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Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Lent - 2019Do you have a “hero”? Do you have someone you look up to, someone you who hope to emulate in some way? It may be your mum or your dad… It may be a musician, an artist, a sportsperson, or someone who excelled in your own profession? It may just be someone you loved, or who was really good, and kind, and caring? Heroines and heroes are important, they can inspire us, help us to drive through adversity, they can give us hope… and it’s good, even, when we know that our heroes and heroines have their flaws… because at least we can identify with them… they’re human, not distant from where we are or who we are, and still, despite their fragility, we are able to identify a greatness in them, a goodness, that we would hope to capture in our own lives.I’m reminded of this as I hear those words of St. Paul in that reading to the Philippians: “My brothers, be united in following my rule of life. Take as your models everybody who is already doing this and study them as you used to study us…” Paul sets himself up as an example. Not as one who is perfect, but as one who is striving to grow closer to the Lord, one who loves the Lord, but who, at the same time, is all too aware of his own weaknesses. He sets himself up as an example to encourage others, and essentially to say to them, be faithful to God, strive for holiness, lead good Christian lives, but know, at the same time, that in this struggle there will be trials, temptations, and failures – but don’t give in, don’t give in, but keep your eyes fixed on Jesus and see what He can do for you. Paul isn’t unique in holding within himself both the desire to grow closer to the Lord and also the weakness of his own humanity – I think, unless I’m mistaken, that this is probably true for all of us…We yearn for God, for His love, we yearn to be faithful to Him, and yet, on reflection, casting an eye back over our lives we see weakness and unfaithfulness, we see the triumph of our own selfish will, many times, over the will of God for our lives. Should this cause us to be down, or to despair, should this cause us to throw in the towel and lose heart? Certainly not! This, my dear friends, is what it is, after all, to be a sinner! And Jesus, if you remember, came to call sinners. He came for sinners, like me and you, in order to save us, in order to lift us up, in order to set us back on our feet and back on the road to salvation. In our weakness we need to learn, like so many others who have gone before us, to entrust our weakness to the merciful love and the grace of God that comes to us in Jesus Christ, and ask Him to make us strong.Clearly this works. It works because all of those heroines and heroes that we have in the Church – the canonised Saints – were weak and sinful men and women. They all needed Jesus’ mercy. They all needed to be saved… With the one exception of Our Blessed Lady – according to the Church’s teaching – every other human soul has been affected by sin in one way or another, and every soul – including Our Blessed Lady – needed or needs the saving love of Jesus Christ.There are saints who killed people, there are saints who were prostitutes, there are saints who were possessed, there are saints who were thieves, there are saints who lived debauched lives, there are saints who were angry, there are saints who denied Jesus, there are saints who did every kind of bad thing that people can do, but who, at some point in their lives, opened their eyes and their hearts to the Lord and allowed Him to really be Lord of their lives – this gives me hope, and this should give all of us hope. None of us is “beyond redemption”, as can sometimes be said, or as we might even say about ourselves. None of us is without hope. But we are all being called, every moment of every day by the loving and merciful heart of the Lord to come to Him, to return to Him, to give ourselves to Him.I see in the Saints, like Paul and so many others, great inspiration, great encouragement, great hope. If they have triumphed we too can triumph, if they have overcome weakness and sinfulness we can do the very same… and you know what? As our big sisters and brothers in this family of Faith of which we are part, they are there to help us, and they have a responsibility to look after us “little ones” – let’s ask them, let’s turn to them: “come on, help us, pray for us, be with us” we can say to them, “so that we can end up in Heaven with God, where you already are… Don’t leave us to our own devices, if you love God and you love us so much, let us feel the reality of your help in our lives!”One praiseworthy and highly recommended practice for us all is to get familiar with the Saints – a great thing to start to do during Lent in particular. Read the lives of the Saints, become friends with the Saints. There’s even, would you believe it, a great website I’ve seen recently which has a random Saint generator – sounds odd, but it’s a brilliant idea! You pray and then click the mouse, and the computer finds a saint at random for you to start to get to know and have as a spiritual and prayer companion. Most of our heroes or heroines in life we’ll probably never get to meet, we’ll only see ever them on a screen, or a magazine, or hear them on the radio, or read about them in a book. But all of these spiritual heroines and heroes that we call the Saints, are accessible to us and want to get to know us just as much as we want to get to know them – they are only a prayer away, and they come and they answer and they become good friends with us when we seek their holy company. They want us to be Saints with them, and what better time to seek their companionship than now, the holy Season of Lent, when we’re examining our lives, recognising our need for repentance, and striving to live in greater faithfulness to the Lord. As ones who can legitimately say to us; “been there, done that” the Saints will always give us the full force of their love and assistance as our big sisters and big brothers in the Lord, to help us be the people God wants us to be, if only we speak to them in prayer and ask their help. All you saints of God, pray for us! ................
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