When I go walking with my dog, Bella,
either in the neighborhood or out in the park hiking,
we’ll be just walking along and then all of a sudden
Bella will just yank me in another direction!
She’ll see a squirrel and make a beeline for the squirrel.
I have to be attentive to all the squirrels
because if I am not attentive, she will pull my left arm
right out of my socket because she is so strong.
She does this all the time whether it is in the garden,
the back of the rectory or whether it is walking or out hiking,
she just always sees the squirrels and is easily distracted.
We, as humans, are equally as distracted.
Maybe not by squirrels but distracted nonetheless.
We have a joke in my family when somebody in the conversation
goes off in a completely random tangent,
we all say, “Squirrel, squirrel”
because it has completely nothing to do with the conversation.
It happens all the time in our family conversations.
I am not sure if it happens in your family too.
I do not know what it is about the human condition
that we find ourselves so easily distracted.
We are trying to do something and then
“oh, look. Over there, oh, look; oh squirrel, oh squirrel.”
And we just go and start doing something else.
It is this very mindset of distraction
that the scriptures speak to today.
But in a deeper, deeper, profound sense.
In the first reading God gives the people
the Ten Commandments to keep humanity focused
because we seem to be so easily distracted
“ Squirrel, get out of the way.”
The first three commandments focus on God.
There is only one God and you should love your God.
Then do not take your God’s name in vain.
Keep holy the Sabbath.
The other seven are all about living according to God’s way
in our life towards one another.
And it is this singular focus of seeing that number one is God.
When Jesus was asked, “What is the number one commandment?”
he folded them all into one commandment
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your mind;
and love your neighbor as yourself.”
He thus summed up all ten, the three and the seven
into just a single commandment.
Stay focused on God.
And in a sense, see no other, do not be distracted.
Do not be taken by your “squirrel moments” away.
In today’s gospel, Jesus comes into the temple
and of course you can understand his anger.
Even in the temple where they claim to focus on God, they are not.
We can see his frustration.
It just boiled over and he turns over the tables
because it had been turned into a circus
of selling and buying animals for sacrifice.
On top of that we have to understand
the context of the money changers.
A lot of the people who would come to the temple
were foreigners from out of town
so they did not have the right coins.
They had to exchange their coins and then buy the animals.
They were not allowed to bring in their own animals
because they were told they were unclean
so they had to buy from the money changers inside.
This was all a form of extortion
because the exchange rate was astronomical like airport prices, right?
And then on top of that,
these animals were exorbitantly priced as well.
And Jesus loses his temper.
He says you are all distracted by the wrong things.
Take them all out of here.
Focus on just one thing.
This is the Lord’s house.
Focus only on God.
That is the whole story of Lent;
to clean out all the distractions in our life
and to focus on just the one thing.
It is to stop looking at the squirrels and stay focused on God.
Intellectually everybody agrees with this.
We say, “I get that. Okay. We are all focused on God.”
And then as soon as we get out into the parking lot;
or as soon as we get home,
we are fighting with our brothers or sisters.
Or if we are turning on the internet now,
talking and immediately, we get distracted.
It doesn’t take any more than a couple of minutes before
“Squirrel, squirrel.”
And we go off again with distractions.
So how do we continue to stay focused?
And what are our biggest distractions for us?
We have already got the formula for Lent.
It is prayer, fasting, and alms giving.
But in prayer, what are we called to focus on?
In fasting, what are we called to focus on?
And then in alms giving, what are we called to focus on?
One of the biggest distractions for us as Christians is anger and hurt.
We believe in the gospel, we believe in Jesus
but if somebody says something that upsets us then BOOM!
We get angry. Squirrel. Squirrel.
Somebody says something that offends us personally.
Boom! Squirrel. Squirrel.
We get hurt.
How do we come to understand this anger and hurt?
We are called to forgive.
I’ve been doing this whole series for all of Lent on this.
I understand it is detailed and it is hard work.
I understand that but it is critical to focusing on God.
That is the reason why I am doing it.
It is because anger and hurt are
one of the biggest squirrel moments in our lives.
We get buried by it.
And we cannot then focus on God.
For us I suggest that we look and examine;
and pray about what are the distractions in our life.
What are the things that draw our attention away from God?
What are the things that draw our attention away
from the peacefulness in our own hearts;
from being able to be good and to be kind to others?
What is it about our life that we can fast from
so that we can remain focused singularly on the Lord our God;
for there is no other.
So today, maybe you could join the anger and hurt sessions
that lead to forgiveness and ultimate freedom;
they are on Tuesday nights and here is the link:
Or maybe, it is something else in your life that is so evident
that you know exactly what squirrels are in your life.
This week, may we focus on one or two of the squirrel moments,
take note of what they are;
and attend to staying focused on God
and Christ’s message of love, of kindness and of forgiveness.
The Lord our God is our God.
And there is no other.
