Gospel: Mark 1:12-15 We see in this Gospel that the Holy Spirit is now the energy of Jesus’ life. Jesus is filled with the Spirit, and the Spirit leads him into the desert to be tempted by the devil. This seems to be a strange activity for the Holy Spirit. As we reflect on the movement of the Spirit in the life of Jesus, it is important to remember that the temptation of Jesus in the desert takes place immediately after he was baptized by John the Baptist in the River Jordan. There was a voice from heaven which declared: “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” This was a profound moment of faith. Life, as we know, is not always filled with mountaintop experiences. We all need to play the hand we have been dealt. This means over the years we need to deal with the dark valleys as well as the green pastures. None of us get a free pass on dealing with the challenges of life. Who of us has not dealt with illness for our self or someone we love, with death, with brokenness in relationships? The grace of Jesus’ Baptism, as well as our own, restructures our identity, reshapes our desires, and redirects our emotions and actions. As did Jesus, we need to test our Baptismal identity as God’s beloved sons and daughters. The reason for the Lord’s meeting with the devil in the desert was to clarify the identity of Jesus as God’s beloved Son. We become clearer about who we are when we refuse certain actions and endorse others. The identity of Jesus is more clearly witnessed to when Jesus refuses to be seduced by the devil and He re-affirms his relationship to His Father. We too need desert experiences in life; the Spirit of God, the energy of our lives as well, leads us into the desert to make us more aware of the deepest truth of our life. We stand in need of the grace of God to be our best selves, to be the people we are called to be, to put us in touch with our baptismal identity that we are God’s beloved sons and daughters. Yes, without spiritual testing that comes from dealing with the struggles of life as people of faith, we can too easily live with the illusion that our will power, that our talents and giftedness can sustain on our spiritual journey. We are in the grips of Satan when too much emphasis is placed on how well we manage our spiritual journey. This is a recipe for disaster. Strange as it may seem, the Spirit of God leads us into the desert to know that it is only with God’s grace that we can turn and be faithful to God. It is only with God’s grace that we experience conversion in our lives.
“Unclean, unclean!” From the first Scripture reading, the leper must cry out: “Unclean, unclean.” In contrast to living with this stigma and separation from society, the leper in the Gospel account came to Jesus, begging on his knees. Could there have been more perfect scriptures to prepare ourselves for our Lenten journey? For each of us, if we honestly look at our inmost hearts and daily lives, must confess at least something that, like the Gospel’s leper, that needs to be made clean. We begin this Wednesday with ashes marked on our foreheads. The words spoken to us as we receive these ashes are: “Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.” With these ashes, we acknowledge that we belong to the order of penitents. We stand in need of the Lord’s healing forgiveness. In our Lenten journey, we embrace the spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting, and alms giving. In turning from sin, we seek the conversion experience of placing God first in our lives. To prepare ourselves, we begin during this Lenten season by acknowledging our own leprosy that separates us from a fuller experience of God’s love in our lives. In this Lenten season, may we celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation in a grace-filled way. Our leprosy is the sinfulness of our lives that separates from God’s love. In our Lenten journey, indeed may we turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel. As we pray over this Gospel, we also need to reflect on our attitudes on the people in our lives whom we find undesirable. Mother Theresa said: “The biggest disease is not leprosy or tuberculosis but rather the disease of being unwanted.” We need to do an inventory to see if there are folks who would feel unwelcome in our Church who, if they walked in our door this minute, would feel the questioning stares of others. esus came to save and heal them—just as much as he did you and me. To the extent that we are judgmental and prejudge others, we are in need of Christ’s healing touch.May we see ourselves as a hospital for sinners, rather than a hotel for saints. We all need healing. That is what the ashes on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday signify.
In taking a look at the healing miracle of Peter’s mother-in-law, there is such an important lesson of discipleship to be found. After she was healed, she got up and was ready to serve. The message is grace is to be shared. The appropriate response to God’s grace is to PAY IT FORWARD. All of us have experienced ourselves as God’s beloved. This is a fundamental truth of the spiritual life of each and every one of us. God’s love touches each and every one of us. Our best response is gratitude. We express gratitude beautifully when we share with others the blessings of our lives. This weekend is our annual public policy weekend. The NYS Catholic Conference and our diocesan Public Policy Committee is asking us to petition the NYS Assembly to support the issues in the Woman’s Equality Act. In supporting these bills, we are advocating for the restoration of women to “their proper status, role, and place in the community.” It is with a great deal of faith and optimism that I announce the public phase of our capital campaign. The title of the campaign: MISSION DRIVEN: CELEBRATING OUR FAITH, FAMILY AND FUTURE. The decision to proceed with our plans was made after much prayer, discussion, and planning. We have identified three areas of our Church and School that are in need of improvement. As a result of the growth of our parish ministries, we seek to complete our 2010 plan for an atrium/gathering space next to the east transept of the Church. This space will be a crossroads for our parish community. The security of our school will be considerably enhanced with this project. We will have a new corridor for our school with a rest room and a relocated school music room. The project will give us a more secure perimeter for our school students when there are parish ministries occurring during the school day. We will install a new pipe organ in the Church to replace our aging electronic organ. Our new organ will be both an aesthetic and an acoustical gem. Thank you for your cooperation and I look forward to your attendance at one of our campaign receptions. As always, we ask for the guidance of the Holy Spirit that everything we do and our generosity of spirit will be a blessing to ourselves and to our entire parish community.