EIGHTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
2 MARCH 2025
When I was
pastor of Saint Jude Church in Fort Wayne, a retired priest lived with us. Father Traub lived to be 100 years old. While most people eat so that they can live,
Father Traub lived so he could eat. He
loved to eat and was very messy about enjoying his food. He would attach a bib under his chin and chow
away. One day, a parishioner took us to
our favorite rib joint. As you probably
know, eating ribs is always messy, especially if the sauce is good. The waiter wrapped a big bib around each of
us, and Father Traub dove into his ribs and sauce. By the middle of the meal, he had sauce
everywhere – on his hands, all over his face, and even dripping from one of his
ears. He looked across the table and said
to our host, pointing to the corner of his own mouth: “Mary, you have a little
sauce right here!” It was hilarious.
I always
think of that dinner when reading today’s Gospel. Jesus reminds us to remove the wooden beam
from our own eye before pointing out the splinter in the eye of our brother or
sister. It is always easier to see the
faults of others. Jesus is telling us,
his disciples, that we must look to ourselves before seeing the imperfection of
others.
The Season
of Lent gives us a perfect opportunity to do that. On Wednesday, the ashes on our foreheads mark
us as disciples committed to spend forty days doing some kind of penance for
our sins. Church law requires very
little of us during Lent. We must fast
and abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and to abstain from
meat on all the Fridays of Lent. Those
simple expectations allow us to design our own Lenten observance, adapting the
ancient disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving to our own individual
lives.
Lent provides
an excellent opportunity to spend more time in prayer. Be sure to take one of the Little Black Books
in the back of church. Each book
contains a daily reflection to help with your prayer. Please consider going to Mass a couple of
times during the week, or praying the rosary, or reading the daily Scripture
readings for Mass. You can find them
easily on line. Maybe you can spend ten
minutes in meditation every morning. You
might also take advantage of the Sacrament of Reconciliation sometime before
Easter.
There are
many forms of fasting. Most people fast
from their favorite food or drink, or from eating between meals or enjoying a favorite
snack. Several years ago, I decided to
fast from coffee. After Lent was over,
my Associate Pastor advised me never to do that again! We can fast from television or social
media. Fasting from hours wasted on our
phones can become a wonderful way of giving ourselves more time to be involved
in more intimate communion with the Lord and with others in person.
Finally,
almsgiving provides an opportunity to remember those less fortunate than we
are. Especially in today’s political
environment, Catholic Relief Services desperately needs our help in feeding the
hungry of our world. Our soup kitchen
and Saint Vincent de Paul Society provide needed services to the local poor. We can donate time or funding to either of
these efforts. We might go through our
closets to look at articles of clothing that we have not used in the last year. As Saint John Chrysostom insists, the
clothing we do not use actually belongs to the poor.
Lent is all
about baptism. During Lent, we make our
final preparations for Catechumens to receive the Sacraments of Baptism,
Confirmation, and Eucharist at the Easter Vigil. Along with them, Lent gives us a chance to
reflect on the ways we fail to live our baptismal promises. Through these Sacraments, we become brothers
and sisters in Christ. We are
responsible for one another. But that
responsibility begins with removing the wooden beams from our own eyes before
helping others to see the splinters in theirs.
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