HOMILY – 3^RD SUNDAY OF LENT

ST. ANTHONY CATHOLIC CHURCH

MARCH 19, 2006  -  8 & 11AM

2PM PROJECT RACHEL RETREAT

May the Lord turn our hearts toward Him and give us His peace.

Thou shall know what to do,  being foolish,  whip it-whip it good.

Thou shall know what to do.  The commandments are written in the negative.  Thou shalt not kill, not commit adultery, don’t work all the time, don’t covet.  For us to obey the commandments it may be helpful to have a do-list instead of a don’t do list, so I came up with one. 

There is one God so things are easier.  God makes a better Lord, follow instead of leading.  Use the name of God for thanksgiving and requests.  Rest, you deserve it.  Remember how many diapers and tears mom and dad wiped up and make a return.  Bring life to everything you do, everyone you meet.  Have one particular place where you show faithfulness in a radical way as a sign of God being faithful to you.  Love the one you’re with.  Speak about the good in other people almost exclusively.  Be happy with what you have.  Now thou shall know what to do.

Being foolish.  The cross is absurd.  If we were to proclaim the death of someone by capital punishment today we would all be wearing syringes.  Wouldn’t that be weird?  Someone coming into our time from the days of Jesus would think we’d all lost our minds for gathering around an instrument of torture.  Yet, foolish as it seems, it was the place where ultimate faithfulness was revealed.  Jesus opened His arms on the cross with us in mind.  And a great adoption began.  A new obedience that He decided should include all of us.  No more Adam, meet Jesus.

When the Father accepted the sacrifice of the Son, Jesus brought us (sins and all) to a new life.  We preach foolish love.  I am going to give it all for love of you.  I think of couples early in their loving where life seems to stop and no thoughts come except of the other.  It is foolish, abandonment of self in light of the other.  This day will come for us as we remain open to love.  It’ll be foolish.  We preach that self-less foolishness.   It can save the world, did in fact.

Whip it, whip it good.  Great song by Devo, but a terribly misused passage in the bible.  When Jesus went to the temple to offer praise and thanks to His Father, He had to walk by 20 distractions.  These distractions were the tables where currencies of different cities were being exchanged, you could buy an animal to offer your sacrificial thanksgiving, and you had money exchange right there.

The problem was three-fold.  One-the distraction.  Everything about a temple should lead to praise and thanksgiving only.  Two-the people selling were taking advantage of those who had to travel long journeys and who were strangers creating the first convenience store.  Three-the way they took advantage was to charge high exchange rates for the goods needed for the offering.  It was a distracting, inhospitable, den of thieves.  Jesus knew it was wrong and ended it.  “Not in my Father’s house.”

Some say the war is cleaning house like Jesus did, others say the house needs to be cleaned of war.  Of course there may be truth in both.  Our command is to love not to kill.  This must always be the goal, especially regarding war.  Who are we loving in Iraq again?  I forget.  Jesus isn’t described here to justify violence – he cracked a whip not a head.  He said get out! - Not die!  It is not a justification for killing, period.

We remember that the 10 commandments are God’s way of loving us.

We appear foolish as we sacrifice everything to bring about good.

We fight injustice, especially when it is inflicted on the poor or powerless.

What a joy and glory for God, if, for our Lenten penance, people saw in us, love that looked like selfless abandon in worship, work and school, all for having been so loved, taking the form of generous lives.  Ashes when we need them, lives strong, loving and wise when we’re done.