Second Sunday of Lent is already upon us. Do you know where the word Lent comes from? In the old English world, the word “Lenten” meant “springtime”. And I think it is safe to say that, here in San Antonio, we are ready for some springtime! In Latin, Lent, however, means something altogether different. The word for this season is Quadragesima, denotes a season of preparation by fasting and prayer, to imitate the forty day example of Christ. A little historical fact, Lent used to begin on the first Sunday of Lent, also called Quadragesima Sunday after the Gospel reading for that weekend of Jesus fasting in the desert for forty days and ended as the Triduum began the evening of Holy Thursday. When we count the days from the first Sunday of Lent to Holy Thursday, it adds up to forty, including the Sundays. Over time, however, there was a discussion that the Sundays during Lent should not be fast days. When asked about fasting on the Sundays during Lent, tradition says, Solemnities, even during the Season of Lent, ought to still be seen as a feast days. Sundays are considered Solemnities after all, are the Lord’s Day, and a day of rest. Beginning the count for Lent on the first Sunday of Lent, and Sundays are not followed as days for fasting, this would equal fewer than forty days of fasting before Easter. In order to make the forty days as Jesus did, they allowed the Sundays to be removed as days of fast and we now start Lenten fasting on Ash Wednesday and when you do the Catholic math it remains the traditional forty days.

I mention this little bit of history since the second Sunday of Lent is also a good time to check in with ourselves on how we are doing with our Lenten promises. Did we eat the Filet-O-Fish instead of the Big Mac on Friday? Inquiring minds want to know. And how are we doing with what we gave up for Lent for that matter? Was it chocolate, alcohol, whatever? You see, as lightweight as our Lenten practices seem to be nowadays, I think it is helpful to consider what Quadragesima would have been like if you lived in medieval times. St. Thomas Aquinas proposed that no food would be allowed at all on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. On the other days of Lent, food would only be allowed after 3 PM (the hour of our Lord’s death on the cross). And, no animal flesh was allowed at all, neither were eggs or dairy, and Sundays were not free days from the fast either.  St. Thomas Aquinas believed in the most extreme fasting during Lent. I think for the people living in medieval times, the severity of this kind of fasting was meant to be life changing, life altering, helping Christians to embrace the seriousness of their baptismal identity as a People of God. Lent was supposed to be understood as a time for transformation. Someone who saw that kind of fast would certainly undergo a makeover by Easter Sunday, as well as their waist to say the least. I am not suggesting that we bring back that kind of Lenten fasting. Nevertheless, obviously though we see the season of Lent, the most important is the love we put into it in the first place.

If you think that fasting in medieval times was serious business, check out how covenants were made in the time of Abraham in our first reading from Genesis. Covenants were meant to be truly life-changing events as well. The Lord promises Abraham that his descendants would be like the number of stars in the heaven and offers the land before him as his possession.

Abraham wants to seal this deal and so God asks him to bring a three-year-old heifer, a three year-old she-goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon. Genesis says, “Abram brought him all these, split them in two, and placed each half opposite the other”. You see, that’s how the deals were done in those days, you would meet among the split animals to make the agreement which was a way of indicating, if I break my word may what happened to these animals happen to me. These kinds of covenants in those days were meant to be life altering events that helped move a person or tribe from one reality to a new reality based upon the agreement being made. These covenants were meant to be truly transformative. As we know, the Chosen People in the Old Testament broke one covenant after the other with God, which makes Jesus’ choice to die on the cross in atonement for our sins all the more remarkable.

All of these observations are meant to help us understand our Gospel reading from St. Luke about the transfiguration of Jesus. Here we are on Mount Tabor, Jesus is transfigured before Peter, John and James, foreshadowing the glory of the resurrection. Jesus is also seen conversing with Moses and Elijah, signifying to the disciples that Jesus is the fulfillment of both the Law and the Prophets. However, there’s something really unique about St. Luke’s version of the transfiguration. You see, in Luke’s Gospel it says, “And behold, two men were conversing with [Jesus], Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus that he was going to conduct in Jerusalem.” The reference to exodus here is unique to St. Luke’s Gospel and is meant to help us connect the exodus of the Jews from Egypt to the Promised Land, to what Jesus conducts for us by his passion, death and resurrection. You see the exodus from Egypt was a transformative event for the Chosen People. They went from a state of being slaves to inheriting the land God promised to Abraham. The process for that transformation took the Hebrews a lot longer than forty days. It took forty years for that transformation to unfold, and it took centuries more before God was ready to offer a new exodus to the human race through his only Son our Lord.

This new exodus presented to us, through the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus, offers us a path from the tyranny of sin and death to the glory of the resurrection and eternal life with God. This ultimate transformation that Christians seek is what St. Paul is referring to in our second reading from Philippians when he says, “Brothers and sisters: Our citizenship is in heaven”. Think about how radical St. Paul’s message is, “Our citizenship is heaven, and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will change our humble body to conform with his glorified body by the power that enables him also to bring all things into obedience to himself.” (“Philippians 3:21)

My family, the second Sunday of Lent invites us to accept this season as time for a radical change. Our Lenten rituals of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving are meant to help us with this while we make our pilgrimage to Holy Week. We can ask ourselves this week, what areas in my life need radical transformation? In what ways can I allow this season of Lent to transform my heart to be more like Jesus? These are good questions to ask as we continue our pilgrimage into the desert with our Lord. During this season of Lent, the level of transformation God will bless us with will depend largely on our response.

The crocus, daffodils and Bradford pear trees are beginning to bloom and you know what that means-  it is Lent.  Growing up Dutch Reform in a Polish Catholic neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, Lent was just a time of year when it was always cold and damp, the sky was overcast, everything appeared dirt brown and my Catholic friends gave up a little bit of happiness in their life (usually chocolate candy) in preparation for Easter.  Needless to say my memories of the Lenten season are less than glorious.  As a young protestant, I really did not have a concept of the meaning or purpose of the Lenten season; my sacramental friends did not seem to find it a serious or edifying time either; they wanted their chocolates.  We used to joke about the season, calling it “Lint” and saying it was a time to clean the dryer vent and remove the cotton fluff from your belly button.  Ah, the frivolity of youth.

Later, when I was in college, I sang in the choir of a local Episcopal Church and it was here that I began to learn about the ancient sacraments and the Liturgical Church year.  Over the years, with study, contemplation and prayer, my understanding of Liturgical practices and traditions deepened; like St. Paul, I began to think less like a child and more like a maturing Christian. Today I embrace this time of sackcloth and ashes. I look forward to abstaining from meat so that others might be well fed, and my spirit revels in prayer, self contemplation, repentance and the hope for the renewal that comes with the Easter resurrection.  

As I sat down to write this discourse on Lent I wasn’t sure as to what to say.  In the past I’ve expounded on the reasoning behind Lenten practices such as  refraining from singing the Gloria or saying alleluia, extolled the benefits of fasting and prayer, and the need to take a humbling journey back to ash and dust from which we are formed so that we might be reborn in the resurrection of our Lord.  I’ve even praised the beauty of the solemn hymns in minor keys, music  that somehow fills us with a sense of comfort in these last dim days of winter where we long for the renewal that comes with longer days and the bright green leaves of spring.

So, I did what I always do, I asked God: “What’s the point…?”    No sooner had my mind pronounced the final ‘t’, when my head was filled with with the words of Gregory the Great set to the tune of Erhalt uns Herr: 

“The glory of these forty days

we celebrate with songs of praise;

for Christ, through whom all things were made,

himself has fasted and has prayed.”

While this is an excellent hymn for Lent, it doesn’t really make my top 5 and it surely does not warrant becoming a personal earworm (which it has become) through this Lenten season.   But as they say, be careful what you ask for; I have my answer and now I need to understand it.

Before anyone becomes nervous that I am about to embark on the importance of numerology in the scriptures, rest assured I will not be going there!  40 is, however, an important number found throughout the bible.  We all know it rained 40 days and nights on poor old Noah, Moses lived in Egypt and then the desert  for 40 years each before delivering Isriael from slavery and subsequently camped out on Mt. Sinai for 40 days talking to God and receiving the 10 Commandments, not once, but twice!  Later he and the Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years before coming to the promised land.  Kings Saul, David and Solomon reigned for 40 years each.   Jesus wasn’t presented at the temple until 40 days after his birth, he fasted in the desert while being tempted for 40 days (the model for our Lenten season) before starting his ministry, he remained on Earth for 40 days after his resurrection before his ascension, and the list goes on.  So what is it about 40 that makes it so prevalent?

Some interesting facts regarding 40: the average life expectancy 2000 years about was 35-40 years, hence 40 years was the length of a generation,  humans can live without food (but not water) for upwards of 40 days, a red blood cell lasts about 40 days and human skin turns over about every 40 days, it takes a minimum of 40 days to make a change in ones habits, it takes about 40 minutes to dry a load of clothes in an electric dryer, and in the middle east winter grain will be ready for harvest about 40 days after the first green shoots of spring (that puts it about the time of passover). 

 If one looks at these examples of 40, there is an underlying cycle of beginning, duration and finally an ending leading to new beginnings; 40 is about letting go of the old and the start off something new.   In all the biblical accounts the protagonist consciously removes themselves from the world through isolation, fasting and prayer while relying solely on God’s will for support and guidance; at the end of the 40 days (or years) they emerge very different, renewed, closer to God and ready to do His work!  That is the point of Lent: 40 days to remove yourself from binding ties of the world, put yourself in God’s hands through fasting and prayer, and bringing about change via self examination, repentance, death to selfish desires and putting others first so that you can be resurrected with Jesus at Easter, reborn anew in the image of the Creator, ready to do His work.

Clearly the glory of these 40 days is not found in the minor keys of hymnody, nor in the giving up of chocolate candy, alleluias and meatloaf on Fridays to show how pious a Christian we are;  it is found in our individual transformation from being a Christian of the world to being one of Christ’s own working in the world.  In many ways, my youthful self had it right calling this a season “lint”.  For just like our clothes (and belly buttons) which pickup stray fibers, dog hairs, pollen, dirt and dust which hold fast through the wash cycle only to be separated and collected by a dryer’s lint trap, we too become entangled in worldly snares, the remnants of which cling to our souls.  Lent is indeed a time to give up this worldly “lint” so that we might joyfully begin our spiritual journey renewed and strengthened.  For as Gregory the Great said in the last stanza:

“Then grant, O God, that we may, too,

return in fast and prayer to you.

Our spirits strengthen with your grace,

and give us joy to see your face”

There is a Jewish folktale Fr. Ron Rolheiser, theologian and spiritual writer, shares in his book Against an Infinite Horizon.

It begins…

“There once was a young man who aspired to great holiness. After some time at working to achieve it, he went to see his rabbi.

‘Rabbi,’ he announced, ‘I think I have achieved sanctity.’

‘Why do you think that?’ asked the rabbi.

‘Well,’ responded the young man, ‘I’ve been practicing virtue and discipline for some time now and I have grown proficient at them. From the time the sun rises until it sets, I take no food or water. All day long, I do all kinds of hard work for others and never expect to be thanked. If I have temptations of the flesh, I roll in the snow or in thorn bushes until they go away, and then at night, before bed, I practice the ancient monastic discipline and administer lashes to my bare back. I have disciplined myself so as to become holy.’

The rabbi was silent for a time. Then he took the young man by the arm and led him to a window and pointed to an old horse which was just being led away by its master. ‘I have been observing that horse for some time,’ the rabbi said, ‘and I’ve noticed that it doesn’t get fed or watered from morning to night. All day long it has to do work for people, and it never gets thanked. I often see it rolling around in snow or in bushes, as horses are prone to do, and often I see it get whipped. But I ask you: Is that a saint or a horse?’”

Fr. Rolheiser comments, “This is a good parable because it shows how simplistic it is to simply identify sanctity and virtue with self-renunciation and the capacity to do what is difficult. In popular thought there is a common spiritual equation: saint = horse; what is more difficult is always better. But that can be wrong. To be a saint is to be motivated by gratitude, nothing more and nothing less”

Let me emphasize Fr. Rolheiser’s point here again, to be a saint is to be motivated by gratitude, nothing more and nothing less.

Jesus cautions his disciples to notice our attitudes and motivations when it comes to our Lenten practices. Jesus says, “Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father. When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.”

St. Michael’s Family, why do we fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday? Why do we give up meat on Fridays? What is so important that we obey the Lenten practices? We do these easy rituals meant to make us reflect and shake us out of our everyday way of doing things, to take time and consider how grateful we are to God from whom the formidable gift of life comes, and to take time to deliberately care about others, specifically the less fortunate.

Family, on this day, Ash Wednesday we are called from the everyday, to be aware of the blessedness of the human lives around us, and to be a more thankful people, a people who do not take our life or the lives of others around us for granted.

During Lent, it is our duty to pray, fast and to perform acts of personal sacrifice to bring us into this new realization. Lent can be an opportunity to start our New Year’s resolution again. This can be a time to spend five minutes or more in prayer, perhaps with scripture or the rosary, if you only start with one Decade. Read and do the Lenten study and activities we have started. Lent can be time to aid the homeless or giving at a charity. Lent can be a time to make the effort to take part in some of our special devotions like the Stations of the Cross (Good Friday). There are as many ways to enter into Lent as there are baptized Christians.

We are called to complete spiritual exercises, not because we are horses. We do it because of our love for God, and because we are human. At times we humans need to be agitated from the ordinary, to be reminded that our time here is short, that “we are dust and to dust we will return”. We sometimes forget this great gift, life, can you imagine a world without you! I know the family here can’t.

We have so valuable little time to do our part for God, to give back just a meniscal of what He has given us. Ash Wednesday reminds us of our mortality, that time is fleeting, to shake us out of complacency and get to work on God’s Kingdom. We are all invited to accept St. Francis’ invitation to preach the Gospel at all times, if necessary, use words.

Who are our enemies? Do we have them? How should we behave toward our enemies? In today`s reading we remember how Jesus instructed us to love our enemies and not to judge others. This is a very difficult instruction to obey. We live in the world that is full of injustice. Many times when we try to be good and to do all the right things we experience by many other people inconveniences of various kind. At our workplace we might have an unfriendly boss, a jealous colleague or being surrounded with people who are discriminative against us. People who might not love us for no reason. People who mind our religion, or our sexual orientation, or our freedom, or some physical characteristics. They might behave very unfriendly. We all experienced having enemies at all levels. Since childhood, in the school, at the college or later on a workplace. One difficult thing to do as a Christian is to love your enemies. This can be very difficult if a person do something which is really evil to us. If you are a child who is bullied at school by your peer school mate, how could you love him? If you work somewhere and your colleague is irrespective, arrogant, talking negatively about you to other colleagues. How could you love him? Or if your neighbor has secretly broken your window just because you are different skin color, sexual orientation, a member of different religion, different nation and you feel hated and discriminated against, how can you love that person?

Have you ever wondered how could we really love our enemies? When Jesus said – love your enemies it was so easy for him to say. But in real life it seems to be much easier if he told us to do anything else like – ignore your enemies, curse your enemies or punish your enemies and revenge. Since this is not easy let`s see what the Bible says,

Lk 6:27-38:

 “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them.Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.Do to others as you would have them do to you.

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that.And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full.But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

In the first part of this sermon we defined that we can have our enemies everywhere. In our neighborhood, at school, at work, and other places. We remembered that many people could be very unfriendly to us and do bad things to us. And we were wondering how we could love our enemies. We all know that this is really hard. And we should admit that. In my own experience being Christian is not easy because our nature is evil. We naturally want to revenge, we cannot simply love our enemies. And Jesus knew that. This is why He gave us an explanation on why should we love our enemies. And here in Jesus` words we might find the deeper meaning and the sense of why it is good and how we could successfully manage to love people who would we naturally hate. Take a look at those few sentences:

1. Do to others as you would have them do to you…
2. Then your reward will be great…
3. Forgive, and you will be forgiven…

Does this makes sense to you now?

Loving our enemies is exactly what God has to do with us on the first place. Since the sin that we naturally do as being part of sinful nature makes us His enemies. He would naturally hate us, revenge to us and do bad to us because naturally we do things against God`s will on daily level. Consciously and unconsciously we sin. And our sin makes us God`s enemies. If we meditate on those tree sentences. First do to others as you would have them do to you. It moves to focus not to our enemies but to us. It shows us that it is good not for our enemies, but it is good for us when we love our enemies. Now there is even more sense in the next sentence when Jesus promises `your reward will be great`. It all makes sense now, right? We are not just fools who love our enemies that are treating us badly knowing that they will be treating us that way to eternity. We love them because we know that God is to revenge, not we. We forgive them because we know that God is to forgive and to them and to us. Next God promises `Forgive and you will be forgiven`. I remember the book that I read almost 15 years ago. The book was written by a Christian monk from the Holy Mount Atos in Greece. His name was Paisios. In his interview about loving enemies he said some things that were very useful for me and even today after 15 years I often remember his words. He said that everything happens with some reason. And even if God allows some enemies to come in our life that could also be happening with a reason. Sometimes it is not good for us something that we do, something that we want or that we are focus to and God let`s our enemies to damage our own plans. At the moment when that happens we are angry, we are furious and we want those enemies to be removed from our life. But Paisios advises us to wait and see what God will do. And always after some time in the future you will see and you will understand why God let those people in your life. As in the school. A child needs to have many lessons. Some lessons are interesting, super fun and very creative. Others seem to be boring, unpleasant, even not useful. A child would rather escape from those classes. But, all lessons are part of educational program. This is the same in our life. We meet people who we love and who love us, and we also meet people who behave as our enemies and people who do not love us. But they are all a part of our life experience. We could always learn something good through this experience. And let us wait to see what God will do. In the past when I was 20, 25 or 30 years old, loving my own enemies was a very unrealistic task. After I gained some life experience, now after my 35<sup>th</sup> birthday when I sit alone, think, and analyze many situations that I had in my life with my enemies. I can see that God was always there to intervene. I can see good things in things that looked very bad to me at that time. Those were all lessons. In the end, I don`t want to sound like a very wise super easy-to-do Christian. The truth is it is not easy. The truth is it is difficult. The truth is loving our enemies is something that we must learn through practice. But the truth is also that there is sense in doing so. We will be rewarded, we will be forgiven and God will deal with it. Whatever it is. Just wait for the God, and just leave it to God. As Greek monk Paisios advised.

In today’s reading from the Bible we read about the Lord’s Call of Jeremiah (Jer 1:4-5):

”The word of the Lord came to me, saying, `Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart, I appointed you as a prophet to the nations`”.

 While these words from the Bible were addressed to the prophet Jeremiah, we can also learn something very important for all people in what was written here. Lord said that he formed Jeremiah in the womb and he knew him before he was born. This is how great is our God, we can apply this to every one of us and to the all creatures. God is the one who set us all apart, He is the one who formed all of us in the womb. Sometimes among our Christian sisters and brothers it seems that we want to hide some natural characteristics. For example being born as an LGBT+ person. As medical science knows this is a natural personal characteristic that people do not choose. Like the eye color, the body constitution, hair color, etc. A sentence from the Bible which we previously mentioned teaches us that God is the one who creates people in their mothers’ wombs. God knew if we would have blue or green eyes, or black or brown hair before we were born. The same way he knew what our sexual orientation would be and our personal characteristics. It is really sad that we live in the era of discriminative Christianity when many churches push people to change, hide or feel bad about their natural God-given sexual orientation. As a result many young people, but also some older people face problems because they have Jesus in their hearts but they feel denied by their local church. In this sermon I am inspired to share a spiritual hug in Christ to all those Christians all around the world who are victims of any kind of discrimination. For being LGBT+ or for being women or for being in the situation when facing discrimination because they do not physically appear religious enough for the local churches to be accepted. This has nothing to do with Our Lord. What the Bible teaches is that The Lord knows exactly who we are, how he formed us in our mom’s womb and he does not want us to be changed because He is the one who created us just the way we are. Whenever you feel discrimination or any kind of unacceptance know that God loves you. God never discriminates and He loves you. I would also like to mention that it is very important not to judge those churches who are discriminative. Many people there might not be aware that what they do is not christian. Many people are also victims of false discriminative doctrine. This is just to understand and not to judge. For all of us it is good to remember that the love is the only sign of having Christ. The only miracle that will last forever. As it is written in 1 Cor 13. Let us read 1 Cor 13:4-13:

 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

This chapter is read in the weddings or life partnership blessings. This can be considered as one of the most important lessons from the Bible. The lesson about love. As we read in the end of this chapter the greatest is love, then faith and hope. In the modern era where we live how can we know if there is Jesus in Christians? The indicator is – the love. Being real Christian without love is impossible because God is love. Our faith is all about love. If we physically appear to be super religious, wearing huge cross, holding holy books wherever we go, reading Bible all day etc. but if we do not have enough love for our neighbors, this cannot satisfy God. Being religious is helpful. But it must include love. If we judge other people, if we discriminate or if we think that we are superior toward others – then we should really think if the Christ is really present in our hearts. We should always keep on our mind that there are two biggest commandments and they are both about love. The first one – Love God and the second one – Love people. And that’s a short summary of what means being Christian. 

The leader of every celebration of the Mass is Jesus Christ Himself. He is the fundamental agent of the Eucharist. He is the High Priest of the New Covenant. It is He Himself who officiates invisibly over every Eucharistic celebration. It is in standing for Him that the bishop or priest presides over the congregation. It is in standing for Him that they preach after the readings. It is in standing for Him that they receive the offerings and recite the Eucharistic Prayer. The bishop or the priest act in the person of Christ! They act in the person of Christ during the Mass — the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist (cf. CCC 1348).

During Mass, the Liturgy of the Word covers all the readings, the homily, the Creed, and the Prayers of the Faithful or General Intercessions. The Liturgy of the Word is an important part of sacramental celebrations. To encourage the faith of believers, the signs which go with the Word of God are emphasized. We sing Alleluia, we have the procession of the Book of the Gospels before its proclamation; and this emphasizes its importance and veneration. Even from where it’s proclaimed, the ambo also emphasizes that the Word of God is being decreed.  The clear and intelligible reading, homily, and the responses of the people are more signs which go with the Word of God being highlighted (cf. CCC 1154).

The Liturgy of the Word during Mass is in our history all the way back to the time of Ezra. We heard from the Book of Nehemiah in the First Reading the description of what Ezra, the priest, did in the synagogue. It’s very similar to what we do at Mass, today.  Ezra was standing at one end and standing higher up; that’s what the priest or deacon does: from the Ambo.  As Ezra opened the scroll, the people rose; that’s what happened at the Gospel during the Mass, the people stand to listen the Gospel proclaimed.  Then Ezra interpreted the reading for the people; and that’s what the priest or deacon or bishop does after the proclamation of the Gospel, he gives the homily.

Every time we read the Old Testament, try to keep in mind Jesus Christ because everything recorded in the Old Testament leads us to Jesus Christ. He is the completion of all prophecies in the Old Testament. Ezra, too, anticipates Jesus Christ, the Eternal High Priest, which we heard in the Gospel today. Jesus was handed the scroll of Isaiah to read and then He gave his “homily” by saying: Today, this passage is fulfilled in your hearing. Again, the Liturgy of the Word goes back all the way to Ezra’s and Our Lord’s time. The people were attentive in hearing the readings being interpreted by Ezra and by Our Lord.

So, the Liturgy of the Word is like a form of a conversation. God speaks to us through the readings and the homily; and we respond to Him by our profession of faith and interceding on behalf of the Church as His family.

Mother Angelica gives us her guidance on how to listen to sermons. She said: “Don’t shut off the Word, because you’re going to miss a lot of graces in your life. Don’t say, ‘I’ve heard all of this before.’  Listen to what the Spirit wants to say to you right now…  Now, maybe you don’t like his interpretation.  Fine. You don’t have to like it.  There are a lot of speakers that I don’t like.  But there have been times where the worst speaker will say something that hits me like a rock. So please don’t sit there with a Christian Science grin.  Wake up and listen. Really listen! There is no sermon that you cannot get something out of. I don’t care who gives it.  It’s not what they are saying.  It’s the Word!  You need to ask only one question when that homily begins: ‘What is Jesus going to say to me today?’”

For us, priests, preaching is undeniably an important office we’ve been given to deliver faithfully. We are being shaped through the preaching of the word of God. This is when we decide to leave sin behind during the preaching of the word of God. This is when we transform during the preaching of the word. It is during the preaching of the word that we decide to embrace the life of the Gospel and abandon the worldly life. It is during the preaching of the word that we decide to try for virtue and stop vices. So, know this anytime a Bishop, Priest or Deacon prepares and gives a homily he is talking to himself also, we are far from perfect.

St. Dominic also placed great emphasis on study. A preacher needed to be educated to know what he was talking about before he got into the pulpit.  This is the origin of one of the 4 Pillars of the Dominican charism

I want to conclude with a discernment of St. John Marie Vianney, the patron of all priests, about preaching. Through his words, he speaks to us, priests, and to the rest of the People of God. First, he calls us, priests, to model after the good thief on the cross; and then, he speaks to the lay faithful.

Be like ministers who offer Jesus Christ to God his Father and make him the sacrifice of all they are and take as a good model the good thief on the cross. What an evolution he makes during the three hours that he finds himself in the company of his dying Savior! First, he opens the eyes of his soul to recognize his deliverer; then, fastened to the cross, and having nothing that still is free but his heart and tongue, he offers both to Jesus Christ. He consecrates his heart to him by faith and hope, and humbly asks of him a place in paradise; and he consecrates his tongue to him by proclaiming his innocence and holiness: “And we indeed justly; for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong. (Luke 23:41) …

My children, you listen when you like the preacher; but if the preacher does not suit you, you turn him into ridicule…  We must not think so much about the man. It is not the body that we must deal with. No matter what you think of the person giving the homily, if he is a true person of God there is going to be a message. You may like the delivery of one over another but let me ask you this Duracell or Eveready they both will light up the same candle?

Bottom Line is be prepared for Mass! There is no chewing gum during Mass! Sit up, listen! When we come to Mass, we come to Christ. Let us ask Mother Mary, as Deacon said last week, to help us always prepare for the Mass. Let us ask Her every time we attend Mass, so we can do it with love and devotion. Ask our Holy Mother to bring us to her son, with the desire to know him, with a clear head and open heart.