Homily

How many times have you heard someone say, “I am spiritual, not religious?” Spiritual but not religious? What does that mean? They never tell you. And the reason, I suspect, why most people cannot tell you is because they really don’t know what those words mean. The dictionary says that the word spiritual means, “1) relating to or affecting the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things.” “So, okay, my spiritual but not religious friend, let’s talk about your soul or your spirit.” How do you think that would go? AND, the second definition of spiritual is: “relating to religion or religious belief.” People say crazy things, but they think it sounds good. Just don’t ask any questions.

But my friends, let’s not be frugal and thrifty. Let us be both spiritual AND religious this Lenten season. We have a spirit and a body. First for the body. One way we can be spiritual and religious is to fast. By church law today, we only have to fast on the first day of Lent and Good Friday, and as always, no meat on Fridays. But the traditional fast is a vegan diet for all of Lent, except for two days. If we cannot do the whole fast, maybe we can work out something in between the total vegan diet and the minimum asked by church law.

Do you want to remember that you are in this holy season for the good of your soul and your life? There’s no better way to be reminded of this holy season than by keeping the fast. In today’s epistle St. Paul talks about food and faith. And notice also that Jesus does not say, "If you fast," instead, He says, "When you fast..." It shouldn't be surprising that we have a 40-day fast when the Lord Himself fasted for 40 days. Food and drink are vital to our lives so we can use them for our spiritual benefit. Regulating and modifying our diet in fasting might help us to lose a few pounds but it will always help us to put on some spiritual weight. People will watch what they eat for reasons of health or appearance, and that's okay, but Christians watch what they eat at certain times of the year to gain health for their souls. And, by limiting the kinds of food we eat, strangely enough, we can even increase our thanks to the Lord for all He has given to us. By not having, we can appreciate how much we really DO have.

That’s one thing for the material side. For the spiritual side, of course we should increase our prayer, and not only in the amount, but in the number of times we pray. Good to have your morning and evening prayers, but even better to be strengthened by prayer throughout the day. Temptation is always looking for us, but we should be looking for extra moments of prayer to defend ourselves against it. The car is one good place to do that. My grandmother always prayed the “Hail Mary” every time she got into our car, and it wasn’t because my dad was driving. (Probably not.) It’s a great way to remember the Lord, praying before you take off in your car. So, what do we think? We can’t do that! We’re in a hurry. We have places to go! But praying in the car helps to remind us of where we really want to go. You can choose any prayer you want, but the “Our Father” is a great prayer. How long does it take? I timed myself. To say the Lord’s Prayer, the “Our Father,” takes about 25 seconds in Ukrainian, 20 seconds in English, and 9 seconds in Spanish. (If you are from Michoacán, 6 seconds). I think we can take half a minute before we drive off to say a short prayer and remind ourselves of the Kingdom of God and love of our Heavenly Father. (And if you’re from Michoacán you can say it twice in that same time.) It’s a great example to ourselves and our children that we are not just Sunday Catholics, but every-day believers and prayer is the fuel for our lives. And, at the same time, it just might make us more peaceful drivers.

I often urge people, before you go home from work, or school or the store, or wherever, say a short prayer before you go into the house. Much unhappiness and disappointment could be avoided if we only corrected our thoughts and called on the Lord before we turn the doorknob to go inside. It can make a difference and a difference for the better once we are inside.

Red stop lights. Why not a short prayer at some stop lights? ... instead of reading the bumper sticker that is going to make you mad. And why not in line at the grocery store? Don’t even tell me you have great spiritual inspirations and beautiful thoughts while waiting in line at Waremart. But one short prayer, even one Our Father is an excellent way of spending half a minute and while you are saying it I can almost guarantee you will not be irritated, angry or judgmental while you are praying it, and it may even keep you from those emotions until the store receipt is in your hand. The more we practice, the more such small moments of prayer can become habits in our lives, and the more we become aware that God is ever present, and Christ our Lord is with us. We shouldn’t leave Him at home or at Church. He’s with us at Costco.

We say we want to be better Christians. And I believe that. Me too. But I know there can be no change within me, within us, unless we are willing to change the patterns of our lives—and two of the pattern changes we can make in Lent are with fasting and prayer. Sometimes I can be so spiritually lazy and it’s such an effort to pray. Eating and drinking is so very easy, and we can constantly distract ourselves with all kinds of talk, and entertainment, and social media, and YouTube and everything around me except for the presence of the Lord, and most of all those things, much of the time, is not of any real great help to my growth as a human being and a disciple of Christ. And sometimes it is even working against us.

We love the routines we have set up for ourselves and it can be so hard to change them. But let’s give it our best try once again this Lent, with prayer and fasting so that we do not continue on the same old way, but we end up as more beautiful Christians who reflect the beauty of the Risen Christ at Pascha. And as spiritual and religious people who used Lent to improve our lives, we will see His beauty with better eyesight on April 12th.