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Back in the late
1970’s and early 1980’s, when Saturday Night Live
used to be funny, and not just raunchy, one of the stars
that made it funny was the clay-mation character, Mr. Bill.
You remember, Mr. Bill don’t you? “Oh no, Mr.Bill.”
Believe it or not, Mr. Bill became somewhat of an 80’s
cultural icon. Eventually, he would get his own TV show and
would make a feature-length motion picture. That’s one I’m
sure we all saw! And he would even star in his own
commercials for Pringle’s and Pizza Hut. Mr. Bill, the
little clay man with the moveable mouth, was always getting
smashed by something. And the funny thing was, that Mr.
Bill always seem completely unaware of his impending doom,
right up until he said, “Oh No!” And then bam, his little
clay body would get destroyed. Mr. Bill was always in the
dark. The audience could see the impending doom coming, but
poor Mr. Bill just never seemed to get it, until he was
destroyed.
Unfortunately, so many times and in so many ways, we can be
just like Mr. Bill. We like to remain blissfully ignorant of
the trouble that we are getting ourselves into. We like to
remain in the dark. We like to pretend that we don’t know what
is happening. We do this all the time with our health. We put
off going to the doctor. We ignore the symptoms. We don’t
exercise. We eat the wrong foods. And then, one day, “Oh
no!”. We can do this same thing with our relationships. We
like to pretend there’s nothing wrong with our marriage or our
friendships, or the way that we get along with people. We never
address the issues. And then one day, “Oh no!” , our
relationship is broken. And maybe most of all, we do it with
our moral choices. We pretend God isn’t looking. We hope that
He doesn’t see that one. We think that we will have all the
time we want to repent, and say we’re sorry, and change our
lives. And then one day, “Oh no!”, we’re dead. Just like Mr.
Bill.
Our Gospel today is asking us to wake up. We can’t stay
in the dark. The blissful ignorance of living in the dark is
still ignorance. And being clueless is NOT going to serve us
well on Judgment Day! As St. Mark says, Jesus came to bring us
the light. He wants us to know what’s going on and what’s
coming in our future. We are to get rid of all evil and
sinfulness, and live in Jesus’ light. God has done His part,
now it is up to us to our part for our salvation.
And to do that, we’ve got to be truthful. We’ve got to
be people of the truth. This not only means that we have to
tell the truth, but it also means that we have to live
truthfully, being honest with ourselves first and foremost. We
are people who love to live in denial: “It’s not a sin. It’s
not a big deal. God doesn’t care. God will certainly forgive
me. I can’t help it. It’s just the way that I am.” We’ve got
so many lies that we tell ourselves. And we’ve told ourselves
some of them for so long, that we have actually started to
believe the lies, over the truth. Living in the light is living
in the truth. We’ve got to be honest with ourselves. We are
sinners. We need a Savior. And all of us have some changing to
do, as we continue to strive to turn back to Him!
Poor Mr. Bill was clueless. “Oh no!” We can’t be
clueless. We can’t be in the dark. We’ve got to be people of
the light, people ready to meet our God. Let us use this Lent
to be honest with ourselves and with God. May we make the
necessary changes that we need to, to live in the light.
May
God bless us, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…AMEN !!!
St.
Maria Goretti …Pray for us !!! |
