My wife and I went to the Stations of the Cross last night together. Then today, I took my little Smart Car out for a spin. I drove to Belvidere, IL, to drop off a package at the UPS store and then dropped into Saint James for an intimate moment with Jesus in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. After some shopping, I came home long enough to drop off the groceries and back to Saint Catherine’s for the Saturday evening Mass. It’s been a busy few days.
Throughout all of this, it struck me that there was something awry. The lines were empty. The only time I had to wait any substantial amount of time was at the UPS store. At the English Stations, only a handful of people were present. The confessional line for two priests had only three people in it. At Mass, the pews were far from full. The UPS store, though, was a pharmacy/market. At least ten people in line ahead of me at the counter. More browsing and several others were coming in as I was leaving.
It’s easy to get caught up in all of this and begin to wonder where people’s priorities are. We as a nation, as a people, as a species, should be looking to walk the way of the cross, to seek His face. We find ways to do other things, to place them first. We are busy. We are tired, and boy, isn’t that the truth? We have to take care of this or that first.
This Sunday’s Gospel, though, hit me especially hard. John 3:16. One of the most known and quoted of all Scriptures. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” Then it goes on to follow with this; the part most people don’t quote when speaking about it: “And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light because their works were evil.”
We have to face it. We prefer to do other things. I’d rather be on my computer playing games than on my knees for 30 minutes stumbling through the Stations. I feel awkward and slow, speaking like a three-year-old. I’d much rather be out eating dinner with my wife or having a nice calming drink in my recliner. That concupiscence, that desire for sensual comforts, is why we have Lent, why we have Reconciliation, why the Church has to remind us that Jesus is there in the Tabernacle, waiting for us.
Then, as the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was occurring God opened the Scriptures right in front of us. The Son of God on calvary shattered the veil of time to make present to us His Mercy and love. Like the bronze serpent in the desert, our eyes were lifted up and fixed on the sacred host and the fabric of reality was pulled back. When peeled back to the very metaphysical foundation of reality, all the layers of the universe reveal simply this: mercy. God only desires our Salvation; he wants what is best for us, what is good. It’s ourselves that get in the way.
Lent isn’t over. There are still opportunities to walk the Stations of the Cross. Be Reconciled day is coming for our diocese. Father is available before every Mass for confession. I am convinced that if we could see what truly happens in the Sacraments with our physical eyes, then the lines would be out the door. We would fill the pews, well, as much as the government will let us! My soul yearns for the day that all of my waking thoughts are to please Jesus, and if this jackass of a body will ever cooperate, then maybe even a sinner like me can become a Saint.
A homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent: March 13th, 2021