“Your Father who sees in secret will repay you”. It’s fitting that we’re offering confessions
during Mass with this in mind because we have some secret booths for you to be
forgiven. God forgives in secret for
what we’ve done wrong in secret…and in public.
We hear this line three times in today’s Gospel. I know that Jesus is talking about doing
positive things like prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. But, I can’t help to think about stuff that I
did in college and be scared by what my Father saw in secret. Yikes!
It’s no secret (!) that I hit the party scene hard
during college. But, I didn’t drink in
secret too often…actually, hardly at all.
One time, though, I did. It was
right after I got cut from the club tennis team at my small Catholic
college. And, this was right after
getting cut from the club baseball team.
What a loser, I thought to myself, and realizing that my athletic career
(or lack thereof) was over. So, I went
back to my room, roommate gone, and threw myself a little pity party with the
help of some strong drink. Hours later,
my friends picked me up. I was a
mess. They laughed at me the whole time
(nice friends, huh!) and were told by others to stop because I obviously had a
handicap (a stronger word was used). So,
I think that my Father saw that in secret and will repay me. Actually, I was repaid the next morning…and a
few other mornings after long nights out!
But, let’s stay positive. The point is that we should do what is right
for the sake of doing what is right…and God will reward us. There is a group of people who do this…the
saints. One description is that a saint does
what is right when no one is looking. Wouldn’t
that be cool to live that way? We
present ourselves in a very good way publicly – to classmates, peers, friends,
and even family. But, in private, it
might be a different story. It would be
so nice to be consistently who we are all the time – to be authentic in public
and private. I speak a lot about
freedom. Freedom is the ability to
choose the good. It means being who we
want to be all the time. Confession has
a lot to do with our being free. It
frees us from the slavery of sin.
Lent is a perfect opportunity to change…to be
saints! Every one of us is called to be
a saint. AMEN? I don’t mean canonized in Rome some day…although
that would be pretty cool if you had a St. in front of your name. I mean doing what is right when no one is
looking. I mean being free to be who you
really want to be all the time. Lent
gives us the opportunity to change our ways, and get back to who we are and who
we want to be.
I do want to address a possible misinterpretation of
what Christ is saying. Some might think
that the Lord’s line about praying in private means that we can be “spiritual
but not religious”. He’s not saying
this. The same Lord who encourages
private prayer is the same Lord who shows us that we need to pray publicly and
communally in the Mass. He says in John
6 that we need the Eucharist to have life and to get to Heaven. We can’t get the Eucharist in our room! Nowhere in the Bible or in the Church does
Christ say for us to be “spiritual but not religious”. I don’t know of any saint who was spiritual
but not religious.
So, my Lenten challenge to you is to be spiritual
AND religious. Go to Mass every Sunday
in Lent. And, you will make an awesome
Lent! If your Mom or Dad asks you what
you’re giving up for Lent, tell them nothing…that you’re going to Mass every
week. And, that you’re trying to be a
saint! They will think you’re nuts of
course (!), but they will back off. Be
spiritual and religious…come back to Mass if you’ve been away. We are all one family. We are all trying to be saints. We are trying to do what is right when no one
is looking. AMEN? Amen.
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