Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time

Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time

Fr. Ben Riley

During the Renaissance, there was a great sculptor who was commissioned to sculpt a statue of Saint Michael the Archangel for a grand cathedral. This artist wasn’t as well known as Michelangelo, Raphael, or Bernini, so it was a pretty big deal that he was commissioned to produce this great work of art. The sculpture of Saint Michael the Archangel was meant to go in a niche next to a side altar of the cathedral, and so, the artist got to work. He spent days and weeks, first sculpting the angel out of clay, making sure every detail was perfect. Then once he was satisfied, he went to the stone quarry himself and looked over dozens of marble blocks until he found the one with the angel hidden inside. Then he began to carve, painstakingly, over hundreds of hours, he worked carving the delicate folds of the angel’s robe, the fragile spear that the angel thrusts into that serpent, the devil, the expressive details of the face, the back of the head, and the entire reverse side of the sculpture. It was a masterpiece. When he was finished, another sculptor, came to the workshop to admire the piece. He admired the detail and scale of the great warrior angel. Then he walked around to the back of the sculpture and was surprised to find it was carved with the same detail as the front. He asked, “Isn’t this sculpture going to be placed in a niche where it will not be possible to see the back? Why then, have you taken the time to carve the back of it in such detail? No one will know if you just leave it blank.” The artist looked up, chuckled, and said, “but God will know.

”This Wednesday, we will celebrate Ash Wednesday, the first day of the holy season of Lent. The Lenten season for some, is viewed as a season of doom and gloom, a time to feel bad about all the ways we are not measuring up in our spiritual lives. But this view could not be further from the truth. Lent is a season of refreshment and love, of awakening, and rebirth. It is a time of preparation.We prepare ourselves for Holy Week, the highest solemnity of the liturgical year. 43 days from now we will begin to celebrate the Easter Tridium. The account of the life, passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And so we prepare ourselves. Athletes prepare their bodies for competition by rigorous practice, and exercise, but we, during Lent, prepare not our bodies, but our souls. Lent is a spiritual preparation for Easter. And there are many ways we are called to do this: the first, is by fasting. Catholics fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, only two days a year. However, it is highly encouraged to make the spiritual practice of fasting a regular part of our devotion. And fasting doesn’t mean not eating. The definition is actually very clear. For those who are over the age of 18 and under the age of 60, fasting means eating only one meal in a day, along with two snacks that together do not equal the size of a meal. Put simply, we remain a little hungry so that we hunger for the Lord, for the Body of Christ.

The second practice for a good Lent is abstaining from eating meat. Catholics who are over the age of 14, abstain from eating meat on Ash Wednesday and the Fridays of Lent. But don’t worry, there is no need to go out and buy a bunch of vegetables and fish, because the Knights of Columbus are hosting fish fry’s on Ash Wednesday and the Fridays of Lent, except the Friday after ash Wednesday. So please, join our parish family for these opportunities of fun, fellowship, and fish.

Catholics also sacrifice something, give up something that we really enjoy for the 40 days of Lent. It could be something like dessert, alcohol, chocolate, television. Sacrificing these things is meant to be a reminder of what Jesus sacrificed on the cross, and guide us into a closer relationship with Him. And might I suggest, that you prayerfully consider choosing something that, isn’t sinful in itself, but may occasionally lead you to sin. I’ll give you an example. I am giving up watching television after 10 o’clock. Because, while watching T.V. after 10 isn’t necessarily sinful, it sometimes causes me to rush through my night prayers or not be very attentive during them. And this isn’t something that I want to give up just for Lent, I want it to become a habit. So, while your Lenten sacrifice doesn’t have to be oriented this way, I would encourage you to give it a try, and prayerfully consider those little habits, those near occasions of sin, and let this Lent, through the Grace of God, be a time to rid them from your life.

The fourth aspect of a good Lent is giving alms, giving to the poor. There are a few good reasons we do this. First is because Jesus asked us to. In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus said, “When you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing.” He didn’t say, “If you get around to giving alms, don’t let your left hand know what your right is doing.” No. He said when, you give alms. We as Christians have to do this. Why? Well, because Jesus said so, and because we believe in the dignity of every human being. Regardless of how strong, how beautiful, how powerful, how successful, how wanted they are by the rest of the world. We believe that every human being has dignity being created in God’s image and likeness. And it is a travesty that not everyone is treated in accordance to that dignity. So we have to do what we can to balance the scales. This Lent there are two ways the parish is helping us to do this. The first is through our regular “40 bucks or 40 cans drive”. On a local level, this helps people of our community through the food bank at Share and Care. On an international level, and because poverty overseas does not look like poverty here in the U.S., our parish is also going to be supporting Catholic Relief Services through their rice bowl campaign. Catholic Relief Services, or CRS, is a non-profit organization that supports the poor and vulnerable overseas. They respond to major emergencies like the earthquake in Turkey and Syria and many other human development projects. Something that I find most impressive, is that 93% of donations to CRS actually goes to their projects. Unfortunately, because of a shipping problem we don’t have all the rice bowls for you to take home today, but we should have them by next Sunday. The truth is, all of us, have so much compared to the rest of the world. And giving just a little, makes a big difference.

But the most important thing we will do during Lent no one will know about. The most important part of Lent is between us and God. And this part of Lent, is our prayer. We may give up many things for Lent, but fasting without prayer is just dieting, and giving up something like candy or television without prayer is good for our bodies, but does nothing for our souls. Your prayer life is between you and God, no one will know if you don’t pray, but God will know. So this Lent, don’t forget to carve the back of the sculpture.