Catholic TV Mass Online March 23, 2025: Third Sunday of Lent

Presider: Fr. Matthew Widder Parish: Catholic Community of Waukesha Text from the Homily It was a Sunday a couple years ago I went to bed very, very excited because earlier that day my sister and her husband had gone into the hospital to give birth to their first child. And so it was an exciting day and I remember going to bed that night thinking oh my, I could get woken up by a phone call that the baby was born! And you wouldn't believe it but that's the exactly what happened. At 10:45 I woke up and I got a call my phone is ringing and it says "mom" on it. My mom was staying with my dad at my sister's house watching the dog. But I got that phone call that said mom, and I said here it is. Is it going to be a boy or girl? What's the name going to be? Here it is. Ready for the big moment. And I answer the phone and said hello and my mom said, “Matthew. The dog got out!” (laughter) I said “What?” That's not supposed to be the message! But it's interesting how many times these moments where we're very, very excited for something, we're looking forward to something, our mind is set on something super, super exciting, all of a sudden there's something that pops up when we least expect it. It pops up when we least expect it. And before we get to the goodness that we're looking to celebrate, we have to look back and deal with a very practical reality that's right in front of us. How often sometimes does it happen where we're excited to go on the vacation. What do we have to do? You have to pack things up and sometimes that's annoying. You have to pack everything up. Sometimes we're looking forward to a trip or a day off or the weekend and then we get sick and all of a sudden there's these things we have to deal with before we can celebrate. Obviously we're in this time of lent and this time of preparation, it's easy to look forward right away to Easter. But at the same time it's Lent. And what do we have to focus on in Lent? We get this sense within the gospel today. Repent. We need to repent. Jesus talks about a couple news stories of the day. We don't really hear Jesus comment on the news much but he did and these two very much tragedies that happen. Just because these tragedies happened there was a sense of were these people worse off? No Jesus says. But if you do not repent you will all perish as they did. But what Jesus was getting at there's something deeper. There's a sense of repentance. There's something within our heart that has to change. There's parts of our heart that need to be cleaned up and brought into order with our savior Jesus Christ. The gospel ends with this great parable of the fig tree that didn't bear fruit for 3 years. They're about to cut it down. No, give it one more chance. A member of a parish that I was at said “Father our parish is the parish of second second chances. Our parish is a parish of second second chances. And isn't that what we all need? A second, second change. Before we celebrate we've got to go back and we've got to repent. What are the hard parts of my heart that need to be brought into deeper alignment with the love of the Lord and then to trust, to trust. That we have a God of second, second chances, third second chances, fourth. The Lord calls us back to his love. Entrance: Down To the River To Pray Text and music: American folk song; “The Good Old Way,” attr. to George H. Allan, fr. Slave Songs of the United States, 1867. Psalm 103: The Lord Is Kind and Merciful Text © 1969, 1981, 1997, ICEL. All rights reserved. Used with permission. Music © 2017, Jesse Manibusan. Published by OCP. All rights reserved. Preparation: Instrumental Communion: Change Our Hearts © 1984, OCP. All rights reserved Sending Forth: Lift High The Cross Text: 1 Corinthians 1:18; George W. Kitchin, 1827–1912, and Michael R. Newbolt, 1874–1956, alt.; tr. by Dimas Planas-Belfort, 1934–1992, and Ángel Mattos, alt. Tune: CRUCIFER, 10 10 with refrain; Sydney H. Nicholson, 1875–1947 © 1974, 1997, Hope Publishing Company Mass Setting: Mass of Renewal Text © 2010, ICEL. All rights reserved. Used with permission. Music © 2009, Curtis Stephan. Published by OCP. All rights reserved. Permission to podcast/stream the music in this liturgy obtained from ONE LICENSE, License No. A-718591. www.HeartoftheNation.org