2nd Sunday of Lent, Year C (2004)
03/03/07 21:13
Lent 2-C (2004)Anyone here know what this is? [Bring out a mirror] Right! It’s a mirror. How many here like to use a mirror in the morning? If I hold this mirror up to your face, what do you see? Right! Your face!
Today, we’re going to talk about faces. In fact, as sort of a preliminary Lenten meditation, I’ve prepared a prayerful musical and slide show meditation on faces. Let’s watch. [Show slide show of faces on TV. End the show on the slide of the face of Jesus, composed of a collage of many human faces]
God really loves variety, doesn’t he? Look at all those faces – they come in all shapes and sizes and colors – and all were made by our awesome Creator God. Now I want to show you something important – so I’ve invited a few of our families to come up here in front. [Have one or two or three different families stand in front of the altar, facing the congregation]
I want you to look into the faces of these families. Look at the faces of the children, and at the faces of their parents. Do you notice any resemblances? Exactly! Our faces look like those of our parents! We resemble our brothers and sisters! When I was growing up, I have a younger brother who looks a lot like me – not exactly, of course, because we’re not twins – but from a distance, people would always confuse us.
Now here’s the spiritual point I want to make today. Just as our physical appearance mimics the appearance of our parents and others in our families, our faces spiritually are meant to reflect the face of our spiritual Father, God in heaven.
That’s an awesome insight. Everyone, repeat after me: “My face reflects the face of God.” … Now turn to a person next to you and say to them, “In your face, I see the face of God.”
Wouldn’t the world be a lot different if we started to see the image of God in ourselves and in every single person we meet, everyday, everywhere? We were made to reflect the face of God in our world.
Look on the TV screen. Whose face is up there? Right! Jesus! And if you notice, the artist has composed the face of Jesus by making a collage of many different human faces. That artist understood that we are meant to be the face of God in the world.
But there is just one problem, and to illustrate, I have another slide. This also is on your handouts. [Show the faces that are optical illusions – the face that also is an Eskimo, and the face of the old-and-young woman] Now I love optical illusions, so I’ve included a couple here. What do you see? In this first picture, how many see a human face? How many see an Eskimo? It’s both! And in this second picture, how many see the face of an old woman? How many see the face of a young woman? Again, it’s both! They are optical illusions!
The point is that we too sometimes have two faces. Sometimes we reflect the face of God, but sometimes we reflect the false values of the world and the face of sin and weakness. That’s why we have this season of Lent. Lent is like the mirror – it helps us look more closely at ourselves so that we can decide if we need to comb or brush our hair, if we need to put on some makeup, if we need to get a spiritual face lift so that our faces will better reflect the face of God. Lent is about change, about spiritual conversion and transformation. And in a sense, that’s what our gospel talks about today, also – we hear about Jesus’ transformation, his transfiguration on top the mountain.
On this second Sunday of Lent, God wants to work a transformation in each of us. God wants to help us become the very best we can be. God wants our faces to reflect his face, his love and his glory in our world.
Now look at your handouts. We’re going to quickly look at each of our readings, because each reading reflects something about the face of God and the face that God wants us to have. We can’t imitate God’s face if we first don’t try to discover what the face of God looks like. Our readings today help us in that endeavor.
Every Sunday, our first reading comes from the Old Testament of the Bible. Today’s first reading is from the very first book of the Bible, from the Book of Genesis. In the Old Testament, we hear the story of the people of Israel, and how they experienced the face of God the Father, God whose Hebrew name is Yahweh. But Yahweh is a spirit, and it is a bit hard for us to see the face of a spirit, so Yahweh God decided to reveal his face to us in human form, by sending his Son Jesus into the world – Emmanuel, God-with-Us. And so in the New Testament of the Bible, in the Gospels, we are shown the face of God through the face of his Son, Jesus Christ. And then, every Sunday, in our Mass, we have a second reading from one of the epistles of the New Testament, from one of the letters of Paul or another of the first century apostles and followers of Jesus. These epistles show us the life of the early church. They show us the face of God as it was reflected in the life of the church, the Christian community. Today, let’s look briefly at each of those faces.
First, the face of Yahweh, God the Father, in our first reading, from the book of Genesis. On your handouts, I’ve written a key word: COVENANT. This single powerful word helps us see the face of Yahweh God. Let me explain.
In this reading today, Yahweh God enters into a covenant with Abram. He promises to make Abram’s descendents more numerous than the stars in the heavens. Now who are those descendents of Abram today? Us! So the covenant that God makes is not just with Abram, but also with us.
Covenants may not be easy for us to understand today, but they were serious business in the Old Testament. Today, we live in a society that doesn’t much like commitment and covenants. Maybe that’s why the divorce rate is so high, and why so many young people choose just to live together, without the glue of permanent commitment in marriage.
I read last week of a man who lived in this area – in Redlands, in San Bernardino, in Blithe – by the name of Glynne Scotty Wolf. He had been married 29 times – the Guinness World Record! His final wife had also been married many times over, also – 23 times altogether. His shortest marriage lasted just 19 days. Her shortest marriage lasted just 36 hours! Each of their longest marriage lasted 7 years. He die alone and poor, divorced and separated from his final wife. None of his former wives wanted to pay for the cost of his funeral! God did not create us to be alone. God created us to be in covenant and in relationship with himself and with others.
But look at the next line in our reading: “When the sun had set and it was dark, there appeared a smoking brazier and a flaming torch, which passed between those pieces. It was on that occasion that the LORD made a covenant with Abram.” -- Genesis 15:17-18 In the days of Abram, when a covenant was made, both parties sacrificed an animal and cut it into two pieces. They each then walked between the two halves of the animal and said, “If I am unfaithful to this covenant, may the same happen to me as has happened to this animal.” But if you read carefully from this passage in the book of Genesis, you notice that only God, in the form of a flaming torch, walked between the two halves of the animal, but not Abram. In other words – and this is where we see the face of God, God’s great love and passion for us – God seals the covenant all by himself and says to Abram, “I will be faithful to this covenant, even if you are unfaithful, even if you do not keep your side of the bargain, because I love you unconditionally, and without reservation, and with no strings attached.” That’s the face of our God – the face of unlimited love and forgiveness, not the face of an angry or vengeful god waiting eagerly to rain down lightning bolts of judgment or destruction when we sin or are unfaithful.
The face of Jesus shows us this same face of love of God the Father, because, as the Bible tells us, Jesus is the face of our invisible God. Anyone here see the latest Mel Gibson movie, “The Passion of the Christ”? On the screen is an image from that film – the bloodied, beaten face of Jesus. Jesus shows us the depths of God’s love for us through his torture and suffering on the cross. God so loved us that he did not even spare his only Son, but allowed Jesus to suffer and die in the most horrible way possible in order to rescue and save us from sin and death.
In our gospel today, on this feast of the Transfiguration, Jesus knew he was headed toward Jerusalem and toward the cross. No doubt he was filled with fear and anxiety. He needed strength. So he climbed this mountain to find strength and encouragement and fortitude from his heavenly Father. And the gospel says that Jesus’ face was transfigured, was transformed: “Jesus took Peter, John, and James and went up the mountain to pray. While he was praying his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white.” – Luke 9:28-29
We too need mountaintop experiences to help refresh us for the valleys and difficulties in life. That’s why we take our kids on retreats to Pathfinder Ranch and to Big Bear, so they can experience a moment of spiritual renewal.
There are three specific things Jesus did to help himself reflect the face of his Father. We too can learn from those three things:
First, he prayed. We too need to create space in our busy lives to slow down, to climb a mountain, to get away from the distractions of life so that we can experience spiritual renewal. We need prayer breaks in our lives.
Second, he was with his best friends, Peter, James and John. God never intended us to be alone. He doesn’t want us to become spiritual lone-rangers or spiritual orphans. So he has given us a family, the church – spiritual friends and companions to walk with us in life.
Third, Jesus was joined on the mountaintop by Moses and Elijah. These are the Old Testament symbolic figures for the Law and the Prophets – the Bible. God’s Word also is meant to strengthen, encourage, accompany and guide us on our spiritual journey in life.
There are also two important things that the apostles Peter, James and John did to better mirror the face of God in their lives.
First, they actively chose to believe and to show a positive attitude, even though they were tired and exhausted. In the gospel, it says, “Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep but… Peter said to Jesus, ‘Master, it is good that we are here.’ “ – Luke 9:32-33 Even when we are struggling, when we are tired and weighed down by obstacles and frustrations, can we say, like Peter, “It is good to be here”? Another word for this positive attitude is hope. Jesus himself shows utter hope and trust in his Father as he decides to climb down from the mountain after the Transfiguration and to head to Jerusalem, where he knew that the cross awaited him. The easy thing would have been to run away, or to go in the other direction, or to bury his head in the sand and go nowhere and do nothing.
A lot of people today are asleep, spiritually. I heard a joke last week about a robber in Parish, out on the street holding up innocent passers-by. He robbed a priest, but soon saw the priest’s black outfit and Roman collar, and so began to apologize profusely. Meanwhile, the nervous priest had pulled out a cigarette from his pocket and offered a cigarette to the would-be thief. But the thief replied, “No, Father, thanks, but I gave up smoking for Lent.” Lent is not just a set of do’s and don’ts or things we give up but that don’t really change us in a profound and deep level. Lent is the mirror that reminds us we are to show forth the face of God, and sometimes that requires real and hard changes in our lives.
Secondly, the apostles listened. The voice of the Father came from the sky and said, "This is my chosen Son; listen to him." – Luke 9:35 Perhaps today, more than at any other time in human history, we need to listen attentively to the voice of God, and not let the noise and distractions of modern society drown out God’s voice.
Finally, now that we have seen the face of God the Father, and now that we have seen the face of Jesus, God’s only Son, we turn to the second reading, from Paul’s letter to the Philippians, where we see see God’s plan for our own faces. Paul says, “Our citizenship is in heaven… Therefore, stand firm in the Lord.” – Philippians 3:20, 4:1
About a year ago, I visited the new cathedral in Los Angeles. On the walls are tapestries depicted the saints. But the artist, instead of painting the faces of each saint as they probably looked in history, went out onto the streets of Los Angeles and painted faces of ordinary, everyday people. They are the real saints. We are the real saints. Our citizenship is in heaven. God has made us into His family.
So stand firm. Look carefully into the mirror, spiritually. Remember the promise, the covenant that God has made with us – a covenant that cannot be broken. Remember the love of God, demonstrated concretely in His Son, Jesus, who suffered and died for us on the cross. Remember the tools God has given us to help us on our journey: the power of prayer, the power of spiritual friends and companions, the power of God’s Word in the Bible. And remember the example of the apostles: to embrace and choose hope, and to listen attentively to the voice of God in our lives.
We are God’s children, God’s precious family. Our faces were made to reflect the face of our heavenly Father. We just need the spiritual eyes to see God’s face reflected in ourselves and in the faces of our brothers and sisters everywhere.
I want to conclude with a story from the Old Testament, from the book of Second Kings. The prophet Elisha is being attacked on all sides by a tremendous army, and his servant is frightened and despondent. But Elisha asks God to open the eyes of his servant. And when the servant receives this gift of new spiritual eyesight, he sees the multitude of angels – God’s soldiers – surrounding and protecting Elisha.
Jesus needed new insight as he climbed the mountain but looked ahead to the cross, and the Father showed him the angels that were surrounding him and protecting him. When we face difficulties and obstacles in life, we also need new spiritual eyesight to see that God is with us, that God loves us, that God wants to give us strength to hope and persevere and strength to live as his family, and to show his face to the world.
Once again, please repeat after me: “My face reflects the face of God.” And once again, turn to a person next to you and say to them, “In your face, I see the face of God.”
Now, go forth, standing firm, believing that this is really true, and living in a way that glorifies the God whose image we bear.
1st Sunday of Lent, Year C (2007)
25/02/07 22:48
Homily – 1st Sunday of Lent, Year CFebruary 25, 2007
Led By The Spirit
An old country preacher had a teenage son, and it was getting time the boy should give some thought to choosing a profession. Like many young men, the boy didn’t really know what he wanted to do, and he didn’t seem too concerned about it. One day, while the boy was away at school, his father decided to try an experiment. He went into the boy’s room and placed on his study table three objects: a Bible, a silver dollar and a bottle of whiskey. “I’ll just hide behind the door,” the old preacher said to himself, “and when he comes home from school this afternoon, I’ll see which object he picks up. If it’s the Bible, he’s going to be a preacher like me, and what a blessing that would be! If he picks up the silver dollar, he’s going to be a businessman, and that would be OK, too. But if picks up the bottle, he’s going to be a no good drunkard, and Lord, what a shame that would be!” The father waited anxiously, and soon heard his son come home. The boy tossed his books on the bed, then spotted the objects on the table. He walked over to inspect them. Finally, he picked up the Bible and placed it under his arm. He picked up the silver dollar and dropped it into his pocket. He uncorked the bottle and took a big drink. “Lord have mercy,” the father whispered, “he’s gonna be a Congressman!”
Sorry if there are any politicians here! This is just a joke, of course. But the story makes an important point – we all face temptations in life, and we all must make important choices. What is going to guide our lives? God, the Bible? Money, the things of this world? Booze, the vices of our society?
Our gospel today tells the story of Jesus facing temptation during his 40 days in the desert. Let’s all read together the first line of that gospel: “Filled with the holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil.” (Luke 4:1-2, NAB) Did you notice? Jesus was filled with the Spirit and was led by the Spirit. In fact, throughout his life, Jesus was always tuning in to his heavenly Father, trying to do the will of His dad, tuned in to what the Father wanted of him.
And the Lord wants our lives to be led by the Spirit, too! Today, we are going to talk about how to lead Spirit-driven lives that are full of God’s power and that are pleasing to the Lord.
Let me begin by asking if anyone noticed anything different, strange, out of place as you entered church this morning? [Before start of Mass, put out brooms, buckets, mops, a trash bag, etc., prominently in front of the ambo or altar, so people will notice]. Right! Did anyone think that I was growing senile in my old age and forget to clean the church and to put away the brooms and mops? But: No! You see, we are starting the season of Lent – and the word “Lent” literally means “spring time,” and when I was growing up, spring time was always a time for “spring cleaning.” Anyone else every do that? You men, if you did not raise your hands, but your wives did, give the women a big applause, because they really do a lot of work, keeping the house clean!
In Indiana, when I was small, my mom and dad would always dedicate one Saturday each spring to cleaning the house intensely, top to bottom, floor to ceiling. Take down the windows, wash them off with the hose, scrub and polish and wash every nook and cranny of the house. We were thorough, that one day a year. Lent is a time for spiritual “spring cleaning” – getting rid of the cobwebs and the accumulated junk that blocks our path to God, so that we can get back on the right track, spiritually, with our lives. We all need spiritual renewal and a spiritual recharge – spring cleaning, so to speak – so that we can be at our best as we strive to serve the Lord.
Our gospel tells us that the Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert. Why there? It’s because the desert is a place of quiet and solitude, a place where we can leave behind the distractions and worries of our daily life and simply rest in the presence of God. It is place where we can pray and listen. Lent is meant to give us that same kind of “spiritual retreat” in the desert, where we can renew and refresh ourselves in the Lord, where we can leave behind our worries and anxieties. For Jesus, it was this retreat experience in the desert that catapulted him into his public ministry, that energized him so that he could live a Spirit-filled life, attuned to the will of his Father. The desert also is a place of danger, sometimes – snakes, scorpions, thirst, relentless heat. Here, Jesus squared off with the enemy, Satan, and with the devil’s temptations. For us, too, Lent can be a time of struggle, of wrestling with the worries and anxieties in life, the hardships and struggles. But the Spirit is with us, leading us and guiding us, because God wants us to experience victory over the struggles and temptations.
By now, you know that my favorite cartoon is “Zits.” Last week, the Jeremy, the teenager, was talking on his cell phone, when he says to his mom, “Did you hear that? My ring tone is the same song that’s on the radio. This has been one of my life goals, and now it’s happened! I feel strangely at peace with the universe.” His mom just rolls her eyes in dismay and says, “I feel strangely troubled by your goals.”
Many people in this world do not live Spirit-filled and Spirit-led lives. Their priorities are all messed up. Their god is money, possessions, fame, power, or maybe a favorite football team, or going to the fair, or a hobby, or sleeping, or the tone on their cell phone. But following God does not make their Top Ten list! Last Wednesday, the church was full – Ash Wednesday. Everyone came! But where are most of them today. Back to life as usual, because the Spirit is not guiding and leading their lives.
Lent is a time for spring cleaning, to help us re-orient our priorities and to get our lives back on track. The prophet Joel, in the Old Testament, which is from the first reading this past Ash Wednesday, tells us: “Even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God. For gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment.” (Joel 12:14, NAB)
I want to illustrate this Spirit-filled life, and several members of the parish have volunteered to help me with this. [invite volunteers forward]. Here is the illustration:
Illustration: Have a large jar half filled with rice. The rice represents the routine activities of our life that keep us busy – eating, sleeping, cooking, cleaning, watching TV, going to work, shopping, studying, etc. Have a bunch of golf balls off to the side. These represent the things of God: Praying, reading the Bible, attending Mass, helping the poor, serving in a ministry, participating in a small faith community, attending a retreat, etc. The balls are bigger than the grains of rice, to show that the things of God are really the most important things of all. But most people fill their lives with the mundane necessities of life – the rice of sleep, eating, cooking, etc. – and then add God when there is extra space and time in our busy lives to crowd God in. Result: all the balls, the blessings God has for us, won’t fit because the other things – the rice – keep blocking the way. But: What happens when we make God the priority and focus first on the things of the Lord in our lives? Fill the jar first with the golf balls – this time, they all fit. Then add the rice. It all fits, too.
God will fill our lives with many blessings – for our God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, rich in kindness – but we need to reorient our priorities. When we put God first, all of the other parts of our life will start to fall into proper place.
Secondly, with the help of the Spirit leading our lives, God helps us overcome temptations and obstacles in our lives. Saint Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians: “You can trust that God will not let you be put to the test beyond your strength, but with any trial will also provide a way out by enabling you to put up with it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13, New Jerusalem Bible). It’s that trust in God to help us resist temptation that lies behind the Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father who art in heaven, … lead us not into temptation.” (Luke 11:4)
None of us can escape trials, testings, temptations, difficulties, struggles in life. It is part of the human condition, from the very beginning of time. It is part of what it means to be human. Nor is it bad to experience temptation – Jesus did! It’s only bad when we yield and fall to temptation, when we sin. Martin Luther, the great Protestant reformer, once said, “Nobody can prevent birds from flying around your head, but you don’t have to let them build a nest there.”
Temptation is common to all of us. In our gospel today, the last line tells us that “the devil left just until a more opportune time.” Temptation would return. For Jesus, it was in the Garden of Gethsemani, just before his death on the cross: “Father, please take this cup away from me. But thy will, not mine, be done.”
(Use any of these funny temptation stories, as you see fit)
• Child in store, staring for 10 minutes at a toy. Owner comes over, says to boy, “What are you doing, trying to steal from me?” But the boy answers with all sincerity, “No, sir! I am trying my hardest not to steal from you!”
• Boy, trying to save money to buy a bicycle: “Lord, please help me to save my money this week. And please, don’t send any ice cream trucks down my street this week!”
• Priest, in Lent, exhorted his congregation to throw all its whisky, beer, cigarettes and other booze into the river. At the offertory, the choir sang, “Let’s all go down to the river.”
• Two brothers, both real bandits. One died. The other went to the priest, offered him $10,000 if he would say at the funeral Mass that his brother was a saint. The priest knew it was a lie, but took the money anyway. Temptation. At homily: “This young man who just died was a real thief and scoundrel. But in comparison to his brother, seated right here in front, he was a real saint.”
• Man, gave up donuts for Lent, arrived to the office one day in Lent, loaded down with donuts. “It was a sign from God,” he explained. “Everyday, I drive past the donut shop, but it is always crowded and very hard to find a parking spot. But today, after driving around that block where the donut shop is located, after circling the block 15 times, lo and behold, God opened up a parking spot for me, so I just obeyed God’s miracle.”
• Man, late for a job interview, could not find a parking spot. Finally, he parked illegally but left a note for the policeman: “Sorry. Late for a job interview. Please forgive. ‘Forgive us our trespasses.’ The policeman wrote a note back: ‘I could lose my job if I don’t ticket you as I should. Lead us not into temptation.”
The point, however, is that God wants to help us resist and overcome temptation. But this requires that we do spiritual spring cleaning and allow the spirit of God to lead and guide us, and to take control of our lives. The reason God wants to free us from falling prey to sin and temptation is because sin disfigures us, scars us, hurts us, makes us less than what God really wants for us. I’ve always remembered this true story about Leonardo Da Vinci, who was painting his famous “The Last Supper.” He needed a model to pose as he painted the face of Jesus, so he went out onto the streets and found a very handsome young man, Pietro Bandinelli,” to play the part of Jesus. Years later, when Da Vinci was near to finishing the painting, he needed to paint the face of Judas Iscariot – so again, he went out onto the streets, searching for a model. He found a man, scarred and ugly, beaten up by living a life of drunkenness and sin. living on the streets. Da Vinci asked the man his name, and he replied, “Don’t you remember. I’m Pietro Bandinelli, who modeled for you for Jesus a few years ago.” Sin disfigures us.
So let’s get practical. How do we overcome temptation and not fall into sin? If we look at the three temptations in our gospel today, each has a spiritual antidote, rooted in the three spiritual disciples of Lent – prayer, fasting, almsgiving.
The first temptation: Temptation of the flesh. Jesus is hungry. “Turn these stones into bread.” But the antidote is this: First, run! If drinking is a temptation to you, don’t go near a bar. If your struggle is with gambling, avoid the casinos. Teens, when hormones are working on overdrive, don’t be at home with your boyfriend or girlfriend when nobody else is around, or of course, you’re likely to fall into sin. Don’t go to unsupervised parties where there are drugs and booze – you are asking for trouble! Second, attend to your interior, spiritual life, because when you are kept busy by attending to the work of God, you have less time and energy to allow bad temptations to really cause you to stumble. And so, the spiritual discipline at Lent to help overcome the temptations of the flesh, is this: Pray. Grow closer to God. Attend to your spiritual life.
The second temptation: Greed. “You can have all these kingdoms and riches.” The antidote: Give, be generous, and be grateful. A generous and grateful heart dispels greed. I remember years ago a story in the newspaper about a family torn because of the death of their 24-year-old son to AIDS. For a long while, they were angry at God and the world. But then, they decided to not let anger and bitterness and the devil eat away at their joy. So they decided to be generous. They adopted a little child, abandoned by his mother, because she was a drug addict. The boy also had been born with AIDS, but had overcome the disease, largely through the love that he had received from this family. And they, in turn, because of their generosity, received healing for their loss and hurt. The Lenten spiritual discipline that helps us overcome greed is fasting. Fasting teaches us to simply our life, to be more grateful, to share what we have with others, to become less attached to material possessions that can enslave us.
The third temptation: Pride. “If you are God’s Son, prove it. Throw yourself down from this tower.” Most of us are filled with pride, if we are really honest. We like being in control, instead of letting God be in control. I read a funny anecdote last week of a psychologist, interviewing a new patient for the first time. He said to the patient, “I don’t really know your history, so explain it to me, and start from the very beginning.” The patient responded eagerly: “In the beginning, I created the heavens and the earth…” Now, there’s real ego and pride for you!
Here, the antidote is to serve. Serving and helping others gets our attention off of ourselves. We learn to trust in God, not in our own strengths and abilities. And that’s also the third spiritual discipline of Lent: Almsgiving. When we are generous in helping and serving those who are in need, our focus and attention shifts away from ego and pride, away from ourselves.
On your handout are seven very simple, concrete ways to win over temptation:
1. Don’t be afraid to ask God for help. Yell out to the Lord. Send God a spiritual SOS. If you don’t ask, how can you expect to receive?
2. Feed and strengthen your faith. Many of us Catholics are really weak and wimpy in this. We don’t pray enough or read our Bible, which is the sword of God to help us be strong. We come to Mass once a week and think that is enough. How many here eat only one meal a day? Obviously, none of us. We couldn’t survive, much less be strong. And the same applies spiritually – exercise your spiritual muscles and eat a regular spiritual diet. Don’t just come running to God when there is a crisis in your life. How? Pray, read the Bible, study with other Christians in a small faith community, attend a retreat or class, read about God. There are lots of ways to strengthen your faith and feed your faith on a daily and regular basis.
3. Get rid of excuses. Lots of people blame others for their sin. “The devil made me do it.” “My wife’s nagging drove me to drink.” “My husband is so overbearing that, of course, I was driven to have an affair.” On and on, one excuse and pretext after another.
4. Change focus. If you stare enough at a piece of chocolate, you are going to want to eat it. Don’t focus on the temptation. Instead, switch channels and start focusing on other, more positive things – and the original temptation will diminish and, eventually, flee.
5. Run away from situations of temptation. We’ve already talked about this one. Don’t go the bar if you have a drinking problem.
6. Confide in someone else. Now, this doesn’t mean talk to the whole world about your struggles and difficulties. Not everyone is honest, trustworthy, kind. But two are stronger than one, so it always helps to have another person in your life, another strong Christian, whom you can confide in and who will help you. That’s one of the reasons our Sacrament of Reconciliation and of Confession, going to a priest, is such a powerful and healing experience for so many people.
7. Finally, resist the devil and don’t get discouraged. God is more powerful than Satan. But Satan loves to tear apart your confidence, make you feel ugly and unworthy and incapable of resisting temptation and sin. But it’s a lie. God is more powerful than the devil, and with the Spirit in us and guiding us, we will overcome. Martin Luther even used to mock the devil and say, “Satan, I pass gas (fart) on you!” I’m not sure I recommend going that far, but on the other hand, why should we let Satan win in the discouragement war? Fight back by poking fun at the enemy!
The most important reminder of all is from our second reading today, where Saint Paul tells us: "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart… No one who believes in the Lord will be put to shame… Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (Romans 10:8, 11, 13, NAB)
Remember: Call on the Lord and you will be heard. First: Let God be in control of your life; second, let Jesus be at the center of your heart; and third, don’t allow mistakes or sins or hurts from the past enslave you – for God loves you and wants you to experience his healing, his strength, his freedom, his new life. God will give you a new heart, a heart transplant, if you let him. He will change stony and cold and injured hearts into hearts of love and compassion for others.
Lent -- a time to go into the desert to be renewed; a time to re-orient our priorities, to make God Number 1; a time for spiritual spring cleaning; a time to let the Spirit lead and guide us into fullness of new life.