May 5, 2019 at St. Peter and St. William Churches in Naples, FL

Acts 5, 27-32, 40-41 + Psalm 30 + Revelation 5, 9-11-14 + John 21, 1-19

By listing the names of these fishermen, John is giving us more information than just who was there. First of all, counting Peter, there were seven of them, and that number seven in the Scriptures always carries with it a deeper meaning. In this case, the sense of totality. Everyone is there. The seven named by John represent every possible type gathered in assembly just like us today. There is the impulsive Peter, the doubting Thomas, the shrewd Nathaniel, the sons of Zebedee so intense in their feelings, and “two others” just in case you can’t recognize yourself among the five with names. The wonderful grace of being with the risen Christ is being revealed and discovered, and John tells us today where we shall find the Risen Lord.

“I’m going fishing”, says Peter, and the others say, “We’ll go with you.” They are going back now to their ordinary lives, and with that the scene is set and the message of John’s gospel is revealed. Remember, this is not about those individuals named, it’s about us. John is writing to you and me with a message about where and how the risen Lord is to be found. There is no earthquake, no thunder and lightning. There are no talking angels. A group of people are going about their ordinary lives, doing what puts food on the table. Someone comes along the shore and asks a question that anyone would ask of someone fishing: “Did you catch anything?” It can’t be more ordinary and simple. They say “No”, and the stranger on the shore suggests something. They try it and it works. Suddenly there is more fish than they can manage, and this last episode of John’s Gospel takes us back to the first one, a wedding feast with a lot of wine! The gospel of John ends as it begins with a remarkable story of the great abundance that comes when you do what Jesus asks.

What is so very ordinary evolves into something almost mystical however and John adds some little details that invite us to wonder. Peter gets dressed and jumps into the water. Maybe it should have been the other way around, but he seems to want to be presentable to the Lord that John has recognized from his loving heart. Then there is that scene around a fire so different from the scene around the fire in Courtyard of Pilate. No denials this time. Once again, Jesus feeds them, and the way John describes the gestures invites us to think of the Eucharist.

What is being revealed to us today in this Gospel is what we are doing here in this place. The wonderful mysteries of grace are unfolding as we go on with our ordinary lives. No matter what you are doing, cooking dinner, washing dishes, folding laundry, serving somewhere as a volunteer, or even playing cards or walking the beach, a loving heart filled with faith will see the risen Lord. As we go from here back into our very ordinary lives, we carry with us the message that echoes deep in our hearts realizing that he is here in our midst, and his promise to never leave us has been kept.

T

April 28, 2019 at St. Peter and St. William Churches in Naples, FL

Acts 5, 12-16 + Psalm 118 + Revelation 1, 9-11,12-13,17-19 + John 20, 19-31

As we proclaim this Gospel today, it is easy to zero in on the Apostle Thomas, but if we do, we run the risk of missing the whole point of John’s narrative here. John is writing this Gospel long after most people who had seen and heard the historical Jesus have died. John is writing to people who have never seen Jesus. The people who were to receive this Gospel never saw or heard Jesus before his resurrection. That’s the point of having Thomas absent and then having him come to faith in the risen Christ. So, Thomas becomes you and me unless some of you are older than I think! Having seen Jesus before his death and resurrection is no longer the measure or the criteria for who belongs in the Apostolic church. Now, by our faith because we have not seen but believed, we are included, says John, in the mission of Jesus Christ.

John sees and reveals to us that creation is happening again. The breath of life, the very Spirit of God, passes through Jesus into us. God breathes life into the body of His son. His son breathes life into us. We have in us, and we are because of Jesus and the Spirit he has breathed into us the very power of God, and that should scare us just a little bit. By the breath of that Holy Spirit breathed into us, we have and may exercise the power of God. The responsibility that comes with that power ought to make us tremble. And so, we have to ask, “What is this God Jesus has revealed?” “Who is this God with whom we have become one through Jesus Christ?” Well, we know his name. It is Mercy! Forgiveness is his Peace. Reconciliation and healing are the consequence of this God’s presence. Without mercy, there is no God. Where there is no Mercy, God will not be found.

Jesus Christ made man is the greatest act of God’s mercy. It was God’s way and God’s plan for forgiveness. In Jesus Christ with the human and divine made one, our alienation from God is healed and our oneness with God is restored. With God’s live breathed into us, we become mercy and forgiveness is not ours to receive any longer as much as it is ours to give in the name of Jesus Christ. We have been warned by Christ that we have the power to “retain” sin, and his words in that regard are more of a warning than a commission. “Don’t do it” is what he says, because if you do, your sins will be retained.

Vengeance, retribution, and justice without mercy are all signs that sin is being kept or retained, and this only give sin more power. As disciples of Jesus sent out into this world, we are heralds of mercy and bringers of peace which we can only bring through forgiveness. The words: “As the father has sent me, so I send you” spring out of this Gospel today right in our face. This is God speaking to us, not just to that group on the shore. The power that comes with this commission is the power to bring peace, to restore respect and love on this earth. When we get this right, we shall once again be living in paradise where there will be no more fear, no more tears, no more sadness: only the love and the glory that belongs to those who are blessed.

April 21, 2019 at St. Peter and St. William Church in Naples, FL

Acts 10, 34, 37-42 + Psalm 118 + Colossians 3, 1-4 + Matthew 28, 1-10

A choice is presented for the Easter Sunday Gospels, and I have chosen Matthew because it is the Gospel of this year. A problem arises when faced with this choice because each of the four accounts of the Resurrection is very different, and after reading and hearing them over the years, they all blend together. This is a problem because the blending “waters down” the unique elements of each Gospel account leaving us with too many details and no way to identify what is significant. When put together, they are all significant, and it is simply TMI, too much information. For instance, in John’s account, Peter and “The Beloved Disciple” run to the tomb. Peter arrives last in that race, but the other disciple stands back to let Peter enter first, and Peter is then the first to conclude that the Lord has risen. Notice that there is no mention of that in Matthew’s account. It is quite different, quite simple, and almost without detail until you begin to take it apart.

In Matthew’s Gospel, unlike the others, there is an earthquake. There is an angel sitting on the stone that had been in the way. I like the image! There are no spices. The two women named Mary are simply going to visit the grave. There are guards only in Matthew’s Gospel, and they are “like dead men.”

When there is an earthquake, no matter what you are doing, it gets your attention. I’ve been through a couple in San Francisco, and we are beginning to become more accustomed to them in Oklahoma. None the less, we still know when they happen. Things shake. Some things fall down. We remember that we are vulnerable, and we look around and pay attention because something is going on out of our control. No matter how we might want to or try, an earthquake is not under our control. So today the Resurrection is announced by an earthquake. Wake up. Pay attention. Things are coming apart. What was closed is open. It’s an earthquake!

An angel came. Even though Matthew gives the angel no name, I like to imagine that it is Gabriel. Luke is the one who names angels, and Luke liked Gabriel. Besides, it’s the same message: “Do not be afraid.” So, why not the same angel? Every time that angel shows up, God is doing something no one could have ever imagined, and in doing so, God is being revealed. An angel says to an old childless couple, “You’re going to be parents.” Now there is something new, and it is something only God could have done. An angel says to Mary, “You will conceive a child by the Holy Spirit.” Something new again. That has never happened before, and only God could do it. An angel says: “He is risen as he said.” Again, something new and never imagined! This is God at work, God being revealed. Then there is an image I really enjoy: that image of an angel perched on a rock. A stone that had blocked the entrance to the tomb…. or was it blocking the exit from the tomb? It works both ways. That stone kept the women outside unable to see the emptiness, and that stone kept the Lord of Life in. It had to go, and there sits the angel right on top as though it were a throne. There is the angel sitting on the obstacle. It is a kind of victory pose that is a message in itself.

Finally, there are the guards, the brave, big, tough, fearless Roman Guards! They are afraid of nothing. They have conquered the world, but they fall down in the face of the one who conquers death. In contrast to life itself, they are like dead men. Suddenly the dead are alive and the living are dead suggests Matthew. That is earth shaking!

Then the women are sent to Galilee. That’s not home. The angel sends them to the outside world, away from home. They are sent out, and there they experience the risen one. Not in the Temple, not in the safety of their homes, not in the synagogue or any of the places where they are safe and comfortable.

My friends, on the cross we venerated two days ago, the world did all it could to Jesus. At Easter, God did all God could do to the world; and the earth shook! You do not explain that, you witness it. The risen Christ appeared first to his own; the ones who heard him teach, heal, and forgive. They witnessed his arrest, trial, and crucifixion. He went to them first because they would be the ones to recognize that this was the crucified Jesus. That crucifixion was not an unfortunate mistake in the Roman legal system. It was the inevitable and predictable result of saying the things Jesus said, and doing the things Jesus did. That is what the world does to people who threaten the way things are. Face the facts here!

On that first day of the week, God presented a new fact. The God who made light from darkness and a world from a void took the worst we could and turned it toward life. The earth shook, and a new world is offered to us. Jesus came back to forgive the disciples for abandoning him. The new world is about forgiveness, not vengeance, and the earth shook. When the stone was rolled away, and the earth shook, we got our first glimpse of a new world where death does not have the last word, where injustice is made right, and innocent suffering is vindicated by the hand of God.

Those two women came to a cemetery to grieve over the sad story of death and one more chapter in the sad story of how the good always get it in the end when cruel power, jealousy and fear have their way. But then the earth shook, the obstacle, the barrier between life and death is moved away. That angel plopped itself right down on that stone in one final act of impudent defiance of death and Roman soldiers. It is as though the angel says to the soldiers, “Boo! Be afraid! Your world and what it was built on is shaking apart.” To the others the message is simply: “Go out and away from the old familiar places where you feel safe and secure. You will find him elsewhere.”

So just as with another story that opened Matthew’s Gospel, there is a story here at the end in which no body went back the way they came. Once we experience the risen Lord, healing and forgiving, there is no going back.

April 14, 2019 at St. Peter & St. William Churches in Naples, Fl

Isaiah 50, 4-7 + Psalm 22 + Philippians 2, 6-11 + Luke 22, 14 to 23, 49

Luke 19, 28-40 At the Beginning of Mass

In the Passion account we have just proclaimed, Luke puts before us three crowds of people: a crowd at the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, a crowd in the courtyard with Pilate, and a crowd following Jesus to the site of his crucifixion. Each crowd is different. There are now three days before Lent ends on Holy Thursday. You might reflect Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday about in which crowd you might be found. Each crowd is characterized by an emotion: the first is jubilation, the second angry crowd demanding crucifixion, and the weeping crowd walking the way of the cross. You may notice that this last crowd is the only crowd to which Jesus speaks. Pay attention to how many times the second crowd cries out: “Crucify Him.” Three times. It should connect with something Peter did before the cock crowed.

We must look at where we can be found. Which crowd? Does the Joy of our faith ever show when we’re not in a crowd of believers? Are we complicit bystanders who avoid speaking up when something is wrong? Maybe we simply recognize our weakness and walk with Jesus as a sign of our solidarity?

For just a couple minutes, I want to give you something to think about and ponder through this week we call Holy. You reflect upon it, and with a prayer to the Holy Spirit, you can bring this lent to a fruitful conclusion.

You have to wonder where were those people in the first crowd when the second was shouting for Barabbas. They were all into “Jesus” when he was like a “Rock Star”. They were like a lot of people who can and do quote the Bible, but avoid living it. Their commitment wasn’t very deep or lasting. When it gets hard, they can’t be found. That second crowd just followed the leaders without questioning the demands of their leaders. Were those demands right or wrong? They went with the flow. Then there is a third crowd that Luke identifies as “women.” They can do nothing but be there. They seem to know that presence is the only and most important thing they have to offer.

April 7, 2019 at St. Peter & St. William Churches in Naples, Fl

Isaiah 43, 16-21 + Psalm 126 + Philippians 3, 8-14 + John 8, 1-11

Today we get a report from St John about mob violence which is something that sadly is still too common. We have seen it over and over again in the past years from Charlottesville, Virginia to Suburbs of St. Louis, and Pittsburgh. It happens with gangs of bullies on school playgrounds and parks, and today we hear about it in the Gospel of John. It has become so common that we are almost insensitive to it, and that is dangerous. The danger lies in the fact that any of us could be caught up in this senselessness at any time or in any place. Mob action is always anonymous, and the mob can end up doing things that are as self-destructive as they are offensive. In that anonymity a mob can get away with doing things most of those people in the mob would never think of doing if they were in their right mind. What we see in the news if often good people who somehow have lost their bearings, have surrendered to some collective madness that leads them into behavior and thinking that is far from the reality of their lives and their goodness. That mass action of a mob generates feelings of indisputable righteousness even when the behavior is contemptible. We’ve seen this all through history to the shame of the human family and even the church. The Spanish Inquisition made the Roman Coliseum look like a picnic. A century later it was witch hunts in Salem, then came the mob lynching we are just beginning recognize here in this country only to move on to Selma, and Charlottesville.

These people who drag that woman before Jesus were probably good people angry and fed-up with something they abhor and something that strikes at the values of their lives and the community in which they live and want raise their children. The whole scene, ugly as it is, puts both of them, the woman and the mob on trial. The woman is exposed in public. There are witnesses, perhaps even the man with whom she committed that adultery was hiding the crowd. Imagine that. Anonymity is a safe place to hide. They want to force Jesus to choose between the law and mercy. He doesn’t choose. The fact is, and they knew it: the same law that required an adulteress be stoned demanded the same punishment for a rebellious child. They knew that, and no one among them had ever stoned their child for drinking, smoking, or wrecking the car!

What Jesus is doing here is get the crowd to come to its senses. He shows a merciless crowd what mercy can do. He gets them to realize that genuine religion invites people to ask for and rejoice in forgiveness rather than pretending or even attempting perfection. They left one by one John tells us. Perhaps in breaking up the mob, those people could only look at themselves in truth and in all honesty without the fake righteousness of the mob. Jesus does not let the woman off easily. He firmly instructs her to stop sinning, but his real focus is on those who accuse others and excuse themselves. Perhaps, when his successor assumes the burdens of the papacy, Pope Francis will be remembered for one thing he said that touches us all: “Who am I to judge?” When we finally embrace what that question means, we will be well along the way to have established peace, and build up the Kingdom of God.

31 March 2019 at St. Peter & St. William Churches in Naples, Fl

Joshua 5, 9-12 + Psalm 34 +2 Corinthians 5, 17-21 + Luke 15, 1-3 & 11-32

We have just proclaimed familiar and much-loved verses from Luke’s Gospel. It is a complex story that explores much more than the dynamics of the human family. It is study inviting us to reflect upon freedom, duty, and love. Those two sons are really good people who in many ways reflect the reality of our lives, all of us. We are one or the other, or perhaps even a combination of both. The younger one lives his freedom. He leaves home when he chooses, and he returns when he chooses without a thought about how anyone else might feel about it. His older brother lives his duty. He serves loyally without complaint asking nothing in return.

It is easy to look down on the younger son. His disrespect comes through as he squanders what the father and probably the older son have worked to save. His return home is hardly admirable. He goes back because he’s hungry without a thought about what pain he has caused anyone else. His brother is no shining example of virtue in spite of his loyalty and the duty with which he has worked. He may never have complained, but you can hear his resentment. He does what is right as a way of gaining his father’s approval, not for some higher ideal like love. The return of his brother reveals his shallowness as he sees his brother receive on the easiest terms the affirmation and affection he wanted and worked to receive. Both of them are lost. They have habits that cut them off from others. Between them stands the father who lives with freedom and with duty because he lives with love. He is free of attachments to things which he generously gives away to someone who has not deserved it. He is free to forgive everything and welcome back this son. He knows what is more important, his son of the squandered stuff. At the same time, lives with a sense of duty when he leaves the celebration to speak with the older son who is outside pouting and angry. He knows that this one needs his love as well, maybe even more at that moment.

In a recent film called, “The Green Book” that many of us have seen, there is a line spoken that touched me deeply. In speaking to the musician who has revealed that he is estranged from his brother, the tough chauffer says: “The world is full of lonely people just waiting for someone else to make the first move.” My friends, God has made the first move in sending his son who waits for us all who stand outside alone in shame or resentment. Either way, the promise has been spoken: “All I have is yours.” It is a stunning promise made to all of us who sometimes feel resentment or anger when someone gets more than we think they deserve. We must remember and tell this story over and over again to remind ourselves of that promise remembering as we do that freedom and duty both serve a higher purpose that can get lost when they are exercised without love. Only those who turn all things toward love will be able to welcome back those who are lost and enter the joyful celebration that is the Kingdom of God. 

24 March 2019 at St. Peter & St. William Churches in Naples, Fl

Exodus 3, 1-8, 13-15 + Psalm 103 + 1 Corinthians 10, 1-6, 10-12 + Luke 13, 1-9

Today, Luke calls them, “some people”; and we know how that goes. Some people say this, and some people say that, and some people told me something about someone I know and I can’t believe what some people are saying these days. On and on it goes. It’s always some people, and sometimes we are some people. In this case, they are coming to Jesus with a rumor about a man they all hated, Pilot. Was it true or not? No one really knows. There is not one hint in all of history that would confirm that Pilot ever did what they said. It’s all a trap to draw Jesus into a no – win situation. With it, they raise the age-old question about why bad things happen to good people. Jesus says not a word about that. Religion does not offer any answer to that question. It simply offers us Jesus, who shows us with his life how it ends when bad things happen to good people like him.

He twists their little trap around with a question that catches them off guard. He speaks about something that really did happen, a construction accident that killed innocent people asking them if they thought those innocent ones were being punished, and suddenly some people have nothing more to say as he points out that death can come any way at any time, and what matters is that one be prepared and that preparation he calls “repentance”. We pick up this Gospel almost half-way through Lent as a reminder that these are our days for repentance, and time is running out. We are all one week closer to our death than we were last weekend.

What is happening with us is addressed by the second part of this passage. Even a passing glance at this world ought to make obvious that as disciples and apostles of Jesus Christ, we have not born much fruit like that fig tree which is takes up precious water and exhausts the soil producing nothing. In an age when ethics, Gospel values, and morality are brushed aside by ambition and power, when fidelity and truth are mocked as fake for the sake of one’s own greed, when human life and this earth which has been given to our care are destroyed for the sake of convenience and immediate pleasures we cannot ignore a call to repentance which simply change: a change of heart, a change of thinking, and change of behavior.

The life of Jesus Christ demonstrates how human beings can live in communion with God, no matter what circumstances may come. For those with ears to hear, Jesus presents himself today as the gardener who is giving us just a little more time to bear fruit before being cut down.

17 March 2019 at St. Peter & St. William Churches in Naples, Fl

Genesis 15, 5-12, 17-18 + Psalm27 + Philippians 3,17 to 4, 1 + Luke 9, 28-36

Now, as we put the pieces together, we have to realize this: Peter has previously made his profession of faith, just a few verses earlier at Caesarea Phillip. This is not about them. It is not an experience that reveals the identity of Jesus. That has already been taken care of by Peter. This experience is for Jesus, and it is for his sake that it happens. So, we have Peter, James, and John. These are the three apostles that Mark tells us were with Jesus in the Garden of Olives after the Last Supper. That connects with the piece that tells us what Jesus was doing; praying. When we add the next piece, the location, we should be getting the picture: it’s on a hill. To make sure we don’t get confused, Luke does not name the hill. Finally, there are two people on either side of Jesus. In today’s Gospel, they are Moses and Elijah. In the scene we are putting together with these pieces, they are two thieves who really have no names in the Gospels. When we put these pieces together, we have an image of the Passion and Death of Jesus that can lead us to conclude that what is being revealed is for the sake of Jesus. This experience is given to Jesus to encourage and strengthen him for what lies ahead. It is as though the Father tells the Son how his experience on the other hill will really end, with him being gloriously present to the Father in the company of the great ones, Moses and Elijah. Obviously, it works and is enough to keep him going all the way to Jerusalem and to that other hill top.

Today we have a puzzle, and we have to put the pieces together. When we do, a wonderful and hope-filled revelation lies before us. One piece is who among the apostles is there. Another piece is where this takes place. A third piece is Jesus at prayer. A fourth piece is Moses and Elijah, and the fifth piece is what is said by the voice.

Proclaiming this Gospel, early in Lent raises the hope that those of us who are found in prayer will be strengthened and encouraged enough by this revelation to keep us going all the way not just all the way to Easter Sunday, but all the way on to the day when we too shall be so gloriously transfigured and be found among the saints. If it is so for Jesus, God’s Son, so it shall be for all of God’s children, especially to those who listen to him. For as Saint Paul says today: we will be “changed to conform with his glorified body”. It is this promise, this image, revealed to us today that should keep us moving forward in this life and this season never discouraged or fearful about what lies ahead even if it is painful, tough and frightening. Jesus knew he would be betrayed and those who opposed him would gather their forces to stop him, but the Father gave him this insight into how it would really end to keep him going. There is no reason to think it would be any different for all of us who listen to his word, who are faithful in prayer, and who trust in his mercy.

10 March 2019 at St. Peter & St. William Churches in Naples, Fl

Deuteronomy 26, 4-10 + Psalm 91 + 2 Romans 10, 8-13 + Luke 4, 1-13

It is Luke’s turn to open Lent for us this year, and he takes us into the desert as do Matthew and Mark in previous years. With Matthew, it is all about the identity of Jesus. In the simple two verses Mark devotes to this, it’s about the Spirit that leads Jesus. Now with Luke it is something else. These verses from Luke are not about Jesus. Luke’s focus is temptation. So, there is no point in sitting back and examining or admiring how skillful Jesus is in the face of temptation. We have to step into this Gospel and look carefully at these temptations Luke thinks are the most significant and perhaps the most dangerous for disciples of Jesus Christ.

What Jesus confronts in that desert is what we confront in the wilderness of this life. The response of Jesus to these temptations reveals how we must respond, because we are there with him. The temptation of isolating self-sufficiency seduces us again and again to believe that our needs and our wants can all be satisfied by our own ambitions and schemes. It sets us in competition with others for what we imagine to be a limited number of resources. “Take care of number one” is a mantra that isolates us from others, builds walls, and cultivates the fear that there is never enough to go around. That fear itself morphs into the second temptation with a desire to be free from danger, safe, and secure. In the face of such temptation comes a reminder that God is the only one who can protect. Then the third and perhaps most dangerous of temptation we must face, the allure of power, the power to rule the world, the desire to stand on the world stage in splendor being admired and accepted, respected and honored willing to sacrifice everything to be accepted and liked.

We have forty days in this desert season. Forty days to carefully examine our lives to remember the Providence of God who feeds and leads those in the wilderness of this life. We have forty days to look again at the fears lurking everywhere suggesting that God will not protect and save those who live in covenant. We have forty days to forget about being liked, accepted, noticed, and admired. We have begun a time of purification, a season of renewal, a time for pruning away whatever does not bear fruit. It is perhaps a time to take ourselves less seriously and take God more seriously, a time to look around and admit that we are not the center of the universe, and that alone we can do nothing. In this desert, like the people of Israel, we are drawn closer together, bound up in faith and in hope, humbly remembering that we are dust and to dust we shall return. Our best hope is that we shall emerge from this desert as a faithful people, a church more clearly and courageously bearing the light of Christ, living with confidence that God’s providence lifts all the fears of our lives freeing us to live with compassion, with joy, and peace.

6 March 2019 at St. Peter & St. William Churches in Naples, Fl

Joel 2, 12-18 + Psalm 51 + 2 Corinthians 5, 20-6,2 + Matthew 6,1-6 16-18

As I have watched this date on the calendar draw near since Christmas, I have had countless memories of Lent’s gone by, and all the things I did and didn’t do to make the days go faster. Now at my age, there is an urge to slow things down. Days, weeks, and months fly by faster than I ever imagined. It seems like I just finished write thank-you notes for Christmas gifts two weeks ago! Those of us older than 70 will probably can remember Lent as a much more severe season than it is today. The fasting was more of a challenge. It was expected every day, not just today and Good Friday. Abstinence was an everyday thing, not just on Fridays. I think part of my girth is due to macaroni and cheese, and to this day I shy away from salmon patties! We gave up things like candy or alcohol for something else we really liked, and we did every day. We went to church more either to Daily Mass or Stations of the Cross. To this day I can hum or even play the Stabat Mater without looking. Since we have been encouraged to do positive things, many don’t give up much anymore, and so people do not find life much different during Lent than any other season. It still disturbs me a bit when parishes schedule dances, weddings, and parties during Lent. With all of that in our past, there is still the fact that Lent asks more us today as we have grown older and deeper in faith. We are now expected to accept adult for our spiritual growth.

Instead of being told how much fasting we must do and when, we are expected to take fasting seriously and do more than the minimum. That’s adult behavior. As kids we were always looking for the minimum requirement. We are not children any more in case you have not noticed. We’re old, at least most of us in this parish. We are also invited to abstain more seriously. Giving up meat and then ordering lobster is a joke that spiritually isn’t funny. What adults need to do is give up something that might be sinful or wasteful or extravagant. It isn’t just food. It is whatever keeps us from growing closer to Christ. When given up, it isn’t just for 40 days or the 960 hours I once counted up as child. The point is, we give it up for good.

Those Bishops at the Council most of us lived through decided to take a risk and to risk treating us like adults. While they removed many of the old rules, there was in place a challenge to observe this season with great seriousness, to take responsibility for our own spiritual growth which is a lot harder than just following a lot of rules. Now comes the potential of really making Lent a time to change our lives and become much more like Christ.

As you come forward shortly to accept the challenge through an ancient ritual, let it be a sign of true commitment to take this Lent seriously allowing the grace of God to truly change us in the next 40 days. Remember how the Lord called us through the words of the Prophet Joel at the beginning of this Eucharist: “Return to me with your whole heart.” The longing of God for us is never ending. Listen and respond this Lent as you never before.