The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friend,

Everyone seems to have an excuse. We can and do make time and effort for many fleeting worldly pleasures, but we refuse to make similar sacrifices for our soul's eternal pleasure.

We can and do find reasons to take off from work or even play to do something else more fleetingly pleasurable. Or we will even sacrifice our health and well being for financial advantages. There are many people who continue to work even though they are sick because they "need the money" or don't want to loose their job.

When it comes to God though, we have no fear or shame in putting Him off and making excuses why we cannot do what He asks.

Today's gospel is a warning to us all. God asks (demands) of us our first fruits, but more often than not all He gets is what is left over if we give Him anything at all.

He asks us to pray every day. If we comply with this request it is often at the end of the day when we are tired and cannot focus upon our prayer or even stay awake. And we quickly excuse ourselves with the thought that God understands. Yes, He understands much more than we think. He does understand that we are tired and are having difficulty praying after we have given the best hours of our day to worldly pursuits and offer Him only the tired worn out minutes that we have left over.

Let us not forget the lesson from Cain and Abel. God wants the best that we have not the worst. He wants the first not the last. Cain too offered sacrifice and He prayed. Perhaps, he too thought God would understand. God sees clearly and He knows when we are offering Him inferior gifts and perhaps this is why so many prayers go unanswered. We offer an insult to the dignity and majesty of God and delude ourselves into thinking that He is somehow pleased with our miserable pittance. What about the widow's mite? Let us recall that even though her gift was small it was the best that she had, and was a heavy sacrifice for her. She gave God the first fruits, not the last.

The size or amount of our sacrifice is in one sense irrelevant to God who has everything and is not in need of our gifts or sacrifices. On the other hand the size and amount of our gifts and sacrifices are important to Him in that He desires us to love Him with such love that we give Him the best that we have to offer. A gift that is not our best is not worthy of God.

And as with prayers that are often cut short or eliminated so very often our Sunday obligations are cut short or eliminated. We find excuses why we cannot attend Mass or must leave from Mass early etc.

How convenient it is for us to plan our vacation to leave on Saturday rather than Monday, and say to God: I have a vacation to attend to "please hold me excused". Or I have a game or entertainment that I have to attend to so please excuse me if I cut short the time and devotion that I owe to You. Or perhaps I am just too tired to get up for Mass on Sunday, or stay awake and pray because Mass is too early, etc.

There are legitimate excuses that God can forgive, but this means that we have already given above and beyond what is required elsewhere. When we are legitimately prevented from offering one sacrifice we should be more than willing to offer something else in its place. And the substitute sacrifice that we make should not only be an equal offering but one of greater value.

If our evening prayers are deficient we should strive to give more the next morning. If our morning devotions are remiss then we must do better during the day. If we cannot give fifteen minutes to God at one time let us give Him thirty at another.

We must always remember that what we are offering God is a sign of our love and if this sign is anything less than our best, then it is unworthy of the majesty and glory of God. All the lame excuses in the world will never make it acceptable.

Thinking in these terms makes us much more aware of why so many prayers are unanswered, and so many apparently "pious" people remain blinded in heresy and/or schism. They will not taste of the heavenly feast, because they have attempted to excuse themselves from making any real effort or sacrifice. They have attempted to love God minimally or "just enough" and "just enough" is never enough because God demands and deserves a complete and preferential love.

Franciscan Benefactor Seraph Subscription Vocations Have you remembered God?