Our Lady, Refuge of Sinners, St. Joseph, St. Cyril and Methodius, our patron saints and
guardian angels, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
The reading right after Ash Wednesday on this second day of Lent in the first reading really
kind of sums up, you know, really what the whole season of Lent, the theme is, is that
we're to choose life in the life that we have accepted as Christians, as Pope John Paul
II, blessed Pope John Paul II, referred to it in his encyclical, that the gospel, the
good news that Jesus preached and that Jesus is, is the gospel of life.
Christ is eternal.
But also he came to bring us life here on earth, the life of grace.
And so everything that the church is teaching, because the church is spreading the gospel
today, has to do with life, whether it be preserving and protecting the life of the
unborn, the aged, but also protecting and nourishing their spiritual life, seeing that
people are not in spiritual death by restoring them to life by the sacrament of confession,
and baptism, and helping them to have an interior life, a life of union with God,
and also giving them eternal life with the promise of living out the gospel, and giving
Christ himself, the Lord of life, in the Holy Eucharist.
So everything that we might say, eat, drink, and breathe as a Christian should be helping
to be in the gospel.
To be in the gospel.
a spirit of life. And really that is the choice
that we have to face and to choose between. Our first
parents, Adam and Eve, by their choosing to disobey
God, chose death. And as we know
that scriptures say that the wages of sin is death. Literally, they
chose death when they disobeyed God because that's when death entered
into the world because of sin. And every time
either an individual or a nation chooses to go against God
and God's law, whether it be the natural law or
his revealed law, the precepts that he gives us
to live a good and moral life, if they go
against that, they're choosing death. You know, it's interesting that the
pro-choice movement and the abortion whole movement
should be a little more accurate in what they call them. So it should be pro-
wrong choice.
Because there's a pro-right choice. They choose to do the
wrong, which is they choose death. So they
could even call themselves the pro-death movement.
So this is where we are, though, even as
individuals or nations. If we choose to
disobey God and choose to follow our
will instead of God's, the only result that can come from that
is death.
Death. Physical death. It's the whole, it's so
night and day. Just as different between
life and death is night and day, so is choosing to
live the gospel or not to choose to live the gospel. That is
what stands before us. And every one of us every day
because we know that the prince of
death, the devil, is always out there prowling around, we have to
keep renewing our
choice for life. For choosing to do God's will.
And this is the constant warfare that it even
reminds us in the first day of Lent. This spiritual combat
that we enter into when we enter into this world. When we
enter into this world as a tiny infant,
we're entering into a battle. A spiritual battle.
To choose to do God's will and to follow Christ or to
refuse to do that.
And we have this constant struggle, even when we want to
follow and do God's will. We know that there are times
when we fall in this battle. And thanks be to God, he's given
us also the means to restore us back to health with
confession and to repent of our sins. So the whole season of
Lent is to remind us of certain spiritual, certain spiritual
spiritual realities, that we are in a struggle. We are in a struggle between life and death,
between good and evil, and that we have already for us one who's shown us the way how to win
the victory in Christ himself. He's our model that we follow in this season of Lent. He shows us how
to remain faithful to his Father, to our Father. He shows us what we must do in order to win this
battle, you know, that we are to pray, that we're to do penance, that we're to do works of charity,
that we are to deny ourselves and not give in to ourselves because we have this wounded nature,
which if we don't do penance and all we do is indulge our desires, will not lead us to make
the right choice, but will rather, in many cases, lead us to the wrong choice, to lead us to death.
So, let's pray.
Spiritual death and even physical death, and if it's a really serious sin. And we also want to
be mindful of what we have before us in this season of Lent always is to, you know, that we
want to be followers of Christ. Our Lord has said to his disciples in the gospel today,
if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and
follow me. That's the daily battle, is to take up the cross and follow Christ,
to deny ourselves, to do violence, because there's times when we would like to be uncharitable and
we have to practice charity. There's times when we would like to indulge ourselves and we know
that we cannot or it will not be good for us. This is where we must, as our Lord says, you know,
because we have this promise of eternal life, we can forego.
Some of even legitimate pleasures during this time, because to lose our life in this world is to
save it for eternity, to lose it to the sense of to deny myself things that I like. I know that
there are far greater things God has promised me. And so, that's why people who are Christians,
people who believe in Jesus's promise, do penance. Our Lord even reminds,
reminded the Pharisees, says, why don't your disciples do penance? He said, when the bridegroom
is here, there's no reason to be doing penance. You know, they're rejoicing. When the bridegroom
is taken away from them, they will do penance. They will fast. And that's what we're waiting
for is that time when we'll be reunited with our bridegroom. Of course, Lent makes a point of
focusing on the fact that we are awaiting that time, but yet at the same time, we have these
paradoxes. We have Christ here present in the blessed sacrament. Our bridegroom is with us,
but yet we're doing penance. Because this veil of tears, this valley of tears that we're in,
this way of pilgrimage has yet to be completed. And we have to be mindful of it, that we are,
that the battle is won, the victory is won, the wedding feast awaits us, the bridegroom is with
us, but yet we're also progressing and we're waiting.
We're waiting to be reunited with him when it comes to the resurrection on the last day.
And in order for us to be on that right side, you might say on the side of Christ, we have to
practice that choosing now by the choices we make in choosing to do good, in choosing to follow
the gospel, in choosing to listen to the church. We will make the right choice and we'll be ready
to go.
And we'll be ready to go.
And we'll be ready to go.
And we'll be ready to go.
And we'll be ready to go.
And we'll be ready to go.
And we'll be ready to go.
be reunited with our bridegroom on that final day.
And so let us every day today as we live out this season of Lent
be mindful of the choices we make
and that really every time we're presented with a temptation
that we will choose to follow Christ.
They will choose him over whatever temporary or passing good
that the devil may show us in its improper way
that we will choose life and choose Christ.
For the two are synonymous.
Our Lord says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
Let us pray especially for our world today
and our nation which has chosen death in so many ways,
made the wrong choice, that it will truly see the light
and come to choose life and the gospel
and follow him.
For in Christ and not the world, the flesh, or the devil.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Amen.