Feb 18 Homily Prep

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this week's LinC Letter on the back of the parish bulletin or at www.saint-albert.org/lincletter
-I will be celebrating mass on Sat at 5:30pm and 8:00am and 11:00am on Sunday

This is a test!

 When I was a kid at about midnight on Saturday night there would be a national disaster alert before the television shut off. Can you imagine, the television actually shut off!? The voice would come on the television say in very scary voice “ this is a test“.

In the gospel text today on this first Sunday of Lent we hear that the Spirit of God compelled Jesus into the desert for 40 days. In biblical imagery, 40 is a number  that means “test”.  A period of testing, examining, inquiring, determining,  discerning, revealing!

 What we can say about the Christian life, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, baptism and the spiritual life in the church is that it “costs us something”.   In other words if we are hoping to respond to God’s call in our lives it is going to test our resolve, it will demand something, sacrifice.

Again this Lent at Saint Albert we are being called to the experience “Church@Home”.  At the heart of “Church@Home” is the willingness of church members to “lay down their lives for their friends” or in this case their neighbors.   For most Catholics, this invitation is a real “test”, it is a challenge, it is a sacrifice. The theme of this year‘s “church@home“ journey is the willingness and the act of sacrificing, turning away from selfishness,  and extending ourselves toward our neighbor for the sake of the faith, for the sake of the church.

 Will you pass the test? Are you willing to step up and engage, accept the invitation to turn away from selfishness, privacy, introversion, isolation, alienation, distrust of others, and to open yourself to the presence of Christ in the church, the community of believers, your neighbor?

This is a test!