Lent Message Series 2017: ROOT CAUSE -Week 3

“I Could Have Had”

Readings for the Third Sunday of Lent – Cycle A

This week, after my doctor imposed absence from last weekend’s Masses, we continue our message series called “Root Cause.” I was feeling pretty miserable  last weekend and I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to get you sick so I stayed in bed as recommended by my doctor. Therefore, let me briefly share with you what I would have for last week’s part 2 of the message series I’m calling “Root Cause.”

On the first Sunday of Lent I shared with you how the root cause, the primary reason humanity finds itself in the state it is in is man and woman’s ability to choose. Humans can choose to listen to God, who seems to have some arbitrary rules, like don’t eat from one particular fruit tree in a perfect garden, or chose to listen to the voice of evil that lies about human potential where people do not need God. The ability to choose to be self-centered ultimately disorders our relationship with God and one another. The wrong choice unleashes corrupted relationships with the divine and other people that result in the death of those relationships and even physical death.

Last week I wanted to tell you about the “root cause” of the hope that humanity is not doomed to suffer forever the consequences of badly choosing to eat the fruit self-exultation. God continually makes promises to open up a future full of life. In the Transfiguration of Jesus, God revealed the future for those joined to  Jesus. In Jesus is the hope people choose to embrace a new way of living. For those who accompany him in everyday sacrifices that enable others to live more fully there is caused hope for a new life. The “root cause” of being saved from the power of death is being united to Jesus’ choice to follow the will of God, to die on the tree of the cross that opened up a new type of perfect Garden, the Kingdom of God where life defeats death. (You can read the full homily I would have given on my blog on the web, if you want. Check the bulletin for the internet address.)

If we want to choose rightly, to choose life instead of something that causes death in some form or another as we travel the paths of time in this world we must recognize the voice of the evil one hissing like a snake hiding in the grass asking us to choose specific ways of giving in to his lie that we don’t need to pay attention to the voice of God. Looking inward instead of out toward others we think we can know what’s best for us. The next three Sundays we’ll explore some of the “root sins.” Root sins is what a priest of our diocese (Fr. Bill Hitpas in a small pamphlet he has authored on examining the conscious before confession) has labeled the seven capital sins. Or, they’ve been called the seven deadly sins, because of how serious these root causes of sin are, You can say the seven “deadly sins” are expressed in a variety of symptoms that lead to the destruction of our relationships with God and other people. They’re the viruses that our everyday choices to sin are caused by. If we don’t deal with the deadly sin viruses, our life in communion with Jesus both now and in eternity will be dead on arrival. The liturgy makes this comparison of sin to illness in the opening prayer of today…

O God, author of every mercy and of all goodness, who in fasting, prayer and almsgiving
have shown us a remedy for sin,
look graciously on this confession of our lowliness, that we, who are bowed down by our conscience, may always be lifted up by your mercy.

Spring starts Monday. Then, before you know it comes the hot, hot days of summer. The humid yet dry days of summer are a time a person can build up quite a thirst working outside. Mowing the lawn, working on a construction site, even just exercising by walking in the heat builds up a powerful thirst. What to drink? An ice-cold beer, perhaps. Or maybe a soda seems to be called for. But there’s a problem. Alcohol doesn’t really quench a thirst and replenish the fluids the body is sweating away. A beer dehydrates a body. Soda has a bunch of salt and does the same keeping a person thirsty, wanting more to drink that really doesn’t help. Water alone will ease the thirst. Plain old water is what the body needs when facing the threat of dehydration.

The story of Jesus conversing with a Samaritan woman at a well in the hot desert is actually about the bad choices we are personally responsible for. It is a metaphor for who we choose to drink of sins that don’t satisfy our thirst for a happy, fulfilled life. The story of Jesus and the woman is about how we deliberately choose to be selfish, to commit personal sins, the symptoms of the viruses of root sins in an attempt to satisfy a thirst to be happy or fulfilled. It is also about how she’s been looking for what satisfies in all the wrong places. That’s the detail about having five husbands. Jesus is the spouse the his bride the church is looking for so we can stop fooling around with other suitors, like the voice of evil hissing like a slimy con-artist.

One of the “root sins” that is the cause of our selfishness is envy. Sometimes it’s called jealousy. Envy is the desire to have something someone else has. Jealousy leads to judging other people. This root sin can lead to questioning God about why he doesn’t give me what I deserve instead of someone else. Envy is the alcohol, the soda that doesn’t really satisfy, but leaves us wanting more stuff, more money, more influence. But stuff isn’t really what will bring satisfaction or fulfillment to our lives! Look at some of the people in impoverished lands. They still find joy in life. They have love of family.

How do we stop drinking envy? The true water that Jesus offers by his example of his life that will quench our thirst for happiness is kindness. Kindness can cure envy by placing the desire to help others in need above the selfish centered expression. Instead of drinking of envy we need to draw from the well of kindness. Then we will find happiness, contentment, fulfillment.

There are other root causes of our separation from God’s life that involve making individual decisions to harm our relationship with other people. There is lust that sees other persons as a way to make us feel good without concern for their well being. There is the choice to be lazy, to not get down to the business of helping others in need because I’ve got more important things to do.

This week I invite you to examine your life with me. What do each of us personally choose to do that is rooted in envy, lust, laziness that doesn’t really bring us fullness of life? Perhaps it’s time to stop drinking from the well of personal sin and instead ask Jesus to give us a drink of his life of self-sacrifice for the sake of others. Many years ago there used to be a t.v. commercial for a vegetable based drink. The tag line always involved someone slapping their head saying “I could have had a V-8!” implying making a healthier choice was possible.Instead of making choices to drink of the well of selfishness and personally sinning today is a day to say “We could have had a taste of eternal life even now in this world of choices!” Remember, though, Jesus is waiting to offer us his forgiveness, too. Don’t hesitate to drink deeply of his mercy so that you can start a new life, like a woman who has a chance encounter with God’s mercy at a well.