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Title: #WhatHappensInVegas #OurLadyofLourdes #February11
[__01__] There is a grotto, a shrine – for prayer - to Our Lady of Lourdes, on our property.
If
you've never been there, it's located to your left outside the door. It is in
the center of the parish, the geographic center of our parish.
There is another more famous grotto Our Lady of Lourdes at “Notre Dame” University in Indiana. It is in the center of the campus and gives the university it’s identity and name.
Our Lady
is in the center. I have some friends (a father and a son) who graduated from Notre
Dame. They are also Notre Dame sports / football
fans.
They constantly quote a former Notre Dame coach
(Lou Holtz) who told his players before a big game: “God doesn’t care who wins [this football
game] tomorrow, but his mother does!”
And, specifically to the messaging and preaching of
the commercials?
Are
you one of the people “tuned in” not just for the game but also for the
commercials? I am one of those people.
I
think the commercials reveal something of our own desires …and one in
particular in 2024 due to the location of the stadium and game.
This
year, for the first time ever, the game is being played out west in Nevada in
the place known as “sin city”: Las Vegas.
This
“sin city” nickname / designation, I believe, might be agreeable to some of us
and to the Pharisees who believe sin and sinfulness are limited to certain
places and times and people.
Was
this not their attitude toward leprosy? Keep those people away from us. We are
better than they are. But Jesus’ message is that the leper might be “simple”,
but he does not really lack “status” in God’s eyes.
The
man with leprosy shows great humility, kneeling down before Jesus and
recognizing his divinity more than the more “officially
registered” Pharisees do.
[__03__] It is also
a humility shown in the mosaic above our altar, in the kneeling, praying (St.)
Bernadette of Lourdes.
This
Sunday is February 11 and really our “Super Sunday” and the anniversary of the
first appearance in 1858 of the Blessed Mother to Bernadette. Bernadette had her own very fragile
condition, not being well physically and her family was very poor financially.
It
is ironic that Lourdes has become a place of healing and miracles and that
Bernadette was such a great intercessor before God for the healing of others,
BECAUSE Bernadette herself was perpetually sick and died at age 35.
Not
everyone is called to healing but all of us are called to holiness.
[__04__] Also, you and I – as sinners – do not lack
status in God’s eyes. Jesus does not desire the sinner to die but to turn to
him and live.
This
is what confession and the seal of confidentiality in the confessional are
about, the opportunity to be totally honest and healed … all without having to
state your name. God knows who you are. The priest does not need to know.
Do
you have – do I have – an incorrect attitude toward the places of sinfulness,
the times of sinfulness and the people who are sinning …and the probability of
sin?
[__05__] I suggest this attitude is ∑ summarized in the
famous tourism advertisement and popular #hashtag for the city itself, starts
with “What ”
“’What Happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.”
In 2003, this
phrase was made famous in by the Las Vegas Tourism Authority to promote travel
to Las Vegas based on the city’s image of “adult freedom”. But is the choice to
sin really MATURE .. and is it LIBERATING?
Even if we never
go to Vegas or to NOLA for Mardi Gras, don’t we sometimes regard sin as = “what
happened at the party stays at the party” / “what happened at the office stays
at the office ” / “what happened in the past stays in the past…”
[__06__] The #
message of “What Happens in Vegas” is a desperate and depraved statement and
Jesus does not want to leave us desperate and depraved and broken.
We have a
different belief and creed that the sins of the past can be healed and we can
grow and change.
[__07__] Years ago, I attended a lecture at the Archdiocese of Newark on the subject of virtue and also of purity given the many temptations out there …
The
speaker reminded us of many pitfalls to sin online and electronically. He was
not, however, talking mainly about the dangers of having an Amazon Prime
account.
Rather,
he was speaking of the dangers of pornography and indecent images which are
presented to you and me as harmless and entertaining.
However,
are they not contrary to the virtue of respect, self-respect and human dignity?
The
images represent the degradation of the actors and performers both women and
men, some of whom might be “paid and willing victims”, but all are still victims!
Given
that such images were and are so prevalent, he paraphrased the one-time VISA credit
card commercial – “pornography – it’s everywhere you want to be”
And,
for you and me -– in various forms – these images and ideas and words and words
can be a substance to be consumed that can seem to be irresistible.
And some
people suffer from addiction or forms of dependency related to pornography.
This can be healed through the church through confession and through
counseling.
They
seem to be irresistible and the this an illusion – to be everywhere you want to
be – and to make you into anyone you want to be.
The
evil spirit – Satan – can contort or distort the desire for love and beauty
into a distorted image of ourselves, of our relationships, even of our own
bodies.
After
all, Satan – the devil – does not really care about your body. He just wants
your soul.
God
cares about you – both soul and body – and wants you to know you are loved as
you are, as who you are. Love and real affection are not about what you get but
rather what you give.
Be
careful. The spirit and distortions of the Evil One are everywhere you want to
be.
[__08__] What happens in Vegas does not stay in
Vegas. It will affect your or my à family,
marriage, work, ministry, sleep, attention span.
And, by the way, the legalized marketing of
online sports betting and gambling is a great temptation to young people and
recovering gamblers. So what happens in the Vegas casino does even stay in the
building. It’s on your phone, in your house.
There is a danger that we will die in our
sins but it does not have down this way.
“What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”
suggests that we – as sinners – surrender to death by our sins in particular
places and that sin is both a destiny and destination.
The Good News has a different direction à Jesus does not desire the sinner to die but
to turn back to him and live.
We go to confession – to receive penance and
absolution – because the confessional and cross is where the sin goes to die
with Christ.
Recall the seal and confidentiality of
confession: what
happens in the confessional stays in the confessional.
But what
happens on Calvary, on the Cross, does not stay on Calvary.
[pause] Prior to this Gospel episode, in Mark Chapter 1,
Jesus’ popularity and identity remained obscure.
Jesus
was staying and speaking in Galilee which was sparsely populated at the time.
The Lord did not have a “media presence”.
In his more public Passion, Death and
Resurrection, Jesus’ mercy goes out to the whole world, to you and me as
individuals, to Our Lady of Lourdes parish family (which we give thanks for this weekend,),
so that all of us might put on the new man, the woman in Christ to be re-made
in holiness and wholeness. Stay tuned!
Our Lady of Lourdes Pray for us!
Notre Dame de Lourdes, priez pour nous! [__end__]
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