Good morning students of St. John Vianney!   Today at Holy Mass, we are using green vestments; we see that the tabernacle veil is green – this is because it is – what season in the church?   Ordinary Time    

But next Wednesday, the color will change to violet,  and that will mean we will begin – what? Lent.   So next Tuesday, Deacon John will burn the old palms,  and from those, we have ashes for Ash Wednesday.     

Lent is a time when we especially repent of our sins;  we do some sacrifices to show God our love,   and we try to become a better Christian.   It is good to choose some kind of sacrifice,  and it is also good to decide to do something very good.     

You know, there are some children who wait until Ash Wednesday to try to decide what they are going to give up for Lent, or what sacrifice they will make – well, we don’t want to put it off like that at all!     

Well, what kind of sacrifice can we make, to show God our love?  Some people give up their favorite candy, or deserts.  Some turn down the warm water in their shower,   so that it is not as warm as they’d like it.  Or turn the heat down in their car.    

I knew one boy who slept on the floor instead of his bed,   once a week, as an offering to God.   One girl didn’t use her pillow every Wednesday during Lent.  Some people give up their favorite tv show, or video game.  One year, my brother didn’t watch tv at all!   There are many things we can give up.     

But there is something else we must do during Lent.  We need to pray more.   Now I know that you kids say your morning prayers when you wake up, and offer your day to God.  You pray before you eat, even if you are at a restaurant.  And I know that you pray before bed.  But for Lent, we need to add a new prayer.     

Maybe you could say one decade of the rosary, and offer it for a special intention each day.  Or you could pray a Litany; I have a book with 116 different litanies to choose from.  In one school, the children found a new prayer of their own choice with help from their teacher, and printed it out to say each day.     

And maybe, you can help your family to pray more during Lent.   You could say, ‘mom and dad, let’s pray this extra prayer before supper during Lent.’     

To do something very good, you could promise the Lord that you will write one letter every week and send it to your grandmother.  Or you could decide to help your mother set the table every night for dinner, instead of being a lazy-bum.  Or – you could get a jar, and every time someone in the house says a bad word or complains, they have to put a nickel into the jar. Then at the end of Lent, you could take that jar full of nickels and give it to the poor!     

So, now is the time to get ready, and think about what we want to do.  We have less than a week.  After all, we want to have something we can offer to God, as a gift, to show him how much we love him;  this way, when we get to Easter, we will be really glad that we did it.   

Friends in Christ,
In the first reading today, there is a warning to the greedy: ‘Come now you rich, you have stored up treasures,  you withheld wages from the workers, but their cries have reached the Lord of Hosts.’  

We see here how easily the sin of avarice, of greed, leads a person even to theft, stealing from one’s  neighbor.  The 10^th commandment, ‘Thou shalt not covet,’  leads straight to the 7^th commandment, ‘Thou shalt not steal.’  

Now there are many ways that we steal from our neighbor; as we read today, not paying someone a fair wage for their work, or, defrauding people, switching tags on merchandise to cheat the store, not speaking up when you know the cashier has made a mistake.   

If a person cheats on his taxes, (Rom 13:7) or a student cheats on a test, he is guilty of theft –  theft from the government and theft from his neighbor.   To waste time on company hours is stealing from our employer,  and it is also theft to refuse to pay back our debts. St. Paul says, ‘Do not be deceived: thieves will not inherit the kingdom of heaven.’ (1 Cor 6:10)  

This sin can be forgiven by God – we must repent and confess our sin; but something more is then needed.  We must make restitution – return what was taken. If a person stole something and is not able to return it to the owner,  then he should give the money or its equivalent to charity. He may not keep it.  

Also, if we find something that has been lost, (Lev 6:2)  before we keep it, we must try to find the rightful owner, and of course we also may not buy goods that we suspect are stolen.  

Jesus says, “It is from the heart which comes forth evil thoughts….. and theft.  Sometimes in our heart we envy what another has.  If we have these thoughts, we should fight them before they grow; we should try to be satisfied with what we have.   

When does theft become a mortal sin?  In two cases:  If the thing taken is of significant value, Or  if when taking it, it causes sadness or hardship for the other person.  Taking someone’s writing-pen normally would not be a mortal sin; but if it was the treasured pen of his great-grandfather, then it would be a serious sin against justice.  

Lent will soon be here.  It is a good time for us to fight against our wrong desires, especially desires that lead to injustice toward our neighbor.  

Friends in Christ,  

We live in a ‘pluralistic society,’ for sure, an environment of people of many different religions, and especially people with no religious formation at all.   

How should we see ourselves in relation to these non-Catholics?  The second Vatican Council[i] addressed this question, but since that Council did not really define new doctrines, it was really summarizing what the  Church has believed.   

First, we Catholics: It says that the Church is necessary for salvation. Christ, who is the One Mediator, is present to us in his Body which is the Church.  Baptism is the door into the Church. Those cannot be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God,  would refuse to enter it, or remain in it.  

Now even though one is incorporated into the Church, a person who does not persevere in charity is not saved.  If children of the Church fail to respond to this grace, not only shall they not be saved, but they shall be the more severely judged. So – that’s us, Catholics.  

Next the Council says that those who are baptized but are not Catholics –  if they have a sincere religious zeal, who believe in God the Father, in Christ the Son, who pray – they are, in some real way, joined to us in the Holy Spirit. Now it is desired that the Children of the Church,  would be a real sign of Christ for them, to draw them into unity with us.   

Finally the Council speaks of those who have not yet received the gospel at all. The Jewish people, and those others, who at least believe in God, and even those who, through no fault of their own,  have not yet arrived at an explicit knowledge of God – whatever good or truth that is found among them is considered by the Church to be a preparation for the gospel.  

Those who through no fault of their own do not know the gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and try to do his will as they know it, these too may achieve eternal salvation.[ii]  This idea of course refers to the long-standing doctrine of Baptism by desire.  

Despite our hope that people can be saved who do not know Christ or reside in the bosom of Mother Church,[iii] we must work hard at evangelizing and leading these fellow travelers into the Ark of Salvation,  and along the way, we should not see them as enemies, but rather, we should extend a hand of friendship.   

If the voice of moral people is to be heard in our society, it will take a united effort by people of good will.   

This is what Jesus seems to be hinting at today. The apostles complain that they saw someone driving out demons in Christ’s name, so they “tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.” Jesus replied, “Do not prevent him. He who is not against us, is for us.  

Friends in Christ,  

In the 1^st Reading today,  St. James rebukes his readers for their immoral life: You adulterers, he says! ‘Do you not know that to be a lover of the world means enmity with God?  Whoever is a lover of the world makes himself an enemy of God.  

Here, he is not speaking so much literally about the sin of adultery, he is referring to spiritual adultery.  

The scriptures speak in many places,  of a nuptial relationship between God and his people.  Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and other prophets  spoke of Israel as the Lord’s bride, but a bride that has become a harlot, chasing after other gods.  

In fact, the prophet Isaiah says to Israel: ‘Thy Maker is thy husband,’ and in the Book of Ezekiel, the Lord speaks of how he prepared this beautiful bride for marriage, and there he speaks entirely in wedding imagery.  But the Lord says, ‘you were captivated by your own beauty, and you lavished your harlotry on every passer-by.’  Of course Jesus himself is called the Bridegroom, because in Christ, God has come for his bride. And in the Book of Revelation, the Church is called the Bride.  

So –  St. James is warning his readers, that to lead a life of sin,  to allow passions to drive you to envy and jealousy and fighting and pride – disobeying God in this way is like breaking our marriage vow with the Lord, rejecting his Covenant.   

Perhaps the most famous work of St. John of the Cross is his “Spiritual Canticle of the Soul.” Composed mainly while he was in prison,  he uses the metaphor of a bride and groom separated and then reunited, to represent the soul and Jesus Christ.   

In many old prayer books you will find often this idea of Jesus as the ‘Bridegroom of the soul;’ regrettably, this idea is not often pondered today.   

So – what is St. James saying, in calling sin adultery? William Barclay says,  ‘it means that all sin is sin against love.’ It means that sin is infidelity, and that when we sin  we break God’s heart, just as the heart of one spouse in marriage is broken  when the other is unfaithful.’  

This St. James, who himself would be a martyr for Jesus – he is urging us to be faithful to the Lord: ‘Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you. ‘Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. 

.

Fr. Luke Winkelmann

Friends in Christ,  

Hardly a day goes by, when I haven’t begun some task, whether it is hearing a Confession, or backing the car out of the garage, or calling a parishioner,  when it dawns on me: ‘Wait, I didn’t pray!’  

To pray before a task, even just a quick:  ‘O Holy Spirit, help me’ –  to glance one’s eyes to heaven,  or to ask the Blessed Virgin’s help –  this is to imbue the action with an effectiveness, a goodness, a success.   

In today’s world, especially we Americans,  there is a tendency to do our work without a supernatural tone.  In fact, sometimes the more daunting the task, the more that our concerns and intensity cause us  to forget to ask for God’s help.  

In the Gospel today, we see that a man had brought his child to the apostles, asking them to cure the child.  The boy was possessed by some sort of spirit, and he would fall on the ground and convulse and foam at the mouth – who knows if this was some kind of epilepsy or something else.  The father said: ‘I asked your disciples to cast it out but they could not.’ Our Lord is upset about this because he knows why. ‘O faithless generation!, he says. Then he cures the child.   

Later, his disciples asked him, “Why could we not drive the spirit out?” He said to them, “This kind can only come out through prayer.”  They had been trying to do it without praying, on their own!  

Jesus wants us, when we are faced with a task,  especially a difficult task, to HAVE FAITH, and call for his help.   Have you ever noticed how badly things often turn out if we forget to pray first, and how well things go if we’ve sent a glance to heaven?  You know, Psalm 127 is worth memorizing:

‘If the Lord does not build the house,
in vain do the workmen labor;

If the Lord does not watch over the city,
in vain does the watchman keep vigil;

in vain is your earlier rising,
you who labor for the bread you eat,  

while he pours gifts on his beloved while they slumber.’  

If we try to do anything without God, forget it! It will fall flat.  But if we ask the Lord’s help, we can be assured that come what may, the Lord will bless our work.  We should develop a habit of looking to heaven for help –  to Jesus, to the saints, to our Angel, Our Lady –  it is an act of humility to ask for help  and show dependence on God for all our actions. If we have this habit, then we won’t leave off calling for assistance when moments of crisis come or in fearful situations.  

As St. Paul says,  ‘I can do all things in him who strengthens me.  

Friends in Christ,    

From today’s 1^st Reading, it is evident that the early Church had some problems of people showing favoritism.  ‘If a man with fine clothes comes into your assembly, and a poor person with shabby clothes also comes in, and you pay more attention to the one wearing the fine clothes, then have you not made distinctions among yourselves?’      

St. James is warming against the unfair treatment of others. This question is part of the Cardinal Virtue of Justice;[i]    Holy Scripture says that ‘God is no respecter of persons.’ (Acts 10:34), and this means that he treats all with equal dignity, regardless of outward appearance, wealth, or nationality. We are supposed to do the same.    

Unfairness happens when one person is given certain privileges,  not because he is more qualified or worthy,  but because he is a certain person – your friend or relative –  or a person who can do you a favor later.       

A coach for example, with little kids, should be fair in who gets to play.  Justice would demand that all the children get a chance to play.  If the coach favors one child because the parents are his friends, this is a violation of justice.      

If a child is allowed to be first in line to receive her Confirmation from the Bishop  because her father is a big donor to the parish,  this would be unjust favoritism.       

I remember at Christmas time, that my parents were always very careful that each child received a similar number or quality of gifts.  Though a parent might feel special attachment to one child,  the parent must be sure that the children are treated with equal dignity.  Of course if a child is sick, more money should be spent on medicine for that child than the others.  So fairness does not mean that all are treated the same,  but rather with equal dignity.       

So we should look at our own behavior.  At a restaurant or at the store,    are we more courteous with good-looking people?  Is there fault-finding with people who happen to be overweight or less attractive? Do we treat smokers or poorly dressed persons differently than we treat others?    

We should look at our heart.  If we are driving, do we find ourselves angry and critical of the mistakes of a driver in the shabby car,  while we find a way to overlook mistakes of the Mercedes Benz?      

Oh, we are patient with those noisy children at Mass,  but are we the same with the children of another race?       

In the pagan world, people favor those whom they please; but we Christians treat everyone with equal dignity, because all are God’s children. 

Friends in Christ, [i]  

In the Epistle from St. James today, he says, ‘Be slow to anger, for anger does not accomplish the righteousness of God. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, his religion is in vain.’  

Anger is one of the 7 Deadly sins.  St. John Vianney says, anger comes from the devil. A person caught in this passion is like a puppet,  and the devil holds the strings and makes him dance as he pleases.[ii]   

St. Basil says that no matter how good a person may seem,  if he yields to anger, he is a monster. Anger leads us into resentment, blasphemy,  detraction, gossip, and a host of other sins,  and so it is called a ‘Capital Sin’  because it leads to many others.  

In the passion of anger, a person’s mind does not reason well,  good judgment is lost,  and the person becomes more like an animal or a madman.   According to St Bonventure, an angry man is incapable  of distinguishing between right and wrong.   

We should be angry at sin and evil when we see it, but we may never be angry at the person. As St. Augustine says, we are not allowed to hate others because of their sins.   

But a person may say, ‘Did you see what he did to me? I am justified in my anger.’  Who told you that you are justified?  When one’s blood is boiling, the mind is clouded, we often are not justified in our anger. For a minor slight, we become as angry as if the person committed murder!  

St. Alphonsus says, if you resent an injury done to you by a neighbor, God will inflict vengeance on you for all the injuries you have done to him.’   The Holy Scriptures say:  ‘You cannot expect the Lord to pardon you  while you are holding a grudge. If you cannot get rid of your anger, you have no hope of forgiveness. [iii]   

An angry man may be feared; he may be able to get his way; but an angry man will never be respected.   

Some people are really struggling against this fault; many in confession show that they are trying to improve, maybe this is our struggle.  St. Francis de Sales had quite a temper when he was young.  But he worked hard at changing his ways,  and eventually no one ever suspected that this was his weakness.  

Some say that they are very patient; but in fact,  they are patient only with their friends.  To those who injure them they respond with fury.  Scripture says, ‘a soft answer calms wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. (Prov. 15:1)  

In the end, the Holy Spirit is not able to do any good in us  if we are agitated or angry.  So we should not lose our peace with others or with ourselves.  

Friends in Christ,  

In Question 165[i] of the Summa Theologica, St. Thomas asks:  whether ‘it is fitting that man was tempted by the devil.  Some people ask, ‘why IS there temptation’ wouldn’t it be nicer if there were no temptations or problems? No one would sin, and there would be no evil.  

St. Augustine says: ‘ “It seems to me that man would have had no right to any special praise, if he were able to lead a good life simply because there was no one to persuade him to lead an evil life.’  

God ALLOWS us to be tempted, by Satan, and by our own weaknesses. He allows it, but he himself does not tempt us to evil.   

St. James says in his Epistle today:  ‘No one experiencing temptation should say, I am being tempted by God; for God is no tempter to evil, he himself tempts no one.     

It is God’s permissive Will, which allows us to be tempted; tempted by the Devil, or by others, or by our own concupiscence. God allows this to happen.   St. Augustine is really saying, God can’t make us great – there can be no real merit or glory in man, if we do not have to overcome anything.   

If the Chicago bears play a farm-team from England and win big, easily, it really is no glory to the Bears at all.  The question is, what happens against a difficult team? And if, after an epic-struggle and much adversity, they are able to win, then this is worthy of glory.   

For this reason, St. James writes: ‘Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been tried, he will receive the crown of life.’  

It is not wrong, when tempted, to say ‘It is God’s will, I must endure this,’ because ultimately, everything is part of God’s plan.  The evil and temptations and all the results of free-will are taken into account.  But God does not desire evil. His Antecedent Will desires only that all do good, but his Permissive Will allows everything to unfold, in a plan which takes into account free-will.  

In the Book of Job, we see that Job was a just man, and life was good for him.  But Satan told God that of course Job will be good when everything is going well for him! But let me AT him, and then he will curse you to your face. And God allowed it. Why?   Because it is in difficult times, under suffering and temptation, that we are able to be great.  Meet someone who has had an easy life and no problems, and you will not meet a person of good character. You must meet someone who has suffered or wrestled with temptation, in order to find virtue.  

‘Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been tried, he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him.