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Lenten Sacrifices
and the Rooted in Faith, Forward in Hope Campaign

We respond by giving ourselves with Jesus to the Father

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This Fr. Gerry Creedon homily was delivered at St. Charles on April 6, 2003

For those of you who have not yet given up anything for Lent or forgotten about Lent, we have the answer. Our ushers are passing around blue pieces of paper to invite you to engage in our campaign, "Rooted in Faith, Forward in Hope." See www.arlingtondiocese.org/osd/ccs.html

Come, get involved and sacrifice some of your time on a short-term project. St. Charles is constructing a community center as a sign for the future and a gathering place for all of God's people. This project is going to support our center and other needed diocesan services.

A lot of volunteers are giving, supporting, and reaching out to others. Many times before people have said they volunteered to do something at St. Charles and never got called back. We are going to ask for some of your time to help with this project and we guarantee you will get a call back this time.

It is an opportunity to be involved in our community. A meeting at 7:30 PM on Wednesday, April 30, 2003, in the school cafeteria will explain this entire project. On the other side of the card is a prayer. We urge you to turn your prayer into action. All hands make light work.

What's Your Lenten Sacrifice?

On Ash Wednesday, I asked the children at the school mass what they were giving up for Lent and they gave all kinds of answers. There were the usual answers like giving up candy, giving up sweets, and giving up chocolate. Others said they were giving up TV. Some said they were going to give up fighting, and others were even going to give up homework!

What do we sacrifice for Lent? In your presence today for this hour, you are sacrificing your time. You give up doing something else to be here. Over 100 parishioners of St. Charles are giving their time in a special way during Lent. They are participating in small faith sharing groups during the season of Lent. They sacrifice time to grow spiritually. On Tuesday nights during Lent a number of people come out to have a bowl of soup. The idea is that the money spent on a regular dinner is placed in a rice bowl for Catholic relief Services and the Philippine Medical Mission outreach. Lent is not just a time of individual sacrifice; the whole community participates in giving up something for something else.

A time of war particularly is a time of sacrifice. People give up or risk their lives. We pray like the hope of WWI that this will be the "war to end all wars". We cannot take these sacrifices lightly.

Within the church this is the season to think about the sacrifice of Jesus. He gave his life that we might live. It is a time when the RCIA candidates prepare though baptism at Easter to give and commit themselves so that the Lord might rise in our community.

That is the context in which we need to place the presentation of the gifts at the altar. Unlike the Protestant tradition, which puts a focus on the word of God, we tend as a Catholic Community to emphasize the sacrifice. We respond to the Word by giving ourselves with Jesus to the Father. We do this symbolically and sacramentally in bread and wine. To the sacrament we join practical ways of giving our substance, bread and money.

It makes us insecure in a time of economic crisis to give money. Giving of our time also cuts into our space. Today's gospel speaks of the grain of wheat that remains a single grain if it holds on to its shell protectively. When a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it becomes vulnerable. Then it springs up in Lent and springtime like the buds and blossoms and produces life abundantly. The church grows through the sacrifice of its people. We in offer time and ourselves so that the church, the body Christ, might continue to grow and give signs of new life. There is in a time of destruction, construction; and in a time of death, the promise of new life.

It is said there are two kinds of people, those who rust out and those who burn out. Join those who burn out. Spend yourself that others might live.

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