Create A Clean Heart In Us, O God! (5th Sunday of Lent, Year B)

Believe it or not, there can be a great deal of truth revealed in cartoons. Occasionally, we run across one of these comics that hits the nail on the head and articulates some universal truth, often in a humorous way. One example of this is the cartoon titled, Peanuts. In this particular episode, Linus enters the room to find his older (and perpetually crabby sister) Lucy crying bitterly, as if the world itself were about to come to an end. And the reason for her sobbing? “Mom promised me a birthday party and now she says I can’t have one”, she wails. Now Linus, in his quiet, wise manner, offers this advice: “You’re not using the right strategy. Why not go up to mom and say to her: “I’m so sorry dear mother. I admit that I have been bad. You were right to cancel my party. But from now on I will try to be good.”

Lucy thinks about it; she really does. She even takes the time to prepare a little speech for her mother. Then she thinks about it some more…and some more…and some more. Finally, in the last panel of the cartoon, the stubborn Lucy cries out, “I’d rather die!”


I think we are all familiar with this reaction of Lucy, this inherent tendency within each of us to resist acknowledging our faults and wrongdoing, sometimes even thinking death to be a better, more attractive alternative. There is something about the human heart, after the sin of Adam and Eve, which hates to be wrong, which hates to be obedient, which hates to be conformed and crucified to the gospel. And for good reason. This process of molding our heart to the will of God is difficult and painful. As a matter of fact, it is impossible without the strength of God’s grace. But the pride and stubbornness of the human heart, portrayed in the Peanuts cartoon causes a pain all its own. The effects of sin and selfishness tend to make our hearts into hearts of stone. And even though these hearts of stone can feel familiar and even comfortable at times, they are hard and impenetrable. Their growth is stunted because they are shut off from the grace of God. As a result, we cannot grow in the ways of God’s grace. These hardened hearts, the product of sin, do not allow us to truly live and love as God intended.

It’s for this reason that the psalmist pleads with God in the responsorial psalm to create a clean heart within us. Seeing the damage and pain that a sinful, hardened heart can cause, the writer asks God to create a new heart within him. And we hear of that same thing happening in our first reading. The prophet Jeremiah describes the Lord’s plan, a plan which will write God’s law on the very hearts of his people, a plan which will give them loving hearts in place of stony hearts, a plan whereby all people will come to know the Lord not by what they do but by how they love.



But this kind of love doesn’t come easy. In the second reading, we hear that Christ himself, the Son of God, learned this obedient love through his suffering and death on the cross. 
In our gospel today, Christ makes it quite clear: unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains a single grain and bears no fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. Jesus is talking about his imminent passion and death, but he is also telling us that we will also have to make a choice of whether or not we will be the grain of wheat that must die. And if we wish to save our lives for all eternity and bear great fruit for the kingdom of God, then dying to ourselves is really the only choice we have.


The irony of all of this, is that Lucy, in the Peanuts cartoon was on the right path. Her line of “I would rather die” is the same attitude that helped Christ conquer the fears and temptations that would have prevented him from embracing the cross. The important distinction was that Lucy was afraid of dying to herself, to her pride, to her way of doing things while Christ was willing to die to all those things so that we might live. This mindset of “I would rather die” is exactly the mindset that you and I need to have in regards to sin, selfishness, pride, and all the other vices that keep us from drawing closer to Christ. We should be more willing to die in this life than to give in to the type of behaviors that kill the life of grace in our souls and separate us from the source of eternal life and happiness. 


In just a week we will enter into the holiest time of the Church year, those days when we walk with Christ through his passion, death and resurrection. And in this holy time, we have the chance to lay down our lives, each in our own way. If we haven’t been preparing ourselves to die with Christ during these forty days of lent, then we risk missing out on so many graces. If we have been trying to save our earthly lives, our sinful habits, or our self-centered practices instead of drawing closer to Jesus, then it’s possible that we that we have not and will not bear spiritual fruit.

The good news is that it is not too late. If we have been a little lax, a little too concerned about our worldly business, there is still time to embrace the season of lent and allow Christ to transform our stony hearts into hearts modeled after his own loving heart. It is never too late to die to sin in our lives; Christ saved the good thief moments before he left this world. As we celebrate this 5th Sunday of Lent, let us ask our Lord to create a new heart within us, a heart that despises sin, a heart that loves God above all things, a heart that loves our neighbor as ourselves. Create a clean heart in us, O Lord, that we might bear great fruit for you in this life and rejoice with you forever in the life to come. 


Live In the Light (4th Sunday of Lent, Cycle B)

To listen to this homily, click here.

Some misunderstandings are funny. Like the case of John, who travelled down to a secluded, rural part of Georgia to visit his 90 year-old grandpa. After spending a great evening talking and catching up, John woke up to a delicious breakfast of bacon, eggs, and toast, all prepared with love by his grandfather. The only thing that seemed slightly wrong was a film-like coating on his plate. So John asked his grandpa, “Are these plates clean?”

Grandpa replied, “They are as clean as cold water can get them. Just you go ahead and finish your meal, young man!” For lunch, the old man made thick, juicy hamburgers. Again, John was concerned about the plates since his appeared to have tiny specks around the edge that looked like dried egg. So he asked, “Are you sure these plates are clean?” Without looking up, the old man said, “I told you before Sonny, those dishes are as clean as cold water can get them. Now don’t you worry, I don’t want to hear another word about it!”

Later that afternoon, John was on his way to a nearby town and as he was leaving, his grandfather’s dog started to growl and wouldn’t let him pass. John yelled and said, “Grandpa, your dog won’t let me get to my car.” Without turning his attention away from the football game he was watching on TV, the old man shouted, “Dang it Coldwater, leave that boy alone and go lay down!” 

The humor of this story lies in the misunderstanding, in the delightful confusion of the words and their meaning. The same sort of misunderstanding can be hurtful and tragic when it deals with the Word of God, especially the passage of today’s gospel, John 3:16. This is perhaps one of the best known lines of the entire Bible, certainly one of the most profound and moving, “that God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that those who believe in him might not perish but have eternal life.” How odd that many people would know this verse as the scripture to be found on signs throughout sport venues and playoff games. Not quite the appropriate setting for a  scripture so solemn and profound! Even more hurtful and sad are those that simply refer to this passage in order to condemn those different than themselves. Perhaps they should read the rest of the passage that states, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through him.” 

Perhaps worst of all are those who are unaffected by the power of these verses from St. John’s gospel. How can it be that some people are indifferent to those beautiful words of hope and salvation written with the guidance of the Holy Spirit by the pen of John? To ensure we don’t fall into this category, let’s explore two words of John 3:16 and reflect on them in light of the coming dawn of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection.

The first word of the passage that leaps out is composed of only two letters, the simple word “so”. We are loved, our whole world is loved by a God who is neither distant nor disinterested. In fact, he “so” loved us and our world, that even after we had turned our backs on him and thrown away the paradise and perfect relationship we had with him, he did not abandon us. The first reading reminds us that “Early and often did the LORD, the God of their fathers, send his messengers to them, for he had compassion on his people and his dwelling place.” Early and often, God tried to raise us out of our sins. But when that wasn’t enough, he so loved us that he sent his only Son, the One who has been with him and the Holy Spirit for all eternity. God spared nothing to save us, to draw us out of sin and back to his redeeming love. This is the power of the divine love found in that simple word “so” of John 3:16.

The second word worth mentioning is “world”. God so loves our world. All of it and everyone in it. It would have been much easier for him to start a new world, to forget about our fickle and sinful hearts, to leave us to our own devices and the consequences of our choices. But he doesn’t; he sticks with us and throughout history, sends us everything we need to come back to him, to be freed from sin and selfishness, and live as children of his glorious light. It should blow our minds that God has this sort of love for our world, for each and every one of us. The One who has everything, who is everything stops at nothing to redeem us and lead us back to him. 

If we appreciate this love, which moved God to send his only-begotten Son, we will run towards the light. A strong theme of John’s Gospel is that of Jesus’ being the “light”. Bad things happen in his Gospel at night or in the “darkness”. Remember, Nicodemus comes to visit with Jesus at night. John uses this symbol to present Jesus as the One Who has come into the darkness of the world to show us how beloved we are. There are those who choose darkness and so remain unaware of their being so loved. These choose the works appropriate to darkness. The real evil is that those who choose darkness choose the evil of not knowing, accepting, and living the truth as loved and saved in Christ. The result of this Gospel is that those who know who they are in the light of Christ will more clearly desire themselves to be shown in the works of “light” which they live. The opposite is true as well. If we do not know, or refuse to accept who we are, then personal darkness will rule us. We will seek hiding and secretly hope our selfishness is never exposed.

May we never forget that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” May we consider these profound words as an invitation to trust him completely, an invitation to thank him for his ongoing patience, and a reminder to repent of the times we have been indifferent to this gift which will provide all we ever need. Let us live in the light of Christ and joyfully invite others to join us!

Zeal For the Family (3rd Sunday of Lent, Year B)

To listen to this homily, click here.

I will freely acknowledge I was a somewhat-unusual child growing up. There were things that bothered me; things most children probably didn’t even notice. One example was the cast iron stack in my family’s house. Nowadays, these pipes, which carry all of the wastewater out of the home, are made from PVC plastic. But until 30 years ago, they were made out of heavy cast iron. The stack in our childhood home was starting to rust all over and it drove me crazy. With my parents’ permission, I took a wire brush and scraped all the rust spots off the pipe and then applied a slick coat of black spray paint. It looked as good as new. For about a month. Then the rust spots reappeared, right through the new paint, again and again, no matter how many coats of paint I put on. I was frustrated until my dad explained that the pipe was rusting from the inside out and could never be fixed from the outside. The water had slowly compromised the inside of the pipe over the past 40 years and that damage was finally starting to show on the outside. Only replacing the pipe would fix the problem.

Two weeks ago, our nation was rocked once again by a mass shooting in Parkland Florida. This was just the latest in an increasing number of violent attacks in places that have been traditionally regarded as safe havens for learning, leisure, and worship. Before Parkland, there was Las Vegas, before that there was Sutherland Springs church in Texas, before that the Orlando nightclub, preceded by San Bernardino which came after the movie theater in Aurora Colorado and Sandy Hook. The sad list goes on and on. Now, more than ever, there is an outcry to make this stop. Punish the NRA. Get rid of semi-automatic weapons, high capacity magazines, and bump stocks. Raise the age to purchase firearms, do more rigorous background checks, do something, pass some sort of law to make it safer for everyone.

These are noble intentions and I think we all agree we want our schools, churches, and public places to be safe. The frustrations and fears that erupt after each occasion of senseless slaughter are understandable. The need for something to change is real. Sadly, the current conversation is woefully insufficient. The answers we seek, the safety we crave, the peace and respect we long for will not be a quick fix and won’t come about simply through the actions of congress or some sort of magic law. That is like me scraping and painting that old pipe in our house. That is trying to fix a problem from outside. It might make us feel better for a while, it might appear to be the answer. But the rottenness is much deeper and very few people seem to be willing to talk about it. But we must if we want to stop hearing about these horrible massacres.

The deeper problem is the moral health of our nation, most especially in the fundamental building block of human society: the family. Our families are under constant attack from many forms of anger, violence, indifference, and selfishness; many children breath this poisonous air, day after day. Over the course of years and generations, this begins to affect the whole fabric of society, whether we like it or not and becomes a sort of incubator for violent acting-out.

Consider some alarming facts and patterns. You and I live in a nation that has, in the last 40 years, sanctioned the deliberate murder of 60 million unborn babies through abortion in what is supposed to be the safest of all places, their mother’s womb. If a society allows its most defenseless members to be dispatched under the pretense of law and freedom, is it so shocking that troubled individuals now feel entitled to snatch that so-called right for themselves as they callously snuff out the lives of others with no seeming regret? 

As our culture continues to push a “me-first” mentality, is it any surprise that more and more children are born into unstable families, uncommitted relationships, and single parent situations? More and more children in America are growing up in broken homes and a culture of toxic stress, disrespect, and domestic violence. Most of these children will never commit a crime. But many will end up living in poverty. Suffering addiction. Feeling emotionally neglected. Being homeless, in insurmountable debt, or chronic unemployment – or a combination of these things – trapped in lives without the opportunities others take for granted.

The connection between the breakdown of the family and the serious social issues that plague us is well-researched and well-established. But many people don’t want to talk about it or confront it because it means confronting something that is very personal to each of us: how we choose to live our lives and what our priorities are.

The elephant in the room is marriage. Would it surprise you to know that, on average, children who are raised in stable homes with both parents do better? Children from divorced parents, or whose parents never married in the first place, do worse – whether that’s in terms of lower levels of social mobility or higher levels of poverty. Of course, averages have exceptions. The sacrifices of so many single parents are heroic and selfless. Many children from broken homes do well. Some of my dearest friends and family are examples of this. But that shouldn’t blind us to the overall picture. A few decades ago, over 90 percent of children were born to married parents. Today it’s less than half. No matter what your political or religious leanings are, we should all agree that it would be better for our society if our families were healthier and whole, if each person were challenged to think about others before themselves, and begin taking personal responsibility for their actions. Strong families —— and individuals with virtue and integrity are the foundation of a strong and prosperous society.

As always, our faith gives us hope. Following Christ each day gives us the strength to challenge the parts of our culture that have become selfish, dangerous, and hostile to life and human dignity. The example of Jesus in the temple from today’s gospel, reminds us that we cannot sit by and just throw up our hands in despair. Zeal for God’s plan of salvation, zeal for the dignity of every human person, zeal for the flourishing of our human families must consume us and move us to action. 

No one should ever be afraid to go to school, see a movie, worship at church, or attend a concert. That safety can never be guaranteed by simply passing more laws or taking things away from others. It only happens when human beings share mutual respect for each other and value the life and rights of their neighbors as much as they do their own. This lesson begins in the home and is strengthened by faith. Take this week to prayerfully reflect on your own family. Make it a place of virtue, generosity, service, and respect. Make it clear that each person in your home is appreciated and loved. Be accountable to others and take responsibility for your actions. This is the way of peace. This is how we stop the cycle of violence and bloodshed in our world.