(Listen to this homily here).
In seminary I had a class in which we were given a difficult
topic on which to preach. We only
had a couple of minutes to think, then had to give a homily! I wish we would have had a chance to
practice for a Mass like this, where a bat comes to visit a children’s Mass!
I
see a hand raised…yes? We should name the bat! Ok…let’s call it Pat the bat. We
should bless the bat! Moving
on…
There
was a man who was in our first reading and Gospel today. Who was it? Jonah. Way to focus during Pat’s visit! And what was Jonah famous for? Jonah and the…? Whale! And what happened with Jonah and the
whale? He ate it. Jonah ate a
whale?! No, the whale ate Jonah!
So
here is what happened with Jonah.
God asked Jonah to preach in a place called Nineveh. Do you know what Jonah did? He ran away! He got on board a ship that was going away from
Nineveh. So God said, “Well Jonah,
you can’t run away from me! I’ll
have a whale eat you!” Jonah
finally got out of the whale and finished his job.
Now
Jonah was compared to someone else in the Gospel. Who was this? Jesus. Yep. Why? Here’s a hint: Jonah was three days and
three nights in the belly of the whale.
Jesus was three days and three nights in…? The tomb! Exactly.
Jesus,
unlike Jonah, always followed his Father’s will. He came to earth and gave his life on the cross. He was buried in a tomb. Then he rose again!
Lent
is a time to grow closer to Jesus.
We do this by praying, by giving something up (gossip!) and being
respectful to people in our life.
May we have a great Lent so that we may have a great Easter!
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