Through the Desert

 

First Sunday of Lent

Gn 9:8-15, Ps 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9, 1 Pt 3:18-22, Mk 1:12-15

The Spirit Drove Christ into the Desert

St. Mark tells us that the Spirit drove Christ into the Desert to be tempted by the Devil?  Why would God do that to himself?

The Desert is a place of Death

We have in our parish this beautiful poster of the Desert - it is at either Sunrise or Sunset - it seems to be a place of quiet, solitude, and beauty. Looking at this poster - you might be thinking to yourself - “I get it.  Jesus is about to begin His public ministry, so he is going to catch some rays and relax before getting busy saving the world.”  Nothing could be further from reality.

The Source of Death is our decision to Sin

St. Mark also tells us that Christ was driven into the desert to be tempted by Satan.  That tells us a bit about the reality of the Desert - it is the place of death.  There is no water, no shelter, no protection, everything is exposed, dries out and dies.  

The Israelites went into the Desert to Die to Slavery

When the Israelites went into the Desert it was so that they could die to the life of slavery in Egypt and so begin to live life as the chosen people of God.

The Desert is a dangerous place

The Desert is where we are alone, unprotected from the wild-beasts who are all scrambling to find their next meal - which if we are unprotected could be us.  The desert is populated with poisonous things - Snakes, Scorpions and the like - not a place where we could lie down and rest…

Why then does the Church send us into the Desert of Lent?

As I said - the desert is the place of lifelessness.  It is the place of Death.  For each of us, the desert is the place in our hearts where we choose sin, we choose to kill our relationship with God - that is the desert that we are called to enter into so that we can have a holy Lent.

The Desert of Lent is where we die to the Slavery of Sin

The Church sends us out into the Desert of Lent each year so that we can die to the slavery of Sin in our lives.  She does not send us into the desert unprepared, but sends us into the desert armed with the season of grace (God’s Love), and the weapons against the enemy - Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving.

On Ash Wednesday this past week the parish was packed with people, wall to wall.  The parking-lot was packed - and everyone was excited to be here.  In my experience of Lent, I know that this is early days, everyone is still enthusiastic about this journey - we have yet to stumble, fall or fail at our lenten disciplines - but that too is coming.

What is Sin?  What is Temptation?

All of us are sinners, we all commit sin.  There is nothing more embarrassing than to be a committed Christian and to recognize in your life that you are addicted to sin.  Even though you make a firm resolution in confession to avoid temptation to sin and the sin itself I still find myself committing sin in my life.  

Sin is when I freely take an action that is of grave matter that is directly opposed to the will of God.  Scripture tells us that the wages of Sin is death.  It also tells us the topics that make up grave matter.  The first 3 relate to God

1.  God Alone

2.  God’s name is Holy

3.  Take time to worship God on the Sabbath.

The last 7 are how we relate to one another.

4.  Honor your Parents

5.  Do not kill

6.  Do not commit adultery

7.  Do not steal

8.  Do not lie

9.  Do not covet your neighbor's wife

10. Do not covet your neighbor's goods.

That recognition leads me to the realization that I cannot escape Sin under my own power - that I am weak and that I need help. 

Sin kills our friendship with God - Sin is the Desert

God gave us the commandments (in the desert) to help us to live a good and holy life.  Yet all of us, find ourselves from time to time where we choose to break one or more of these commandments.  In that moment we choose to make ourselves God, and say to the Lord - you don’t know what is good for me - and instead to break the commandment - which kills off our ability to recognize the love of God.

When we do that we find ourselves in the midst of a spiritual desert - a place devoid of life and without the presence of God.  We truly are exposed to the wild beasts and vulnerable to death.  What can we do?

Psalm 107 - The Desert will become a place of springs

In Psalm 107 the Lord says that he will turn the “desert into streams, thirsty ground into springs of water…”.  The desert that the psalm refers to is the place of death that we find ourselves in this Lent.  It is the desert into which Christ preceded us to do battle with temptation by the Devil.  

Christ goes into our Deserts to help us win over sin

Christ goes into the desert - into the place in my life, your life where we choose to sin, where we exclude God from our life and where we begin to die to rescue us from the wages of Sin and Death.  That is what this Lenten season is about.  The Church equips us with Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving to give us the tools of conversion - so that we can die to the slavery to Sin and rise into the newness of life.

Prayer expresses our need for help

Prayer helps us to verbalize our need for God’s help.  Prayer in which we can begin to understand the depths of God’s love for us - that we can drive out temptation to make ourselves God and instead remember that God loves us completely, deeply, profoundly, totally.

Fasting helps us subdue impulsiveness

Fasting - where we do battle with the impulsive nature of our will.  Satan often tries to get us not through our logical nature - “Hey wouldn’t it be a great idea if you forgo eternity in communion with God for an Icecream cone?  No rather it is through our impulsive nature - I want, I am compelled, I desire…  Fasting helps to strengthen ourselves against our more impulsive desires - because at its heart most habitual sin is just that - we have become so comfortable in our sin that it is a habit and we are not even thinking about it any more…

Almsgiving is an imitation of Christ

Almsgiving - reminds us that everything we have been given is a gift from God, and so therefore we should share the gifts that God has given us with those in need. Almsgiving is a powerful weapon in Lent because not only does it help us to recognize God’s gifts, but it teaches us to imitate God by imitating His generosity - in sharing the gifts that God has given us..

Christ waits to be invited into your desert

Christ wants us to know that the desert is not a place that is foreign to Him, that is devoid of Him - that he is too embarrassed to go to.  No, rather God is compelled by His love for us to enter into the Desert for our conversion.

To bring about a flood of grace

And what of these Springs of Water that God desires to release into the Desert?  The springs of Water are best symbolized by the water of Baptism - in which God’s grace gives life and light to the world - in which we are reborn from Sinners into children of God - vessels of God’s grace welling up in us and through us into the world.  

See that God saves you this Lent

When we allow Christ into our Desert he brings his grace to cure the barrenness of Sin, and to bring about a new life of grace in our midst.  With all of the saints who were great sinners, the desert becomes a place of springs because it is the place where they can clearly see God’s love for them conquering sin and death in their lives.

St. Peter says in the second reading today…

Beloved:  Christ suffered for sins once, the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, that he might lead you to God.  Put to death in the flesh, he was brought to life in the Spirit… 

In which a few persons… were saved through water.  This prefigured baptism, which saves you now.  It is not a removal of dirt from the body but an appeal to God for a clear conscience,

Repent (Change your mind) and believe in the Gospel

A clear conscience through which God’s love can permeate our lives and through our lives transform the world.  That is why the Gospel today ends in this way - Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: "This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel."  Christ has gone before us - it is up to us to follow Him…

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.”

Encountering Providence

13th Wednesday of Ordinary Time – Cycle B

The readings today call to mind three key aspects of our relationship with God – Faith, Providence and Sin. In today’s Gospel Christ comes across the Sea and encounters two men possessed by demons. These men are so filled with evil that the roads near the tombs are not safe for travel. When these two men encounter Christ they are saved from the demons that possess them. St. Matthew does not focus on their salvation, but rather on the reaction to the presence of Christ of the local townspeople and the swineherds.

The demons are driven into the swine, who are driven mad and plunge into the sea where they die. The swineherd run into town not with the Good News, but fear for the village – their source of livliehood has just plunged into the sea and is gone.

When have we encountered a similar experience, when we encounter the “Good News” of Jesus Christ only to realize that our life has changed? How do we respond to this?

Providence is God’s action in our lives. Often times the providence of God is expressed through ordinary people and ordinary events, that lead us to deepen our trust in God and his love for us.

Faith is our ability to understand that God’s providence is at work in our lives. The more we recognize God’s providence, the easier it becomes for us to have faith in times of trial, when we, like the villagers are called to be purified from our sins.

Sin is the ways that we separate our lives from God. Sin weakens our ability to trust in God’s providence, because ultimately all sin is placing something that is not God above God. Whereever we find ourselves enslaved by sin, we are choosing our sin over God, and that makes these times of trusting to God’s providence more difficult.

When we encounter God’s providence in our lives today, will our Sin prevent us from seeing that the Good News has dawned into our lives or will our Faith allow us to see the truth of God’s love?

Standing Watch

23rd Sunday Ordinary Time – Cycle A

Standing Watch

Ez 33:7-9 Psalm Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9 Rom 13:8-10 Mt 18:15-20

Pirates!
A pirate with a peg-leg, hook and eye patch decides to give up his life of piracy so he goes to confession. After making a good confession, the priest asks him - "How did you end up with a peg leg?" The pirate replies, "I was swept overboard and my leg was eaten by a shark.” "That is terrible," says the priest. "What about your hook?" "Well," answers the pirate, "I lost my hand to a Spaniard whose treasure ship we had boarded to steal his gold.” “Incredible. How’d you get the eye patch?" "Eating grapefruit - I was eating my grapefruit when the juice squirted into my eye”. “That’s doesn’t sound like that would destroy your eye.” said the priest. "Yer right Father,” says the pirate, "but it was my first day with the new hook."

Ships are symbols of the Church
From the time of Noah and the Ark until now the image of the ship has always been a symbol of the Church – a place of safety on the storm-tossed waters of the world. The readings today speak about two different senses of the Church, the Family, and the Church gathered here today.

The Family is the Domestic Church
When John Paul II described the family as the Domestic Church he wanted us to understand the mission of the family as the first place where the Gospel is lived out. As parents we have the primary responsibility to witness the love of Christ in the way that we give ourselves to each another as husbands and wives. We show the love of Christ to our children in the way that we sacrifice for them and each other in our washing the laundry, keeping the house clean, going to work, doing the dishes – the list goes on and on. All of us have experienced self-less love to varying degrees. Some of our parents were evangelists “par excellence” of this Christ-like love, others not so much.

Children in the family have a responsibility to proclaim the Gospel to one another, and into the world. All of us are called to imitate the love of Christ as Brothers and Sisters. We do this in how we learn to love each other and forgive one another as Christ forgave us. Christ chose the family relationship to help us grow in our relationship with God. It is not always easy, but it is ultimately rewarding.

On Duty
The readings today give us some advice on how to grow these relationships. Among sailors, there is a responsibility that the entire crew shares called “keeping watch”. Keeping watch means that some of the crew is responsible for the safe operation of the ship for the entire time that the ship is at sea. These sailors have a responsibility to do their “duty” – The lives of their ship-mates depend on it. That duty might be keeping an eye on the weather, tending to the engines, or being alert for navigation hazards such as reefs or sand-bars where the ship might get stranded.

Keep Watch!
In the first reading today the prophet Ezekiel exhorts us to be attentive to our duty – to watch out for shoals where we might get stranded, or reefs that might tear out the belly of the ship. But he is not speaking in the nautical sense, but rather in the human sense – Ezekiel begins today with the exhortation – “Thus says the LORD: You, son of man, I have appointed watchman for the house of Israel;” he calls us to keep watch over the souls of our fellow ship-mates here in the Church. This statement of God leads us to ask three questions – How do I keep watch, what am I on watch for, and how do I sound the alarm.

What to keep watch for?
In keeping our watch, we are like those sailors aboard ship who are looking out for the safety of all the souls aboard their vessel. God has given us the job of speaking to those who are leading lives of peril, whose souls are in danger of floundering on shoals, or running aground on the sand bars of sin. The reading from Ezekiel reminds us that we will be held accountable for how we keep the watch that God has given us – it is a serious responsibility. When we recognize that souls are in peril, we have a responsibility to sound the alarm, so that the danger can be averted.

Listen to God in your heart
Our own relationship with God is an essential part of us keeping watch. If we do not have a relationship with God, then how will we hear his voice? Prayer – speaking and (more importantly) listening to God is the first part to doing our duty well. We listen to God by hearing him in our hearts – the place where we make decisions about how we are going to act. This is a slightly different understanding of heart than the modern American usage of the word – which typically means the place where we experience our emotions.

Authentic prayer disposes us to hear His voice.
Authentic prayer, speaking and listening to God can take many different forms, from a spontaneous sharing of your day with God in the evening, reflecting on scripture, or praying the rosary. All of us are called to foster a deeper relationship with God through prayer. All of these ways of listening to God invite us to perceive the world a little more each day through the perspective of God’s heart by allowing ourselves to be challenged by His word and the teaching of His church. To listen to God means that we hear him in our hearts and our hearts are converted. That is why the refrain from the psalm today is “If today you hear his voice – harden not your hearts!”

God speaks to us through relationships
Daily prayer disposes our hearts to be open and aware of Gods presence in the world, but God does not normally speak to us directly. It is rare in the spiritual life for God to speak to us like the Captain of an old sailing ship bellowing out – “Avast there Deacon– Stand by to come about!” The normal way that God speaks to us is through one another, in our relationships, and actions. Prayer sensitizes us so that we can see the work of God in our lives more clearly. It teaches us how to look for the footprints of God in the history of our lives. Sometimes the messages are “atta boys”, and other times they are a smack upside the head with the spiritual 2x4 when God calls us to face the painful truths about how we are carrying out our duty – and those messages are also important for our ongoing conversion.

Standing Orders
When sailors are trained to stand watch at sea, they are given “Standing Orders” which tell them what to do in case of an emergency. For the Jews, and for us the “Standing Orders” is the Law, the writings of Moses and the prophets that discussed what to watch out for and what to do. Living the Law trains us in how to love. Jesus often criticized the Pharisees and the Sadducees because they lived the law without love. St. Paul teaches us that the goal of the Law is to lead us to love. In his letter to the Romans St. Paul begins with “Brothers and sisters: Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.” What he means is that when we carry out our duty in our families, the law of love must always guide us so that our proclamation of the Gospel is living and effective.

Sounding the Alarm
So, shipmates, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother.”

Sin is personal, it destroys relationships – either our relationship with God or our relationship with one another. Sin injures us, and it injures the one we sin against. Sin destroys the community – whether that community is the family (the Domestic Church) or this larger church community. When we witness sin we have an obligation to point it out – with charity. This means discerning the right place and way to communicate the fault so that healing can take place. This is why we need to be steeped in prayer and in love.

Seek the Truth with Love
Christ goes on to say that if this does not work, then take one or two others along with you, so that ‘every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ – bring in additional people – to see the truth of the situation – not to take sides in a war of he-said / she said, but to see the truth.

In order for this to work, we need to be rooted in love and humility, so that we can truly listen to one another and accept correction from one another. This is not how the world works. In business we have contracts and penalties and judges – we have the law. The law is based on a fundamental distrust of individuals. In the Church we have the law of love that calls husbands and wives to be humble with one another, to correct out of love and to accept correction with humility – in their hearts. Likewise, Fathers and Mothers evangelize their children by how they show their love to them – providing for them, guiding them as they are raised. As children we are called to imitate the love that our parents show us in how they love one another and how they love us.

What is our witness to the Gospel?
God desires a relationship of love with us, and so he has given us two families in which to learn how to enter into relationship with him – our families of blood; the domestic church, and our family of faith in the Catholic Church. In both families we have a duty to do, to watch out for one another’s safety. In the Gospel today Christ shows us the way to do this. Christ has placed a two-fold challenge before us this week – To recognize God’s hand when we are called to account this week and not harden our hearts; and to respond to Him with courage when he wants us to use us to sound the alarm. The question is - do we have the courage?

Christ - The Inconvenient Truth

15th Sunday Ordinary Time – Cycle A

Is 55:10-11 Psalm Ps 65:10, 11, 12-13, 14 Rom 8:18-23 Mt 13:1-23

Al Gore wins the Nobel Peace Prize
Last year the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to our Al Gore for his movie “An Inconvenient Truth” that chronicles the environmental impact of humanity on the planet. This movie is a call to all of humanity to clean up our act in how we are treating the planet – to become better stewards of the resources that we have so that our planet is around and livable for generations to come.

Impact of Environmental Sensitivity
The goal of his movie was to increase awareness of the damage that our modern, industrialized society may be causing to the planet, through pollution. Since “An Inconvenient Truth” was released countless websites have opened up to increase peoples awareness to their impact on the environment. On the Internet we can “measure our carbon footprint”. I have even heard in the news that the Democratic Convention here in Denver is gearing up an army of volunteers to have a “Green” convention – they want to have a “Carbon Neutral” impact on the planet.

Can we see the effects of our Sin?
In the Gospel today Jesus observes that people close their eyes and ears so they cannot see the love of God. Often we ignore how God is calling us in our hearts because of our addiction to sin.

The power of Al Gore’s movie is that it helped people to see the changes that are going on in the world today. A picture is worth a thousand words, when we see the snows retreating, pollution increasing and the world decaying, we become motivated to do something about it.

The readings today speak to us about the pollution that brings about corruption in our soul. The readings lead us to answer the question – What pollution is corroding away at my soul today?

• Is it in what I choose over loving my spouse?
• How I treat my family?
• My friends?
• What I watch, what I say what I do?

[PAUSE]

The American writer Upton Sinclair once wrote that “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on him not understanding it”. What is the paycheck that we get from our sin? Why do we, why do I choose again and again to immerse my soul in this corruption?

[PAUSE]

How the Duomo in Florence might help us to see sin

In a certain way, I think that our culture suffers from an inability – a set of closed eyes and ears to the truth of who Christ is, and the truth about the state of our souls. If St. Paul were able to make a movie about the spiritual pollution that our souls are in he might choose the painting on the ceiling of the dome of the Cathedral in Florence, Italy. This dome is painted with this magnificent scene of the Last Judgment. At the bottom we see devils taking delight in torturing poor souls that are addicted to sin. This is one way for us to visualize the affect of our sin on our soul.

Christ is the Inconvenient Truth! – Why Inconvenient?

If St. Paul were to make a movie today, he might title it “Christ – The Inconvenient Truth!” When we live lives that are immersed in sin, we encounter Christ as “The Inconvenient Truth”. Christ is inconvenient because the light of his love exposes the ugliness of our sin. He makes it difficult for us to persevere in the corruption that we surround our souls with. In the Gospel today Christ invites us to become open to His word, that He might dwell in us and bear fruit. This leads us to ask the question – What kind of soil is the life I am living for the Word of God?

• How do I accept the Word of God into my heart?
• How fertile is my life for the Kingdom of Heaven?
• Am I living a life that is liberated by the redemptive love of Jesus, or am I still mired and trapped by my sin?

[PAUSE]

Christ is the Inconvenient Truth – Why the Truth?

Isaiah reminds us in the first reading that the Word of God is effective, it has a purpose, and God sends it to accomplish that purpose. The purpose of God’s word is to cleanse us from the corruption and pollution of Sin that leads us to death. Our challenge is to open our hearts to be able to receive the Word of God. In his letter to the Romans St. Paul speaks of how all creation is groaning for the coming of God at the end of time. I think that often times the words of St Paul’s readings today strike us as empty words because we have lost sight of the power of the great gift of Baptism. So let us go back in our lives to the very beginning when we encountered God in our Baptism. In Baptism the Holy Trinity comes and makes His dwelling in us in our souls. This is a profound moment in our lives. If this is the gift that Christ has already given us – an opportunity to spend our lives with God, how much greater will it be when we come to see him face to face.

Baptism - Our First Fruit of Creation

Another way to reflect on this truth - All of us here today who are baptized have experienced the first fruits of salvation – our baptism; however we have such an impoverished sense of salvation. We are called to drink deeply of the grace that God has given to us so that we are truly groan for the coming of salvation. If we have a superficial understanding of the gifts that God has already given us (Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist) then we don’t groan with St. Paul and the rest of creation because the fail to recognize the treasures that we have already been given.

Decay = Sin / Growth = Life

When we encounter decay in our world, we are reminded of decay in our soul, likewise when we encounter growth in the world, we are reminded of our need to grow in our relationship with God in our Soul. We do this by living lives that are more and more closely in touch with our creator. The more in contact to the Word made Flesh that we become the more sanctified we are, and through us the world becomes. This is what our encounter with the Inconvenient Truth does – it transforms the world through sanctification.

Reduce your Sin Footprint so that God can increase His Grace Footprint

The readings today are chocked full of the imagery of nature, of rains, growth, seeds and life. Jesus speaks of the seed – the Word of God that is planted in our hearts is watered, takes root, grows and in its own time bears fruit 30 or 60 or 90 fold. We are called to live lives that reflect “The Inconvenient Truth” to the world. As humans, paying attention to our “Carbon Footprint” is part of our stewardship of the planet. As Christians, we have the serious responsibility of taking care of our “Sin Footprint” because we are not just called to be “Sin Neutral” but we are called to be “Grace Positive” – to change the world so that it is sanctified through our living out of the Gospel; This is why St. Paul says that “All creation groans for the salvation of the Sons and Daughters of God” – because when we allow Christ to redeem our lives, our world is redeemed, purified, sanctified with us.

The Sickness of Sin

Fifth Sunday of Lent, Cycle A

Ez 37:12-14 - Ps 130:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8 - Rom 8:8-11 - Jn 11:1-45

How did you get injured?
When you wear a neck brace everyone wants to know what happened. Did you have a car accident? Hurt yourself Skiing? Mountain Climbing? Fall on the Ice?

I did it to my self – what do you think about that?
How would you respond if I said I got this injury on purpose? What? I am Aghast? Why would you injure yourself? You don’t seem like the kind of guy who would attempt suicide, or self-mutilation…

What if it was a horrible disease?
What if I didn’t have a neck injury, but rather I purposefully infected myself with some horrible disease like the plague, leprosy, hepatitis, AIDS, Ebola or something worse?

What would you do?

Would you let me come and stay in your house – infected with a terrible disease?
Would you be my friend?
Would you tell my family? Boss? The Doctor? Social Services?

We are crazy to hurt ourselves
You would be right to think that I was crazy to hurt myself, You would be right to think that I am not sane to infect myself with a horrible disease. There is something horribly wrong when people do that – and they need help.

I am Not Sick – I used this brace to illustrate the sickness of my soul
Providentially for us, I am not physically sick or injured. I do not have some really bad contagious disease. I wore this neck brace to illustrate a disease that affects all of us, it is a sickness of the soul – it is sin

Sin is killing me
Sin afflicts me, The sin that I commit tears me down, it destroys my soul, it is my sin that is killing me and it is often hard to visualize. So I wear a neck brace to remind myself that Sin is killing me, and I need to change so that I am no longer crippled.

A Man was Ill
The Gospel today begins with the statement – A Man was ill. Which man? You and me. Like Lazarus we are ill because of the Sin that we have not repented from. Sin is a sickness of the Soul.

We need sin like lung cancer needs cigarettes
Like Lazarus, we are dying – we often don’t see it because we often don’t recognize the true state of our soul. We are like an emphysema patient dieing from lung cancer, and yet we keep on smoking cigarettes.

Mary prays for Lazarus
Fortunately we are like Lazarus, we have a family that does care for us and wants to do something about our sickness. We need to pray for one another, and to counsel one another to get better. Lazarus had his sisters who prayed for him – the Gospel says that they “sent word to Jesus that the one who he loved was ill…”

Lent is Hospital for the Soul
Lent is the time when the Church invites us to go to the Hospital for our Soul – a place of healing and rest, so that we can be healed and so enjoy the celebration of Easter – the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

Seven Deadly Sins
The Monks of the Early Church used to evaluate their relationship with God in terms of the “Seven Deadly Sins” – Seven ways that their relationship with God was sick, and dying. They had specific ways of addressing the illnesses of the soul, and this lent we have an opportunity to dip into some of their wisdom, to get some help, so that we leave this lent spiritually more healthy than we entered into it.

What are the Seven Deadly Sins?
Lust – Pornography is polluted love – Antidote is Chastity
Lust – Pornography destroys my ability to love purely, it is polluted love. Lust replaces true love – seeking the good of the other which heals, cleanses, strengthens and builds up with selfish love, which takes, destroys and spreads its hatred because it ends up empty. Lust is a sickness of the Body.

Gluttony fills a hurt with stuff. – Antidote is fasting
Gluttony – Gluttony attempts to fill a hurt within myself with food, or busyness or distraction. It is not always a physical ailment, but rather a psychological / condition where we have been hurt and we protect ourselves by indulging our body. Sometimes we can be a glutton with food, or with busyness, or with drugs or alcohol. Gluttony is a sickness of the Body.

Greed hoards gifts meant for others – Antidote is generosity
Greed – Greed means that I hoard the gifts that God has given me and use them for my selfish gain, rather than steward them and use them according to God’s plan. Don’t misunderstand me – I am not suggesting that we must give away what we own, but rather that we need to use what God has given us in cooperation with His plan. Greed kills within me any ability to be thankful, or grateful to God for the gifts that he has given me.

Laziness leads to couch-potato-dom – we are meant for motion – Engage the world with charity
Sloth – Laziness. A kind of depression, where I give up, and stop caring for my self. Sloth is taking a laize-faire attitude towards the spiritual or practical situation of my life, and rather than engaging the world, I just try to hide in the corner and ignore it. Look at the Human Body – it is created for action and motion, not for couch-potato-dom.

Anger comes from unforgiveness – Antidote is Forgiveness
Anger / Wrath – The root of anger is unforgiveness. If I am suffering from this affliction of the soul, it is time to ask – Is there someone I need to forgive. The struggle with Injustice makes this especially difficult – and so we need to forgive, to turn justice over to God who can judge justly.

Envy is distrust of God’s generosity – Antidote is focus on your mission (Vocation) Envy – Distrust of God. Envy is really an expression that I am mad at God for the gifts that He gave another rather than myself. It is always a case of paying more attention to the other guy’s toys rather than using the gifts that He gave me. It eats away at my soul because I no longer focus on the vocation that God called me to, but rather I focus on what I don’t have…

Pride is blindness to the Truth – Antidote is Humility
Pride – Blindness – I do not see myself for who I am but rather I see things out of proportion. Either I need to get some spiritual glasses or have Jesus wash out my eyes with clay and spittle (Remember last weeks Gospel).

What is the medicine for the Deadly Sins?
The reason why Lent is like a hospital for the Soul is that we are encouraged to spend our time during Lent with Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving. These are the three great cures for the Soul.

Prayer – time with the Sanctifier
Prayer increases the time I spend with God – If I want to live a holy life, If I want to live a life filled with the presence of God – who leads me to the fullness of Joy, then I need to spend time with the one who sanctifies. This means I need to work on my relationship with God.

Fasting curbs Gluttony, Lust, Sloth and Anger
Fasting – Fasting curbs the appetites of my body. If I struggle with Lust, with Gluttony, Anger or Sloth, Fasting puts me to work. It attacks the disease at its core, by reminding the flesh that it is the Spirit that leads me to eternal life.

Almsgiving curbs Envy, Pride and Greed
Almsgiving – Just as deadly as the sins of the Body, are sins of the heart. Giving money to those in need attack my pride – because I learn to see myself as God sees me – a beautiful creation of His love, created to steward the gifts that he has given me. It also attacks my greed, and my envy by focusing myself on the mission that God has called me to, in my own particular situation.

Lazarus is sick, Mary helps with prayer
In the Gospel today we see that Lazarus, like us is sick with Sin. His sister Mary acts to help him by sending word to Jesus – Lord, the one whom you love is Ill. That is us. When we see a brother or Sister struggling with Sin, then we need to pray for them, not gloat about how much better we are then they.

See the Love of Jesus – He weeps for the sick
Also notice that the one who is sick is the one who Jesus Loves, and He weeps for us, and is perturbed. See how much that Christ loves you, even though your sickness is leading you to Death.

Jesus comes to us according to His plan.
When Jesus hears that Lazarus is sick he doesn’t come immediately, but rather he comes according to Gods plan, at his time, so that God’s grace can be maximized. The lesson we take from this part of the Gospel today is that of patience, and perseverance. We need to persevere in our Lenten disciplines, trusting that God hears our prayers and will answer them in his own time, for our better good.


It’s not too late to start (or restart) lent – Jesus wants to awaken us from the death of Sin!
Jesus than says to his disciples that “He is going to awaken Lazarus” – To bring him back from the dead. This is what Christ is saying to us today. “I don’t care where you are with your Lenten resolutions, if you have been faithful throughout lent, or if you quit 3 hours into Ash Wednesday – I want to bring you back from the dead!” It is never too late to begin to repent, to change your mind, to ask Christ to reveal to you the depths of your Sin and so lead you into new life! It might be the 5th week of Lent, we might be at the threshold of Holy Week – there is still time to get to the banquet full of Joy!

Jesus is calling you from your tomb of sin!

Today Jesus is coming to the tombs that we have dug for ourselves with our sin.

He is standing outside and calling us away from the sickness that afflicts us. Jesus is calling us to witness to the Gospel this week by accepting his healing love, by hearing his tears over our illness and death and changing our minds about our sin.

When we allow Christ – who is The Way, The Truth and The Life into our lives, through conversion, we witness the power of his Cross and Resurrection to our families and friends, so that they too can come to believe and be healed!