1st Sunday of Lent 2007

[Fr.Paul Weinberger]

Homily by:
Father Paul Weinberger
Saint William the Confessor Catholic Church
Greenville, Texas
1st Sunday in Lent
February 25, 2007

When the devil had finished every temptation he departed from Him for a time.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Were you to enter St. Peter's Basilica today and walk up to the very large marble Holy Water font and extend your hand and put it inside what you would find is Holy Water. You would make the Sign of the Cross and continue in. If you enter Catholic Churches around this country on this day and attempt the same, some Holy Water fonts would be empty, why are the out of Holy Water? Others might be filled with sand as if the pastor just got a new cat. What has happened in forty years is that the meaning of Lent has all been fabricated so that there is no unity in something that is as straight forward as Holy Water at the entrance of a Catholic Church.

Usually on the First Sunday of Lent if they have no Holy Water or they have sand in the stoops someone official looking will be there to click their tongue and look down on you as if somehow you are ignorant.

Well Father So and So said that this is how it is done.

Well again, it is making it up as they go along.

On Holy Thursday night after the altar is stripped, the altar boys remove the Holy Water. There is no Holy Water in the church after Holy Thursday night, all of Good Friday and until the water is blessed at the Easter Vigil, and yet people have made up stuff about Lent.

The traditional understanding of Lent is that of giving something up. That is the traditional category. But there is not even unity about Lent because so many people have heard the bizarre stories about not giving anything up but instead just doing something for somebody, something nice. Well if they just wanted to do something nice for somebody they could pick me and adopt the traditional method of giving something up.

But there is this kind of war or battle, the traditional way versus the made up way regarding Lent. Eventually you don't even have to do something nice for somebody, just having a warm feeling inside will be enough! You see it is purely subjective. So where is unity to be found during Lent? Here, right here in Our Lord. Forty days of Lent is how long Our Lord was in the desert, forty days of Lent because Jesus was tempted for forty days.

The day of Ash Wednesday, the Gospel of Saint Matthew, chapter 6, was read in every church. So we have right there what Jesus wants me to do and He wants you to do, and there is no extra time after considering what He wants us to do. There is no time for these discussions about this way or this way. Unity is to be found in Christ. Jesus says in Matthew 6,

When you fast...when you pray...when you give to the poor...

When you finish, you just start all over again, and over again, and over again during the forty days of Lent. There is nothing glamorous about it. It is about as glamorous as raising children. That is exactly what Jesus is doing; He is starting His Family over, the Family of God over again that was ruined with the Original Sin. God tried doing it with Noah with forty days in a "desert", an ocean can be a desert, but it didn't work then.

Jesus is starting over. He is the new Adam and He is starting His Family over and this is the work He has for me and for you.

When you fast.... when you pray.... when you give to the poor....

Fasting is mentioned in the bulletin. Abstinence is also mentioned. What does the church mean by fast and abstinence? We really need to get that down but whenever there is wiggle room that is where the devil takes over.

Fast and abstinence is defined in the weekly bulletin
Fast and Abstinence

If you look at the beginning of the gospel the devil said to Jesus,

"If you are the Son of God command this stone to become bread,." Jesus answered him, "It is written, one does not live on bread alone."

This is the most recent Adoremus Bulletin and it talks about this rotten translation right here. The translation is NOT one does not live on bread alone...one what? Jesus is talking to one spirit. The devil is an angel, specifically, a fallen angel. So should it be...one angel does not live on bread alone? You can see what the bad translation does. It gives wiggle room. The translation really means homosapiens, man .

Man does not live on bread alone but every word that comes from the mouth of God.

This translation that we have right here, kind of leaves it up in the air. It is ridiculous and dangerous but there is a true definition of abstinence and fasting and you can find those in the bulletin on page 5. You can also fast in other ways. The definitions in the bulletin MUST be followed and there are additional ways we can fast in addition to those. We can fast from our favorite foods. There are foods that appeal to us more than others. We could choose to eat foods that are less appealing but wouldn't make us sick. You could fast from coffee or from coffee additives like cream or sugar. It is a way of fasting that is different but it does mean something.

What God wants us to do is pray, fast and give to the poor but we aren't going to get enough of that done in forty days. We don't have time to pray because we are addicted to entertainment. I used to think it was just TV but you know there are people who consider shopping an entertainment. Please pray for them every day. So often we don't have time for what we should be really doing because we have been sidelined by something else. Prayer usually gets shoved back because it doesn't have the glamour that entertainment does. Prayer, fasting and giving to the poor... giving to the poor generally involves opening your wallet but it also involves opening your calendar. What if somebody has a sick kid and has to go to the doctor? They can’t find a baby sitter.You could help out. Don't you know there was some brave woman who did that for my mother!

“Well could you tie him (little Father Paul) up or something?”

Think of giving to the poor by giving someone a phone call, which is very difficult on the phone but needs human contact.

Prayer, fasting and giving to the poor... forget all the other stuff and just think about what Jesus says.

When the devil had finished every temptation he departed from Him for a time.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.