we act to obtain this love, and fail then we discover how worthless our pursuit has been.  Think about the reality of trading the love of God for Pig food!  Yet this is what St. Augustine did.

Concubine = shacking up = incomplete love
The other way that St. Augustine was wounded in his ability to love was through marriage and intimacy.  For 14 years he lived with a concubine – he was “shacked up” as we might say.  How many of us have entered into this relationship and accepted it as normal, ok and good enough.  Yet in the Lord’s eyes it is incomplete – lacking in the fullness of God’s love.  Our habit of sin separates us from God yet again.  It is a kind of leprosy that we suffer from.

Again and again St. Augustine fell into the trap of lust, seeking the affection of God through twisted or distorted relationships, friendships.

Christ – he helps us to form a complete relationship.

This is why the Gospel today is good news!  
God is reaching out to us in our desolation.  We are isolated, alone and infirm, and yet if we but cry out to God, he will hear and answer us. 

A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said, "If you wish, you can make me clean."

Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, "I do will it. Be made clean."

Show yourself to the priest
In the Sacrament of Confession Christ heals us and leads us back into relationship with him. He sets out the path by which this leprosy can be healed.

He said to him, "See that you tell no one anything, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them."

Confession is just that – showing the injured, wounded and corrupted parts of ourselves to Christ – who enters into those wounds, purifies them and then washes us clean.  He renews us and gives us yet another opportunity to grow in intimacy

Lent is just around the corner…
To “show yourself to the priest” is symbolic of confession.  Go and speak about the sins that are trapping you and making you sick.

Without recognizing our Leprosy we are trapped – when we do we are saved.
St. Augustine said “There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future” – without the ability to recognize conversion and the need to be saved.  Who was willing to declare themselves unclean and then work seriously on being healed.

Fight the Habit of Sin
Sometimes it is the habit of sin that prevents us from conversion.  That is why these readings today are so apropos, as they stand at the gateway to Lent and invite us to conversion.  Lent is coming – in 4 more days.  Now is the time for us to recognize our need for transformation  - to choose to spend this coming Lent working to break down and destroy habits of sinfulness in our lives.

I do will it – be made clean!
Showing yourself to the priest is an invitation to encounter the healing love of God.  Jesus responds to this leper’s Sin with the exclamation – “I do will it!  Be made clean!”

God’s love for us, his desire to save us is so great that he is willing to be made a leper so we can enter into the community of God.

Do Everything for the Glory of God
Lent is just around the corner.  Now is the time to be thinking about conversion, about how to live our lives this lent so that this time is a time of grace and conversion for us, and not a superficial “Giving up something” for a few weeks.  Let us adopt a new perspective for this Lent and listen to St. Paul

Brothers and sisters, Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. 

St. Paul calls us to conversion – to offer everything to God because everything has purpose. 

Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ
St. Paul goes on to encourage us to imitate him when he says.

This Lent - Be Repentant Lepers and Reformed Sinners
I want to challenge us to take up a new way of living this Lent – to be repentant lepers and reformed sinners.  Find a Saint that fascinates you, and learn more about them – seek to imitate them.

I challenge you to choose a Saint to study, to begin to imitate.  Saints are less intimidating that Christ and they help us to put our lives and our call into perspective.  They encourage us to holiness and purity of heart.

St. Augustine said “There is no saint without a past, there is no sinner without a future.”

In the Gospel Jesus encourages us – “The Future is bright!  Go and Sin no more.”

Refreshing the Soul

3rd Sunday of Lent – Cycle B

Ex 20:1-17, Psalm Ps 19:8, 9, 10, 11, 1 Cor 1:22-25, Jn 2:13-25

[[This homily requires some prop’s and setup. Walk to the back of the Church and put on a Police Badge on my Stole under my dalmatic. Then begin with the following announcement.]]

My new job!
I have some exciting news! This week the Father Dan gave me a new assignment – To the Church Offender Patrol – or COP. My new job is to write tickets to those folks who show up late for mass. (Walk up behind a parishioner, and place your hand on their shoulder). Sir (or Ma’am) – I notice that you were 27 seconds late for the entrance procession. Would you please step out of the pew? (Don’t forget to genuflect)…

[[PAUSE]]

Well, fortunately for the Church, for you and for me, this is all just silly. There is no such thing as the Church Offender Patrol. This little stunt is here to help us to begin to think about the Law, especially God’s Law.

“I have seen the light!”
Some of us here today have been driving down the highway when all of a sudden we have “Seen the Light” – that is the flashing red and blue lights in our rear view mirror because we are driving a little too fast or have done something else wrong. When we “see the lights” does our heart sink down into our chests, as that feeling of being “busted” spreads over us?

Experience of Human Law colors our understanding of God’s Law
I mention this up because the way we look at the law affects how we look at God’s Law. If we have a dim view of human law, then what is our view of God’s Law, and of God? Is the Ten Commandments just God’s way of being able to watch over us and “bust” us when we are caught breaking them?

Do we think that God is like a Speed Trap?
If you take a moment to speak with people about their image of God the Father, often times you will hear them describe God as the man in the sky with a long flowing beard who spends eternity looking down on us waiting for us to mess up so that he can take pleasure in punishing us. I think that for some of us, God is like a like a policeman hiding out with a speed gun trying to catch us speeding. This kind of theology is just as silly as a Deacon with a ticket book.

How then, should we look at the Law of God?
Certainly the readings in today’s mass speak of God’s law and Christ’s anger. The passage that we heard today from the book of Exodus is referred to as the “giving of the Law”. It is interesting to note that in this passage of Scripture Moses uses more than half of the words to describe the first three commandments, and then the last section to discuss the last 7 commandments. The reason for this is that the first three commandments help us to get our relationship with God in the right perspective. If our relationship with God is in the right perspective then the other seven commandments flow from that relationship, and keeping the law becomes easier, more straightforward.

I bring up this idea so that we can take a moment and think about how we think about God, and our relationship with Him. At the heart of Jesus’ mission here on earth was to reveal the love of His Father to us. If we have been living out life with the idea that God is a traffic cop, then now is the time for us to repent – to change our minds and take a new path. The reason why God gave His law to Moses on Sinai, and the reason why he sent His Son to us was so that we could enter into a relationship of love with God.

What is our relationship with God like today?
In the Gospel today Jesus enters into the Temple in Jerusalem and cleans it out. He makes a whip out of cord and drives out the moneychangers and the animal sellers. Jesus drives out those who are changing the temple from a house of prayer into a den of thieves. Jesus cleanses the temple to make room for something that is missing in the hubbub Jesus is trying to make room for people to worship God.

As we reflect over our Lenten journey thus far, are we succeeding in making room for God in our lives, or are we allowing the moneychangers and the animal sellers to overwhelm us so that we are unable to worship. Are we allowing sin to enslave us so that we are unable to be free so that we might hear the Gospel?

Our Bodies are the temples that need cleansing
There is another temple that Christ desires to enter and to cleanse this Lent Brothers and Sisters. That is our souls. St. Paul says that when we are baptized our souls become “temples of the Holy Spirit” and God comes to dwell with us. Christ is driving out the moneychangers because they are a distraction to the real purpose of the temple. What distractions does Christ need to drive out of our temples this week?

What are the distractions that need to be driven out?
This really takes us back to the first three commandments of the Law of God. Do we have other Gods besides God? Television, Computers, Sports, Work, Alchohol, Drugs? Do we keep the Lord’s name holy, like we would the name of a cherished loved one, or do we use his name habitually to curse and to profane? Do we keep the Lord’s day holy? Do we rest on the Sabbath? Or do we allow our cultural work-aholicism to infect this day too?

[[PAUSE]]

This brings us to the other experience of the law that we might have. For some of those gathered here today have had the experience of waking up in the middle of the night to hear some disturbance going on in the street outside our houses. What do we do? Call 911. Three or four minutes later the law shows up to help us. The key experience that we have here is the recognition that we need help.

How do we dial 911 for God?
The Church has its own version of 911 for the soul. It is called the Sacrament of Reconciliation. For those of us who are thinking that it has been a long time since I received the sacrament of reconciliation that I forgotten how, I have the 30 second refresher on how to make a good confession.
· Sign of the Cross
· Forgive me Father for I have sined.
· It has been XX days / weeks / months / years / decades since my last confession.
· Here are the Sins that I have committed.
· Father will give you some advice, perhaps ask for some clarification and then ask you to make an act of contrition – which is a short prayer to God expressing your sorrow at sin and your desire and resolve to sin no more. It goes like this. “O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven, and the pains of hell; but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who are all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen.” (If you have forgotten your act of contrition, they are written down in the confessional.)
· Then you will receive absolution – which is the Holy Spirit cleansing of your soul from all sin.
· Lastly Father will give you a penance – which is medicine for your soul, to help you to get stay strong in your battle against sin.

We have confession here are St. Anthony’s Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. So one way that we can allow this Gospel to take root in our hearts is to make a commitment to attend Confession one of these nights this week.

The Law of the Lord can transform our lives
The Psalm today speaks of our encounter with the Law of God in a positive way. Listen anew to what the psalmist says “The law of the LORD is perfect, refreshing the soul; The decree of the LORD is trustworthy, giving wisdom to the simple.” And again he says “The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the command of the LORD is clear, enlightening the eye.”

I think that some times our experience with human law – which is imperfect and not entirely just that influences our response to God’s law. Jesus cleanses the temple in the Gospel today to make room for the God’s law to take root in our hearts and to grow because God’s law is a law that “is perfect, refreshing the soul”, a law that “is trustworthy, giving wisdom to the simple”. God’s law is “right, rejoicing the heart” and His law “is clear, enlightening the eye”.

The goal of our Lenten penance is to cleanse the temple of our souls from the corrupting influences that lead us away from God. We need to make room in our souls for God’s law, because it leads us to freedom from sin, freedom to truly love God, and to truly be loved by Him.

HNN – Heavenly Network News

First Sunday of Lent, Cycle A

Gn 2:7-9; 3:1-7 - Ps 51:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 17 - Rom 5:12-19 - Mt 4:1-11

HNN – Real Reality Television

God likes to watch TV. In fact, He is up in heaven right now, sitting in his recliner, sipping on a nice cool beverage, with his feet propped up in his favorite Lazy-Boy watching HNN – Heavenly Network News. But God’s Television is not like our TV. He doesn’t just watch some Virtual Reality world, but rather He participates in Real Reality Television – Interactive and in Truth!

The beauty of HNN is that God (Because he exists outside of time) and sees all of the Superbowl Games all at once. And although he knows the outcome of every game played throughout all of time He still gets a kick out of watching all of them.

Hearing the Word at Mass is like Watching HNN with God

Hearing the Scriptures in Mass is like watching HNN with God, In the First Reading we learn that there is such a thing as Good and Evil. It is partly a consequence of our Human Freedom. The right use of freedom is to choose the good over the evil – because choosing the good leads us into happiness, while choosing evil leads us into a life of death.

Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden

On HNN today we watched Eve be confronted with temptation and fall into sin. This is our struggle with sin. With Adam and Eve we too chose to listen to Satan, and fall into sin. When we sin we use our freedom to reject God.

Scorn or Cry

When we glance over at God the Father, to see how he is taking this terrible turn in events – We see tears pouring down His cheeks. God is greatly saddened to see his creation fall victim to Sin and the Devil.

St. Michael – The Angelic Analyst

Now the Angelic Analyst comes onto the screen to give his Analysis – Look it is Saint Michael the Archangel, Captain of the Heavenly Host.

“Notice how the enemy engages us. He never uses a frontal assault, because he knows that the Heavenly Host will go through him like snow through a snow blower! See how slippery he is, he asked Eve a question – diversion, deception and trickery are the hallmarks of our enemy. Let’s analyze his attack strategy...”

“Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?”

An innocent Question – or is it. First of all, the first mistake of Eve was to listen to the suggestions of the Devil to begin with. He always starts with a question to get us thinking, and then he tries to twist our thinking with rationalization so that we are unable to resist his attack.

What underlies this question is the suggestion that God is not to be trusted.

• Did God really tell you that lusting after pornography is adultery?
• Did God really tell you that Gluttony is sinful, destructive to your body and your soul?
• Did God really tell you that violence is evil and begets more violence?
• How much violence, flesh, greed, anger, lying, lust, laziness, disobedience, pride is evil. Is it all evil, or just some of it evil?

This is where we fall into the grip of Sin, we follow the pattern of Adam and Eve.

“Notice that now that the Devil has her attention, he slips in the deception, the lie – she has been duped and doesn’t even know it!”

“You certainly will not die! No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is evil.”

“See how skillful Satan is, he packs lies into simple statements.”

• God is a liar (You certainly will not die!) – But really Satan is the liar (The wages of sin is death)
• God is not looking out for you – you can’t trust him!
• God does not want you to be a God like him (why else would he forbid the fruit?)

Sitting next to God as He weeps
God is crying because he sees the destruction wrought by Original Sin. Not only does he see the personal sin of Adam and Eve, but remember HNN’s slogan is “All the News from All of Time All at Once”. God is filled with sadness to see that what He created out of beauty and love for goodness, happiness and fulfillment is used to hurt His creation. What do I mean?

Adam and Eve only realized that they were naked after they ate the forbidden fruit because they no longer saw one another through the eyes of love, but rather through the eyes of selfish Lust!

The Jesus Channel (Channel 2)

Providentially, at the same time, God is watching Jesus on Channel 2 (He is the 2nd person of the Holy Trinity) in His battle with Satan in the Desert. Here, Jesus is winning back all of the ground lost by Eve and more in his contest with the Devil. It’s like watching “Let’s make a deal”, where the Devil is playing the part of Monty Hall, and Jesus is a contestant on the show. But this version is different. The Devil shows up with Door Number One (You can Turn Stones into Bread), Door Number Two (Go ahead and throw yourself off the Temple, you’ll be alright), and Door Number Three (Worship Satan and you can get everything in the World). The funny thing about this show is that Jesus sees through the temptation of Satan. He does this with Prayer, Fasting and a thorough understanding of Scriptures (He is after all, the Word made Flesh) and the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus plays the game by God’s rules – He chooses the greater good over all of the temptations that Satan offers Him. He chooses fasting over gluttony. He trusts in God Word rather than the twisted reading of the Scriptures. He chooses to serve the God of Selfless love rather than serve the selfish devil.

King David and Temptation Palace!

On the “How to Fix It Channel” we see King David confessing his sins. This is what today’s psalm speaks to us about.

David’s Sin

Tradition has it that King David wrote this psalm after Nathan confronted him about sleeping with Bathsheeba (Adultery). After David got her pregnant he tried to get her husband Uriah to lie with her so he wouldn’t get caught (David Lied). When that failed, King David sent Uriah up to the front to die (Murder).

YOU ARE DEAD!

After this happened to him, the prophet Nathan came to King David and told him of his Sin. Nathan told David that he was DEAD in God’s eyes. Nathan was filling the role of our conscience in David’s life.

David responded to Nathan’s witness by writing Psalm 51. In Psalm 51, we learn how to fix our broken souls. What we need to do to recognize our sinfulness and to find healing in God.

Recognize the Wrong by Guilt.

Have mercy on me, God, in your kindness
In your compassion blot out my offense.
O wash me more and more from my guilt
And cleanse me from my sin.

The Battle with Satan, the struggle with Sin, with selfishness versus selflessness begins with…

• An understanding of God’s Goodness.
• Knowing that God has the ability to cleanse us, and to wash away our sin.
• Knowing that God can save us (To Wash away our Guilt means allowing God to heal our sinfulness).

The Gift of Guilt – It leads to honesty – which leads to dealing in the Truth.

Guilt is a good thing – it leads us to conversion – to repentance – and healing. Guilt is like pain for the soul – it is a gift from God that keeps us safe.

We need to “own” our actions – because our conscience will remember them anyway. We can choose to tune out our Guilt, like David did for a while, but eventually the truth of our actions will come home to roost.

My offenses truly I know them;
My sin is always before me.
Against you, you alone have I sinned;
What is evil in your sight I have done.

This verse of the psalm speaks about the role of the Conscience in keeping us honest – it remembers. Repentance is about taking ownership of what you have done, and recognizing the evil that it is.

Why do we rationalize our Sin?

One of the reasons why we struggle with Repentance is that we fail to acknowledge the sinfulness of our actions. We fail to see how sin kills us – Why? Because often it is a slow death.

But our conscience always reminds us of the truth of our deeds – whether they are good or evil.

During Lent the Church invites us to meditate on our lives. When we are honest, we confront our Sin and we see why our behavior is sinful – how does it damage our relationship with God.

The Prayer of a Soul seeking healing!

(Confession is Disinfectant for the Soul)

A pure heart create for me, O God,
Put a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from your presence,
Nor deprive me of your holy spirit.

The psalm reminds us of the cleansing and healing action of God’s love – When you cut yourself, you clean out the wound with disinfectant to kill the germs. Sin is the same way, when you wound yourself with Sin, you wash it out with the cleansing presence of the Holy Spirit through the sacrament of Confession!

Todah – Thanksgiving

O rescue me, God, my helper
And my tongue shall ring out your goodness.
O Lord, open my lips
And my mouth shall declare your praise.

(Remember A Kid's First Confession)

The Joy of Confession – of healing is that we experience the true Joy of God – Our life, gives praise to God for the great things he has done for us.

CONCLUSION

Now God is tuned into Channel 23 – Where he witnesses the events of your lives. Don’t let time or sin keep you from taking advantage of the great grace of this sacrament.

Lent is the time for us to take up the heroic path!
Lent is the time for us to deal with Temptation and Sin!
This Lent will you follow the path of King David, and come to healing in your Soul?
At the end of this Lent will we see that the Fathers Eyes are filled with Sorrow at what we have done channel,

or with Joy?