Homily: Thursday - 2nd Week of Lent 2017 - The Great Chasm

Monday night, I attended the parish mission over at St. Paschal’s, at which Fr. Tom Dragga used today’s Gospel passage to help prepare the attendees for the sacrament of Confession.

One of the points, that I’m going to steal from his reflection, and by the way, Fr. Dragga taught me to steal, he was one of my homily professors in seminary. As he would say, “if Fr. Estabrook preaches well, you can thank me, if Fr. Estabrook preaches poorly, then he should have payed better attention.” And one of the lessons he taught was to “steal, steal, steal” material for a homily!

Fr. Dragga spoke about a particular detail in the Gospel—a word we don’t use too often in our common parlance, the great “chasm”—“the chasma mega”, in the Greek—which separated the rich man and Lazarus—the chasm between heaven and hell. Why do we go through the humbling, perhaps even embarrassing ordeal of the sacrament of confession? To be free of those things which create a chasm between us and God.

Why do we subject ourselves to the rigors of Lent? Why do we follow the sometimes mysterious precepts of the Catholic faith? Why do we sacrifice our time, talent, and treasure for the needy instead of enjoying our earthly goods in their entirety? To avoid the chasm…to avoid the mistake that the Rich Man in the Gospel made in choosing to ignore the poor man at his gate.

We do believe that sin and selfishness create a chasm between us and God, and that some sin is so deadly, as the apostle John explains in his first letter, that the chasm becomes unpassable, uncrossable; the way of the wicked leads to doom, as Psalm 1 says, and nothing in life save for the grace of God particularly dispensed in the Sacrament of Confession, can heal that chasm.

Sometimes we think that our venial sins “aren’t that bad”, but all sin creates chasm, separation, wound. And so we seek not simply the absolution of our mortal sin, but to root out venial sin from our life.

Our Lenten prayer, fasting, and almsgiving disposes us to grace, they help to strengthen us against the temptations to sin, they certainly soften our hearts which can becomes so easily hardened by selfishness and self concern. For the abyss, the chasm separating the rich man and Lazarus did not simply appear in the afterlife, he dug that abyss  each day that he disregarded his fellow man during his life.

May our Lenten observances open our eyes to the needs of the poor, heal our sinfulness, and help us to experience and become instrument’s of God’s saving mercy for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That our Lenten prayer, fasting, and almsgiving may bring about conversion and renewal within the Church.

For those who have fallen away from the Church, who have become separated through error and sin, for those who reject the teachings of Christ, for their conversion and the conversion of all hearts.

That our Lenten observances may deepen our commitment to the needs of the poor who seek our assistance.

For those experiencing any kind of hardship or sorrow, isolation or illness: that the tenderness of the Father’s love will comfort them.  We pray to the Lord.