"Being Good Isn't Easy"

 

Homily Cycle I – OLPH School Mass 3/05/2021

I want you to think about two plays this morning: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Cinderella.

 

Cinderella comes for two Latin words that mean “the little girl who sits in ashes.”  On Ash Wednesday we received ashes on our heads to mark the beginning of Lent, a time to think about how we live our lives - a time for us prepare for Easter.  

 

Think about what the priest said before we each received ashes, “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return” or “Repent and believe in the Good News”, reminding us that life here is a preparation for heaven.  Cinderella’s stepmother and stepsisters treated her poorly, but she only showed kindness to all, her life reminds us that being good isn’t easy.  

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is based on the Book of Genesis.  His jealous brothers hate the young dreamer.  In the first reading Joseph’s brothers plot to kill him. 

 

 

 

 

Again, we learn being good isn’t easy.

In St. Matthew’s Gospel the owner of the vineyard sent his workers and then his son, but the tenants beat and killed them, including his son, who represents Jesus, the Son of God.  Again, we learn that being good isn’t easy.   

Learning that “being good isn’t easy” is an essential part of the story of Lent to Easter!  Before Cinderella puts on the glass slipper, and all the happiness that follows, before Joseph becomes an advisor to the Pharaoh – they endure jealously and hardships.  Before Jesus rises from the dead He suffers and dies.

In life we will have hardships and joys; failures and successes we can offer them to God and ask God to bless them.  Lent is our training program, for our spiritual year; we are training to become more fully, the people we were baptized to be - Christian.

I ask you for the rest of Lent to pray one Our Father and ask God to send His grace upon someone who has no one to pray for him or her.  And ask St. Andre Bessette to intercede for us to end the COVID 19 Pandemic.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

May God Be Praised!