Homily for the Third Sunday of Lent - March 24, 2019

Homily for Lent 3

March 24, 2019

Relationship With the Lord

            Pretty much everyone I have ever met says that they’re bad at remembering names. Perhaps you feel like you’re in the same category. I’ve never met anyone that says, “Oh, yeah, I can remember peoples’ names really well.” I’m sure those people are out there, but I’m not one of them, and probably not too many of us are, either. So we try to fudge it in conversations: “Hey, buddy!” “How’s it going, man?” “Hey dude, did you do that thing last week? You know, that thing at that place with that other person?” You get my drift!

            But knowing someone’s name establishes a relationship with a person. I still remember the first time a priest ever learned my name – it wasn’t until I was sixteen – and I was supremely honored! When we call someone by name, we establish a relationship with them – they are no longer just a faceless person in a crowd; no, they are “John” or “Mary”.

            So when God reveals His Name to Moses, He is establishing a relationship! His Name is significant – “I Am” means that He is the Unchanging One, the Source of All Existence. And He reaches out to Moses, using His Name, so that a relationship can be established between God and His Chosen People.

            And this is so critical to understand – the relationship comes before obedience. He didn’t give Moses the 10 Commandments first – no, that came later after God demonstrated His power and love for His people by rescuing them. He started by introducing Himself and giving the Jewish people many signs of His love and protection.

            In the same way, our Catholic Faith is primarily about a relationship with the Lord Jesus. As Pope Benedict puts it in his encyclical “Deus Caritas Est”: “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with a Person.” And that Person is the Lord!

            Why is this important for us? Many people think that to be a Catholic, all you have to do is follow the rules of the Church. Don’t break the Ten Commandments, don’t eat meat on Fridays, donate money to the Church, come to Mass. All of that is good, but it does not mean much if we do not have a personal relationship with the Lord. We should do these things like fasting and observing the Ten Commandments precisely because we know the Lord personally as a friend, we know of His personal, passionate love for us, and we wish to love Him in return.

            How do we have a living relationship with the Lord? It starts with an orientation of the heart and soul. We first must believe that He really, truly loves us, that He knows our name, that He has sought to win our hearts! Consider what He has given us – food, clothing, shelter, family, friends, good health, gifts and talents, a job, an education…the list goes on. He created you simply because He delights in you; He died on a Cross to spend eternity with you. With such goodness in God, how can we not love Him back?

            Our love for God, then, is expressed in daily prayer and seeking to live a life of virtue. This daily prayer isn’t just reciting words – it is simply spending time with the One Who loves you. We should speak to God from our hearts, using our own words. Allow me to be completely blunt – if someone’s entire prayer life is a few Our Fathers and Hail Marys before going to bed, that is not much of a prayer life at all! Using pre-written prayers is fine IF we use them as a launching-point for our own conversation with the Lord.

            It’s much like using a Hallmark card. Hallmark cards are nice – we give them and receive them for special occasions. They always have nice pre-written messages inside, which can be helpful when we don’t know what to say. But if our only communication with someone was through a Hallmark card, that wouldn’t be a very good relationship, would it? Same with reciting prayers written by others. They can help to prompt us to pray, but they are not a substitute for real conversation with God, from our hearts. As St. Therese of Lisieux says about prayer: “Prayer is, for me, an outburst from the heart; it is a simple glance darted upwards to Heaven; it is a cry of gratitude and of love in the midst of trial as in the midst of joy!” Not reciting words – an outburst from the heart! Wow!

            Our prayer life, like any conversation, requires both speaking AND listening – just ask any married couple! For many people, the listening part is more difficult! But God wants to communicate Himself to us, as we see with Moses! He speaks in silence, through music, through the Bible or other spiritual reading, in nature, in the thoughts and feelings that He causes to arise in our own hearts. But we need to take that daily time of reconnecting with God – I recommend at least ten-to-fifteen minutes per day – if we wish to have a relationship with God.

            Our prayer, then, will prompt us on to virtue. Because we love God, we want to live like Him. Often when I was chaplain at Trinity, kids would ask me, “Father, is listening to such-and-such dirty rapper a sin? Is it a sin to watch movies with dirty jokes? Is this a sin, is that a sin?” I would always respond, “Do you think these things will make you holier?” They would usually respond, “No, not really?” Then I would say, “Then why would you do them? If the point of your life is to love the Lord Jesus with your whole heart, why bother doing anything that won’t lead you closer to Him?”

            Their underlying question was: “What is the least I could do and still get to Heaven?” Wrong question! We should be asking, “What is the best way I can love Christ more fully so I can live my life united to Him?” What a huge difference! One is about minimum – just following the rules. The other is about love – I love the Lord Jesus, so I want to love Him with my whole heart.

This is akin to a marriage – what spouse would enter a marriage and think, “Okay, what’s the least I can get away with doing so that my spouse doesn’t divorce me?” That would be a horrible way to enter a marriage! If your boyfriend or girlfriend ever says that to you, ditch them immediately! Rather, a relationship based on love says, “I want to do everything possible to make my spouse happy!” (Right, my married friends?)

In sum, God revealed Himself and His Name to Moses – and to us – in order to establish a relationship with us. Our Catholic Faith is about more than a set of rules – it is a life of love of God, lived out through passionate prayer and seeking virtue. This Lent, don’t just go through the motions of your Catholic Faith – deepen your friendship with the Lord!