Catholic Homily CYCLE B 2nd Sunday of Lent
by Fred Karpuk
1. I have come here today to talk to YOU, about one of our Churches biggest problems. How do we get our IN-ACTIVE brothers and sisters back to the Table of the Lord to eat and to his feet for forgiveness of their sins? Yet part of the total equation of reaching out to the In-Active has a X Factor. The X Factor is YOU. And that presents its’ own Question too. Like…What are YOU willing to do? What lengths will YOU go to bring them back? These people are your children, parents, siblings, relative or friends.
2. When we look at this issue, most In-Active Catholics want a Relationship with God. And they want to belong to the Church Jesus established. And we know this because 90% of the ones I have talked to…say they are still Catholic. But they want it on their terms. What our In-active Catholics tell us is, they feel the demands of having that relationship with Jesus are to restrictive for daily life. Or the Church has set the bar to high for them to function. So they look for an easier way, take a step back or quit the normal or minimum practices.
One thing about this job is…we can’t go to them and say “I’ll cut a deal with you if you come back. Like, you’ll only have to go to church every other Sunday. Or if their marriage needs to be looked at, we will forego it for now”. Nope we can only offer them the unvarnished truth over and over and over. We are called to holiness. And Holiness calls for FAITH, OBEDIENCE, and TRUST that will transform our lives for the better. And then someday there will be a REWARD for this.
Our readings are about just such GOALS and DEMANDS and the importance of having that relationship with God.
3. A fundamental truth of our Baptism, in living a life in imitation of Christ, is that we ARE ASKED to embrace what are HIGH EXPECTATIONS and STANDARDS of holiness.
The Gospel of Mark paints this picture for us. All the GOOD WORDS of Jesus, the MIRACLES and HEALINGS caught our attention and seemed to make following Jesus easy. For a while, Jesus had quite the following. But in Chapters 8-9 of Mark, midway in Jesus’ ministry, Jesus begins to reveal the HARD Mysteries of faith. It’s as if to say, “It hard to live with Jesus and the Church, and its Hard to live with out them, but the first lifestyle of belief in the Church and Jesus offers HOPE, the 2nd lifestyle only EMPTYNESS.
1st mystery revealed is: Jesus MUST SUFFER, be REJECTED and be KILLED and then RISE from the dead.
2nd mystery: If you want to be a disciple of Jesus, then you MUST DENY yourself and PICK UP your cross and then follow Jesus, who must suffer, be rejected and killed and Rise from the dead.
3rd mystery: And that is where we are at in today’s Gospel…we see the hard earned PAYOFF. The Transfiguration of Jesus manifests for us a PROMISE OF GLORY. Showing 3 MEN just what this Rising from the Dead means. And Peter let’s us KNOW how wonderful it is. “RABBI, HOW GOOD IT IS FOR US TO BE HERE..!!!
But reality rears it ugly head…the vision is over, and on the walk down Jesus tell the apostles not to say anything about it ‘UNTILL HE RISES FROM THE DEAD.”
4. In Genesis we talk about the demands placed upon Abraham’s FAITH, OBEDIENCE and TRUST. What was not in our1st reading is how God asked Abraham to Leave his father and homeland, and go to the land of Canaan. There to take up residence in the Chosen Land. Not a real hard task, but what follows is. The 2nd part of His test was in today’s reading when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son. His only promised offspring. And we know the ending. God spared Isaac. And because he passed these tests, God established Abraham as the Father of many nations of people. Abraham was transfigured into a glorious Figurehead of the Israelite Nation. The father in faith for us ALL.
5. The Church teaches us that we must 1st accept our own cross from God, before we earn the Payoff. For our In-Active Brothers and Sisters, the hardest thing in remaining true to the practices of the Faith, is that they can’t believe or understand that the Glory and Joy of Christian living doesn’t come 1st. The suffering, self denial and demands of a Holy life don’t make sense to our human nature. The scriptures remind us that this is exactly true. Only a 3 got to see the TRANSFIGURATION and a few more got to see the Resurrected Lord. That is why a STRONG Faith is so important. “Blessed are those that have not seen, but believe”. Your Solid Faith is the pathway thru which many others ACQUIRE faith or as we seek the lost, sometimes people are RENEW it.
6. Let’s go back and address the X Factor. So what are we willing to do? Have we as church community lost the courage to live FULLY the Call of Christ to proclaim Forgiveness of Sins and Beatitudes to others?
-If our FAITH is so weak we cannot take the steps of action,
-If our OBEDIENCE to God’s call to be evangelizer is lacking,
-If our TRUST in the promise of heaven is not evident in our lives…how can we expect those who have been hurt, alienated or strayed from the church to come to Active life again.
7. We all know of someone who is not practicing their Catholic Faith. In your pew, is a Re-Membering ‘Give a Name Slip. Pick it up. It’s not Kryptonite. And as soon as possible, preferably before you leave here today, give us the name of someone you Love who is not practicing their Catholic Faith. When we get their name, we send them a letter and then call them on the phone. We will invite them to comeback to the Sacraments, and encourage them to renew their Faith in the promise of Glory that awaits us.
Re-Membering starts next Sunday March 15 at 7:00. Immaculate Conception is our Host. All we need is THE X FACTOR (you) to get the ball rolling and make it a success.
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