Homily OT7-B Ordinary Time, Seventh Week, cycle B

My friend Irene cannot say “no”. As a result, she is in crisis several times a week. I know this because she sends me an online message of “Chris!!!!” with four exclamation marks. The next line is always “I did it again”. What she did is this: She accepted an invitation to a party or an event or a concert and then another invitation came along for something “better”.

She asks me for advice. I tell her the same thing every time. “Learn to say 'No':. Honor your commitments.” This results in a slew of messages appearing on my screen telling me that she did say no, but they were persistent and this is a really cool concert.

In the years that I have know her, this has happened hundreds of times. Irene has trouble staying faithful to her commitments.

In today's second reading, Paul is being accused of not honoring his commitments. It is doubtful that any of us got that message among the multitudes of “yeses” and “nos” in that reading so some explanation may be in order. Paul had written to the Corinthians and told them he was coming to visit. Then he became ill and did not show up. The Corinthians were upset. The beginning of this reading is the end of the explanation saying, in effect, I am not wishy washy. I did not flip flop. In his words “yes and no”

Paul goes on to explain that he is always faithful to God and God blesses him for it. He suggests that the Corinthians should also be faithful to God so that God will bless them as well. This message echoes the words heard in our opening prayer today. “Grant, we pray, almighty God, that, always pondering spiritual things we may carry out in both word and deeds that which is pleasing to you.”

We see this theme echoed in the Gospel in the faith of the four men who carried their friend to Jesus. They were a bit unorthodox in the approach of removing the roof and lowering their friend down, but their faith was strong. Jesus rewarded their faith by healing their friend of his sins and of his paralysis.

How do we reconcile the faithfulness and commitment of Paul and the four men compared to Irene? Well, Irene is not alone and she is a product of our culture today. We live in a culture that puts a lot of emphasis on instant gratification and little emphasis on faith and commitment. We live in a culture that measures success by how much money we make and not by how happy we are in our lives.

We cannot change our culture with a snap of our fingers, but we can change ourselves. We can choose to be faithful and committed to God. For mot of us, our parents made a promise for us that we would be faithful to God at our Baptism. We made our own promises at Confirmation. But for many, we did not do much more with out faith after that. It occurs to me that this might be a good time to consider a change.

On Wednesday of this week, the Church will observe Ash Wednesday. While it is not a Holy Day of obligation, attendance at Mass is encouraged. Leaving your ashes on for the day is a sign of faith and commitment to God. Practicing the fast and abstinence on this day is also a sign of faith and commitment.

For Lent, many of us will continue the practices we learned in our youth. We 're going to give something up. That is a wonderful thing, but we can do more. How about doing something positive this year. Something that only God knows. Don't tell anyone else, just do it. In past years, I have tried these positive ideas.

Attend daily Mass (before I was a priest, of course). Even if a day is missed, try.
Put a few dollars aside each day and at the end of the week sent it off to a worthwhile charity.
Purchase a gift card each week and give it to the homeless.
Find an extra 15 minutes each day to pray and read a good book related to our faith.
Take some time each day and read a gospel. Spread the readings out over 40 days to complete it.

Again, don't tell anyone, just make a secret promise to God and do it.

Lent is a wonderful time to renew our faith and commitment to God. I pray we all find a meaningful way to make this time a season of growth in our faith.