Quinquagesima Sunday 14 Feb 2010 Sermon

Quinquagesima Sunday 14.2.10 Giving up sin

Approaching Lent we wonder what we should give up. Sugar in the tea, butter on the bread, television programmes...

Of course what we really should give up is Sin.

That is the point of the whole operation. We give up the legitimate things to gain self-control so we can give up the illegitimate things.

It would be far better if we spent Lent covered in sugar and butter, and without sin, than with no sugar and butter but covered in sin.

One temptation for us is to think that if we have made an effort to give something up, that means we have done enough, and we can then go on sinning the same as normal.

All our energy goes on the sacrifice and we have nothing left over for the real contest.

This must be what Our Lord had in mind when He chided the Pharisees: What I want is mercy not sacrifice.

Alternatively we might be tempted to think that we can overcome sin without any sacrifice of a penitential nature. This is to overrate our own strength.

We need to practise making voluntary sacrifices because we have disordered desires, and we need to practise re-ordering them.

If we are faithful in small things we will be faithful in bigger.

Desire is at the heart of it all. What we desire determines the way we act.

What we are trying to teach ourselves is to desire God above all else. This has always been the first and main commandment - to love God, but we get distracted by a million other things, and we lose God in there somewhere.

Penance helps to remind us of what is really important.

If I am hungry for food, it reminds me that I am even more hungry for the food of heaven.

If I reduce my interest in trivial and wasteful activities it reminds me that I am here to save my soul, to get to heaven and to help others get there too.

We can consider what loving God requires from today’s epistle, where St Paul says that even if he does apparently good things like prophecy, or even laying down his life - without love it would mean nothing.

It seems that the motive behind our acts is the crucial thing. The motive we most need to have is to please God.


I could give a thousand dollars to the poor because I am looking for a tax deduction, or because I love God and know that it would please Him if I helped these people. Only in this second case is the gift of Charity working at its best.

This is what St Paul is advocating - that our ‘love’ be without self-interest and totally to please God. Of course it will probably please the other person; it is not that we are indifferent to them but God comes higher still.

St Paul is appealing for a right ordering of desires, getting things the right way up and this is the only way to make things work properly.

Penance is part of the process of getting things the right way up, of re-ordering our desires to the way they should be.

We could see what we give up for Lent as a gift back to God. He has given us so much and we have often reached out our hands for forbidden fruit. Now we can give Him something that we are allowed to have, but for love of Him we give it back.