Lenten Homily, 20 March 2026

I was continuing to look in the Gospels—like we talked about yesterday in the afternoon huddle—at that time between Jesus’ resurrection and when he ascends to heaven, and then Pentecost. Those 50 days are fascinating to me.

Yesterday we were talking, in a sense, about the reactions of the people. And I was thinking: why is that important for us? Because now we’re in Lent, so we probably “shouldn’t” be talking about the resurrection yet. But the whole point is this: if we lived the resurrection perfectly, we wouldn’t even have to live Lent. Since we can’t live the resurrection—or we don’t understand what Jesus has done for us, or we can’t fully live into it—we have to repeat it over and over. It’s like pressing play again: “Okay… do we get it now?” No. So what actually happens in those days after the resurrection?

When you look at the whole series of events—who Jesus appears to, the people who try to leave and it doesn’t work, all the different things going on—it’s striking. Obviously, there are common reactions: confusion, doubt, fear—so many negative sentiments.

And then it’s interesting what Jesus does. He asks questions. He reveals. He encourages. He even gives them food to eat. He does very human things.

Why Are They Afraid When Jesus Shows Up?

But the funny thing—and I don’t mean this in a bad way—is that sometimes you’d think they get really scared because the authorities are about to kill them all, or because they don’t know what to do. But that’s actually not the case. Normally they get scared when Jesus shows up.

It’s like they’re doing okay: “We’ll go back fishing,” and kind of forget about things. Or, “We’ll just hang out and do our everyday life.” As long as things are calm, they’re fine. And then Jesus shows up again, and they’re like: “Ah! What’s going on? I don’t understand.”

That’s kind of weird, because isn’t Jesus supposed to be the one comforting us? For us it should be: “Wonderful—he’s back. We’re happy.”

But if we look at the Gospel today, the people can’t put Jesus in their box, and they get really worried. He’s showing up—wait a second—he’s going to the feast, he’s not going to the feast. They don’t understand what he’s trying to do. Are they going to kill him? Are they not going to kill him? They get confused. Jesus just doesn’t fit in their boxes (John 7:1–14).

And if we look at the first reading, it’s kind of the same. You have this idea of the just man—wisdom, whatever it is—coming, and people get very annoyed (Wisdom 2:1, 12–22).

Lent: Not Just What We Decide to Do

So if we’re in Lent, it’s because we’ve encountered God—otherwise we wouldn’t be here. But the God we’ve encountered, we don’t totally recognize yet. We’re not totally comfortable with him as he is. That’s kind of the point.

A lot of times in Lent—and don’t get me wrong—we think the hard part is going to be: “I decided I’m going to get up half an hour early every day,” and that’s going to be really hard. And maybe it is hard. I’m not denying that.

But I think, in reality, what normally happens is: we come up with the things we’re going to do, and what actually ends up being hard is when Jesus encounters us in specific circumstances.

So yes: “I’m going to do this, I’m going to do that.” Great. That’s not bad. But the hard things are what Jesus brings into it—what doesn’t match the image we created for him.

So as we continue our Mass, as we continue our weekend, or next week as we move into Holy Week, it’s worth paying attention to where Jesus is showing up and I’m getting uncomfortable—rather than only focusing on the “wonderful things” like, “we want to pray more,” or “we want to do this or that.” Great—100%—nothing wrong with that.

But where is Jesus showing up? Because often it goes beyond what we planned.

After all, these people had really good intentions too. They had 613 rules they were all following. And they weren’t bad rules—but obviously the rules weren’t working. Jesus shows up and breaks their boxes.

So we’re asking for the grace to see what he’s doing with us: how he’s working with us, what he wants for us—how he’s encountering us in this Lenten season, in this Mass.

The Cross Is Not the End

And we do that knowing the resurrection is coming. That’s the whole point. It’s not just about, “I don’t know… sometimes I think what we get is: it’s going to be 40 years of cross.” Well, no.

The cross is definitely the present—thanks be to God. Thirty-three years, whatever it was; three days—no, I mean: it was intense, it was difficult. But it’s not never-ending.

Heaven is, thanks be to God. And the resurrection comes after the cross.

So we’re asking God for the grace to encounter him in our lives, to let him purify us—so that what we’re aiming at, what we’re hoping to experience, is him: his resurrection, and his Holy Spirit.