HOMILY - First Sunday of Lent Year C (2019)

This Sunday we celebrate the right of election for those unbaptized individuals seeking to join the Catholic Church. We also celebrate the call to continuing conversion for those who also seek to join the Catholic Church at Easter and who have been baptized in another Christian denomination. On one level this marks the final step or the homestretch in their journey to joining the Church. It also provides an opportunity for them to meet the bishop and to be introduced and welcomed to the larger church not just our parish community. And it’s also an opportunity for them to make public their decision to become Catholic. In the ancient church, the catechumens who wanted to be baptized that year would give their names to their pastor sometime before Lent. If the pastor thought they were ready, he would submit their names to the bishop. At the beginning of Lent, all those seeking baptism would go before the bishop who would question the catechumens and their godparents about the catechumens’ lifestyle. If the bishop discerned the catechumens were ready, their names were inscribed in a book or on a scroll. For those catechumens who the bishop thought needed more formation, he would send them away, telling them to amend their lives and return again next year. Fast forward to today and we make a similar discernment and ask a similar set of questions of both our candidates and catechumens. We ask their sponsors and those helping our catechumens to prepare for joining the church questions like: have they listened to God‘s word and responded to that word and began to walk in God‘s presence? Have they shared the company of the Christian brothers and sisters and join them in prayer? And do you consider these catechumen worthy to be admitted to baptism, confirmation and Eucharist? And for our candidates, who have already been baptized, we ask a similar set of questions of their sponsors and teachers: have they listened and reflected on the apostle’s instruction proclaimed by the church, joined their brothers and sisters in prayer, and advanced in a life of love and service? Have they come to a deeper appreciation of their baptism, in which they were joined to Christ and his church? And finally, do you consider these candidates ready to receive the sacraments of confirmation and the Eucharist? In short, it’s a question of whether they are ready to be a disciple of Jesus Christ - to follow him, imitate him in all things. See, it is a life in Jesus Christ to which we were baptized and they will be also initiated into! And so, knowing that God has chosen them and called them, we ask: are they ready? Today’s readings are rich in meaning and purpose for us as we begin our Lenten march toward Easter. Even more, these readings ready us - our catechumen, our candidates, and you and me - for the rigors of discipleship that each of us have been chosen by God for and called by Him to do. So I say that today’s readings then offer us the good, the bad, and the really good in our life as disciples. The good is that our God is in this relationship with us for the long run. God our Creator, who is loving, merciful, and patient has not left us alone. God is not some distant being or abstract thought, but a real, living presence in our complicated and often fragile human experience. God‘s existence and continual presence is revealed to us throughout history. This is the ancient creed that is recited in today’s first reading. The words and actions recalled in this ancient creed testify that our God cares about our suffering and desires to protect us and provide for us. So great is this love and care for us, that God entered into our humanity, God became man in the person of Jesus Christ. And further he gave his life to save us; and he now is living at our side every day to enlighten us, to strengthen us, and to free us! And even more, out of incredible love for us, God through his son Jesus Christ, instituted the Catholic Church – our One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church – to help us be the disciples that we have been chosen and called to be. So, thousands and thousands of years of a God who loves us and wants to be in relationship with us, and who continues to desire that for us today and including for our candidates and catechumens. How good is that?! However, here is the bad: the Devil is real. The catechism of the Catholic Church states that the Devil, Satan, acts in the world out of hatred for God and his kingdom. Unlike the angels we sang of in today’s responsorial Psalm, the church teaches that Satan is a fallen angel, and a seductive voice opposed to God. And further, because Satan would like to destroy our relationship with God, we must be on guard against his Temptations. If we don’t acknowledge Satan, then we won’t recognize his efforts to confuse us, to bind us, and to tempt us away from God‘s will, God’s love, God‘s mercy and all the joy and peace that comes from God alone. Even more, if the devil is not afraid of the son of God, as evidenced in today’s Gospel, he is certainly not afraid of us and especially not of our candidates and even more especially of our catechumen who don’t have the benefit of the gift of grace of baptism-yet! Which leads me to the really good news. God gives us his Spirit and Word - He gives us these gifts to help us. Just as they were a shield and sword to protect Jesus in today’s gospel, so will his Holy Spirit and his Word protect us in our greatest moments of need. God‘s Holy Spirit will give us whatever we need when we need it most-wisdom, courage, strength and patience. Whatever we need to be the disciple that we are chosen for and called to be - God will give us what we need. And God also gives us his word in sacred scripture. Just as Jesus used scripture to fight back against the Temptations of the devil, so two can we use God‘s word to give us truth. Truth to comfort us and to guide us, so that we might always know what is good, right, and just-and to reject any temptation by the Devil. This is certainly the effect Paul intends in today’s second reading. As he writes to his Christian brothers and sisters in Rome. He relies on scripture to guide them and encourage them. And so I too, echoing St Paul’s words and Psalm 91 we just sang together, turn to scripture to offer our candidates, our catechumen, and you my brothers and sisters in Christ, words of encouragement and guidance. Scripture says: No one believes in him will be put to shame… For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved - God clings to us, he delivers us from all our distress. This, my friends, is our calling; this is our faith; this is our hope; and it is our joy - now and eternally. May God bless you!