1st Week of Lent 2018 - Friday - Repentance is a matter of Life and Death

Lent is a powerful call to repentance, and repentance is a matter of life and death. As we heard from the prophet Ezekiel this morning: "If the wicked man turns away from all the sins he committed, if he keeps all my statutes and does what is right and just, he shall surely live, he shall not die."

Recalling the story of Adam and Eve, we recognize the spiritual death, the separation of God, which sin brings between God and man. Sin, which says, I’m going to choose another path, a path separate from the ways of God.

We certainly offer up our Lenten penances, our sacrifices—we pray for the conversion of those trapped in cycles of mortal sin, those who have so corrupted their moral compass that the course of their life is leading them to eternal separation from God.

But notice, Ezekiel says, that the wicked man must turn from “all” the sins he committed. Each of us has an obligation to strive to be free from “all” of our sins: mortal and venial sins. We should not be content with habitual or sporadic venial sins in our life.

St. Augustine remarks that those who want to walk in the love of God and in his mercy cannot be content with ridding themselves simply of grave and mortal sins. “Even less grave sins” Augustine said, “if they are ignored, proliferate and produce death.”

The good news is, the Lord is ready to forgive us. The Lord does not grow as tired of forgiving us our venial sins as we do of confessing them. It’s when we stop confessing them, when we stop seeking to overcome them through God’s grace, that they will fester and “proliferate” as Augustine says.

“Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven.” This sounds like an impossibly high standard. And it is, humanly impossible. But it is not impossible for God to lead us in the ways of surpassing holiness. It is up to us, with the help of grace, to identity those sin, to repent of them, and to surrender to the grace that gives us strength to amend our life.

Lent is a desert experience in which we separate ourselves from the things that hinder our growth in grace, and it is also a time of new spiritual life, as we open ourselves to God’s mercy and life-giving grace, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For the whole Christian people, that in this sacred Lenten season, they may be more abundantly nourished by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

For the whole world, that in lasting tranquility and peace our days may truly become the acceptable time of grace and salvation.

For sinners and those who neglect right religion, that in this time of reconciliation they may return wholeheartedly to Christ.

For ourselves, that God may at last stir up in our hearts aversion for our sins and conviction for the Gospel.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Grant, we pray, O Lord, that your people may turn to you with all their heart, so that whatever they dare to ask in fitting prayer they may receive by your mercy.

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.