Homily for the First Sunday of Lent (Year C) March 9, 2025
The following transcript of the homily is in the original formatting that was used for the sake of live delivery with all cues, emphasis, and notes included.
Transcript:
“The priest shall receive the basket from you and shall set it in front of the altar. Then you shall declare before the Lord, your God: He brought us out of Egypt
with his strong hand and outstretched arm.” Words from the Book of Deuteronomy.
In the Name of the Father + the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
We have entered the time known as Lent.
And at the heart of Lent there is the opportunity to reflect upon or rediscover or even discover for the first time the deeper reasons WHY.
Certainly, there is ample opportunity to gain greater clarity for
why we believe the things we do as Christians.
This is also a time to know better why we do the things we do as Catholics.
Contained within these two types of “WHY” questions are all sorts of further questions with answers to why we hold to THIS particular belief,
and why we perform THAT particular practice.
For example:
Why do we believe in the forgiveness of sins?
And
Why do we go to a priest in the confessional to have them forgiven?
But we believe what we teach and practice what we preach not because the reasons for it all are nice logical truth statements and ideas,
– though these statements and ideas are true and this makes all the difference.
We believe and practice also,
because these beliefs and practices are part of a story.
And that story is true.
And this is what we have in our first reading.
In our passage from Deuteronomy we see from Moses both the deeper reason for why the Israelites believe and practice what they do and how this reason is grounded first and foremost in – a story.
But not just any old story.
Rather, it is THE Story, the bedrock Story of the People of Israel.
And that Story has a central Figure that is the driving force that made it all happen – the LORD Himself.
As Christians, we have such a Story as well.
And this bedrock Story is the ultimate foundation for all we believe and do.
For this is the Story of our creation, our fall, our wandering in sin and death,
The Incarnation, our redemption, our salvation in grace and peace.
In other words, this is the Story of Jesus Christ and the reconciliation to God of all sinful men IN the one sinless Man.
Lent is about this Story.
And we will explore this great Story throughout this entire season and especially during Holy Week.
But for this homily I will show a way in which we have the chance to really live this great Christian Story every time we step into, of all places,
– the confessional.
Now before we get to our Story we must remind ourselves of Israel’s Story,
And for this we must first enter into our first reading.
We have Moses.
We have the people Israel.
We have firstfruits.
And we have a ceremony.
Moses is giving the people instructions about what should take place during this ceremony and what roles the people and the priests are to take.
– So what’s going on?
What is happening in our first reading is the institution of the offering of firstfruits and what is to be the proper ritual regarding this annual observance.
The people are to take a portion of the very first of the goods of the harvest and offer them to God through the ministry of priests acting on their behalf.
– This was also done alongside an annual tithe of some sort.
In the passage, the offering of firstfruits was done in the context of a pilgrimage to the central sanctuary of the place of worship where the presence of God resided.
Sandwiched between this set of instructions in our reading are what the people were to declare before the LORD and His priests as they were making their offering.
And within this declaration is the ultimate reason why any offering is being made at all.
Because within this declaration is the ultimate reason why there is any people Israel at all.
For, they make these oblations because God made them a nation!
They make their profession because God saved them from oppression!
And they bow down at His presence because the LORD taught Egypt a lesson
- Don’t mess with God’s people or the future will be wet for you!
- Dead at the bottom of the sea called Red!
And the only reason why WE know it – is because God did it,
and gave Hebrews a Story that comes down to Gentiles.
And so THIS is Israel’s Story in a nutshell, so follow along:
(PAUSE)
To Egypt, we went down.
God said, “Go worship out of town.”
Pharaoh pushed us around.
The Lord said to Moses, “Take them out now!”
They tried to kill us.
God saved us.
So in the Promised Land, we are found.
(That played out in your head like Charlton Heston’s Ten Commandments didn’t it?)
This Story serves at the basis of the Christian Story because it foreshadows the salvation of the world from the cosmic Egypt that is sin and death.
Jesus is the new and everlasting Moses.
And the Church is the new Israel of God on pilgrimage to the heavenly Promised Land.
And THAT – IS – OUR – Story.
But for this homily, I point you to a story within the Story
– a story that is just as much ours.
This story is also foreshadowed by Israel’s Story,
And it is a way that we live out both ISRAEL’S Story & the CHRISTIAN Story.
For, we, too, are “wandering Aramean[s]” going down to Egypt with the “small household[s]” of our souls in the world.
And the “Egyptians” that mistreat and oppress us are
the world’s temptations and evils with the devil serving as pharaoh.
These oppressors enslave us under the “hard labor” of the weight of our shame and guilt.
Then WE cry out “to the LORD, the God of our [spiritual] fathers,”
the ones that hear us say “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.”
Our cry is for the sacrament of confession.
And the LORD hears the cry that is our sacramental confessions because He “saw our affliction”
– THAT IS: our sorrows, our struggles, and the harm done to us by sin.
So the LORD brings US out of Egypt by forgiving our sins,
And with “his strong hand and outstretched arm” He gives us absolution.
What “terrifying power”,
What “signs and wonders” that God works through His priests by lending them the divine prerogative of:
forgiving our sins and “bringing us IN to this “COUNTRY” ”,
– the STATE of Grace we call ECCLESIA – the Church,
– Where the sacraments flow as “milk and honey” for wandering Arameans, and even lets you and me IN.
– So “GO – IN – PEACE!”
FOR THIS is OUR STORY.
THIS is the Story of our salvation from SIN,
That we get to live AGAIN and AGAIN,
Every time we need to confess our shortcomings.
THIS is one way we get to truly live out in our lives the great Christian Story before the Final Chapter in written.
[PAUSE]
But if you have not picked up this book in a while,
If it has been some time since you have gone to confession,
Let me tell you that this Story is even better – the second time around,
- And the third,
- And the fourth,
- And the fifth,
- the sixth,
- the seventh,
- and up to the time you are about to go to heaven.
Trust me – I have read it.
Trust me – I have seen it.
THIS is your Story to claim.
OWN your Story.
LIVE your Story.
GO – TO – CONFESSION!
[PAUSE]
Then set the firstfruit of your soul “before the LORD, your God” at the altar,
And “BOW – DOWN – in – HIS – PRESENCE.”
In the Name of the Father + the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Given at St. Ann Catholic Church in Nashville, TN.