III SUNDAY OF LENT Homily A man was driving without his seatbelt when he spotted a patrol car right behind him. He grabbed for the belt and put it on. But it was too late, and the red lights began to flash. “You weren’t wearing your seatbelt”, said the officer. “Yes I was”, said the man, “and if you don’t believe me, ask my wife”. “So how about it, ma’am?” asked the cop. “Officer”, she said: “I’ve been married to this man for forty years, and there’s one thing I’ve learned: Never argue with him when he’s drunk”. Staying out of trouble is no easy task for any of us. The Ten Commandments we just heard give us a pretty effective strategy for doing that: Don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t steal. Don’t commit adultery. Don’t kill. Don’t dishonor God. Good advice! And if all the world followed it, we could relax and pension off all our security guards and half of our lawyers. Things would surely be better, but there would still be something missing, and that is the special ingredient that Jesus showed us: Love that leads to action at the right time and the right place. Jesus gives us a good look at this in Sunday’s Gospel. Those moneychangers in the temple were providing a necessary service. The problem was that they were cheating their customers with unfair rates and excessive fees. The temple authorities knew it and did nothing about it. They just took their cut and looked the other way. And so did everybody else –except Jesus. He did something about it. Building God’s kingdom inside us and among us takes more than just staying out of trouble, more than just keeping our mouths shut and our shoes shined: It takes action, but not just any action –only action that has love at its roots. How different our families would be, how different our community, our country, if instead of shutting our eyes to what needs to be worked on, we checked our motives – and made sure that love was there- and then set out to try to make things better. How different things would be, if instead of just thinking good thoughts, we actually followed through on them day after day. How different indeed! That is what Jesus did to the very end: Out of love for us, he acted: He gave himself and held nothing back. And that’s what he asks of us: Stop turning away, stop saying: “Not my problem”. Instead, look closely at the truth, check our motives (Is this really love that’s moving me?), and then, if it is love, act and hold nothing back. That is not a recipe for a tidy life. But it is a recipe for big life and a happy one, a life worthy of the brothers and sisters of Jesus, a life we could be proud of. Why settle for anything less! Why indeed!
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