Ps 51:3-4, 5-6ab, 12-13, 14, 17
2 Cor 5:20-6:2
Mt 6:1-6, 16-18
*NB* Certain parts of this homily was given last year... still rings true.
Prayer, fasting and almsgiving mark the three major themes of practice during the season of Lent. Prayer is obvious – we should pray more. We should spend more time in prayer and meditating on the scriptures and spiritual works, meditating our lives, and most importantly evaluating our relationship with God. Fasting is typically concerned with food – because it is so essential and in our current state, quite optional: we can eat a big meal, we can eat small meals. But fasting can and usually does extend into our optional daily habits as well: television, books, video games, internet, shopping, and entertainment. Almsgiving is another act of sacrifice – it takes one out of themselves and into the life of another. Whereas the first two are more personal, almsgiving is communal. There are many corporal and spiritual works of mercy when one helps and supports another. Almsgiving incarnates – brings into the flesh, as it were – your spiritual works of prayer and fasting into action. The first two purify and sanctify, the last one actualizes.
Perhaps you might be asking: “Why do such things? My relationship with God is going great, it seems fine to me – why do I HAVE to pray, fast, and give to the poor? My life is busy as it is – nobody has time for that!” My answer is simply this: Liar! You are lying to yourself! If you have excused yourself from a mistake, reasoned your way out of going to Mass, to Church, felt lazy, or dodged some other responsibility. If you have sinned in any form – white lies, getting angry and frustrated, cutting corners, looking lustfully or enviously at anyone around you, you need Lent – you need these practices. Lent humbles us, wherever we are and helps us to see where we are and where we need to go. Fr. Glenn said in one of his homilies – “Too often we think we are alright because we compare ourselves to criminals and those people who don’t have their life together, ‘at least I’m not them!’ What we should REALLY be doing is comparing our lives to the saints!!” How true that is! Anybody can set a bar so low that they trip over it, but what good does that do?
Lent helps us to humble ourselves and in some cases humiliate ourselves because once we have it in our hearts that each and every single one of us are sinners and do not deserve anything – even life itself – it is only then can we rely on God’s grace and this divine relationship and understand how we can stand worthily before Him. When we die, all will be revealed – the TRUTH – of the lives that we live held to us like a mirror reflecting our past as we stand judged before Him. This can be a very scary thing because we have been conditioned for decades to just think happy thoughts and to overlook our shortcomings. Now is the time to face reality – the reality of the state of our soul. To strip away the window dressing, to strip away the gilded gold on our souls and to bring our hearts humbly before God to really fix what is broken and to rid us of what we no longer need. This season is not about damnation, but about redemption; it is not about condemnation but about being picked up and said to you, “Your sins are forgiven. Go and sin no more.”
I have to admit one of my pet peeves is this novel trendy idea: “Instead of giving something up, I’m gonna try to do more of something” and leaving it at that. As if to say, “between prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, I’m just gonna pick one.” And while that may work for some, it really misses the point of Lent. Lent is a season of austerity: somber reflection and stripping things bare. Why does Lent focus on what you give up? Because it removes the unnecessary things from your life. We live in a first world country where we have pie eating contests, hot dog eating contests, where we can super-size, add a side, and multiply whatever we want!! There are seemingly endless possibilities with what we can do. And then when you look at your possessions – how many of these things bring you closer to God or is it an anesthetic to numb your pain and suffering?
In this season, the disciplines of prayer and fasting and almsgiving will help us to journey towards healing, forgiveness, and redemption; but the three, I believe, must be used together. Prayer bonds the almsgiving and fasting, almsgiving bonds prayer and fasting, fasting bonds prayer and almsgiving. This trifecta of discipline and practice helps us better our relationship with God. I exhort you to make it a tough and challenging Lent filled with lots of suffering without the complaining. Yes you’ll be miserable at times, but you’re not to make others miserable! If you are, you’re doing it wrong! Some say that giving up this or that makes other peoples’ lives miserable and so it would be better if they didn’t give it up.
The more you invest, the more you sacrifice, the greater your Easter will be! If you find yourself frustrated and irritable, that’s when you should be reminded why you are doing what you are doing. Do not fall to the temptation of giving up your penance, but rather do your penance better and go to confession if you sin. Confession is not a punishment, but a medicine. If you fall off the wagon, get back on – this isn’t the Olympics, this is training; if we were perfect we wouldn’t need Lent.
If you knew you were going to die today, what would you do? You would do the very things that prepare you to meet God – you would stop doing what is not important: anything and everything that was unnecessary (video games, internet, television, sweets, extra helpings, etc.). And then you would do what was the most important – confession, penance, and making amends in your life – forgiving others and making the most of your time with your loved ones. The ashes that are put on your foreheads are said with these words: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” When you think about it, our lives are limited. A single day to a hundred more years is nothing compared to eternity in heaven or hell. We are mortal, we are limited; and the things that we thought are important aren’t really that important. I cannot tell you how important Lent is for us this year. With as many things going on in the world, especially in Russia and Ukraine – each one of us need to get on the “praying, fasting, and almsgiving” bandwagon right now and do our part; not just for ourselves, but for the world.
Lent is a season of austerity that strips the leafy branches of our lives to reveal the bare branches of the reality of who we are. When we take away our coping mechanisms and means of escape through food, entertainment, and luxuries we are left with facing who we really are before God. And this is sometimes scary – we may not like what we see. What is life like without the TV on all the time, what is life like without social media? When you are faced with silence instead of the humdrum of life – can you handle it? Just *doing* something without taking anything away simply adds more layers to your life. You are already busy enough – why are you going to burden yourself with more stuff!? Go to the quiet place of your soul; go into the desert with our Lord this Lent. Have a one-on-one with Him without the distractions in life – don’t add more layers, but rather take things away and reprioritize life so that the noise of life will not drown out the sound of His voice. Go into the desert, have that heart-to-heart with Him and enjoy that tranquil solitude that only He can give.
Nice homily, Father. You certainly are gifted in this department!
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