First Sunday of Lent 2011

Sunset at MSF

For just as through the disobedience of the one man

the many were made sinners, 
so, through the obedience of the one, 
the many will be made righteous.

Brother Elias had a problem. The great Saint Francis of Assisi was dying at the age of forty-four there at the Portiuncula, and people were coming from miles around to be there when it happened. That was okay. Francis had been sick for a long time and two years before had predicted his own death. He was ready to shed the burden of his wasted body and fly to the glory of heaven.

But his last request – that was a problem. Many years before, Francis had fallen in love with the poverty of Jesus. Born in a manger; raised in exile; homeless throughout his years of ministry; and dying naked on a cross: Jesus had proven to Francis that poverty is the easiest, simplest, fastest and most effective way to pursue perfection.

So Francis, in his dying hour, wanted to die as Jesus had died. He wanted his friars to place him naked on the dirt floor of their hut. But there were women present, and not just Lady Poverty. Lady Jacoba, Francis’ dear friend, had come to be with him.

What could Elias do? Thinking fast, he permitted the friars to remove the dying saint’s habit. It would be a precious relic and must be closely guarded. And then he commanded Francis to wear his own, Brother Elias’s habit.

For the smallest breath of a moment, Francis rebelled, and then he obeyed. Although he loved Lady Poverty with all his heart, he loved Obedience even more. He was satisfied to die wearing someone else’s habit, just as Jesus had been buried in someone else’s grave. For Poverty had taught Francis that he must disown everything – including and most especially his own will – if he would follow Christ.

In today’s gospel, we hear the story of Jesus’ obedience. When Satan suggested to the hungry man in the wilderness that he should turn these stones into loaves of bread, we might suppose those ancient round rocks actually looked like bread. Delirious, starving men have seen more wonderful things than bread under the baking heat of the sun. Jesus might have picked up the rock and weighed it in his hands, thinking it does look like bread. And then he dropped it to the ground and said, “Satan, old buddy, I cannot change stones to bread.”
“Of course you can! You’re God, you can do anything you want!”

“Satan, you old fool, you know nothing after all these years. I cannot do anything on my own…. because I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me. John 5: 31

In a democratic society, there are people who think obedience is not a virtue. Claiming the right of “freedom” for themselves they will do what they want to do. If they feel any moral scruples they might add, “so long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else.” But inevitably they become slaves of their own impulsive desires. They want what they want when they want it, and they want everything now.

Eventually, facing the wreckage of their lives and confronted by loved ones, they complain with heartfelt sincerity, “I can’t stop.” I can’t stop smoking, drinking, gambling, lusting, eating, getting angry, and so forth.

As Saint Paul said, “Their gods are their bellies.”

For many, as I have often told you and now tell you even in tears, conduct themselves as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction. Their god is their stomach; their glory is in their "shame." Their minds are occupied with earthly things. Philippians 3:18-19

We should choose our gods carefully, because God is always the ideal self. If you choose a God who loves his freedom, power and pleasure above everything else, you’re choosing to be his freedom-loving, power-hungry, pleasure-seeking votary.

But when you choose Jesus, you choose the path of obedience. It is a path of humility, simplicity, and penance. It is a willingness to be guilty with every human being, and to stand accused of heinous crimes before the throne of God, relying entirely on his mercy, with no claim to righteousness except the obedience of Jesus Christ.