1st Sunday of Lent
Cycle C
February
14, 2016 8:00 and 10:00am
Saint Margaret Parish, Bel
Air
My Commitment
When I
was a young priest, about four years ordained, I went through a real crisis.
Suddenly
I was no longer sure that I could do this for the rest of my life. It was a period of real darkness for me.
So I went
to another priest who was experienced and wise.
He was a spiritual guide for me.
And I
also went to a professional counselor. I
did this for many months and painstakingly worked through the issues.
From
the very start of this, something within told me to maintain my commitment
while I was going through all of this. At
times, I just forced myself to keep going.
This, I
believe, had to have been God acting empowering me. At any rate, eventually I began seeing light
at the end of the tunnel and things got resolved.
Jesus’ Commitment
I share
this personal experience because of the underlying message in today’s gospel.
Jesus
is tempted. The refrain in the
temptations is: “If you are the Son of
God…”
“If you are”, then do all these self-serving things. Jesus is tempted to abandon his commitment to
who he is and to his Father and his mission.
But, he
doesn’t do it. He remains steady and
committed.
Our Commitment: to
God
So, commitment is the key message here.
It is
an important, even fundamental reality in our lives. As I see it, we are called to live with
commitment on two basic levels.
First,
commitment to God. This means that we
live with a conscious relationship with God, with some prayer and prayerful
reflection in our lives.
It
means that we try to make our relationship with Jesus the way of
understanding and making sense of life. This
will not always be easy.
Sometimes
it will demand things of us that we would like to avoid. Here we need to draw on the strength of God
in our prayer.
Sometimes
we may be tempted to throw in our commitment to God completely. Here it is a
good idea to talk with a wise, honest, and empathetic person of faith and test
out the maintaining of our commitment to Jesus.
Our Commitment: to
Others
And
then we are to live with commitment to one another.
This
could be my commitment to you, the people of Saint Margaret Parish. It could be the commitment of a married
couple, of two close friends, of parents, of children, and on it goes.
In each
of these situations, the first thing to do is to really put ourselves into the relationship. You know this.
Living
with commitment over the long haul doesn’t just happen. We need to be intentional about it and work
at it.
Still,
there will probably be experiences of discouragement and darkness. We may be tempted to abandon a commitment.
And
when we are, I think at least for a while, we will just need to draw strength
from God through prayer to hang in there.
And, we may also need to talk with someone, maybe a professional, to help
clarify what is going on.
In
truth, we will be discerning what God wants us to do. This will give us the best chance of making a
mature and spiritual decision.
And, by
the way, in saying all of this, I in no way intend to judge those who have
changed a life commitment. This happens
at times.
It
happens in the priesthood and I have welcomed as active members of this parish
a number of men who have chosen to leave the priesthood. This also happens in marriage and I again
welcome those who have gone through the pain of a change of their
commitment.
Conclusion
So, today
I lift up the importance of commitment as something for us to pray about during
these weeks of Lent. How are we doing in
living our commitments to God and to one another?
