read and understood? This often happens with today s reading from Genesis.

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1 Homily for 2 nd Sunday of Lent- Year C: Lk 9:28-36 Have you ever read a story so many times that you have a tendency to pass over some very important details that can entirely change how the story is to be read and understood? This often happens with today s reading from Genesis. We imagine Abraham gazing upon a brilliant night sky, unspoiled by light pollution, with millions of stars above or for us in the modern age of astronomy would say stars, planets, moons, galaxies, quasars, nebulas, black holes, death stars...and we see Abraham making an act of faith as how could you not believe God after you saw before you millions of stars and were promised such will be your descendents! But my friends we missed a very important line in this story, it says as the sun was going down a deep sleep fell upon Abraham, meaning previously when God called him out of his tent, distraught because his wife was barren and his inheritance going to a man who was not his own son and is told to look up not into the night sky but a bright blue one, with the sun glaring into his eyes and God says count the stars if you are able! Well of course he could not; he sees nothing, just empty blue space! Are the stars there? Of course they are, but they are unseen, unperceived and absolutely uncountable! And that is the depth of

2 Abraham s faith, what the Letter to the Hebrews describes faith to be the assurance of things hoped for and conviction in things unseen, Abraham makes a total, reckless and abandoning act of faith that God will make the impossible possible, though he does not know how, God will be faithful in giving him not only a son, but countless descendents. Such faith is that which Jesus described as able to move mountains, what can make the impossible possible and it bears so much fruit and blessing in our lives. What did this faith do for Abraham? One could go on for countless pages of biblical commentary looking at his faith but I would like to suggest one aspect of his faith that was awakened from that day forth was a tremendous sense of the sacred, of the holiness and transcendence of God. Something similar can be found in the faith of Peter, James and John during the Transfiguration. Since they were the sole witnesses to this event, some have suggested they simply made it up! Without faith the Transfiguration is quickly dismissed as a pious fairy tale from a superstitious and ignorant past, maybe Jesus was real and if so maybe all that happened that day was it was really sunny and made him all dazzling, maybe lack of water from walking up the mountain caused them to hallucinate and see the great heroes of Moses the Law giver and

3 Elijah the prophet, so many possible explanations to argue away this event if it is not approached in faith, a faith like Abraham s, one that was called to surrender and abandon oneself before the sacred, before the holy wonder of God! I for one think that Lent of 2013 is one where we need to ask God for a greater outpouring of faith. I don t know about you but I have not experienced such an onslaught of temptation against our Church in many years. The resignation of our Holy Father has shook the Church, many are saddened, others are rejoicing, many appreciative of his humility, too many slanderous and vindictive, and this next month is not going to be without endless editorials and news stories telling us Catholics how it is that we need to change our Church if it is going to survive and be relevant (as if Jesus was ever relevant)!. I have read through dozens of critics and lectures from disgruntled ex- Catholics or reporters who though cleaver writers sadly have no theological understanding of our faith, it seems that so many of the criticisms against the Church stem from something Pope Benedict mentioned in his Ash Wednesday homily, already being dubbed his farewell speech. You may have heard this phrase before when it was uttered by the Holy Father, I for one shuddered and

4 felt very cold, when Peter said we have lost our sense for the sacred, for the holiness and transcendence of God and our faith. Is not this aspect of faith, that of having a sense, an appreciation, a desire and love for the sacred, for holiness, profoundly lacking in many of the propositions that are put forward as to how the Church must move forward if she is to remain relevant and in existence any longer? When the sacred character of marriage is no longer part of its definition, that is when marriage is cut off from its most foundational origins as a union and for Christians a sacrament between man and woman to transform them into a living icon of the love Jesus Christ has for his Church and a lived experience of the love that exists in the Holy Trinity, though imperfect in any married couples due to our sins and character flaws but striving to be that image, if that is no longer the essence of what marriage is, then it is simply a human relationship, living arrangement and institution that is unrestricted and open to all. When sexual love loses its sacred character, as being a sign of God s total self giving of himself to bring love, ecstatic joy, sublime pleasure and life into the world, thus why sex is so awesome and dare I say holy, yet when sex is no longer seen as a total gift of self of husband to wife and wife to husband to allow and

5 be open for the possible conception of a new human life, with a deep reverence for the sacred quality of our own fertility, in the beauty of its natural state not manipulated by artificial means, then it is little wonder that sex is worshiped as a false ultimate good that leave so many unsatisfied and bored, hurt deeply by contraception, and the catalyst behind a trillion dollar a year porn industry that enslaves men and women to lust and robs us of our dignity? When human life is no longer sacred, when we are no longer seen as children of God, fearfully and wonderfully made from the moment of conception till natural death, when the human person is no longer the greatest mystery the world has even seen, but a clump of cells, a disabled ghost in the shell, or no longer deemed worthy to live any longer, then abortion, eugenics, and euthanasia will prevail and become more grotesque. And finally when the sacredness of the ministerial priesthood, seen no longer as founded on the 12 apostles, that no longer at ordination a man is seen as radically transformed into another Christ to act in the person of Jesus Christ the eternal high priest, to be chosen by God as shepherds of the priestly people of the Lord, when the ministerial priesthood is simply reduced to a function, a career, a job, something you do cause you learned a bunch of theology,

6 something you are entitled to do cause you feel called to it as a little kid, then I suppose a male only priesthood is obsolete too, it is no longer the radical, dare I say liberal countercultural idea that rocked the ancient world the first Christians sought to evangelize when the traditional and conservative institution of male and female priests and priestesses of all other pagan religions were confronted by the male only ministerial priesthood of the Jews and then the Christians. If we lose our sense of the sacred behind any of these teachings and so many others, if we do not heed the words of St. Paul who said do not conform yourselves to the spirit of this age but be transformed by renewal of your mind through a deep and lasting faith in Jesus Christ and his Church, and ask Lord God instil in me a deep sense and love for that which is most sacred and holy in our faith and in life and please Lord give me the courage to fight for it, because to forfeit these and other teachings of our faith will not make more people Catholic, it will not bring countless numbers of people back to the church, it will sound the death toll of our family, as it has sadly for many Christian communities who have attempted to conform themselves to the spirit of this age and are watching their communities fade away or seen as relevant and popular and hip and cool and are complimented by the world media for getting with the times

7 yet their pews get emptier or become revolving doors! Or maybe I m wrong, maybe we would be relevant if change everything if we stay the course were on die out, It s the Lord s church after all, whatever happens, God s will be done... I love you all very much, I did not I would never talk about these controversial and even divisive topics, I am not up here today to judge, condemn or criticize, I leave that up to God, but my friends before I was ordained I swore on the Holy Bible before God and we his People that as a priest of Jesus Christ I teach the Catholic faith in the fullness of truth, not the truth according to Fr Nathan, but truth which comes from the Lord, cause truth isn t a thing or idea or collection of concepts but a living person, Jesus Christ, alive in the scriptures, tradition, sacraments, dogmas, etc that has been passed on and protected through the ages by our Church. So let us be bold this Lent and ask the Holy Spirit to give us a new pope who will be sanctified in the fullness of truth that Jesus once sanctified Peter and the apostles with at the Last Supper, that which gave them and countless generations of Christians a faith as deep as Abraham s and a sense of the sacred that will sustain us through whatever may come.