SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
14-15 February 2026
Church of Christ the King
Sir 15:15-20
1 Cor 2:6-10
Mt 5:17-37
In case you
missed it or are unaware, this coming Wednesday is Ash Wednesday and the
beginning of Lent, the 40 day penitential season in which we in the Church
prepare to celebrate Easter, which is to say to enter fully into the great
mystery of the saving Passion and Death of our Lord and His glorious victory
over sin and death in the Resurrection.
Thinking about
Lent and Easter, I saw a podcast the other day from two laymen, canon lawyers,
whom I respect. Both are good Catholic men, husbands and fathers; the one of
them is a hopeless baseball fanatic. In his commentary he compared Lent to
spring training for a baseball team. It’s not all wrong as a description, or as
the old adage goes: No pain, no gain! Being at the top of your game demands diligent
and thorough preparation and from a Catholic point of view that translates into
a demand for doing penance, asceticism, or self-denial.
My generation,
older folks, all had their stories to tell about their childhood experiences of
Lenten penance. Abstinence, giving up meat on Ash Wednesday and all Fridays of
Lent, was nothing exceptional back then, because that was what we did all year
round on Fridays in remembrance of the Lord’s Passion. Nowadays depending on
how you live Fridays as a Catholic, it might be more of a big thing to watch
your Friday eating habits. Different back then, not abstinence but fasting was
what caught our attention because other than not eating in preparation for
receiving Holy Communion, from midnight on when I made my first Communion and shortly
thereafter for three hours before Communion and more recently then the present
one hour fast from everything but water in preparation for receiving Our Lord, fasting
was really what made Lent for us. Different than the Communion fast, what fasting
meant was not eating between meals and generally reducing our food intake to
one modest meal, with two other meals which when taken together should not equal
that principal meal. Small children and the elderly were not obliged to fast,
nor were the sick or people of a weak constitution.
Spring training!
Think about it for a moment. My now adult nieces are probably the first
generation of girls in high school to do weight training for sports… and why? To
enhance performance, yes, but most particularly to reduce injuries. Conversely,
in the spiritual life penance plays or can be explained as playing an analogous
role and that since forever. From earliest times in the Church, the hermits,
the monks and nuns of the desert were our spiritual athletes. These heroes of
the Church from earliest times set a pattern for all of the baptized. By
disciplining themselves, by depriving themselves of food, among other things,
by taking more time for God in prayer, they demonstrated their longing for
Christ and His Kingship in their lives. The monastic tradition carried that on
year round and the rest of the baptized took time to emulate their example of
seeking the Lord through fasting and prayer during the season of Lent.
Ash Wednesday and
Lent! As individuals, yes, but more importantly as a Church, as God’s People,
we enter now into our spring training. We begin our quest for the Promised
Land, for leaving behind the fleshpots of Egypt so as to set our hearts more firmly
on the life of the world to come.
Ash Wednesday is
not a Holy Day of Obligation, but if you have an opportunity to get to Mass
that day, make the sacrifice. In every and any case, it’s time to start your
spring training, to take on penance for the sake of renewing your heart and
mind by joining the Church in disciplining your body. If you don’t have a
regular habit of going to confession, start looking now for an opportunity to
make a good confession in preparation for more fully entering into the
celebration of Easter.
No doubt some of
you are well aware of your duties as a Catholic Christian and know that the
Precept binds you to confess only in case of mortal sin, and then to do so as
quickly as possible, or otherwise once a year. Pushing the spring training
thing a bit, I would urge you to have a better standard of performance. To seek
to emulate the heroes of our faith who, by penance and prayer, sought to
follow, to run eagerly after the Lord of Life. Happy Lent!
PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI
