3rd Sunday in Lent, 2012
Fr. Anthony Brankin
Gospel: John 2:13-25 Jesus drove out the money-changers
(Full text of sermon. Editor’s note: This is a great review of the Ten Commandments to prepare for Confession)
Lent is a time when we want to spend time contemplating our own sins. Jesus didn’t die for us because we are good, but because we are bad. We must acknowledge our sins humbly and ask for forgiveness.
Do you ever wonder, “To what kind of life is God calling me?” or “How can I know God’s will?” or “Am I being called to religious life?” See our video, “Take one step at a time and become a Dominican Sister” on our website of the Dominican Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, and see what awaits those who are called by God in this special way.
See the joy of those in the various stages of becoming a sister: aspirancy, postulancy, novitiate, and profession.
Often when a priest suggests confession to someone—they say something like: “Oh, Father, It has been so long since my last confession—that if I were to go to confession, it would take hours—we’d never get finished!”
Well, if the truth be told—the reality is usually quite the opposite—because probably the confessions of those who have not been to the sacrament in years are always the shortest. And why not? Because if we have not confessed in years— what possibly could we remember from two years ago or even last Christmas. We may have been going through something years ago where we made miserable the lives of everyone around us including ourselves. But who can remember when that may have been three years ago.
So no one should ever be concerned that their confession will be too long. Because even if it is a little longer—that is why we are there anyway! The other thing a person might say when they are being encouraged to confess is that they really have nothing to confess—they haven’t committed adultery or murder: “so what can I tell you, Father?”
Oh ye of little imagination! And what made you assume that the only things that were sinful in your life would be adultery and murder? Did you forget the other eight commandments?
I mention all this today particularly because we are first of all in the season of Lent—where we should be spending a good part of our meditation time contemplating how it was our personal sins that brought the Son of God, Jesus, from heaven to earth so that He would be able to offer the Sacrifice of His Very Body for the sake of those sins. Make no mistake about it—that is why He came—to forgive us our sins. He did not die for us because we are good. He died for us because we are bad! We are all sinners!
God could have said, “I am done with them. They are a miserable failure.”—but He did not. And so it is very important for us this Lent to think about our sinfulness—in terms of our actual sins. And we need to think about those sins, acknowledge them and humbly ask forgiveness for them. That is what Lent is for!
That is why we should pause seriously at today’s first reading where we are treated to an exposition of the famous Ten Commandments. In case anyone was wondering—the Ten Commandments come directly from God and are right here in the Bible.
Now each commandment is a sort of headline—that begins a meditation for us on all the related ways that we can offend God. Why not—today go through the ten commandments and make a sort of quick examination of conscience. This of course will be pretty basic—but it can give us an idea on how to examine more thoroughly our lives and our souls and our behavior and get us to confession this Lent.
The First Commandment:
I – “I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no strange gods before me.”
This commandment tells us that the focus of our whole existence is God. No one and no thing can come before God. We could ask ourselves—since the last time we went to confession: Did we make anyone or anything more important than God—Careers or success? Money, wealth? The fine opinion of others? Were we tempted to speak or act in a way that was against God or the teachings of the Church, but we didn’t want to look uncool in front of the cool people? Especially when it came to political issues. Did we neglect to pray? Did we forget our morning and evening prayers? Did we get angry at God and blame Him for unfortunate things that happened to us? Did we get into any of the spooky stuff? Did we consult psychics or fortune tellers? Curanderos or brujas or readers and advisers? Did we try to communicate with spirits?
Some of these sins can even be mortal sins—and that means that if we know it is wrong and we will to do it anyway we destroy our friendship with God. And we need to confess.
The Second Commandment:
II – “Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord in vain.”
This basically means that God has given us the gift of speech. Not one animal has this gift. This commandment tells us that we must use the gift of speech to give praise and glory to God. That is what it is for. So The most obvious question from this commandment is: Did we ask God to witness to a silly thing (or worse) an untruth? Did we swear falsely under oath in court? But this commandment expands and asks us: Did we use vulgar and impure and rough words? Did we curse anyone and hope that bad things would happen to someone? Did we use the name of “God” or “Jesus” disrespectfully? Did we shame our gift of speech by communicating evilly?
The Third Commandment
III – “Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day.”
What else could that mean for Catholics other than—have we deliberately missed Mass on a Sunday? Or Holy Day of Obligation? And how many times? This has always been considered a mortal sin—enough to send us to hell—because it is a direct defiance of the Creator who has said to us His creatures: “You must worship me—and on the day I tell you.” Not to go to Mass is to look God in the eye and say to Him, “No.” And that is unthinkable. Of course, sickness excuses—and these days (because of the carelessness of those who own the stores and restaurants in which we work) sometimes even our jobs are a legitimate excuse. God does not expect the impossible. But we must go to confession for all those times we refused to worship God and Him alone.
The Fourth Commandment
IV – “Honor thy Father and thy Mother.”
This commandment asks us (if we are children) have we disobeyed our parents and those they have placed over us? But if we are adults and our parents are alive—we must ask ourselves if we are helping them? Are we visiting them? Seeing if they need anything? And if our parents have died—Are we going to the cemetery and are we praying for them in case they are in purgatory? Our parents gave us life—we are bound to love them and care for them—forever.
The Fifth Commandment
V – “Thou shalt not kill.”
When I do an examination of conscience in the confessional I always ask the person these questions: Have I hurt anyone physically? Or have I hurt someone’s feelings with unkind words or comments and actions? For words can sometimes hurt more deeply than hits. Have I been involved in any way in an abortion—the taking of the life of an unborn child? Did I abuse alcohol and get drunk? Did I use drugs and get high? Did I mutilate my body? With cuts or an excess of piercings? And do I regret all these offenses against the Lord of Life? And regret means we say to ourselves—if I were in the same situation I would not do it again. That is the definition of regret and is sufficient for true sorrow.
The Sixth Commandment
VI – “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”
This commandment focuses on God’s gifts to us of life and love. It must and most specifically makes us ask: have I been involved with anyone who is not my lawful spouse? We also reflect on the need to change things in our lives if we are living with someone with whom we are not married in Church. We also ask ourselves—if we are married—have we used artificial birth control to prevent having children? Have we tried to sterilize ourselves? Or been involved with weird reproductive science? Have we looked at pornography and read impure things? Have we watched evil movies and enjoyed dirty television shows? Have we gotten drowned in this impure culture of ours where unabated sexual pleasure divorced from family and human life is the constant obsession. Time to get to confession.
The Seventh Commandment
VII – “Thou shalt not steal.”
This simply asks: Have I taken anything that did not belong to me? Maybe it was gum from the store or time from my employees—or hours from my boss. Maybe I took money—or maybe I stole ideas and test answers. But if it belongs to someone else—it is not mine. So this commandment asks: did I take something from someone or did I hurt the value of anything by destroying it or vandalizing it? And if so, I must resolve to restore it.
The Eighth Commandment
VIII – “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.”
Basically—we are not to lie. And a lie is telling an untruth with the intention to deceive. We must tell the truth to anyone who deserves to know the truth. I think it is particularly serious if our lie is about something important and gets someone else in trouble. We must make up for our lies to the God of Truth. Anything less is homage to the Father of Lies—Satan.
The Ninth Commandment
IX -“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors wife.”
If the Sixth commandment says “ thou shalt not commit adultery”—the ninth commandment says “Don’t even think about it!” The problem is that we live and breathe and move and have our being in a culture that manipulates us constantly by means of sex. It tries to control us by controlling our lower desires—and so they flood our eyes and ears and hearts with all manner of base things. We ask ourselves by this commandment: have I gotten too much into all this dirty stuff out there—the media and internet—do I even notice it anymore? Do I have to hide what I am watching from my family and friends? And can I bring myself back?
The Tenth Commandment
X – “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods.”
I never thought all that much about this commandment—oh sure—don’t be envious of others’ success. But this commandment gets more important every day because we have created for ourselves a truly consumer society where we consume everything. But in reality, it only consumes us. It devours us. It devours everything. All we do is shop. The busiest day of the week is Sunday and all we are doing is going to the store to buy stuff! They have made our lives to revolve around the accumulation of things and money and goods. They have fixed it so that we will always desire more—but never have enough.
Maybe our test question about whether we are getting too materialistic and perhaps unwittingly violating this commandment is to ask ourselves—How many tvs do we have? How many Apps and shoes and cars? And do we really need each one of them?—and if we lost one of those thing—how upset would we be? And how upset would we make others in our family—if we lost that one thing?
Well this was an examination of conscience before we go to confession this Lent. And yes—we are all going to go to confession this Lent—including me! And it makes no difference it we have not been to confession in a long time—years perhaps? Months even? This is the time—this is the moment—this is the year—this is the lent—no more delays—no more hesitations.
If we are going to prepare ourselves for Easter as well as for the rest of our lives—and for whatever we may come up against as history unfolds—we are going to need all the grace we can get. Lent tells us how—and confession gives us the means.
Go to all of Fr. Brankin’s sermons