Look, change happens. But when change happens in the Church, don’t assume that it is a knee-jerk reaction to anything. Try to remember that a lot of prayer, research, and time went into any change we experience in the Church.

Like our psalmist, we turn to God and we cry out, “Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness; in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.”

How do I do this? I can grow with the power of the Holy Spirit, and with the strength I draw from the sacraments. That leads us to our Lenten sacrifice. A Lenten sacrifice should challenge us to grow spiritually.

As we prepare to mark the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and the 5th anniversary of Laudato Si’, we need to remember that justice takes some time and some commitment. That’s part of what it means to live in right relation with God and his creation.

Through the work of the Holy Spirit and with the help of our coaches, we can be able to identify root causes of sin in our lives, bring our sin to confession, to be healed and reconciled. I know that sounds like a lot, but believe it or not, there is a process to internalizing God’s law.

Taking the Lord’s name in vain can slowly erode our relationship with God.

In the end, it’s not about us – it’s not about whether you or I feel comfortable or uncomfortable. It’s about Jesus. We try by our actions, our words, the very way we live our lives, to facilitate an encounter between someone – anyone – and Jesus Christ.

Does the Church have a place in the pubic square? Yes, absolutely! As disciples who are supposed to go out into the world, we have to engage culture in order to evangelize it.

My brothers and sisters, today’s Gospel invites us to be open to the possibility that we might need to slow down before we can speed up – that if we are indeed the people of faith we say we are, then we might need to wait or to at least slow down for things to unfold in God’s time.

So, we turn to the Church that Christ Jesus gave us and as long as the Church is not asking us to sin, we obey. That’s really the bottom line. We do that out of a spirit of love for God and out of a spirit of unity with Christ’s Church on earth.