1st Sunday of Lent (C) - RENEW

February 28,2004

by Rev. Herbert Nichols

Last week we began this Lenten Renew with a call to healing in a time of Crisis and a challenge to trust. Today’s readings speak to us of the need to trust. It is a beacon of hope that guides us through the most dark and difficult times; when we allow the Spirit of God to lead us as He led Jesus. Those difficulties can become opportunities for victory.

The first reading from Deuteronomy contains the manifesto of belief in God who would not and could not forget or abandon His people, no matter how many times they fell from grace. When they decide to call to God for help, He comes to their rescue and reconciliation.

Scandal has been a part of human history since creation, part of the Church’s history because we are human members of the Church. We are a people who by God’s grace can reach the heights of communion with God, who can choose mediocrity, or even fall into scandalous behavior.

In the darkest of the ages the Church has brought forth some of its greatest saints driven, as the gospel says of Jesus, by the power of the Spirit into the desert to first be mewed themselves and then to lead others to spiritual renewal like a light in the darkness. In faith we believe that having been tested by the fire of scandal. We can become stronger than ever as we respond to God’s call to holiness.

Healing the Body of Christ highlights this basic call to holiness that must be reflected in every sphere of our personal and communal lives. A holiness that embraces all in the Church is the surest means of bringing about the change of heart that will reflect the light of Christ to the world, to enable all to understand what the Easter Vigil, the resurrection flame is all about. As holiness grows like the flame of the candle, healing deepens along with a restoration of trust and respect.

In the second reading from Romans, it speaks of the power of those who have faith in Christ and will not be put to shame; but he also makes clear that inner belief must be manifest (externalized). There must be no contradiction between what we say with our lips and believe in our hearts. An unwillingness to voice our belief in the Lordship of Jesus Christ is a weak and feeble one.

Holiness is not a vocation reserved for the religious and ordained; nor does sainthood necessarily require martyrdom or a life devoted to extravagantly selfless works of mercy. Jesus, a tradesman turned preacher, brought his message of radical love, mercy, and acceptance, not to the righteous, but to sinners.

Most of you answer your vocational calling in the world, not in the hermitage. You have families. You labor, travel, and interact. Wherever you go, whatever you are doing, you cannot go where God is not, and you have a call to holiness whether you answer or not.

In the past many had a tendency to regard this holiness from a negative perspective, to avoid sin. Many regarded sin only as an act forbidden by God and merely as a private matter between the individual and God.

But today we know that doing nothing can be equally harmful. The person who is a witness or has knowledge of sexual abuse of a child and does nothing is equally culpable under the law. Perhaps a similar law should apply to physical abuse of a child, or spouse or whomever. Certainly the law of God applies in such cases.

When we sin or witness sin and do nothing, it is an offense against God and his people. Sin is not only about wrong done, but about the good that is left undone. Through sin we are less than we can be; we are who we are, but we fail to become what we could, namely: holy.

In contrast, holiness affects us affirmatively, both as individuals and as society. Holiness strips away the deceptive trappings that lead us into exalting money, power or prestige just as Jesus did in the desert tempted by Satan in today gospel. Achievement, entertainment, substance, pleasure, all creatures of the Divine have their reserved place but without the call to holiness they can vie for priority, becoming idols.

Holiness is the life of God, which is meant to ground us in reality, for it reassures us that only God is God. Two results of holiness are serenity and joy. A peace in spite of all the chaos that may surround us, despite whatever financial difficulties or road rage maniacs, a joy that is independent of circumstances because it blossoms not from what happens but from a knowledge who I am, and How I am, in relation to the Divine I Am.

Being centered in God’s love is all sufficient. Now isn’t that a very different Lent from what we have been conditioned to struggle with? Lent is not the time for us to forge ahead, to predetermine what I’m going to do or not do, what I’m going to give up or not give up, confess or not confess.

It is a time to ask the Lord to help us open our hearts and allow the Spirit to lead us and present to us opportunities for new and more valuable life.

We cannot avoid meeting difficulties, but we are free to choose how to handle either with our own strength of emotions and logic or as opportunities for grace.

Next week we find Jesus moved from the desert to the mountain, not struggling, but now radiant in glory. This is the same grace that is offered transform us to Recognize and Realize Holiness