Deacon Michael's Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Lent - March 12-13, 2022

Here’s Deacon Michael’s homily for the 2nd Sunday of Lent - March 12-13, 2022

  You can find the Sunday Readings for this homily HERE

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Well it’s been more than 10 years since we started using the most recent translation of the Mass.

I’d wager that many of us have a hard time remembering the old words. 

 That’s the way it goes with change and the passage of time, especially if the change is  just a similar new way of saying the old thing.

 But there was actually something new introduced with that translation

 …and you hear every time I serve here at Mass.

 They are the words of a new option for the dismissal at the conclusion of Mass.

 The words are “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life!”

 For some these words are kind of background noise as they reach for the coat and the car keys.

 But in reality, they are fundamentally important to what we all just did together for the previous 50 minutes

 …and it is important to understand why.

 The “dismissal” is in fact the root of the word for the mass itself,

 …and it implies a sending out from here on a “mission” - same word root again.

 We don’t just “leave” Mass, we are “sent”.

 So having come together to give glory to God through “prayers and hymns and spiritual songs”

…listened to and reflected on the word of God

 …and solidifying our communion with each other and God through the Eucharist,

 …we hopefully gain a measure “peace”

 …and we are sent to do… what?

 To go…”Glorifying the Lord by our lives”.

 But what does “glorify” mean?  We need to know if we are called to do it!

 In common parlance, glory as a noun means “high renown or honor” due to great achievement, and we understand that well enough.

 We give “Glory to God in the highest”, for example. 

 In the movie “Glory” we are told of the story of the incredible Civil War bravery of African American members of Union army, many of them fugitive slaves, who showed incredible bravery in battle fighting for the freedom of their people against the Confederacy

 …who justly earned great renown and honor.

 But this isn’t exactly what the term implies for us in Scripture and biblical theology.

 There it is understood as a “manifestation” or “a making visible and present” God’s strength and power.

 It’s easy to see this meaning, for example, in the nativity story, in Bethlehem

… when at Christ’s birth, to the shepherds tending their flocks “an angel of the Lord” appears to them, and “the glory of the Lord shone around them”.

 When Paul encountered the risen Lord on the road to Damascus he recounts that in Christ’s presence he was blinded “by the brightness of the light”.

 The greatest manifestation of God’s strength and presence, God’s glory, in the New Testament is the Resurrection itself

 …which the glory of today’s Gospel

 …with Christ’s “dazzling” transfigured, or changed, appearance on the mountaintop

 …is foreshadowing

 …foreshadowing his changed appearance, post-resurrection, to his disciple in and through his risen and “glorified” body.

 All of these tell of God’s strength and power made visible and present.

 So how are we to “glorify” the Lord, so others sense the Lord’s presence and power in our presence?

 Well, it’s not a secret. 

 There isn’t some secret sauce, or particular prayer method, or privileged knowledge. 

 It’s all in plain view, and it’s mostly in the “doing”

 …rather than thinking or opinionating. 

 Jesus tells us we are to ‘follow him”.

 Be his disciples. Live as he lived, and as he taught.

 And that picture is pretty clear.

 The all encompassing example is Christ’s own self-sacrifice of his own life in love for the salvation of the world.

 He himself, by word and example, offers a lot of detail on how to make this love real, reflect and make present Christ through our lives.

 By not living by bread alone.

 By worshiping God alone and not weak substitutes and poor knock offs.

 By not putting God to the test.

 Living with humility. Showing mercy. Making peace. Thirsting for what is right.

 Controlling our anger and other negative passions.

 Not taking human life.

 Having special openness to the plight of the poor and the stranger in need.

 Not seeking revenge and retaliation, or resorting to violence.

 Loving even enemies and praying for persecutors.

 Offering forgiveness.

 Keeping our word and honoring the truth.

 Avoiding judgment and hypocrisy.

 Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting those in prison.

 Looking at it all I know that I have a lot of work to do.

 Lent is a time when we are called to contemplate where we need to change and what we need to do better, or more of, as followers of Jesus Christ.

 Prayer and fasting and almsgiving helps us to focus on the basics.

 This isn’t something that we should approach with excessive guilt or fear or regret, over what we have failed to do.

 Rather we should do so looking forward with confidence that when we are able to better glorify the Lord by our lives

 …we will know deeply, like Peter in today’s Gospel, that it is good to be there.