Homily for II Sunday of Lent (2022)

 

We have a guest blogger for today: Rev. Fr. Arthur F. Rojas.

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Rev. Fr. Arthur F. Rojas

Currently the administrator of Presentation-Sacred Heart Parish at Port Ewen and Esopus, New York, Fr. Arthur F. Rojas is a graduate of St. Joseph’s Seminary, Yonkers, New York (class of 2006).  Fr. Rojas also helps with Hispanic ministry at St. Mary-St. Andrew Church, Ellenville, New York.  Finally, he is the spiritual director and moderator of the Ulster Deanery Respect Life Committee. The website for Presentation-Sacred Heart Parish can be found by clicking here.

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Homily for II Sunday of Lent (2022) 

 

Readings:         Gen 15:5-12, 17-18; Ps 27:1,7-8,8-9,13-14; Phil 3:20-4:1; Luke 9:28b-36

 

            On this second Sunday of Lent, we are living a paradox.  We have lost an hour of time due to the requirements of Daylight Savings Time and yet the rays of the sun will last longer today.  Abram was not yet a father and thus not yet the holy patriarch Abraham, our “father in faith” as he will be described by Eucharistic Prayer I, also known as the Roman Canon, just after the Eucharist is later consecrated on the altar at this Mass.  According to Genesis 15, however, which is the source of our first reading, in the midst of a childless old age Abram trusted that the LORD would fulfill His pledge of numerous descendants for him.  “Abram put his faith in the LORD, Who credited to him as an act of righteousness.” Gn 15:6. 

 

          In an age where rampant self-indulgence in America - as anticipated by Philippians 3:19 of our second reading (“Their God is their stomach; their glory is in their shame.”) is being confronted by rising inflation, shortages of various goods, and the complications of foreign affairs, Christians who take seriously the themes of Lent, e.g. more prayer, fasting and abstinence, and more works of charity, are heeding the Voice from Heaven in Luke 9:34 to make room for Jesus, Who is God’s chosen Son, in their priorities and schedules as well as in their bodies, minds, hearts, and souls.  By saying no this Lent to the activities that we enjoy or to the items that we like to have, even if they are good things, so that we may say yes to more noble things or namely the things that will bring us closer to God in this life and the hereafter, committed Catholics will make more credible the refrain of today’s Responsorial Psalm (Ps 27:1), “The Lord is my light and my salvation.”  This is how we – you and I – could await the Crucified and then Risen Christ with courage and stout hearts (cf. Ps 27:14).  At this time of paradox, let us cooperate with God’s grace to make fruitful in our lives the apparent paradox of Lent and even in the lives of the people around us.