Homilies

None of us have traveled the path of the Samaritan woman. With the luxury of indoor plumbing or bottled water we don’t need to trek far to quench our thirst.

There is another kind of thirst however. Namely, we thirst for what we desire, the good things of this earth: food, drink, a nice home, companionship, entertainment, a good income, peace of mind, friends and family. It is part of our nature to desire these things. This kind of thirst can be defined as horizontal thirst. It is part of our nature to desire these things.

We also have another kind of thirst that I call vertical thirst. This deeper thirst is an innate desire for meaning and purpose in life that is also built into our nature. There is nothing we can do to ignore that desire just as we cannot ignore our natural desires for food and water.

Unlike horizontal thirst, our vertical thirst cannot be satisfied by our own efforts. Only God can satisfy this thirst for he created us like that on purpose to draw us toward an intimate, personal contact with his eternal unconditional love.

Even when all our horizontal thirsts are satisfied, when we have money, success, and pleasure, we are still restless. The things of this world cannot satisfy our deeper vertical thirst for we were made to be in communion with God. As our catechism notes, God is where we find our ultimate happiness. The meaning and purpose of life, which alone will give us true happiness, comes from our friendship with Christ, not from the things that quench our horizontal thirsts.

When we forget that, when we try to satisfy our vertical thirst with only horizontal stuff, we put ourselves on the road to frustration, tragedy, and disappointment.

We are advised to drink plenty of water for the sake of good health, especially now during this coronavirus pandemic. Without water we can’t survive for long.

In the readings we find the Israelites grumbling in the desert, “Did you make us leave Egypt so that we would die here of thirst along with our livestock?” Then we encounter the woman at the well at high noon. In biblical times, women usually went to the well in the early hours of the morning so why do we find this woman alone at the well at high noon?

Many scripture scholars contend that her peers had ostracized her for living with a man who was not her husband. Perhaps she avoided them out of shame. If so, we may have more in common with her than we realize. After all, how do we feel in the sight of God and others when we have sinned?

She was living a life of alienation, loneliness and inner turmoil. She had been trying to slake her vertical thirst with horizontal stuff: human love, comfort and earthly pleasures. She learned the hard way that such a formula didn’t work. She needed to find the spring of water welling up to eternal life. She found that in Christ, whom she met at the well.

When Jesus reveals himself to her, her life turns around. She may have once considered herself beyond redemption but then it hits her, she has been saved! Transformed by the realization that she has found the Messiah, she runs off into town to share the good news with everyone else.

Clearly the Holy Spirit was at work in the midst of all this. Many in the town also believed in Jesus and begged him to stay. They regarded him as the Savior of the world, the only time in the gospels where Jesus as a man is called that.

The woman and the people of her town had been wandering through a spiritual desert, slowly dying a death of frustration and perhaps boredom. They may have been enjoying the material pleasures of life and prosperity but they were thirsting for something greater, which was quenched by Christ himself.

We need look no further for the secret to happiness than Christ. He is the rock and the water flowing in the desert of this fallen world. If we make satisfying our vertical thirst our first priority by loving God and our neighbor, then the happiness we seek through our horizontal thirsts will be quenched as well.

God’s will for us is to love one another, to care as much about the needs of those around us, both materially and spiritually, as we do about our own needs. God also wants us to think well of others, to speak well of others and to act well towards others. That is what almsgiving is all about.

Speaking of alms, since you aren’t able to be physically present here as I celebrate Mass, please consider mailing your contribution to the parish. Your support is still very critical in this trying time.

Just as the woman and the town encountered Jesus at the well, you and I can encounter Jesus in our time of prayer. The church is open during the day for you to stop by and pray. In the solitude of your home, take time to ponder the readings of the day, using the Word Among Us, or go on line to Give Us This Day.net or the Magnificat. Both of these missals are making their digital websites available to you during these challenging times.

Viruses have come and gone in our lifetime but none has impacted the lives of so many, disrupting the global economy, closing schools and work places, compelling people to cancel or alter travel plans, to hoarding basic supplies like toilet paper and water, as they prepare to isolate themselves from one another. But this is not a time for us to isolate ourselves from God. While we may not be literally thirsting for water, unlike the Israelites in the desert or the woman at the well, we are thirsting for things that give us relief, things which only God can satisfy.

As Jesus said to the woman, “Whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst.”

I have long enjoyed the comic strip Dennis the Menace for he depicts our human traits so well. One apt scenario that comes to mind shows Dennis with his dog, Ruff, walking along side Margaret. While he is pulling his red wagon, Margaret, clutching her doll, is busily jabbering away.

In the next panel, Dennis gives Ruff a sidelong glance while Margaret continues her chatter. This time, she is speaking directly to Dennis. The third panel shows Margaret wildly beating poor Dennis with her doll, saying, “Dennis, you’re not listening to me while I am speaking to you!” In the last panel, he turns to her and replies, “Margaret, I’m listening to you; it’s just that I’m not paying any attention!”

How readily do we listen to what someone else is saying? Listening isn’t always easy, especially if the conversation tends to be a monologue. Instead of listening attentively, I am busy with my own thoughts, waiting to either refute what is said or add my two cents worth. Meanwhile, I could be cheating myself out of learning something new from you.

By listening well, you hear more than just words. Admittedly, there is a risk to listening well, for when you do, you open yourself up to what the other person has to say. In the end, you may find yourself a changed person.

Such was the case for Abraham. He listened. Now, he could have ignored God. After all, he was seventy-five years old and in those days, travel was not an easy undertaking for anyone. When he ventured to the Promised Land, his life was changed forever. By truly listening to God, Abraham earned the distinction of becoming the father of our faith.

That was also the case for Peter, James and John when they witnessed the transfiguration. As they viewed Jesus in this new light alongside Moses and Elijah, they heard a voice that said, “This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

They no longer saw Jesus as an itinerant rabbi making the rounds through the hills of Judea and Galilee or as a political leader who would liberate their homeland from the Romans. They now viewed Jesus as the one who could transform their lives if they heeded God’s command and listened to him. They came down the mountain very much changed by what they had seen and heard.

Transformation comes from letting go of the known and being willing to embrace the unknown. As a society we experience change in countless ways. That which we take for granted today in science, technology, economics and politics was unheard of a century ago; transplants, personal computers, credit cards, and presidential primaries.

What matters more to God is the transformation that can happen in us personally. In his letter to Timothy, Paul points out that by Christ’s actions, God has saved us and that we are being called to a holy life, not because of any merits of ours but according to God’s own design.

Unlike Abraham, most of us will not receive such a direct command from God yet each day we can experience God in our lives through prayer. Imagine God speaking to you now, “This is my beloved son, listen to him.” God affirms Jesus, his teachings and his mission. Who could give us better advice? Jesus has much to say to us, but first we have to listen well. That means putting aside our own agenda.

Listening to Jesus means getting to know him. He is not just another wise teacher, like Confucius or Buddha. He is the fulfillment of the long history of salvation beginning with Abraham, throughout the Old Testament that is represented in the Transfiguration by the appearance of Moses and Elijah. He is God made man, whose glory is beyond anything we can imagine. Peter, James and John got a glimpse of it, and it transformed their understanding of him.

So listen to him. What Jesus says may not always be pleasant or attractive, but he knows what he is doing. He has ultimate authority beyond anything anyone else may utter.

Most of us can probably hear exactly what Jesus is saying to us right now. He is always inviting us to follow him more closely. Recall how often he urged his listeners to repent. Perhaps he is asking you to come to him in the sacrament of reconciliation, so that he can help you break a debilitating sinful habit that is holding you back from spiritual maturity.

Maybe he is asking you to reconcile with a friend or relative you haven’t spoken to in awhile, to forgive someone whom you don’t think deserves to be forgiven. Doing that could transform both you and the person who offended you.

Perhaps fear is holding you back from doing that but Jesus is also saying to you, “Rise, and do not be afraid.” Do not be afraid to listen and change. We must not let fear even of the coronavirus overpower us. Granted, transformation is hard. We often resist change so we resist heeding what Jesus is telling us to do. “Leave me alone!” we protest. Then we wonder why the world is in sad shape.

Jesus comes to us in the Eucharist and scriptures and when he does, lets pay attention to him and respond, “OK, Lord, I believe in you. I want to listen to you. Thy will be done, Lord, thy kingdom come.” If we heed his advice, we too can be transformed to make this a better world.

Moments ago, we admitted to God that we had sinned in our thoughts, words and deeds. Sin is a reality we contend with daily, a consequence of our freedom to make choices.

One of the greatest blessings we receive from God is the power to decide, along with the responsibility of being able to decide. We’re free to choose, but that also means we’re free to make bad choices. Lent is a time when we remember and repent for the evil choices we’ve made personally and as God’s people. The readings today show us how we got into these situations and how we can get out of them.

The first reading from Genesis tells us how temptation, the devil’s tool for seducing us, works and like Adam and Eve, we have to take responsibility for our actions, because excuses like “the Devil made me do it” and “I didn’t know any better” are so often old, tired, and lame.

As we heard, Adam and Eve had life breathed into them by God. Having created a paradise for them, God also created limits for their own good. “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day that you eat of it you shall die.” God knew what was in store for them if they did so and became aware of their freedom to make moral choices.

To make Adam and Eve aware of good and evil, the serpent first prompted them to doubt whether God had their best interest in mind. “You certainly will not die! No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is evil.” Eve considered her options and ate; Adam follows her lead, and the deed was done. Their eyes indeed were opened and life was no longer a bed of roses for them.

In today’s second reading, Paul reminds us that Adam’s decision had consequences not only for him but also for all humanity. Adam sinned and lost it all, like a gambler squandering his family’s livelihood and going bust. As Paul tells us, “Through one man sin entered the world, and through sin, death.”

The Original Sin of Adam ushered in death for us all. Like a virus, sin is contagious, impacting every person. We sin whenever we decide to disobey God or worse yet rebel. Sin occurs when we do not love God, our neighbor or ourselves.

Fortunately, our capacity to decide has an even greater potential for doing good than for evil. Christ, the New Adam, ushered life back into humanity through his good decision. By becoming human, Jesus Christ became the new head of humanity, since he was and still is its greatest example of love, the antidote for sin. He decided to lay down his life out of love for the Father and us, and by doing so, he conquered sin and death but alas he didn’t destroy our ability to sin.

The garden of temptation in the gospel has been replaced, ages later, by a desert of temptation. Before beginning his public ministry Jesus fasted and prayed for forty days, and, like us, he had to face temptation when making the right decisions. He does this to teach us how we can face and overcome temptations ourselves.

The devil first tempts him to turn stones into bread to satisfy his hunger. Undoubtedly, Jesus could turn stones to bread in a snap. But he replied: “One does not live on bread alone.” There are more important things to life than just filling your tummy. We must also live on God’s word as well. God’s will for us and others should always shape our decisions.

Since the devil knew that Jesus was a scriptural man, he tried to use some scripture of his own. Taking him to the top of the Temple in Jerusalem, the devil then insisted that Jesus demand proof of God’s protection, and he even had the gall to back up his demand with Bible verses. But Jesus replied that we must not put God to the test.

Instead, we need to have faith in God to make right decisions. Scripture helps us to know God’s will, not just to justify our actions. We can try to make a Biblical case for when we choose to do wrong, but it is God who ultimately justifies or condemns our actions, not us.

Finally, the devil offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, provided Jesus groveled at his feet. He offered Jesus everything except the one thing the devil wouldn’t give up: being number one.

Rebuking Satan, Jesus focused on who is number one: his Heavenly Father and the mission he had received —“The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.” Serving God should always shape our decisions. If God is not in first place, our decisions will take a wrong turn.

Lent is a time when the Church invites us to pay special attention to God’s Word, the truth that Christ came to reveal to us – so that we don’t forget what really matters.

There are many ways to do this. It could be as simple as spending fifteen minutes a day reading and reflecting on Scripture. It could mean turningoff the noise around us and taking time to read a good spiritual book or study the catechism – that hidden treasure house of Catholic doctrine and wisdom that we pay much too little attention to.

Today Jesus will renew his commitment to us by coming once again, body, blood, soul and divinity, in the sacrifice of this Mass, by offering himself to us as the true bread from heaven in Holy Communion. When he does, let’s renew our commitment to him as we venture into this holy season. 

A patient seeing a psychiatrist for the first time was surprised to see a Bible on the doctor’s desk. “Don’t tell me that you read the Bible,” he said. The doctor replied, “I not only read the Bible; I meditate on it. It’s the greatest textbook on human behavior ever written. If people followed it’s teaching, a lot of psychiatrists could close their offices and go fishing.”

Have you ever thought of the Bible as a textbook on human behavior, providing us with a guide to psychiatric health? For starters, today’s readings provide us with pearls of wisdom we ought to consider seriously for our emotional wellbeing.

Our scripture opened with the line, “Be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy. You shall not bear hatred for your brother or sister in your heart.” Imagine how different our world would be if God’s advice had been followed ever since Moses first shared this revelation. The call to be holy as God is holy forms the normative ethical behavior for the Judeo-Christian community, providing the basis for Jesus’ commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Being holy may seem like an impossible task yet Paul reminds us, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” For good reason, Jesus challenges us to “be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” That idea may seem far-fetched or overwhelming for being perfect is supposedly a goal that is out of reach for anyone. Hardly a day goes by when we don’t blunder in some way. On the other hand, striving to be perfect is a goal all of us can aim for. In this instance, always making the effort to be holy instead of angry and hateful is the challenge Jesus is presenting here.

Today’s readings illustrate that one trait of holiness, demonstrated often by Christ, boils down to not allowing anger to take over one’s heart. Jesus doesn’t tell us not to get angry since anger is an emotion that we cannot scrap. He is telling us, however, not to let anger take over our hearts. Holiness doesn’t allow something that is upsetting you to seep into your heart and thus undermine your love for God and the person who is upsetting you.

Leviticus cautions us not to take revenge or bear grudges. Doing so is a sign that you have let something taint your love toward the person responsible. If you need to tell someone that they have acted wrongly, do so in a spirit of fraternal correction. Instead of getting even, help that person to see the wrong of something they’ve done for their own good.

Sometimes, people will confess to me that they have been angry. I then point out that anger itself is not a sin; but what we do when we are angry can be sinful. The Catechism defines anger as “an emotion which is not in itself wrong, but which, when it is not controlled by reason or hardens into resentment and hate, becomes one of the seven capital sins.” By the way, a capital sin is a mortal sin that results in spiritual death.

In a world that focuses on vendettas, avenging wrongs, and getting even, Jesus reminds us that the trademark of being a Christian is turning the other cheek. Granted, many see such meekness as weakness, but it takes much effort not to strike back or not dislike the person who has done you wrong. Or to give your time and possessions to someone else whom you think doesn’t deserve either. Or to go out of your way beyond what any reasonable person would expect.

Why does Jesus set such standards? When people hate their enemies and resent them, they end up hurting themselves far more than they hurt their enemies. When we hate someone, we give that person power over us: power over our sleep, power over our blood pressure, power over our health and happiness. Our enemies would be thrilled if they knew that our hatred was tearing us apart. Hatred turns our lives into a hellish turmoil. Mary Angelou once observed that hate has caused a lot of problems in this world but it has not solved one yet.

How can a Christian hate if God is love? Christians who hate are sacrificing their relationship with God for a cause that has no winners. If we allow hateful thoughts to overtake us, we cannot be people of peace. Conversely, when we respond with love, we release love where love is needed most. We stop the chain reaction of evil and put in its place a chain reaction of love.

Lest you think Jesus is setting the standard too high to be one of his followers, think of how many blows he received. None of us have been mistreated as badly as he was. Being God, he didn’t have to sacrifice himself on the cross. When Adam and Eve sinned, God could have left us alone to deal with the mess that happens whenever we sin. Instead, the Lord endeavors to demonstrate how we can better live our lives and impact the lives of others.

We might sum up the teaching of today’s readings with these words from St. Paul: “Do not let evil defeat you; instead conquer evil with good.” Responding with kindness toward those who wrong us benefits both parties far more a response of hate. No wonder Jesus tells us to adopt this new way of thinking and reacting, in a manner that is out of this world, yet one that creates a win-win outcome for everyone involved.

Viruses once again have dominated the news. In the past we worried about computer viruses or the flu virus. Now it’s the chronovirus, the latest pandemic to sweep the world, even touching people close to home. In the gospel, Jesus speaks of other kinds of viruses that can corrupt our hearts. He identifies anger, lust, and dishonesty as hidden viruses capable of damaging, even destroying our relationships, our very souls. With Lent just days away, we ought to listen closely to what he is saying here.

If we are honest with ourselves, all of us will have to admit that we struggle with temptations in each of these areas. So what are we to do? Are we simply doomed? When Jesus looks at our hearts, does he look away in dismay?

Thank goodness, no! Jesus comes with the medicine of his grace to cure us. We just have to give him the chance. And today’s First Reading tells us how: “If you choose,” the Book of Sirach tells us, “you can keep the commandments; they will save you.” Every day we freely choose which thoughts and actions we will commit: godly ones or selfish ones.

When a lustful thought flashes through our minds, we don’t have to accept it – we can reject it and turn to Jesus and Mary instead. When selfish anger boils up in our hearts, we don’t have to let it rule our lives and potentially damage a relationship – we can turn to Christ on the cross and learn from him how to turn the other cheek. When we are tempted to get ahead by compromising the truth, we can hold our tongues and recall Sirach’s promise: “Before man are life and death, good and evil, whichever he chooses shall be given him.”

We are who we are because we have free will. We make choices continually that shape our lives. When people have the right kind of relationship with God, they can read what God has put into their hearts. When they are distant from God, they write their own stuff in their hearts, inventing their own moral code.

Our choices shape us, but too often we only realize in retrospect when examining our conscience if the choice we made was good or bad.

As Sirach points out, in choosing fire or water, we make the choice between evil and good. Sirach’s point was to exonerate God from all blame for the evil in the world. The responsibility for sin and its consequences is placed directly at the feet of those who choose to sin. Like Topsy, in the classic, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, we could say, “The devil made me do it,” but we made the choice to listen to the devil in the first place and that is the concern Jesus raises in the gospel.

You can choose to keep or ignore the commandments. The choice is yours to make but so too are the consequences of your decision since God does not give us the license to sin. Evil choices will burn us like fire figuratively and someday literally in hell while good choices will refresh us like water. Jesus clearly wants us to choose life, a fulfilling life here on earth and eternal life with him in Heaven, by choosing to reject temptation and follow him.

Paul tells us God’s wisdom, unlike any human wisdom, is timeless. “What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him, this God has revealed to us through the Spirit.” The more we love God, the more we can see his wisdom, which will enable us to see the merit behind his law, not just the commandments but also the moral teachings of the Church.

Those who choose to live according to God’s timeless wisdom will find themselves following a wisdom based not on logic, statistics or passing trends, but on love, our foretaste of heaven. Antoine St. Exupery, the author of the renowned book, The Little Prince, once said, “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

If we live our faith superficially, our lives will never have the meaning that they are meant to have. We end up just following the latest trends and fashions, never really having the stability or making the progress in the life that Jesus wants us to have. But if we live our faith from the inside out, keeping Christ alive in our hearts by keeping the commandments, we will be able to help set trends, not just follow them.It’s like the difference between a thermometer and a thermostat.

A thermometer merely tells what the temperature is in a particular area. A thermostat, however, sets the temperature. Thermometers passively reflect what is around them; while thermostats actively affect what is around them. If our hearts are truly Catholic, truly Christian, if they are filled with the knowledge of God and with this grace, then we will be like thermostats, endeavoring to transform our world to be more like Christ. But if our faith only goes skin deep, if we are only good at going through the motions of being friends with Christ, we will just be like thermometers and the viruses that Jesus speaks of could prove to be quite deadly.