Deacon Pat's Books

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Friday, March 1, 2024

Lent - Walking into the Desert

 Are you ready to walk into the desert? - Prayerful Path

 

Homily -  1st Sunday in Lent, Year B

Today, we hear that the “Spirit drove Jesus into the desert.” 

What a great passage this is to begin the Season of Lent! 

Jesus didn’t just get up off the recliner and decide to go into the desert. 

He didn’t go out there on a walk-about, trying to find himself. 

No, the passage tells us that the Spirit drove him into the desert, and that’s why he was there. 

This past Wednesday, we ourselves were driven out into the desert of this season, our own forty days in the desert like that of Jesus. 

And I think it’s important that we meditate on why we’re here.

Usually, the thing that sticks out in our minds are the disciplines of fasting and abstinence. 

When I was a kid, we never ate fish outside of Lent, so I could always tell we were getting close to this season when my mom would buy fish sticks out of the frozen section in the grocery store. 

The Church asks us to take part in these disciplines. 

Abstinence of course is that practice whereby every Catholic 14 years and older abstains from eating meat. 

Fasting, on the other hand, is that practice in which every Catholic adult is called to eat noticeably less than normal. 

Now, fasting is only required of us on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday here in the United States, but nevertheless, we’re each encouraged to fast of something during Lent. 

Thus, you get the traditional practice of “giving something up.” 

In some ways, though, our tradition of fasting has gotten a bit watered down. 

Lots of people see their Lenten promise as an activity in self-improvement or a test of some kind. 

It becomes less of a discipline, and more of a question of “how strong am I?” 

It gives people a goal to work towards, something that stands out from the normal routine. 

Now, none of this is bad, but what is the real meaning of fasting?

Fasting for a Catholic should be more than just some exercise in self-help or self-discipline. 

Really, Lent is supposed to be here for spiritual discipline. 

If it’s about self-help, we are driven out into the desert of Lent by ourselves. 

If we focus on the spiritual discipline of Lent, however, we are simply answering the call to be driven out to the desert by the Holy Spirit, as we hear of Jesus in the Gospel. 

There are two purposes to fasting during Lent that I see. 

The first is that fasting is an act of penance. 

Whether it’s something like giving up chocolate during Lent, drinking only water during lunch, or even something big like having bread and water for dinner a few days a week, the meaning is the same. 

What it boils down to is that we’re freely choosing to deny ourselves. 

We don’t do this to show others how tough we are or to exercise our self-help muscles. 

But by acknowledging our tendencies toward self-centeredness and self-indulgence – our tendencies toward sin – our self-denial makes a statement to the Lord. 

Through our fasting, we tell the Lord that we’re truly sorry for always thinking of ourselves and our hungers and our desires, and we strive to change that spirit of self-centeredness into a spirit of self-giving. 

In that way, fasting really is penitential.

But the other reason I see for fasting is that it’s an opportunity for us to grow in our relationship with Christ. 

We’ve shown that we’re sorry for our sins, and that’s really the first step. 

But the second step builds on that. 

It’s easy to start our Lenten practices and it’s easy for about a week or two. 

But after that, you know there will be days when you find yourself hungry, or when you really want that chocolate that you gave up, or when you really want that juicy porterhouse steak on a Friday. 

But really, fasting offers us an opportunity to turn that physical hunger and that physical desire into a spiritual one. 

In a sense, you could think to yourself, “Lord, I really want that chocolate right now, but I want you more. 

Lord, I really want that porterhouse right now, but I want you more.” 

And through this practice of fasting, when Easter comes, and you can sink your teeth into a nice Hershey’s bar or a juicy steak, you can celebrate not only the greatness of the taste, but the great joy of the resurrection of Christ.

Pope Benedict talked about this in 2009 during Lent. 

He said “Denying material food, which nourishes our body, nurtures an interior disposition to listen to Christ and be fed by His saving word.”

“And that through fasting and praying, we allow Him to come and satisfy the deepest hunger that we experience in the depths of our being: the hunger and thirst for God… “

He also added: “Freely chosen detachment from the pleasure of food and other material goods helps the disciple of Christ to control the appetites of nature, weakened by original sin, whose negative effects impact the entire human person.”

 

So maybe the question we can ask ourselves today as we begin this season of Lent, is what has led us here. 

Have we been driven into the desert for ourselves – as an act of self-help, or pride, or just because we feel we have to jump through the hoops? 

Or have we been led out into the desert by the Holy Spirit – to offer these sacrifices solely for the love of God? 

Take a moment and reflect on your Lenten plan, are you responding to the call from the Holy Spirit, or from something else?

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as we enter this season of Lent,

may our works of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving be things that lead us to repent of our sins,

and ultimately to help us to grow in our desire for and relationship with God

Sunday, January 21, 2024

Following Jesus

 

B Cycle – 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Homily originally written by Deacon Dave (Deacondave.net)

St. Jerome said Ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ. 

So, each week as we begin listening to the Word of God our response is to say “thanks be to God.”  

Yes, thanks be to God for his revelation of himself. 

Yet we also learn how to respond to his revelation by listening and meditating on the word that we have been given.

So, we must constantly remind ourselves that in each story there is something for us to learn about God and something for us to learn about how to respond to God.

It is far too easy for us to get caught up in the story and miss its meaning for us.

This week’s readings about Jonah and the call of Simon, Andrew, James and John is one of those kinds of stories. 

The first thing that one would reflect on is the absolute and total response of the disciples. 

They just dropped everything and followed Jesus. 

It seems incredulous that anyone would just drop everything and follow someone who came along and said follow me. 

They left family, friends, and their means of making a living apparently without a thought about what they were leaving behind.

I was thinking of their response in the context of what our response would be if our boss, principle, or authority figure such as police, parent, or even priest, came to us and said come with me.    

Most of us could not avoid the thought that something is wrong. 

Questioning what have we done, and we would start to think of what could be the matter.

We would be mentally formulating a response to any wrong we could imagine. 

Their demand that we go with them would not be something we would consider as good. 

But then again, if we knew the person extremely well, it is possible that we would not be concerned.  

In fact, the more we truly know the person the less negative would be our response to their request.

As we look at the disciples dropping everything to follow Jesus, and if we immerse ourselves in scripture, we would see their response was not as spontaneous as it seems. 

But since scripture teaches us how to respond, we need to understand that we too are called to follow Jesus. 

So how can our response be as theirs was – totally committed to following Jesus? 

I believe the answer as always is found in the scriptures and we need to look no further than last week’s gospel. 

Remember as the disciples of John followed Jesus they asked him “where are you staying.” 

Jesus in response said “come and see.”  

They went and stayed with Jesus.

Most of you have gone to stay with someone in their home for an extended stay.

Possibly someone you have never stayed with before. 

When you stay with someone you are guided by their schedule. 

Your meals, your conversation, your entertainment, and your activities are guided by your host. 

You are in their environment and their values are revealed to you in their home décor, to their choice in music, television, or movie watching. 

Their interaction with you and among themselves lowers those barriers that we all put around us to hide who we are from others.   

In one sense we become intimate with those we stay with and we learn things about them and they learn things about us.

The disciples did not just meet Jesus on the shore that day; they had stayed with him and shared thoughts and meals with him.

Their stay was more than one day, for Andrew went to get Simon and told him “we have found the Messiah, come and see.” 

Scriptures show us that Simon went with his brother and stayed with Jesus. 

How long they stayed with Jesus is unknown, but we can see why they followed him so easily. 

It was because they were already intimate with him and out of that intimacy grew trust and faith in him.

Compare their response with that of Jonah when he was first called. 

What we heard today in the reading was the second call from Lord to Jonah.

In the first call, Jonah’s response was to run away.

Remember how he fled when the Lord asked him to preach to the great city of Nineveh?

And he was:

thrown overboard from a ship,

swallowed by a great fish and remained in its belly for three days,

prayed fervently and desperately,

and then the Lord commanded the fish to vomit Jonah upon dry land.

Well, he eventually got where God intended for him, but it was not because he was willing. 

His response and that of the disciples give us great insights for our own opportunities to follow Christ.

We can assume that since Jonah was a prophet that he was prayerful, faithful to the laws, attended the temple as required, and was open to listening to God. 

But when he heard God’s call in a way that challenged his sense of righteousness, he considered it inconceivable.

Why would God want to extend his mercy to the ungodly? 

Jonah placed his own judgment of others worthiness for God’s grace above what God wanted him to do. 

How like some in the church today; who judge others against their own standard of holiness, not God’s standard. 

Jonah eventually did what God wanted but he did it grudgingly.

In Jonah we can see and learn about our own challenges to not confuse pious acts, and doing even more than what is required by the law, as all God requires of us.

What is required of us is a total commitment to go where God leads us – even when it is out of our comfort zone or challenges our sense of worthiness.

Either of our own worthiness or the worthiness of those God chooses to extend his mercy and love to through our ministering to them.

We have one task in our faith journey – love of God and love of neighbor. 

All we need to do is to be faithful to those two things. 

In the scriptures Christ tells us “Apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn.15:5). 

Andrew, Peter, James and John followed because they had spent time with Jesus, and because they did, intimacy with him grew. 

Through that intimacy with Christ, their love, trust, and belief in Christ also grew. 

From their love, trust, and faith, they grew to understand that with Christ all things are possible. 

So, maybe the take away today is:

We can either follow the example of Andrew, Peter, James and John of being a disciple, or the example of Jonah.