The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friend,

We are drawing near to the forty days of fast that our Holy Mother the Church prescribes for us every year. The Lenten fast begins this Wednesday (Ash Wednesday).

The Gospel for today shows us Christ telling His apostles exactly what is going to happen to Him when he enters Jerusalem. The Apostles are still blinded by the worldly idea of the Messiah so that they can not comprehend that which is plainly spoken to them.

Our Holy Mother the Church tells us plainly what we are to expect in our spiritual preparation this season of Lent, but all too sadly most of those who call themselves Catholic will fail just as the Apostles failed.

The true preparation for Lent demands of those who will profit by it a true spirit of Charity.

St. Paul in today's epistle explains to us very clearly what Charity is. And this is the same Charity that Our Lord maintained as He knowingly and willingly went into Jerusalem to make the ultimate sacrifice.

All our efforts will be useless unless we are motivated by Charity. Even if we have supernatural gifts such as: tongues, prophecy, knowledge, faith, voluntary poverty, even bodily suffering, it will profit us nothing if we do not have Charity.

This Lenten season we must be motivated by this Love of God if we are to gain any merit. On the contrary if we do not have Charity we have nothing in spite of the fact that the rest of the world may think us to be holy and good.

Sadly there are many who will go through this season of Lenten penance without any change in their daily lives. They will continue to live in their worldly ways. They will not make any spiritual progress and all too often they will look back and wonder why they were never able to advance spiritually. They did not even try.

Then there are those who will perform their mortifications to be seen and praised in the eyes of men. The only love that motivates them is self-love and vanity. They may even do many of the things that St. Paul mentioned in today's epistle, but as he said, without Charity they have nothing.

The Church often dispenses from the many penances that She asks of us, but She does not dispense with the need to do penance. Those who are dispensed for one reason or another from the various penances need to find some other sacrifice to perform that is in keeping with their situation and the spirit of the Lenten sacrifice.

Charity must be involved in all that we do, but especially in the sacrifices that we perform. Let us not appear gloomy and sad in the eyes of men. When we fast let us do as Jesus directs and wash our faces and put on a smile. The world does not need to know how much we suffer and sacrifice, all that is necessary is that God knows. Let our sacrifices be such that we do not appear to be sacrificing anything at all. And as we do this we will become convinced that what we do is actually nothing at all and we will remain humble.

The secret to true happiness and joy in the midst of our sacrifices and penances is Charity.

When we are truly in love, we never count the cost and we continually think that we have never done enough for the one that we love. Far from wishing anyone to know what it has cost us we are most eager to hide the cost of all our efforts for the one that we love. Those who do not have the same love will never be able to understand.

And this love always makes us happy and contented in eager anticipation of the day when we will be united with the one that we love.

As we prepare for the upcoming Lenten sacrifices, let us not focus on ourselves and the pain and suffering involved for us. Let us forget ourselves (as Christ forgot Himself for the love of us) and make the sacrifice willingly and cheerfully thinking only of pleasing the One that we Love.

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