HOMILY Sorry? Not Enough! Repent! Surrender!

Transcription

1 HOMILY Sorry? Not Enough! Repent! Surrender! Father Larry Richards Moderator, Bread of Life Community Homily for the First Sunday of Advent Year B Readings: Isaiah: 63:16b-17, 19b;64:2b-7 1 Corinthians 1:3-9 Mark: 13:33-37 Are you ready? It's a repentance homily. If you listen to the Gospel today, the last word is "Watch!" and he said it again and again. It's appropriate. I hope you're a daily Mass goer -- you know it says, "Give us this day our daily bread" and the bread is the Bread of Life -- just to give you a little encouragement there. If you went to Mass yesterday, the last Gospel of the year -- today is the first Sunday of the New Year -- was Luke 21:34 and following. For those of you who weren't there, listen to the Word of the Lord. "Be on your guard lest your spirit become bloated with indulgence and drunkenness and worldly cares. The great day will suddenly close in on you like a trap. The day I speak of will come upon you who dwell on the face of the earth. So be on your watch! Pray constantly for the strength to escape whatever is in the prospect and stand secure before the Son of Man." So this is what we heard yesterday. Watch, be ready. You don't know when the time is coming. That's what we hear again today. So the Church year ends and begins the same way: Watch! Be careful! Be ready! Don't be sleeping! The only way each of us can stand before the Lord, the Son of Man, when he comes, to stand up confident, is when we

2 are people who have repented. That's what the first reading is about. If you go to the first reading today, it's from Isaiah, Chapter 63. It begin with 16b and then it jumps to Chapter 64. But it starts off with "You, Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer you are named forever." Then we jump down to Chapter 64, verse 4: "Would that you might meet us doing right?" Huh! Like, O Lord, only come when we're doing what's right, huh? "That we are mindful of you in our ways, but behold you are angry, and we are sinful. All of us have become like unclean men. All good deeds are like polluted rags. We've all withered like leaves. Our guilt carries us away like the wind. There is none who calls upon your name and rouses himself to cling to you for you have hidden your face from us and delivered us up to our guilt. Yet you are our Father..." We'll get to the next part in a second. So here is a man who comes forward and says, Lord, we are sinful people. The first words out of the Lord Jesus' mouth publicly in proclamation was "Repent and believe in the Good News." We don't talk enough about repentance. Most Christians are what I call "Bumper Sticker" Christians. A Bumper Sticker Christian is one who has a bumper sticker that says "Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven." So what does that mean? It means I'm not perfect, I'm never going to be perfect. I'm just forgiven. I keep going to the Lord, and he forgives me because he loves me so much. That's very nice. But that's not a Christian. A Christian -- the only way to even become a Christian is to enter into our relationship with Christ through repentance. That's either the repentance of baptism or the repentance of when I surrender my life fully, completely, 100% to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. For him to be Lord, for me to be repentant completely from my old way of life. St. Paul says that the only thing that matters is that one has become new. Is there newness in our lives as we begin this new year? Can I talk about my life in Christ and my life apart from Christ. Have I had sins in my life I used to deal with before I knew Jesus and now that I barely have to struggle with anymore, even though they still bother me but I don't have to struggle with them at all because repentant means metanoia. Metanoia means a change of life. There's Jesus in the tabernacle -- he's right there and there's sin and that's over there. When I'm sinning, I'm going this way toward sin. Most people are walking in their sin, they're doing life their way. Every once in awhile they say, "Hey, Jesus, you know I love

3 you don't you? You're gonna be there for me forever, aren't you? Good! Thanks! And we keep doing it our way. That's not a Christian. That's not even a person who knows God. I believe in God, Father. Well, the devil believes in God! So what? Have you repented and fully surrendered your life to God? Much different from I believe in God. 98% of America believes in God. So what? Would you call this a Christian nation? Don't even think about it. Most of us are going our way, and every once in awhile, we say, "Hey, Lord, please bless my life. Look at all the stuff I'm going to do. Would you please bless this?" That is not a follower of Christ. A follower of Christ means just that. It means a person has repented from doing it their way and is now constantly walking toward Jesus. "Jesus, the only thing that matters is you. I only want to do what you want." Now every once in awhile I might fall, but my way is this way toward Jesus. I'm walking, walking always toward the Lord Jesus Christ. I have turned my back, I have repented of my past sins. As we do that, we have to ask God to help us in that because repentance is not just what we've done. It's what we've failed to do. Yeah, I'm going to do that. We do the same stuff over and over again or we fail to do something over and over again and we say, I'm sorry. Is that enough? No! We have to change. You have to change. I have to change. If I say I'm sorry, it means I'm not going to do it anymore. I go to confession and say I missed Mass on Sunday. What does that mean? I will never miss Mass on Sunday again. I go to confession and say I have sex before marriage, but I'm sorry. What does that mean? I will never have sex again before marriage. I go to confession and I say I yelled at my wife. What does that mean? I will never yell at my wife again. That is repentance. It's much different, isn't it from just being sorry. We're all sorry. Are we repentant? So what we need to do is -- everyone of us here -- if you don't think you're in need of repentance, you're not even close to the boat. We're all in need of repentance. Everyone of us in something. What we need to do is ask God to show me what I have to repent of. Now we come to the second part of the reading today. Chapter 64:7: "Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter, the work of your hands." You see, clay can't do anything except be molded by the one who is molding it. The only thing the clay does is go round and round and round, and the potter molds it with his hands. The clay can't look up and say, "Hey, I don't like the way you're doing this to me

4 right now. Would you do this and this with me?" The clay is totally, totally in the hands of the potter. The second thing we have to do after we repent or have the desire for repentance is that we have to fully submit ourselves to our Father who is our potter and let him have his way with us. To give him permission. We're not like the clay exactly because God gives us our free will. We're not just clay. We have to give him permission to have his way with us. Lord, whatever you want, make it happen in my life. I'll never forget when I did that once. It was New Year's Eve years ago when I was in the seminary. It has to be fourteen or fifteen years ago. I like to spend New Year's Eve by myself at midnight, anyway, before the Blessed Sacrament. We're going to have a chance to do that together as a community this year. I was kneeling there, and I said, "God, you know how proud I am. You know how obstinate I am. You know how I like to have things my way. Lord, I beg you, may your will be done in my life this year even if you have to break me. I only want what you want. Lord, I give you permission to break me. I only want your will." Three months later I was thrown out of the seminary. Oh-ugh! I said, "Lord, that's not what I meant in any way, shape or form." It killed me. I said, "God, have mercy. How can you do this to me?" He had a plan. I didn't like the plan. But he had a plan and it was the best plan he could ever ever give to me even though it caused me some pain then and there. The pain turned out to be glorious. I helped tornado victims, I received a citation from the House of Representatives, I got some laws changed in Pennsylvania, I worked with now Governor Ridge who was then Congressman Ridge. We had a lot of things changed and I got to know what I could do in God. When I finally gave him total permission, when I said, "Lord, even if it breaks me, I only want what you want." Have you ever said that yet to God? To fully, completely allow him to be the potter of your life. Instead of making all the plans -- I'm going to do this and do this and do this. But Lord, the only thing I want -- I give you permission -- have it your way with me. No matter what it takes, Lord, make it done in me. The greatest example of that, of course, is Mary. Fiat. Let it be done to me as you say. Lord, I want only what you want in my life. Finally, what starts to happen then -- after I've repented of my sins -- I then give God permission to take total charge of my life and make his will happen and then my will and God's will become the same. That every day when I wake up, I'm not thinking about what I want to do

5 today, but I'm looking at God and saying, "What do you want me to do? The only thing I want today, Lord, is you and your will." As I was reflecting on this last night sitting in the church alone, I was saying, "Lord you have to change my heart." Today, the theme for the beginning of the new year is "Prepare ye the way of the Lord." Every week we will give candles out, one candle per family and a prayer which we'll recite after the creed. We need to prepare for God first in our hearts. The way I prepare for God first in my heart is I repent and I surrender. Have you really, truly repented and surrendered to our Lord? If not, please do it today. A lot of us have gone through the motions of repentance many times. I have done it so many times. It's just something I do. The Lord really convicted me. Larry, I'm very happy that you keep on doing that, but I really want you to stop it. It's time for you, not only to say you're sorry, but to change your life. We can't do that alone. We need the Holy Spirit. So repent today. Really acknowledge what's sinful in our lives and then let's give God permission to have his way with us this new year. Get it? Got it? Good! May each of you know his love today and forever. Amen.