Homily

A poll taken two years ago showed that 23% of Americans say they are “spiritual but not religious.” But what does that really mean? It’s interesting that this group of people have a high number who believe that animals have spirits or spiritual energy, and that mountains, rivers, and trees can also have spirits or spiritual energy. They are spiritual but not religious.

But my friends, for us, 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 for the good of 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 and that means we can also 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 voluntarily NOT having, we can appreciate how much we really DO have. Let’s make a fasting plan for ourselves in a way that will not be a huge burden, but rather an opportunity for grace.

That’s one thing for the material side of observing Lent. 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 temptation and to remind ourselves that Jesus Christ is Lord. 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. 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 turned the doorknob to go inside. It can make a difference and a great 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 Walmart. But one short prayer, even one Our Father, is an excellent way of spending half a minute, and while you are praying 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 even 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, no change 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, are not of any real great help to my growth as a human being and a disciple of Christ. And sometimes they even work against me, and against us.

We are comfortable with the routines we have set up for ourselves and it can be so hard to change them. But we can choose differently. As I mentioned last Sunday a good part of being a Christian is making choices that will unite us more closely with Christ. 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 mature and faithful 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.