HIDDEN

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Hidden.”

Part of Jesus’ spirituality is, “The Hidden Life.”

Jesus must have seen too much externalism  and show in the spirituality of the Pharisees. “Hey, world, look at me.”

I’ve seen too much Phariseeism in the Catholic Church, in seminarians and in the clergy etc.

Jesus’ religious life was within life – authentic inner growth life – like the field growing and nobody sees growth happening. It’s slow and not showy.

Go back and read Mark 4: 26-29: "This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man throws seed on the land.  Night and day, while he sleeps, when he is awake, the seed is sprouting and growing; how, he does not know,  Of its own accord the land  produces first the shoot,  then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.  And when the crop is ready, he loses no time: he starts to reap because the harvest has come."

THE INSIDE, THE HIDDEN LIFE

Jesus saw and Jesus knew where his Father  was.

Our Father is in our inner room.  It’s nice when it feels like heaven.

As we heard Jesus say in  today’s gospel, “But when you pray, go to your inner room,  close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.  And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.”

I was pumping gas into my car recently. It wasn’t in New Jersey – when you can’t pump your own gas.  I saw a guy – with lots of plastic bags – sitting on the doorstep of the gas station. I figured he was a drifter. As I was paying for my gas – I spotted a 20-dollar bill  in my wallet – with an Andrew Jackson looking right at me. I walked over to the man and handed him a 20 and said, “McDonalds is right across the street.  Get yourself some breakfast and a good cup of coffee.”

He looked at me – sort of strange.  He wasn’t begging. But I was heading home for breakfast and why should I be the only one who might be hungry?

Surprise! My right hand knew what my left hand was doing. 

In today’s gospel Jesus gets at that as well.

That’s tricky – not only hiding our religious stuff from others – but also hiding our stuff from ourselves – as in inner bragging.

Jesus – this is tough stuff – to do.

ASH WEDNESDAY

Ash Wednesday is a funny one.

When we were kids – Ash Wednesday was always on a school day – and we would compare how long ashes would last on our foreheads – throughout the day.

I always laugh at the Ash Wednesday gospel: Matthew 6: 1-6,16-18.  It says when fasting,  don’t look gloomy. Wash your face. Anoint your head.

Does anyone go home on Ash Wednesday and wash their face?

THE  HIDDEN  LIFE

Jesus died when he was around 33.  Much of his life was hidden.

Our lives – in 500 years from now – whether we are cremated or what, we will be gone – hidden in a grave – maybe the stone will be long gone.  We’ll be the long forgotten – hidden dust – or resurrected dust – maybe our dust becomes part of a mosquito or maybe our dust becomes earth and becomes part of a blade of wheat or a grape on  a vine – a while back – all that is hidden from us – but our faith  is this:  we will be alive in Christ in the big inner room of eternity.

CONCLUSION

This world – has been around for over 5 billion years now – who knows what and who – and where we have been – so hear Jesus say to us when we get the ashes today,  “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”