HOMILY FOR ASH WEDNESDAY – YEAR B
THEME: Overstuffing!
BY: Deacon Bill Frere
Gospel – Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18
Razzouk’s, Jerusalem
I heard this story from a friend of mine!
“You were probably overstuffing it. That’s what causes burnout,” the repairman explained, smiling gently as I nodded and signed the service receipt. He was right. With seven people in this house, I’ve been known to shove dirty school uniforms and sweaty basketball jerseys and tiny pink pajamas and roughly 4,000 stray socks all into one load and press start. Then our dryer groans under the heavy load of EVERYTHING tumbling inside.
ALSO RECOMMENED: HOMILY FOR ASH WEDNESDAY – YEAR B
Day in and day out. I overstuff. Until finally one day last week the heating element in our dryer burned out, and I’ve been hang-drying the wet clothes of seven people all around the house.
“You need smaller loads,” the repairman emphasized on his way out. I thanked him for the reminder. I needed it in more ways than one!! Because haven’t I been here before?
Stuffing it all in? Trying to carry it all? Heaping on more than I can handle until suddenly my life is overflowing? Extra days at work! Volunteer hours! A Bible study AND a book club! Yet another extracurricular activity for the kids! And “Oh, and you need me to help coach, too? Sure!”
We all tend to give too many yeses; I certainly do! And my To Do list grows longer. But I just stuff it all in, attempting to do EVERYTHING at once. All while plastering a perfect smile across the face. It’s fine! I’m fine!! Everything is fine!!! I got it!!! Until finally… Overload! Burnout! Again!
Can you relate? Maybe you do this, too. Maybe, like me, you tend to give too many yeses and stuff it all in. Attempting to do, well…EVERYTHING. But listen, isn’t there something we can set aside today? Isn’t there anything we can let go of? Can we stop trying to do it ALL and ask for help? Or even, dare to say NO? It’s easy to overstuff our dryers and our lives. And that’s what causes burnout! Really, we just need smaller loads; we need to slow things down.
Years ago I was driving around with my two (little at the time) grandsons! And as I’m driving, I see an opportunity to teach them a bit about driving and cars and traffic. So as we are going along, I ask them to point out to me a traffic light! And they did. And then I asked them – so what does RED mean? Nate, my youngest, piped up – that means STOP! Good! Then what does GREEN mean? Tyler, my olderst, answers – that means GO! So then what does YELLOW mean? Nate immediately jumps in – YELLOW mean GO FASTER! I guess I needed to rethink my driving skills much less respect how much kids pay attention to things!
Ash Wednesday – and so it begins, our Lenten journey, 40 days where we spiritually travel with Jesus to Jerusalem, to Calvary, and to the Cross. Along the road, today’s Gospel reminds us to focus on 3 spiritual disciplines – prayer, fasting and almsgiving!
In spite of what Nate said, yellow reminds us to slow down! We all lead busy lives; we all need to tap the brakes a bit and not rush so much! And that is what prayer and fasting and almsgiving are all about – slowing down our hectic lives and making time for our prayer life, to talk to God and to listen to Him, slowing down to take stock of our overstuffed life and decide – what we need to let go of, to step away from, to fast, and what we need to direct our energy and faith toward – almsgiving –service to others!
Let’s be clear though! We should be following these spiritual exercises all the time. During Lent we are called to deepen these practices. To pray more! To let go more! To give more! And in the process, we deepen and enrich our relationships!
In prayer, we deepen our relationship with God
In fasting, we deepen our relationship with ourselves
And in almsgiving, we deepen our relationship with others!
Let’s face it – we probably already pray and, from time to time, we do also look out for our neighbor. But fasting? Giving up something?? Now that’s hard! Impossible even!
Pope Francis offers us an alternative way of practicing Fasting!
Fast from hurtful words and offer kind ones
Fast from sadness and be filled with gratitude
Fast from anger and be filled with patience
Fast from pessimism and be filled with hope
Fast from worries and trust in God
Fast from bitterness and be filled with joy
Fast from grudges and be reconciled
Fast from words and be silent and listen to the voice of God
For many of us, ashes on our forehead is a visible sign of our Lenten journey and our Christian faith And that is what Lent is all about – our need to not only slow down but move forward! To not just profess our faith but live it out in our daily lives!
But the ashes only last so long; in another day, they are gone! So when the ashes disappear from our foreheads, will the world still recognize us as Christian? How then will anyone recognize us as Christian? How will anyone appreciate that we treasure our Faith? After 2 years of relative isolation, this year we have the opportunity to show our Faith by our words and our actions! To live out our Christian beliefs, to be a visible sign of God’s command to love God and love our neighbor.
The traffic light has turned yellow! So let’s slow down and (paradoxically) get going!
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