March 24, 2019: 3rd Sunday Lent C
March 24, 2019: 3rd Sunday Lent C
(Audio Homily) https://oembed.libsyn.com/embed?item_id=9221132
One week ago, the Jefferson House Children’s Emergency Shelter was bustling with activities. Located in Omaha, Nebraska it is a safe haven for children whose parents abandoned them, or who were living in an inhospitable environment. But today, the house is empty. Chris Sewall, the director of this emergency shelter for at-risk children and teens, has been laboring with a push broom to push out the mud out of the facilities following the recent historic flooding in the midwest. The state of Nebraska alone estimates that the recent flooding has caused $1.3 billion in damage. Many of you may have seen the surreal photos and videos of submerged farmland in the midwest states. It seems that when we open up the newspaper or turn on the TV, we are bombarded with news of catastrophes and unimaginable sufferings. Just this past month, we’ve seen news of the historic flooding in midwest, crash of an Ethiopian airplane, a massacre in mosques in New Zealand, a bombing of a Catholic cathedral in the Philippines, and devastation by a cyclone in Mozambique.
It is natural for us to question, “Why do these events happen? Is God angry with us?” During the time of Jesus, people were wondering the same. Jesus mentioned in today’s gospel two incidents in which people were killed tragically. In one incident, Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Jerusalem, had soldiers kill a group of Galileans who had come to Jerusalem to worship in the temple. In another incident, a tower in Jerusalem unexpectedly collapsed, killing 18 people. Jesus rhetorically asked whether those who died in those tragedies were more guilty or sinful than others in Jerusalem. Jesus said that it wasn’t so. And, he warned them, “if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!" It is tempting to associate catastrophes and tragedies as punishment from God. It is easy for us to judge those who suffer from tragedies as guilty of sinfulness, while excluding ourselves from judgment. But is this the Good News that Jesus was proclaiming in the Gospel?
It is easy to be swept up in fear as we hear that we are to change our ways, right now. Yet, we are painfully aware how we are slow to change and how difficult it is for us to uproot our bad or sinful habits. Like the servant who patiently dresses and nurtures the tree without fruits, Our God is patiently cultivating us, pruning our vices and fertilizing our virtues, to bear fruit for His Kingdom. He is inviting us to use this present moment to the fullest, not wasting time in useless pursuits of the world, rather to refocus our lives as merciful instrument of God’s love. What can we do concretely today to refocus our lives?
The first step is to confess and repent our shortcomings and prejudices. This coming Tuesday following mass and the Divine Mercy novena and the Chaplet, the priests of our deanery will be at Ascension Church to offer us the Sacrament of Reconciliation. This blessed season of Lent is for us to grow in our faith and prayer, to encounter the God of patience and merciful love. While we get weighed down by our faults and failings through life, Jesus never departs from us; when he sees that we are making an effort to change, he comes to assist us with his grace. He believes in us even when we don’t believe in ourselves. The next step is to actively seek ways to change. St. Therese of Lisieux reminds us, “Our Lord does not so much look at the greatness of our actions, or even at their difficulty, as at the love with which we do them.” Let us reach out to Jesus through our prayer, repentance, and Eucharist so we that we are strengthened to emulate His love and mercy.
One week ago, the Jefferson House Children’s Emergency Shelter was bustling with activities. Located in Omaha, Nebraska it is a safe haven for children whose parents abandoned them, or who were living in an inhospitable environment. But today, the house is empty. Chris Sewall, the director of this emergency shelter for at-risk children and teens, has been laboring with a push broom to push out the mud out of the facilities following the recent historic flooding in the midwest. The state of Nebraska alone estimates that the recent flooding has caused $1.3 billion in damage. Many of you may have seen the surreal photos and videos of submerged farmland in the midwest states. It seems that when we open up the newspaper or turn on the TV, we are bombarded with news of catastrophes and unimaginable sufferings. Just this past month, we’ve seen news of the historic flooding in midwest, crash of an Ethiopian airplane, a massacre in mosques in New Zealand, a bombing of a Catholic cathedral in the Philippines, and devastation by a cyclone in Mozambique.
It is easy to be swept up in fear as we hear that we are to change our ways, right now. Yet, we are painfully aware how we are slow to change and how difficult it is for us to uproot our bad or sinful habits. Like the servant who patiently dresses and nurtures the tree without fruits, Our God is patiently cultivating us, pruning our vices and fertilizing our virtues, to bear fruit for His Kingdom. He is inviting us to use this present moment to the fullest, not wasting time in useless pursuits of the world, rather to refocus our lives as merciful instrument of God’s love. What can we do concretely today to refocus our lives?
