During this Season of Lent we have heard from some wonderful speakers.
Father Kenneth LeBlanc (1st Sunday of Lent) - spoke to us of the covenant with God - the pledge and promise between God and His people - that He never let’s us down if we are patient.
Bishop Crosby (2nd Sunday of Lent) - spoke to us of the ‘Transfiguration’ - the call to be changed people because we know Christ.
Father Tom Vermigilio (3rd Sunday of Lent) - focused on Jesus in the temple and the call to be consumed with zeal for the Lord - wanting to do His will.
Father Peter Amszej (4th Sunday of Lent) - invited us to understand that nothing can separate us from the love of God.
So how has your Lent been?
We enter the final chapter of the 40 days - so has your Lent been helpful?
Now before you think I am going to ask you to raise your hands “Yes” or “No.”
Before you think I am to do a straw poll or web survey.
Before you think I am going to set-up a 1-800-Number to get your input.
Let me instead say that the Gospel today actually gives a much better instrument to judge thinks by:
Gospel (John 12:20-33)
Greeks come to Phillip and say, “We want to see Jesus.”
- Have you seen Jesus?
- Come closer to Jesus?
- Been embraced by Jesus?
- Drawn more tender to Jesus? This Lent?
You see that’s the measure of Lent.
- if we have sensed Him.
- if our lives have been better structured by Him.
- if our day to day experience and outlook has been affected by Him.
Have you seen Jesus this Lent?
- How do you know?
- How are you suppose to measure?
- How will you be able to check out the data and figure out the number and determine the calculus formula that will sort it out for you?
Well I guess in the same way as the old Priest figured out the difference between heaven and hell.
There was a dedicated old priest who had always wondered what the real difference was between heaven and hell. One day, he had a dream in which God showed him.
First, God showed him hell. The old priest was flabbergasted to find no flames, no horned, pointy-tailed devils-- only crowds of angry people pressing around long picnic tables. At each place was a large wooden bowl of food and ten-foot-long wooden spoons. Pushing and shoving to find places at the tables, the angry people managed to get their long spoons into the bowls-- but they were unable to turn the spoons around and get them in their mouths. Their frustration and the accompanying bitterness and bickering were sheer hell!
Then the old priest was given a glimpse of heaven. He was amazed to discover the same massive picnic tables, the same huge wooden bowls of food, and the same ten-foot-long wooden spoons. But in heaven, the people were feeding one another.
You will know if Lent has been successful.
You will know if you’ve seen Jesus.
You will know if the 40 days have made a difference.
If your prayer, fasting, almsgiving, have lead you toward a greater and deeper understanding of your call- to not only improve yourself - but help another.
For the 40 days are not only about developing your “best self,” but determining “the best way,” to use yourself to accomplish God’s goals for you and your life.
- not develop a better you; but to contribute to a better world
One of the Seminarians recently was speaking to me about his new hobby- SPACE. He told me about the developments of NASA and then he began to speak to me about Black Holes.
Black Holes - did you know that Black Holes are empty, cavernous, and that they close in on themselves?
- it is because they close in on themselves that they have no light.
- they are so focused in on themselves that they block light.
Some 25+ days ago we started the Season of Lent - Ash Wednesday started us with a “Black Mark,” on our foreheads.
Each speaker in our Parish Mission has led us to ask:
- Have we let light in?
- Have we seen Jesus?
OR
- Have we instead turned in ourselves?
Have we been using these 40 days to be a better self? To be the better version of ourselves to become who we want to be?
OR
Have these 40 days been about letting light in? Removing marks that block? Seeing Jesus?
St. Thomas Moore, in his Lenten journey, wrote this prayer as a call for light...
O Lord,
give us a mind
that is humble, quiet, peaceable,
patient and charitable,
and a taste of your Holy Spirit
... in all our thought, words, and deeds.
O Lord,
give us a lively faith, a firm hope,
a fervent charity, a love of you.
Take from us all lukewarmness in meditation
and all dullness in prayer.
Give us fervor and delight in thinking of you,
your grace, and your tender compassion toward us.
Give us,
good Lord,
the grace to work for
the things to pray for.
May the remaining days of Lent help us to see Jesus!
- May we yearn to know His will.
- May we desire to serve Him totally.
- May we crave to love Him completely.
May we say at the end of Lent:
My life is not a Black Hole of ‘My Best Self’- but my life is a light soaked image of “His Best Self,” in me.