Bishop Michael’s Homily on the Occasion of the Rite of Election and the Call to Continuing Conversion, First Sunday of Lent
Yesterday’s celebration saw our catechumens come forward to sign the Book of the Elect, declaring before the Church their intention to receive Baptism, Confirmation and the Eucharist at the Easter Vigil. In the presence of their sponsors and the diocesan community, they were chosen for the Easter sacraments and entrusted to this sacred season of preparation. Preaching on the meaning of Lent, Bishop Michael offered the following reflection.
If I do not do it this year – there is one thing for certain they will be much worse when it comes to next year. If you are anything like me – one of the least pleasurable tasks in those days after Christmas is taking down the Christmas tree. When it comes to sorting out the lights that are now knotted and twisted with no beginning or end to them, I often feel like throwing them into the box just as they are. However, experience has taught me that if I do not sit down and spend time to unloop and untangle them – to sort them out properly, I will really regret it next year. Now you might be thinking to yourselves – why is he talking about Christmas tree lights – isn’t today the First Sunday of Lent. The reason is that it has often struck me that those mixed-up tangled Christmas lights are very much like the way we complicate our own lives. We get them all knotted up over time.
The Gospel we have just heard – dramatically portrays the painful struggle of temptation – of choosing between right and wrong. No matter how good our intentions are we find ourselves having thought and done things that we would have preferred if we had not. We find that because of this or that, relationships that were one the joy of our lives, have become burdensome or have broken down altogether. We find ourselves caught up in negative habits. Negative ways and things that we seem unable to escape from. We find ourselves sometimes unknown to ourselves at a distance from God and almost ashamed to return.
Now just like we might feel like putting off the work of dealing with those tangled Christmas tree lights for another year, we might also feel like putting the work of untangling our own lives on the long finger. Each year however, the Season of Lent, which we began during the week with Ash Wednesday, offers us a special opportunity to quit the procrastination, stop the dilly dallying, and to seriously tend to straighten out our own lives. In later years I have tended to see Lent as an “operation transformation” for our souls. When you come to think about it –that is really what it is. An opportunity to transform our very selves so that in just over forty days at Easter time we might celebrate a true personal rebirth and renewal – a somewhat better unknotted life.
Now if we are looking for guidance or wisdom as to what might help us in this process, we might look no further than the Gospel, we heard on Ash Wednesday. There Matthew puts before us those traditional tools used to great success down through the ages of Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving. It might sound a little antiquated- old fashioned but let us look a little closer.
Prayer: the wisdom of the AA programme for addiction recovery tells us that it is often only when we open ourselves up to a greater power that we can get a grasp on our lives. Rekindling our relationship with God through spending a small time each day in conversation with him – holds out great potential for transformation. Perhaps we start by saying “Good morning God!” – or telling him how we feel today – or “Good night!” and running the day by him in our minds.
Fasting: Now a lot of modern health regimes hold some sort of fasting as integral to their success, so it is no surprise that religions have always turned to the idea of fasting – giving something up – when it comes to transforming our lives for the best. Fasting can rid us of things that are bad for us – but more importantly it can open up a space for us that we can fill with something better. For example: What about fasting from phones or tablets at table this Lent –and filling that space with the good that comes from conversation and sharing with those sitting with us.
Almsgiving: One of the greatest causes of our life’s knots is selfishness – thinking and acting for ourselves rather than thinking and acting for others. Alms giving – giving to those less well off than ourselves creates in us an open spirit and a generous heart that simply makes us better people. What about taking a Trócaire box home and as the weeks of Lent progress filling it for those in need.
Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving – tools for transformation. Now, wouldn’t it be a pity if we let the opportunity this particular Lent offers us for transformation pass us by. If we put it off until next year. Wouldn’t it be sad if come Easter our lives were as knotted and as tangled as we are now. Amen