My father had an expression;
he used it when he was trying to get one of us children
to do work around the house and we were stalling.
He would say, “When the grass is taller it is harder to cut.
Now, off you go!”
The funny part is that we didn’t have any grass around the house.
So we would look at him,
“Whaaat? What are you talking about?
There’s no grass. We don’t have any grass.”
We lived in a terraced house and we had a tiny amount of grass
It was our Dad’s way of getting us to do what needed to be done;
to do it now and not to be waiting.
It has been a long time since I have cut grass.
We used those old mowers that one pushed;
and if the grass was long, it was almost impossible
to really cut with that regular mower.
I guess with these new diesel ones, it is a little easier to do.
The point is well taken!
Sometimes, the longer we leave something,
the harder it becomes to do.
That certainly is true of bad habits and sinful ways.
That is why the Church gives us these reminders every year
of this 40-days to once again turn our hearts back to God;
or as the scripture says today to rend our hearts;
to lay open our hearts back to God and to be renewed.
So the question is “How do we do that?”
In the second reading today, and it is a beautiful reading that says,
“Now is the time. Now is the time to celebrate our salvation.
No better time than now.”
It doesn’t feel like that. I don’t know!
Boys and girls, you are all not here at Mass
because we are still in this COVID shutdown
and we are outside and it is cold.
We go, “Like, really? Now? We need to do more?
In Lent now? Don’t we have enough isolation?
Don’t we have enough of our Lenten journey with the COVID pandemic?”
In the midst of all things, even things like this,
there is an opportunity to go even deeper.
That is what the Church is asking us.
In particular, Pope Francis is asking us to not lose this opportunity;
to actually seize this moment to even make ourselves better;
to be more reflective; to be more prayerful;
to be more deliberate in what we say and do.
And let’s choose to go back a different way;
to not go back the same way we came.
For Lent every year, we have three pillars
that the Church suggests to us that helps with this routine;
this renewal of our hearts; this rending of our hearts.
We have all heard it a thousand times
but it is worth reflecting on once more.
It is prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
All three of these are woven together not to be separated.
We don’t do fasting on one day.
Praying on another day and
almsgiving on another.
That is not quite the way it was meant.
They are all meant to be woven together like three strands of a rope
that ties together to make it strong.
So let’s break open these, just a little bit;
we all know how I feel about prayer. Right?
At this point, if you haven’t heard of prayer
then you haven’t heard me speak.
But again, what specifically can we do for Lent
that might renew our journey?
What would it look like for us to dig a little deeper in our prayer?
I am just going to suggest just one thing for each of these.
And the one thing is,
especially boys and girls, if we could say
that for the whole of Lent every single day,
we are going to say a prayer of gratitude for one thing in that day.
May we look every single day for some one thing
that we believe is a blessing from God this day.
It might be a person that is in our life
that says or does something;
it might be the simple joy of a child playing;
it might simply be a cup of coffee that
our spouse makes for us every single day
and this day you are grateful for it.
So one thing that we are grateful for
and we make sure that we never let a day go by
without that one thing that we are grateful for.
The second thing is fasting.
There are many traditions; for instance we give up candy;
or we give up alcohol; or we give up this or that.
And those are all wonderful things
but I am wondering if this Lent that
we might give up something that is not helpful in our life.
Now that might be alcohol;
or might be candy;
or might be carbs, whatever,
you might choose those. That’s fine.
But it also might be that we talk about somebody.
The first thing we do when we meet someone is
“Oh did you hear such and such” that we give that up.
That for Lent we are not going to talk about somebody else.
Or that we give up a negative thought.
We tend to go to that one negative thing
that has not gone right in our conversation;
in our marriage; or in our family.
Or that we complain;
the first thing out of our mouth
is that something is wrong with the world;
something is wrong with my family;
something is wrong with school;
something is wrong with my teacher;
or something is wrong with me.
Why don’t we just give that up for Lent;
choose to be full of life and full of joy for Lent.
The last one is what can we do for almsgiving? It is hard in these times that we cannot reach out the same way we have done in the past. I think we are in the path of the jet flights today. You cannot hear anything back there can you? Sorry. It just keeps on going. I love it. Anyway.
What can we do? Here is one thing I suggest we could do.
What if for every day of Lent,
we reach out to one person who we believe needs to be reached out to?
That could be text.
That could be a phone call.
Or even better still right now,
it can be a handwritten note.
And that for each day of Lent,
we choose to do each one of these things:
Say a prayer of gratitude;
Give up something that is a bad habit;
or something that is sinful in our life;
And to do something for somebody else for Lent.
I do believe that if we do these three,
one of each of these, that our hearts will be rendered.
We will be renewed and our journey of Lent will be a joyful one.
One that is full of life;
one that brings us back to Christ again.
So today, we do say that “now is the time.”
Now is the time to celebrate our salvation.
Now is an acceptable time to offer a sacrifice to the Lord.
