We are almost halfway through the 40 days of Lent, and there is still time to start if we haven’t yet been ready. Halfway through, still time to find the ways that we need to fast, the ways we can best pray, the alms we most need to give. Halfway through the forty days of Lent, and it is the Lord’s Day today and so we are assembled here and we have read the scriptures and we have to talk about Lent’s hardest work. Lent’s hardest work, what is it? Paul gives it away in his letter to the Corinthians: God in Christ has done the reconciling and has made us reconcilers. God was in Christ doing the reconciling of the world. God was not counting our sins against us but instead making us be what Christ is, the Gospel of reconciliation. Lent’s hardest work: Forgiveness! I believe it’s the hardest work of our lives. What else can we talk about when we are confronted during Lent with the great Gospel stories of sin and repentance and reconciliation.

My role model this Lent for this hard work is my friend, Alan Easton, who died of AIDS on Ash Wednesday evening at Coming Home Hospice. His partner, Jim, died there as well three years before. I met Alan fifteen years ago in AA when he was three years sober. I became his AA sponsor and friend. He was born in Missouri and raised in a Christian fundamentalist family. Because of his addiction and sexual orientation his family disowned him and remained unavailable right through his dying.

During his recovery Alan found Jesus through the reconciling faith community of Most Holy Redeemer in San Francisco. He was received into the church at Easter in 1998. Filled with hope and promise he shared this experience with his family. They didn’t respond. A month before he died he told me that he wanted his family to know that he loved them and forgave them.

“Forgiveness is God’s work from beginning to end,”
he reminded me.
“Our life’s work is to bring forgiveness to a broken world, starting at home.
Besides, Joe, I want to go to heaven, directly.
And I don’t know if that will happen if I don’t forgive them.”

Alan always had his bases covered.

Alan constructed a card for each of his parents, his brother and his two sisters. Each card was shaped in a heart and on the front it said,

On the inside he related a happy memory he shared with that particular person from his childhood. On the back he wrote,

" Thank you. See you in heaven.”

What an extraordinary example of love, generosity and forgiveness.

His family did not attend his funeral services. I gave his cards to a family representative who had come to settle legal matters. I haven’t heard from them but I pray that Alan’s outreach will be a source of healing and reconciliation for them in the days and years ahead.

Lent is the time to learn the trade of reconciliation. Lent’s hardest work is forgiveness. We’re halfway through. Who is on your list?

A Reminder…...
DON’T FORGET

St. Robert’s Volunteers
You are being honored

TODAY
From 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
In Hennessy Hall.

On each Friday in Lent (except for Good Friday), Stations are celebrated in the Church at 6 p.m. A light Lenten Supper follows in Hennessy Hall. The Stations on March 4th will be led by our Ninth Grade Youth. The supper will be hosted by the Grownups and Children’s Liturgy. This is an opportunity for us to pray together and to get to know one another. We ask that you put into the donation basket on the serving table what you would have spent for your usual Friday dinner. Our St. Vincent de Paul Society will use your gift to help our sisters and brothers who are in the midst of hard times. Bring your family and friends.

The Childrens' Liturgy Teeam will again be holding a Good Friday activity for children ages four and older. Doors will open in Hennessy Hall at 1:15 p.m. Children should be picked up immediately after parish church services conclude.

”Game Show Mania”
IS ALMOST HERE
Don’t miss the Women’s Guild Dinner Dance and Auction

There are still a few tickets available….$75 per person or $65 for seniors. Call Karen Martinez for tickets.

GAME SHOW MANIA NEWS

Want to advertise your business or special talent in a resource directory for parishioners? Don’t miss your chance to place an ad in the “Red and Blue Pages!” The listings will be free to all who attend the Women’s Guild Dinner Dance. They will also be available after the event for a nominal fee.

ST. VINCENT DE PAUL needs your help with non-perishiable food items especially

CANNED HAMS

These items will help those in our parish that are in need. You can drop these items off at the Rectory Monday-Friday 8:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

This Sunday’s gospel is such a wonderful one, presenting us with a Samaritan woman from whom we can learn much. She is three times an outcast, an outsider. First, as a woman she “belongs” to her husband as do his lands and his animals. Second, she belongs to an outcast people because they don’t believe everything their observant Jewish neighbors do. Third, she is an outcast even among her own people: everyone knows she’s had five husbands. (Though, as one of the Tuesday scripture group participants noted, in those days a woman could be divorced by her husband merely telling her three times that they were divorced! And I added that burning a dinner was considered just cause, which it was!)

No one in her right mind goes to a well at noontime in a desert land, but she does because she is tired of the smirks and comments from the women who gather in the morning when it’s cool. She is an amazing woman: attentive to the moment, engaging a man in conversation as an equal, when she is supposed to be subservient. She is totally honest. She is the first theologian, in touch with her experience, asking for clarification, professing her faith in a Messiah to come. And like any good theologian or teacher, she runs to the very people who despise her with her good news, trusting that her enthusiasm will dispel their doubts. She must have been charming, says another Tuesday participant, not to mention convincing, since they come out with her to meet him, beg him to stay and become believers.

What about us? When we’re happy or confused or angry, do we engage our God in conversation? The Spirit Jesus promised us is with us always and, no doubt, will guide us in whatever straits or joys we find ourselves. We don’t need to have everything worked out before we talk with the One who knows our hearts anyway. It’s a good rule of thumb that if something causes an emotional response within us of whatever kind, it deserves our attention. Many of us, especially of European descent, may have grown up “stuffing” our emotions since they were considered dangerous or unruly. They can surely be that, but they can also give us insights about ourselves that we otherwise would miss. Being of Irish/German/English heritage, I know how easy it is to live from the neck up! Our Catholic upbringing also may have taught us that emotions could lead to sin, so of course, if we avoid them, we are more virtuous. But where would we be without feeling loved and loving? And when would we ever stand up for a co-worker treated unfairly if we didn’t let ourselves feel some outrage? And doesn’t our sadness at the death of someone close to us indicate how much the person meant to us?