1st Sunday of Lent
Most of you know that I didn’t grow up Catholic. I was raised Baptist, but to be honest, we were a strange sort of Baptist. For one thing, every year my mom would ask me what I was going to give up for Lent. Baptists don’t give things up for Lent. I guess it’s because good Baptists have already given up all the fun stuff so theoretically there really isn’t much left. But for some reason Mom always expected me to give up something. Like most kids, I got to be pretty good at giving up something that sounded really good, but didn’t involve much of a sacrifice. I’d give up roller skating, even though I didn’t even own a pair of skates. Or I’d give up some kind of food that I never ate anyway. I really got into the Lenten penance thing.
Probably the strangest thing about my family, Lent-wise, was my aunt, God rest her soul. I can’t say I ever remember my aunt going to church. I couldn’t even tell you what her religion was. The only thing I know for sure is that, like my dad, she was a devout anti-Catholic. But, she seemed to be convinced that she would be headed straight for eternal damnation if she ever ate meat on Friday during Lent. That was her thing.
If you went to Aunt Fern’s house for dinner on a Friday during Lent, you were going to have salmon patties and creamed peas. And we went to her house most Fridays because it was family poker night. My mom and dad and my two aunts and uncles played poker almost every Friday night. So it meant that in the spring, we were going to see a lot of salmon patties and a lot of creamed peas. I don’t think she ever fixed them any other time of the year, but during Lent, that was the daily special every Friday.
Aunt Fern’s salmon patties came to mind the other day when I realized that it was almost Lent. Every year at this time, we start to ask what we have to do for Lent. The Church issues some regulations, but frankly they’re pretty lame. We’re to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and abstain from meat on those two days plus Fridays from now until Good Friday. But “fasting” means eating one full meal and two small meals with nothing in between. It’s not exactly starving ourselves.
Abstaining from meat means you have to limit yourself to seafood and vegetarian dishes. You can have lobster, or shrimp, or scallops, or any one of a hundred different of types of fish, but you can’t have a cheeseburger. Of course they make cheeseburgers out of soy beans nowadays that are pretty hard to tell from the real thing. So, if you just have to have a cheeseburger on Friday, you’re not totally out of luck. Face it, compared to Jesus spending forty days in the desert, our “obligations” aren’t much. We’re advised that Catholics shouldn’t hold themselves “lightly excused”. I’m not sure what “lightly excused” means, but obviously we can excuse ourselves, as long as the excuse isn’t light. When St. Patrick’s Day falls on Friday most Bishops, especially the Irish ones, consider that to be a non-light excuse.
Do we REALLY need the Church to give us Lenten regulations? Let’s think for a minute about what we’re really doing here. Today’s Gospel tells us that Jesus went into the desert for forty days to be tempted by the devil. HE ATE NOTHING! He didn’t have one big meal and two small meals each day. HE ATE NOTHING! There were no excuses, light or otherwise. He didn’t just fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, he went hungry every single day for one entire month plus another ten days. According to our this year’s calendar he went without food from the end of February until the second week in April. And we think we’re doing something if we eat at Red Lobster instead of Ponderosa for one Wednesday and seven Fridays.
In his column in last week’s Review, Archbishop Burke wrote “Our Lord permitted His Heart to be pierced so that He might pour out His life, to the very last ounce, for love of us. He waits patiently for our response of love.” What a beautiful thought. Jesus gave everything for us. We don’t know exactly what heaven is like, but we know it’s a heck of a lot better than St. Louis, MO, even if St. Louis IS baseball heaven. Jesus gave all that up to become one of us, to live as one of us, and to suffer a terrible, painful death. He was beaten, and scourged, and humiliated. He was forced to carry His own cross up the hill. Nails were driven through His hands and feet. He was pierced with a sword. And all He could say was, “Forgive them Lord. They know not what they do.”
Now He waits patiently for our response of love. In some cases, He doesn’t have to wait long at all. In too many cases, it’s a very long wait. We should respond lovingly to Jesus every single day, but most especially during the holy season of Lent. The few things that the Church says we should do should be just the tip of the iceberg. I’m not talking about giving up candy, or booze, or television. Those are great disciplines but do they really represent a loving response to Jesus death on the cross?
There’s a big difference between doing something because we’re told to do it and doing something out of love. A person could go through life without ever violating a single one of the Ten Commandments and still not get into heaven. It’s called ethics and it’s not the exclusive property of Catholics, or Christians, or any other group. Many atheists are very ethical.
There’s a Greek word, “ethos”, which means a person’s inner values. Ethos is what Jesus called us to in the Sermon on the Mount. He didn’t tell us not to follow the commandments, He told us to internalize them. If we don’t kill our neighbor because of the Commandment, naturally that’s a good thing. If we don’t kill our neighbor because we don’t want to go to jail, that’s a good thing too. But if we don’t kill our neighbor because it goes against everything we believe in and stand for, because Jesus taught us to love one another as He loves us, it’s something much different. We’ve internalized the commandment. It’s part of our ethos.
In the Gospel today the devil tempts Jesus three times. He tempts Him with power. He tempts Him with domination. He tempts Him with possessions. In short, he tempted Jesus with things that He already had.
He didn’t need to turn a stone into bread. He would do much more. He would turn bread into His own body and turn wine into His own blood. He didn’t need for the devil to give him power and glory. He would have all the power and all the glory. He would be the King of Glory.
He didn’t need to hurl himself off of the temple to have the angels guard and support Him. At the mention of His name every knee on earth and in heaven would bow down before Him. So, what’s the point? What can we learn from His turning down things that He already had?
Doesn’t the devil tempt you and me with the same things every single day of our lives? Aren’t we tempted by power, and domination, and possessions? Isn’t that what gets us into trouble? Wasn’t Jesus showing us, by His example, what we really need to do during Lent?
Maybe that’s our real challenge during the next forty days; to face those same three temptations, to reflect on them, and to respond to them in the same way that Jesus did. He could resist those things on his own. You and I can't. We need His help. Rather than give something up, maybe He's calling on us to add something. He gave us forty days of fast and prayer. But He was single and unemployed. He understands that you and I have other obligations that keep us from going off into the desert until Easter. But, in our own way we can make a kind of Lenten retreat. We can spend time each day asking Him to help us overcome the temptations that He overcame. That would really be responding to him in love.
Nobody can tell you what your response to Jesus’ sacrifice should be. We all have different situations. If I put $100 in the poor box, that’s one thing. If Donald Trump puts $100 in the poor box, it’s something else altogether. But if the Donald and I both spend some time each day prayerfully reflecting on our temptations and how we can overcome them; asking Jesus to help us overcome those temptations, and making a sincere effort, then we’re both on the same page.
If, instead of giving up M & M’s, we give up judging one another, or if we give up some bad habit, or if we just make an effort, every day, to do something nice for someone else with no expectation of getting something in return, then maybe that’s what He’s asking us to do.
If we pray the rosary, or attend the stations of the cross, or spend an hour before the Blessed Sacrament this coming Tuesday, especially if we have to get up early, or stay up late, or give up our lunch hour to make the time, then we’re on the right track. If all we do is fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and replace our cheeseburger with a fish sandwich on the Fridays of Lent, we really haven’t done much at all.
“Our Lord permitted His Heart to be pierced so that He might pour out His life, to the very last ounce, for love of us. He waits patiently for our response of love.”
Probably the strangest thing about my family, Lent-wise, was my aunt, God rest her soul. I can’t say I ever remember my aunt going to church. I couldn’t even tell you what her religion was. The only thing I know for sure is that, like my dad, she was a devout anti-Catholic. But, she seemed to be convinced that she would be headed straight for eternal damnation if she ever ate meat on Friday during Lent. That was her thing.
If you went to Aunt Fern’s house for dinner on a Friday during Lent, you were going to have salmon patties and creamed peas. And we went to her house most Fridays because it was family poker night. My mom and dad and my two aunts and uncles played poker almost every Friday night. So it meant that in the spring, we were going to see a lot of salmon patties and a lot of creamed peas. I don’t think she ever fixed them any other time of the year, but during Lent, that was the daily special every Friday.
Aunt Fern’s salmon patties came to mind the other day when I realized that it was almost Lent. Every year at this time, we start to ask what we have to do for Lent. The Church issues some regulations, but frankly they’re pretty lame. We’re to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and abstain from meat on those two days plus Fridays from now until Good Friday. But “fasting” means eating one full meal and two small meals with nothing in between. It’s not exactly starving ourselves.
Abstaining from meat means you have to limit yourself to seafood and vegetarian dishes. You can have lobster, or shrimp, or scallops, or any one of a hundred different of types of fish, but you can’t have a cheeseburger. Of course they make cheeseburgers out of soy beans nowadays that are pretty hard to tell from the real thing. So, if you just have to have a cheeseburger on Friday, you’re not totally out of luck. Face it, compared to Jesus spending forty days in the desert, our “obligations” aren’t much. We’re advised that Catholics shouldn’t hold themselves “lightly excused”. I’m not sure what “lightly excused” means, but obviously we can excuse ourselves, as long as the excuse isn’t light. When St. Patrick’s Day falls on Friday most Bishops, especially the Irish ones, consider that to be a non-light excuse.
Do we REALLY need the Church to give us Lenten regulations? Let’s think for a minute about what we’re really doing here. Today’s Gospel tells us that Jesus went into the desert for forty days to be tempted by the devil. HE ATE NOTHING! He didn’t have one big meal and two small meals each day. HE ATE NOTHING! There were no excuses, light or otherwise. He didn’t just fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, he went hungry every single day for one entire month plus another ten days. According to our this year’s calendar he went without food from the end of February until the second week in April. And we think we’re doing something if we eat at Red Lobster instead of Ponderosa for one Wednesday and seven Fridays.
In his column in last week’s Review, Archbishop Burke wrote “Our Lord permitted His Heart to be pierced so that He might pour out His life, to the very last ounce, for love of us. He waits patiently for our response of love.” What a beautiful thought. Jesus gave everything for us. We don’t know exactly what heaven is like, but we know it’s a heck of a lot better than St. Louis, MO, even if St. Louis IS baseball heaven. Jesus gave all that up to become one of us, to live as one of us, and to suffer a terrible, painful death. He was beaten, and scourged, and humiliated. He was forced to carry His own cross up the hill. Nails were driven through His hands and feet. He was pierced with a sword. And all He could say was, “Forgive them Lord. They know not what they do.”
Now He waits patiently for our response of love. In some cases, He doesn’t have to wait long at all. In too many cases, it’s a very long wait. We should respond lovingly to Jesus every single day, but most especially during the holy season of Lent. The few things that the Church says we should do should be just the tip of the iceberg. I’m not talking about giving up candy, or booze, or television. Those are great disciplines but do they really represent a loving response to Jesus death on the cross?
There’s a big difference between doing something because we’re told to do it and doing something out of love. A person could go through life without ever violating a single one of the Ten Commandments and still not get into heaven. It’s called ethics and it’s not the exclusive property of Catholics, or Christians, or any other group. Many atheists are very ethical.
There’s a Greek word, “ethos”, which means a person’s inner values. Ethos is what Jesus called us to in the Sermon on the Mount. He didn’t tell us not to follow the commandments, He told us to internalize them. If we don’t kill our neighbor because of the Commandment, naturally that’s a good thing. If we don’t kill our neighbor because we don’t want to go to jail, that’s a good thing too. But if we don’t kill our neighbor because it goes against everything we believe in and stand for, because Jesus taught us to love one another as He loves us, it’s something much different. We’ve internalized the commandment. It’s part of our ethos.
In the Gospel today the devil tempts Jesus three times. He tempts Him with power. He tempts Him with domination. He tempts Him with possessions. In short, he tempted Jesus with things that He already had.
He didn’t need to turn a stone into bread. He would do much more. He would turn bread into His own body and turn wine into His own blood. He didn’t need for the devil to give him power and glory. He would have all the power and all the glory. He would be the King of Glory.
He didn’t need to hurl himself off of the temple to have the angels guard and support Him. At the mention of His name every knee on earth and in heaven would bow down before Him. So, what’s the point? What can we learn from His turning down things that He already had?
Doesn’t the devil tempt you and me with the same things every single day of our lives? Aren’t we tempted by power, and domination, and possessions? Isn’t that what gets us into trouble? Wasn’t Jesus showing us, by His example, what we really need to do during Lent?
Maybe that’s our real challenge during the next forty days; to face those same three temptations, to reflect on them, and to respond to them in the same way that Jesus did. He could resist those things on his own. You and I can't. We need His help. Rather than give something up, maybe He's calling on us to add something. He gave us forty days of fast and prayer. But He was single and unemployed. He understands that you and I have other obligations that keep us from going off into the desert until Easter. But, in our own way we can make a kind of Lenten retreat. We can spend time each day asking Him to help us overcome the temptations that He overcame. That would really be responding to him in love.
Nobody can tell you what your response to Jesus’ sacrifice should be. We all have different situations. If I put $100 in the poor box, that’s one thing. If Donald Trump puts $100 in the poor box, it’s something else altogether. But if the Donald and I both spend some time each day prayerfully reflecting on our temptations and how we can overcome them; asking Jesus to help us overcome those temptations, and making a sincere effort, then we’re both on the same page.
If, instead of giving up M & M’s, we give up judging one another, or if we give up some bad habit, or if we just make an effort, every day, to do something nice for someone else with no expectation of getting something in return, then maybe that’s what He’s asking us to do.
If we pray the rosary, or attend the stations of the cross, or spend an hour before the Blessed Sacrament this coming Tuesday, especially if we have to get up early, or stay up late, or give up our lunch hour to make the time, then we’re on the right track. If all we do is fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and replace our cheeseburger with a fish sandwich on the Fridays of Lent, we really haven’t done much at all.
“Our Lord permitted His Heart to be pierced so that He might pour out His life, to the very last ounce, for love of us. He waits patiently for our response of love.”
posted by Mike at 1:40 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home