2nd Sunday of Lent: Homily by Fr Vigoa — Transcript

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1. 0:03We Gather for this second Sunday of Lent
2. 0:06and if we were to define the purpose for
3. 0:08the season of Lent we might say that
4. 0:11lent is about
5. 0:13reordering the loves in our lives that
6. 0:17have become
7. 0:19disordered again one way to think about
8. 0:22lent is about reordering the loves in
9. 0:25our lives which have become
10. 0:28disordered
11. 0:30things have gotten out of whack this
12. 0:32past year we've gotten mixed up we need
13. 0:35to straighten out our lives and our
14. 0:39relationship with God in other words
15. 0:44lent provides the space for us to
16. 0:47reorder our
17. 0:50loves I was thinking about when I was
18. 0:52writing this homy about a talk that I
19. 0:54gave at St Augustine's not too long ago
20. 0:57for our marriage formation night and our
21. 1:02patron saint St
22. 1:04Augustine in the fifth century talked
23. 1:06about the proper order of Our
24. 1:09Lives the proper order of our
25. 1:13loves he said this love God first and
26. 1:18then love everything and everyone else
27. 1:21for the sake of
28. 1:23God those are great words to live by and
29. 1:26it gets to the heart of this reordering
30. 1:29of our lives and I'm talking about love
31. 1:33God first and then love everything and
32. 1:37everyone for the sake of
33. 1:39God going to learn this lesson today in
34. 1:41a a most jarring in yourface kind of way
35. 1:46a very unsettling
36. 1:48way talking about the first reading from
37. 1:51the second 22nd chapter of the Book of
38. 1:54Genesis in which we heard the account of
39. 1:56The Binding of Isaac and his most almost
40. 2:01sacrificed by his father
41. 2:04Abraham it's a chilling
42. 2:06story it's a confusing story that brings
43. 2:10up a lot of
44. 2:12questions makes you wonder why on Earth
45. 2:15are we hearing this especially now
46. 2:17during the season of Lent why does the
47. 2:21church Proclaim this terrible
48. 2:24story well for a little background we
49. 2:26recall from Genesis that God had made a
50. 2:29covenant with
51. 2:30Abraham he was a he was to be the father
52. 2:34of a great
53. 2:35nation but the problem was that Abraham
54. 2:38didn't have any
55. 2:40children and as scripture tells us his
56. 2:42wife Sarah was
57. 2:45Barren but Abraham had
58. 2:48Faith he waited he waited he trusted in
59. 2:53God Waiting for God to fulfill his
60. 2:58promise and then fin finally in their
61. 3:00old age Sarah conceives and bears
62. 3:03Abraham a son
63. 3:06Isaac Genesis makes a point to tell us
64. 3:09how much Abraham loves
65. 3:11Isaac not only because he was his son
66. 3:14but also because Isaac was the
67. 3:16Fulfillment of God's promise to
68. 3:19him and the justification of Abraham's
69. 3:23faith and then we get to this
70. 3:26reading the Lord then said take your son
71. 3:29Isaac
72. 3:30your only one whom you love offer him up
73. 3:34as a
74. 3:35Holocaust in other words offer him up as
75. 3:39a
76. 3:40sacrifice Abraham's words at this moment
77. 3:43are not recorded nor are his thoughts
78. 3:46but we can imagine the
79. 3:48horror the devastation the confusion and
80. 3:51even the anger that he must have felt at
81. 3:54the pit of his soul the pit of his
82. 3:58stomach but what does he do he prepares
83. 4:00to follow the Lord's
84. 4:03command and as we read the angel of the
85. 4:06Lord stopped him at the last moment from
86. 4:08carrying out the sacrifice he says do
87. 4:10not lay a hand on your
88. 4:14boy I know now how devoted you are to
89. 4:18God and since you have shown this great
90. 4:21faith in God you must withhold from
91. 4:26harming your only beloved Son
92. 4:31well I'm sure Abraham and the rest of us
93. 4:33breathe a sigh of relief with these
94. 4:37words by the way the reading is coupled
95. 4:40today with the gospel of Mark about the
96. 4:42Transfiguration of the
97. 4:44Lord and if you notice God the Father
98. 4:47describes Jesus as his beloved Son the
99. 4:50same way that Abraham was describing his
100. 4:57son the point made for us is that God
101. 5:00spared Abraham's son but he did not
102. 5:03spare his own son
103. 5:06Jesus so if we go back to this
104. 5:09incredible story what are we to make of
105. 5:12it why does the church Proclaim it to us
106. 5:17well for certain it's not about God
107. 5:19toying with Abraham or acting
108. 5:21impulsively with a man devoted to him
109. 5:25that's not the way to approach this
110. 5:28account it's jarring in yourf face
111. 5:31unsettling lesson that teaches us really
112. 5:33the fundamental lesson of scripture and
113. 5:36it's summed up in this way and Augustine
114. 5:39our patron saint says it perfectly he
115. 5:41says love God first then love everything
116. 5:46and everyone else for the sake of
117. 5:50God this over-the-top gut-wrenching
118. 5:54story teaches us about the reordering of
119. 5:57the loves that we have in our lives and
120. 6:00sometimes the loves that we have in our
121. 6:02lives become
122. 6:05disordered there's always the tendency
123. 6:07to get that other
124. 6:09wrong we are Fallen people in a fallen
125. 6:12world and any number of things complete
126. 6:15compete for this top spot think about
127. 6:18your own life what are some the some of
128. 6:20the things right now in your life that
129. 6:22are competing for that top spot is God
130. 6:25the number one priority in your
131. 6:27life if I say money is what I love first
132. 6:30I love everything and everyone else for
133. 6:32the sake of money or if I say power is
134. 6:36what I love first then I love everything
135. 6:38and everyone for the sake of
136. 6:41power or Prestige or pleasure or any
137. 6:44other good thing on Earth you fill in
138. 6:46the
139. 6:50blank until you get to something really
140. 6:53close and personal family is what I love
141. 6:56first I love everything and everyone
142. 6:58else for the for the sake of
143. 7:01family does that mean that family is bad
144. 7:05and that if you place the family first
145. 7:07you're you're
146. 7:09bad no not at
147. 7:11all he commands us to love our family
148. 7:14and to love others but here's the
149. 7:17key if anything except
150. 7:20God that I love
151. 7:23first if there if it's anything except
152. 7:26God that I love first then by definition
153. 7:30my love is my loves are
154. 7:34disordered and it will always lead to
155. 7:36sin and it will lead to a separation
156. 7:39from
157. 7:40God we must love everything that we love
158. 7:43here Below in the context of a greater
159. 7:46love the love of
160. 7:49God it isn't that EXA isn't that exactly
161. 7:52what Jesus said when he gave us the
162. 7:54greatest
163. 7:56commandment you shall love the Lord your
164. 7:58God with all of your heart with all of
165. 8:00your soul mind and strength and then you
166. 8:03shall love your neighbor as yourself
167. 8:06folks this is not an easy lesson
168. 8:09today this takes a lot of prayer and
169. 8:13time and
170. 8:14dedication once you come to know and
171. 8:16have that relationship with God it falls
172. 8:19into
173. 8:21place but seek ye the first the kingdom
174. 8:23of God and his righteousness he tells us
175. 8:27that's the right proper order of
176. 8:30things it's a rough story proclaimed to
177. 8:33us today but it gets to the heart of why
178. 8:35we celebrate lent lent is that special
179. 8:38time of the year where we get to pause
180. 8:41and really think about our lives and
181. 8:43where are we and and how is our
182. 8:45relationship with
183. 8:47God it's a time to reorder the loves in
184. 8:50our life and which have become
185. 8:53disordered we must love everything we
186. 8:55love here Below in the context of a
187. 8:57greater love the love of
188. 9:01God thus then the love of our life must
189. 9:04be properly ordered God comes first
190. 9:08always or as St Augustine put it love
191. 9:11God first and then love everything and
192. 9:15everyone else for the sake of God so my
193. 9:18brothers and sisters on this second
194. 9:20Sunday of Lent what a powerful lesson a
195. 9:23lesson that we need to learn a lesson
196. 9:24that we need to take to heart how can I
197. 9:27love God first above everything and
198. 9:29everyone
199. 9:31else amen