You can certainly tell Spring is just around the corner with the teasing of some warm weather, early flowers pushing up from the Earth and of course that powerful smell you encounter this time of year as your drive out and about. Yes, for me, the smell of pole-cats browsing around and making attempts to the cross the road, which maybe they were following the chicken, I don’t know! But that terrible smell is a definitive sign that change is coming!!
As we Christians marinate here in the nave and try to uproot our selfish sinful habits, it sure would’ve been easier if our Creator had made our short-comings ooze a distinct aroma like that ole pole cat to help remind us, that change needs to come! I guess we could stand in confession digging deeper and deeper until the stench lifted or until the priest passed out! And then maybe also our nostrils could be overcome with a rank odor every time we jump into sin, and I did say jump, not fall. Falling seems accidental and jumping is voluntarily!
But, the profit Amos reminds us that God tried that stench thing a time or two: “I sent among you a plague after the manner of Egypt; Your young men I killed with a sword, Along with your captive horses; I made the stench of your camps come up into your nostrils; Yet you have not returned to Me,” Says the LORD. (Amos 4:10)
I guess we have become accustomed to our sinful odor and stand blindful in prayer, Not Me Lord! It is usually someone else’s fault, not mine. And so it is much easier to find fault in one another than to cleanse our own stinky sinfulness. The psalmist writes: “They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell.” (Psalm 115:6) If we really are truthful with ourselves, aren’t we all more of a Pharisee at times. (Luke 18:2-8)
As we stand at the beginning of another Lenten season, self inventory is a must, being as the tax collector in the Gospel reading today: “not willing even to lift up his eyes to the heaven, but kept beating upon his breast, saying, ‘God, be gracious to me the sinner.” [Lk. 18:13]. A daily reading of the prayer of St. Ephraim is a must: “O Lord and Master of my life, a spirit of idleness, despondency, ambition, and idle talking give me not.“ Prostration (if you are able) “But rather a spirit of chastity, humble-mindedness, patience, and love bestow upon me Thy servant.“ Prostration (if you are able) “Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my failings and not condemn my brother; for blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages. Amen. “Prostration.(if you are able)
We should allow these powerful words to take root deeper than the weeds of sin that we have been fertilizing and pampering like a proud parent! We need to become uncomfortable with our status quo and diligently seek to be cleansed of our sinful and addictive habits. Without challenging these habits and crutches, we are leaving a window open for a greater separation from God. We become stale and crusty, and our pathway to God becomes further and further away. We chose to move ourselves further away from holiness. This separation allows the wolf to attack and devour us. We find pleasure in serving darkness.
We must whole-heartedly embrace this Lenten season as if it were our last, attending as many services as we can, nurturing ourselves in the spirit of fasting, increasing time for scriptural study and spiritual readings, freeing ourselves more and more from pride and from our denial of our need for repentance. And then by the softening of our tears, becoming a more moldable piece of clay firmly in the most capable hands of our Creator. “Not Me” isn’t going to cut it, it needs to become instead “Here I am Lord” (Exodus 3:4), Please Forgive Me a Sinner! (Romans 3:23)
Fr. Gabriel Weller 2-9-2025
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