Homily for Friday of the 3rd Week of Lent

A fifth-grade class was studying geography. At the end of the class, the teacher asked the students to list what they considered the Seven Wonders of the World. The lists included such marvels as Egypt's Great Pyramids, the Panama Canal, the Taj Mahal, the Grand Canyon, Victoria Falls, the Great Wall of China, and Saint Peter's Basilica. 

But one girl was having trouble completing her list. The teacher asked her if she needed any help. "Yes, a little," the girl replied. "I'm having trouble making up my mind because there are so many."

"Well," said the teacher, "tell us what you have, and maybe we can help." 

The girl shyly stood up and began to read her paper to the class. "I think the Seven Wonders of the World are to touch and to taste to see and to hear." She hesitated then continued, "And then to run and to laugh and to love." [1]

God has created an amazing world; He has given us incredible bodies and minds that are miraculous in their capabilities and powers. These extraordinary gifts come with only one condition, one great commandment: that we use them totally, completely, and unreservedly to build God's Kingdom in our midst and to bring His reign of love, justice, and peace to all human hearts.

May this Lenten season guide us to a new mindfulness of the wonders of Creation and a new gratitude to God that compels us to live our lives for God and the things of God.+[2]

 

[1] Cormier, Jay, Connections, Lent 2006, p.11

[2] Ellis Mel, Sermons in Stone.