Our Gospel reading today refers to the start of Jesus' ministry, a ministry that began in Galilee with the words, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." And, it reminds me of a story that I'd like to share with you.

Once upon a time, there was a man who bought a house with his wife, and he enjoyed the house, but he didn't enjoy all the home maintenance that was needed. So he didn't really do too much to take care of the home. As the years went on, the house began to look a little bit worn. His wife would ask him at the end of each year, "Honey, do you think you could paint the outside of the house?" He¹d always kind of put it off, saying, "Oh, yeah, maybe next year, maybe next year." So, finally, he decided, "OK, I¹m going to make my wife happy and paint the house. That's my New Year's Resolution!" So, when his wife went off to work, he stayed home. He ran out to the hardware store and bought some gallons of paint, came back and started to do his painting. It wasn't long before he discovered that he'd grossly underestimated how much paint he needed. Rather than run back to the hardware store, he thought to himself, "Oh, this is water-based paint; if I just add water to it, I can thin it out and finish the job!" So he took the garden hose and added water to the paint, and he was able to paint the whole house. At the end of the day, just before the wife came home, dark clouds gathered over the neighborhood. As his wife drove up the driveway it began to rain, and rain so much that all the thinned-out paint began to run off the sides of the house into the ground. He cried out to God, "Oh God, what is it you want me to do?" And out of the heavens came this loud, thunderous voice, "Repaint, repaint, and thin no more!"

Repentance, repentance - what does that mean, to repent? Well, the easiest definition of repent is just to do an about face and go another way. Turn the corner, turn around, and go in another direction. Jesus begins his ministry in the region of Naphtali and Zebulun. This is where in our first reading from Isaiah, we hear the prophet speaking about five hundred years before Christ. He is trying to reassure the people who¹ve been invaded by the Assyrians and taken off into exile by saying, "A light will some day dawn, a leader will come, who will lift all this gloom, who will bring you out of oppression into liberation, and once again into the wholeness and freedom of living." And Jesus is that light. He proclaims a light now is coming into the world.

This is such good news for us today, especially after all the events that happened last year around September 11. Because surely a pall had come over the nation, hadn¹t it? We were having a different kind of Christmas season, I think, this last Christmas, that was different from all the others. Journalists would write about this in the newspapers, and they would say, "It seems like the American people are cocooning, they're staying close to home, not wanting to travel too much, not wanting to go out and buy too many things." It was a different kind of Christmas season last year, and I think people were really taking stock of their lives. It wasn¹t just out of fear of flying that people weren't going anywhere. It was also because September 11th brought home the deep impact of the reality of our mortality. The fact that we never really know when we might have to check out of this life and go on to our heavenly home. And so, people are asking that question of themselves, "What is my life about? What is it that I am really called to do, and am I being faithful to that?" Well, the good news that Jesus comes to bring us this day, in the 21st century, is that things are going to be OK for us, just as they had been for the people of Israel 2000-plus years ago. There is going to be a re-awakening of the hopeful expectation that we all enjoy living in where we believe that our life does indeed have meaning.

But this really calls for us to make some choices. We hear in our Gospel reading that after Jesus proclaims that this prophecy of Isaiah is coming true, He then goes out and picks his disciples. And he picks four of them. Isn't it interesting that he didn¹t just pick the most well-learned? He didn¹t pick the wealthiest. He didn't necessarily pick the ones that had the best reputation. He picked simple folk, just like you and me. Everyone is invited into God¹s kingdom, because God loves each and every one of us. And that call means that we're called to walk our faith walk with a sense of purpose and direction, keeping our eyes on the goal, our eyes on the prize. Sometimes that walk isn't easy, because there are a lot of temptations out in that world. There are a lot of distractions that keep us from really keeping focused every single day of our lives. Our faith walk ideally would be one where we walk from point A to point B without any hesitation, without any deviation. But, I think sometimes our faith walk is more like the Catholic cha-cha. You know how to do that? "Two steps forward, one step back. Two steps forward, one step back. Two steps forward, one step back. The good news even there is that God says, "That's OK. I know that. I know because I sent my Son Jesus into the world, and He had to go through all the temptations too, and He knows how difficult that struggle can be to be faithful each and every single day of our lives.

So the Good News is that we have an ally in the Son of God. We have someone who understands our predicament to try to be good, and loving, and caring, and forgiving, and compassionate all the time, and knows what a struggle that can be. And it's helpful to remember that Jesus really is there for us. So I¹d like to tell you another short story.

Jesus and Satan were having this argument across the millennia about who was the strongest, who was the most powerful, who was the wisest. And God the Father saw this bickering, and said, "Enough! I know what I am going to do. I am going to submit both of you to a contest, and whoever wins is truly the strongest, the most powerful, the wisest." So he sat them both down in front of PCs, and he gave them a list of things that he wanted them to do. And he said, "I'll be back in an hour, and whoever finishes and gets them all right is the winner." And so they opened up the test folder, and what does it say? Create spreadsheets. Build databases. Send email. Create Power Point presentations. So they get to work on their PCs and begin typing up a storm. As the hour is about to end, there suddenly is a blackout on the heavenly power grid, and both PCs shut down. And then the power comes on again, the PCs come back up, and Satan is screaming and hollering, "I lost everything! I¹ve got to start all over again!" He starts to type really fast because he knows God is coming in a minute. And Jesus is also looking really worried, and he's also typing, not saying too much. Then God the Father comes in and he says, "Time's up! Let's see your work." He looks at Satan's, and he says, "You didn¹t even finish the first task!" "But the power, the power was out!" "I don't want to hear about it", replies God the Father. He goes over to Jesus, and he says, "Oh, well done, Jesus, everything completed, and correctly! You are the winner!" Satan protests, "How could you win? I lost everything when the power went out! How could you win and finish all of that?" Jesus just smiles sweetly, and says, "Jesus saves!"

And so, we¹re called to remember that Jesus does save us. That Jesus is there to provide us with a wonderful role model we can read about in the Scriptures of how to go through life when there are trials and tribulations that inevitably come to anybody, whether of good faith or not. We¹re called to remember that we have a powerful ally who wants us to succeed, wants us to become holy; not just so that we can be in a closer relationship with God, which is very important, but so that we can then be evangelizers - reaching out to the world and teaching others about the very same kind of faith, the very same kind of Good News, that we ourselves have learned. And so in our community, we're called always to remember the poor among us in whatever form that takes. Whether it's poor because of impoverishment, or maybe it's poor in terms of not having friends, or not having a real sense of God being in their life. Or maybe being poor because they're caught in some kind of addiction, of drinking or gambling or sex. Or maybe it¹s poor in terms of having a blindness to their own moral or egotistical problems. We¹re called to have a deep sense of compassion for all the people who are around us, because that is how God can change the world for the better -through the good-hearted efforts of each and every one of us. Then we expand our circle of caring and compassion to wider and wider circles beyond our wonderful community parish family, going out into the nation. There is a petition going on outside where you can sign postcards to send to our congressmen and congresswomen, asking them to really look at how we are handling this war in Afghanistan, and to really try to fight terrorism in a good way. And there's also an opportunity to deepen our faith by bonding with one another.

There's an old phrase that "No person is an island," and that is so true in our Christian walk through faith. We need to be in groups of supportive people. During Lent, there are going to be a number of small, faith-sharing groups that will meet during the six weeks of Lent. There you can read Scripture together, and pray, and tell your stories to one another. And grow in love and care for one another, too. So that¹s something to consider also. We're also called to remember that we have to keep learning, we have to keep studying our faith, and this Church has so many wonderful opportunities to learn. The parental education program this whole month has been going on, there¹s Bible Study, the children¹s programs are out there for all of you who have children; in fact, this week we celebrate Catholic Schools Week. There are so many opportunities that God is giving to each and every one of us to have that fullness of life, so that we can then share it with others.

We come to Mass this day as always to celebrate God's wonderful blessings in our lives. So, as we come to receive the Eucharist, let us come with hearts filled with joy and thanksgiving, knowing that we are called to share with others the fullness of life that God so abundantly gives to each and every one of us.