Give Me a New Heart
5th Sunday of Lent Year B
March 18, 2018
Archbishop Naumann has asked all the parishes throughout the Archdiocese to play a video at Mass about the current threat to faith-based Adoption services here in our state of Kansas. We don’t have the capability of playing the video at Mass, but I want to provide a brief summary:
It’s no secret that our religious liberties in America are under attack. Catholic Charities in Boston, San Francisco, Washington DC, and Illinois have all been forced out of the adoption services business because of their “policy of only placing children in homes where they will have the lifetime benefit of a married mom and a dad.” (Protect Faith Based Adoption website.)
There is a bill currently in our state legislature to protect faith-based adoption services. The Kansas Catholic Conference and the Bishops of Kansas are asking all parishioners to contact their legislators to ask them to support this bill. We will send the link to video and how to contact your legislators in the weekly e-mail and that information is printed on page 2 of this week’s bulletin. Interestingly, there are 2 million families waiting to adopt and only 110,000 children are placed each year. Whatever we can do to assist these children being placed in loving homes would be awesome!
Years ago, on a dark and stormy night, an elderly man named Bill and his wife arrived at the front desk of a small hotel in Philadelphia and asked for a room. They had been to all the big hotels and no one had a room available. The clerk said, “I’m sorry but every room is taken.” The older couple looked at each other in desperation. What were they going to do? Seeing the look of despair on their faces, the clerk said, “I’ll tell you what, I keep one room open, so I can get some sleep at night, but I’ll let you have it.” “Oh,” they replied, “we can’t take that, where will you sleep?” The young clerk replied, “don’t worry about me –I’ll make out.” The elderly couple was immensely grateful at the clerks sacrifice and generosity.
About two years later the young clerk received a letter in the mail from Bill and his wife. Upon opening it, he found a round-trip ticket to NY and a note asking him to meet them in the city. When he arrived in New York the couple led the clerk to the corner of 5th Avenue and 34th Street. Pointing to a towering new building, the Bill said, “I want you to manage my new hotel.” The young clerk, George C. Boldt, became the first manager of the elaborate and newly built Waldorf Astoria. The old man who he had sacrificed his room for was William Waldorf Astoria.
“Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” “Young George Boldt buried his own comfort and convenience by giving up his room. That sacrifice sprouted and brought forth the reward of being manager of the most outstanding hotel in the world.” (5 minute homilies on the gospels by Msgr. Tonne)
A central point of conversion is when I realize: my life is not about me! We are called to die to self and so live for others. This is what love is all about!
Jesus, of course is our model for this self-sacrificing love. Jesus is the grain of wheat who died to self – giving up his life of the cross. And the fruit of his death was eternal life for the world. This then is our blueprint of discipleship. Jesus says, “Where I am, there also will my servant be.”
Now, I don’t know about you but when I hear this call to die to self, when I think of the cross, I think Lord I’m not very good at this! It’s not easy to love our neighbor. I fail miserably at doing this. How do we live this?
First, in order to love our neighbor as Jesus, we need a new heart. This is God’s plan according to Ezekiel: I will place a new heart in you. We sang in our responsorial psalm, “Create a clean heart in me O’ God.” Lord, give me a new heart! Write your law of love on my heart as Jeremiah says.
How do we get this heart? Here at Mass we offer our hearts to God. We come giving our Father our worship, praise, thanks. We offer our love. And in return God gives us his heart in the Holy Eucharist. When we receive Communion, we receive the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We leave here with the heart of Christ which enables us to die to self and love our neighbor. On the cross, Jesus said to his enemies, “Father, forgive them!” Can you imagine having a heart like Jesus? A heart of love for all people, even our enemies? The only way we can love others like this is to live our lives in Communion with Jesus and to love others with his heart.
Secondly, all the disciplines of Lent are inter-connected and enable us ultimately to love our neighbor. First, our acts of penance open up space in our lives for God. For instance, we have about 40 men doing Exodus 90 right now and one of the sacrifices is to fast from TV and Media. Some of the guys have said, this has been wonderful! Fasting from TV has opened up time for silence and prayer in my life. Prayer in turn transforms us and makes us in turn more charitable toward others! Penance and Prayer lead us to love our neighbor. They lead us to almsgiving.
In closing, I think the other trap we fall into is thinking: Jesus died for us, what huge sacrifice am I called to make in love for others. In our egos, we want to do something big. But St. Therese the Little Flower said, “all I have to give God are the thousand and one “nothings” that make up my day: the opportunity to lend a hand to a sister in need, to do another person a kindness, to restrain a hurtful remark, to pray when I don’t feel like praying.
This Lent let’s strive to give God our 1001 little nothings each day. A smile, holding the door, cleaning out the dishwasher, saying a kind word to an enemy or someone we find annoying. The real adventure of daily life is to live it for others, to die to self in little ways. What is the fruit of this? Fulfillment, meaning, peace, joy.
When we lose our life and die to ourselves, we will be like the grain of wheat that dies but then springs forth to produce much fruit.