To access two Doctrinal Homily Outlines for the Third Sunday of Lent, click on the links below:
Here is a snippet from the second one:
- Why are prayer, almsgiving, and penance traditionally parts of Lent? What is their point?
- We all have a desert inside ourselves. In it, we are alone, vulnerable, mortal. Understandably, we don’t want to go there.
- But prayer, when undertaken with order (at a set time, for a set time, often in a set place), can put us in that desert where we are alone and faced with ourselves. Faced with our inadequacy, we can turn to God. In that solitude, we can find God with us. At the very least, we can offer God some of our “precious” time. At the very best, we can have a personal encounter with Him.
- Almsgiving is another door into the desert. When we give away something, we feel we are giving up some of our “security.” But neither our time, nor our talents, nor our treasures can give us any real, permanent security. Almsgiving helps us face that fact. It also serves other persons. It helps transform us into the new person who makes himself a sincere gift of self to others.
- Penance, whether fasting or some other form of mortification, is a headfirst dive into our personal desert. Penance halts our all-day, every day pursuit and enjoyment of big and small pleasures and consolations. In this emptiness, we have the opportunity to see if there is something better in life than physical pleasure and gratification of our egos.
- So, a point of prayer, almsgiving, and penance is that they put us in our desert. There we are confronted with the truth about ourselves and can turn to God and find Him.
- These practices also benefit others.
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