Cleaning Up Our Act To Be Useful To The Lord Series

Eighth Sunday in Course

I have never served in the Army, but I know quite a few of my acquaintances who have. All of them testify to the rigors and hazards of the battlefield. Just moving one’s feet forward in the direction of the foe is dangerous, even without projectiles aimed at you coming at twice the speed of sound. You might step on a mine, like one of my good friends did in Vietnam. He survived the explosion, but he was badly injured and needed years of surgery and rehabilitation. You could fall into a well-disguised “fall,” a deep hole with prepared, pointed stakes at the bottom.

When engaging in battle against an armed enemy, you need maps and guides, fresh and clearly marked. You want the people with the best vision, the strongest hearing, the lightest footfall, and the keenest mind to coach you in the right direction, move you past the dangers. This is true in the spiritual life as it is in a military conflict. St. Peter is correct in telling us that our adversary the devil is at war with us. He’s a roaring lion, looking to devour us for eternity in hell. We are in spiritual warfare, and we certainly don’t want a blind guide that will mislead our souls and take us with himself to eternal death. The victory of the Church is won by Jesus Christ, but as St. Paul testifies, in the right path we must be steadfast, looking neither to the right nor to the left, and “abounding in the work of the Lord.” With that course set, we can be confident that Our Lord will give us the promised blessings forever—life in union with the Blessed Trinity—happiness forever.

Death will be swallowed up in our victory in Christ, but we must follow Christ in order to participate in that triumph. One of the habits that we need to rid ourselves of this Lenten season is finding fault with other people’s behavior. Jesus asks us to stop finding the little splinters in our neighbor’s eye because we ourselves can’t see very well with a two-by-four clouding our own vision. Finding fault with others is itself one of those timbers. Now, if somebody asks you to help them determine their own faults and bad habits, you should charitably and kindly help them, after saying, “I’m not one to judge you; only you are. Have you considered your practice of. . .” And then add one problem you’ve noticed and tell him that it really gets in the way of his good habits of. Then add three or four things he does that are really helpful and kind.

By the way, in my own life, that may have happened two or three times, so don’t hold your breath. We all have enough trouble examining our own consciences, don’t we?

Here’s another thought for Lent: The writer Jesus ben Sira tells us today that “when a sieve is shaken, the trash remains, and so do a man’s thoughts retain any filth they may contain.” Our culture is constantly offering up trash to clutter up our minds. I’m specifically pointing to pornographic images and stories and films. At least the movie producers have to get ratings for their productions. And when they show up on my TV screen, there are disclaimers about foul language, nudity, sexual situations, even smoking. Clearly we should be careful about watching such things or hearing them ourselves, let alone sharing them with our family. So make some resolutions for Lent to clean up your act.

Lastly, let’s talk about helping others to bear good fruit. When we do that, we bear good fruit ourselves. That might mean serving in a food line, or helping build a Habitat home, or teaching religious ed or RCIA classes. You don’t even have to be very smart to sit in a religious education class next to a student and share in discussion when that is called for.

The bottom line is this: God loves us and wants us to accept His forgiveness for our sins and bad habits, and help build the kingdom of God, and fall in love with Him and our brothers and sisters so we can all enjoy the divine companionship forever. If you haven’t made plans to buy into that wonderful story already, take the little time we have before Lent begins to detail how you are going to let the Holy Spirit lead you in that direction. Blessed be His Name forever. Amen.