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Today, Our Lord says, in the gospel, twice, “Repent. Repent. Change the way you are thinking. Change the way you are living. Repent.”

Many years ago, a man in New York who was trying to repent a certain problem in his life (He really was trying to change his life, his morals.) wrote on an index card this little prayer. And I made a copy. “Lord, you steer the boat and I will keep rowing in the right direction if You are patient with me.” Maybe you have heard it before. I don’t think he made it up. And he did. He’s fine. But he was going through a bad time, of morals, of thinking, confusion. “Lord, You keep steering the boat,” meaning life. “The way I think, the way I am acting, You steer this boat I am in, my life. I will keep rowing at the oar. I will keep rowing, trying in the right direction, if you are patient with me.”

Every time we are together I go to my four Catholic scholar Bible books, and they point out that the big point of today’s gospel, all Our Lord is saying, “Be on your toes!” Some of these people die so suddenly, they don’t have a chance to change, to repent. But you have time. The beautiful ending of the gospel is the point. Give me one more year. Give me another year. Don’t cut anything down. Don’t cut me off. God’s patience, that is the point of the story. Give me one more year. Give me one more Lent.

So, let’s take a look at some sins, from which you and I sometimes have to repent, and then some suggestions how you can repent a day at a time, if you will forgive the cliche. The suggestions I have gotten from you, for forty-four years, from men and women in the Catholic Church, not the clergy, not books, grown-up Catholics who are trying to keep rowing in the right direction. Anyhow, here are the sins. They are the classical seven capital sins, major, capital, big-league sins. And a couple of them I seriously suggest that you are not guilty of. I mean, you can’t be. And I will try to explain in a way.

The first is PRIDE. That is the worst. It has always been considered the worst. Pride. It’s demonic. As Our Lord indicates, it is the sin by which the angels fell and became demons. “I am equal to God” is what it comes down to. I don’t think any of you think that. “I am equal to God. I don’t care what anybody thinks, including Jesus Christ.” That is major sin and so rare, thank God. Demonic pride. It’s rare and it’s awful, and it’s number one worst.

Number two is SLOTH or major league laziness. When you look up the definitions in Catholic Theology it clears up a lot of cobwebs. Sloth is not you are on a hammock this afternoon and someone yells, “You slothful slob, mow the lawn!” That is temporary exhaustion, maybe a little lazy. Sloth, as a major sin, what we call “mortal,” is a complete disgust with anything spiritual. It is a consistent sluggishness, major laziness with anything spiritual. Well, you can’t be guilty of that because you are sitting here on Sunday at Mass. and there is a suggestion for somebody you might know later on who is so spiritually sluggish that they need help. They need to keep rowing.

The third is ENVY. I have been here for four years, and at least once a year I announce, “That’s my sin.” It’s not a boast. It’s a neurotic statistic. To be eaten up by jealousy since you were six years old!.... “What a physique that guy’s got! .....That guy is a great athlete!.... That guy is older than me and he’s got hair still!” I know I have said that so many times, but.... You know the phrase “eating your heart out?” Jealousy does that, and it is the only major sin that gives you no fun at all, no fun at all. You know some jerks can boast about some of the other sins.... “Boy did I get drunk last night!” Or, “I’m such a magnificent hunk that women hurl themselves at me all the time!” But you can’t boast about jealousy. You can’t. It doesn’t give you any fun and it eats your heart away. When it becomes a major thing in your life, there is a suggestion, how to break free. I think it is more pain than sin.

Number four, GLUTTONY. And gluttony doesn’t just mean stuffing yourself with food and liquor. You can be gluttonous on the other end of the stick. When you read the definition in Roman Catholic Theology, gluttony is, if it is becoming a lifestyle, is an obsession with food and drink. And C. S. Lewis gives an example, not of stuffing yourself to surfeitdom, but here is an example. He and his brother took care of a lady for many years, many years, prepared this lady’s meals. She was upstairs and these two brothers were taking care of her. She wasn’t seriously sick, but for years, they brought her trays three times a day. This was in England. “I asked for lightly toasted bread. This bread is singed..... I asked for boysenberry jam. You have given me huckleberry jam..... I don’t eat much meat. I only ask that you cut the meat into neat rectangles..... I don’t want much food, and some tepid tea. This tea is much too hot.” Day after day...... tray after tray. I know you understand, and we are not condemning this poor lady. But that is certainly an obsession with food and drink, and she never overate. But it is an obsession. I have seen people holler at waiters and waitresses, humiliating them and yelling at them. Anyhow, you get the point about gluttony. It can be at either end, obsession.

ANGER! We can’t help having impulses of anger. We are human. We are not contented cows in Kansas, chewing a cud. We are human, and we get flashes of anger, often with the people that we love the most, impulses of anger. A capital, major mortal sin of anger is where you premeditate how you will say something to burn and blister and scald somebody, not just bursting out with an expletive because you are irritated or mad. That’s not a major mortal sin. But planning it.... “Sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me....” I never agreed with that bit of doggerel. Names can hurt you for years, especially when they are premeditated and meant to wound and scar you for years. That’s bad anger. And you don’t need me to tell you that. But, in Lent, it is a good reminder. Our Lord says twice in the gospel, “Repent.” You can change.

And GREED, not just for money, for power. And even power is not bad unless it is used to manipulate and get your own way and lie. A Catholic scholar, very conservative, Catholic Biblical scholar got a computer and he figured out that Our Lord condemned the sin of greed, the manipulation and misuse of power and control seven times more than all the other sins combined. So often Our Lord has to speak out to His enemies. Our Lord says, “He who has ears to hear, will you listen?” The misuse of power, that is greed, not just the hoarding of money. And it is dangerous because very good people can go on doing that for a lifetime, misusing, manipulating, controlling in a bad way. That is greed.

And finally, LUST, which is the easiest sin to fall into, and the sin that in Catholic theology is considered the least serious. But it’s a serious sin. When the lady was caught in adultery (The guy scrambled out the window, but they caught the lady, and she is in her sheet...) and Our Lord said, “Has nobody condemned you?” The other guys walk away. She says, “No one, Lord.” He say, “I won’t condemn you.” As she walks home, He calls out, “I won’t condemn you, but sin no more.” That’s Our Lord talking, gentle, always kind with people who repent sins of the flesh. But don’t sin anymore. Get back at the oar!

Now, quick suggestions I have gotten from normal human beings..... not from books. About PRIDE: If you think pride, in some way, is sneaking under your cerebral consciousness (Remember, I get this from the laity.) a simple prayer when you come to Holy Communion.... It’s a great prayer. Our Lord puts it on the lips of the man in the temple in that beautiful story Jesus told, simple prayer. “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” Sums up a life. O God, be merciful to me, a sinner. To that degree I am not proud at all.

Number two, SLOTH, big league laziness. I just don’t think if you come to Mass on a Sunday morning you could any way be considered that. But maybe you know somebody who is spiritually sluggish. Why don’t you invite the person to one Holy Week service here? If that’s not feasible, even if you feel sometimes fed up, read one of the four gospels’ account of Jesus’ passion. I recommend Mark. It’s the shortest. Just the account at the end of Mark’s gospel, Our Lord’s arrest and death. In case you feel that you are getting a little too fed up with the spiritual.....

About ENVY..... This is suggested to me so often and it really is help. It’s going to sound terribly conventional and banal and corny, but it works. I have to do it four times a year. Consumed by envy and jealousy, make a gratitude list, an attitude of gratitude. Nobody has to know but you and Jesus, and nothing major. Seven things that occur to you, that’s a good Bible number. Seven things you are grateful for, this particular Lent. Jot them on a piece of paper. Put it in your wallet or pocket book. I am told by my spiritual director, “Do it four times a year.” And it doesn’t have to be anything monumental or spiritually profound. One of mine is frozen yogurt. “Thank you, God, for frozen yogurt.” So I am not eating my heart up about what I don’t have.

About GLUTTONY.... This might be for just one person at this Mass, maybe one, maybe none, but are you struggling with booze? I mean, between you and Our Lord at Mass, are you struggling with problems of drink? Is somebody who cares about you kind of nudging you? And if you really are honest with Jesus, “I’m drinking too much.... I am doing things social drinkers don’t do. I’m keeping track of my drinks. I am switching from hard liquor to wine.” Social drinkers don’t do that. It’s a disease. That’s not your fault. But, not getting in the oar and rowing in the right direction..... “What are you saying?! Go to AA. I am not going to AA in Pleasant Hill. Someone will recognize me.” Well, you will recognize him too. You can go to one meeting. It doesn’t cost anything. It could change life. Go to Danville or Walnut Creek. It doesn’t cost anything. It’s only an hour. If you are worried about it, here is the Lent maybe to get back at the oar. Our Lord is gonna steer your ship and you can save so many people you love such agony. OK. You already know that. You don’t need me.

About ANGER, especially getting angry with people you love, and those are the ones we get angry with the most.... I am quoting a man (I have told you about this many times.) who was the night watchman at the school where I was teaching and one night (He had the happiest marriage I’ve ever seen. His wife would walk him to work. They were about a hundred years old, and she would walk him. They would hold hands.) I asked him, (I was preparing a talk for marriage, about which obviously I knew zilch!) “What would you say about getting angry in marriage? You always get angry at people you love.” He said, “Let me think.” And he leaned on his mop and he said, “I got it! ... Stick to the subject. When you are fighting with somebody you love, don’t dredge up the past, anticipate the future. Just stick to the subject. And let the other person finish a sentence.” Well, what is this.... Dear Abby? It’s good, solid spiritual theology. Stick to the subject.

And finally (Not finally.... two more!) about GREED, something that we are greedy about, especially hard working people, is our time. “This is quality time. Leave me alone! I want to watch Gilligan’s Island!” In Lent, maybe you could just, even with precious time, when you can breathe and you want to be left...., maybe once in Lent you could listen to an execrable bore, giving that precious time to someone who needs to talk, a bore. (“We’re doing that now, Father!!)

And about LUST, if you remember that you cannot control images that cross your mind, revenge images, erotic images. You cannot always control them, but don’t feed into them. We are so very vulnerable to carnal temptations as human beings, especially in our culture. I have often thought, supposing in May when I am seventy I finally go to a store and I finally, at the age of seventy, rent an adult video. And I slip it into the machine and I get my Irish terrier out of the room and I settle down, at last, and then I have a heart attack, and the good-hearted parishoners of Christ the King say, “We heard Father was watching a film. Was it the Ten Commandments?” That, of course, is ludicrous. But Our Lord was not being ludicrous. He was on the level, about adultery and flirting with it, and getting ready to get burned by getting too close. “I am not going to condemn you.” He said to the lady, “But sin no more.” Get back at the oar. Get back in the right direction.

The final thing, I swear it’s the end. For many months now, I have been thinking about “Repent. Repent,” the theme of the gospel this morning. Where I live in Martinez they are constructing these enormous mansions. They look like museums of art or hospitals, HUGE mansions, you know families, rich people. So I have thought, when the weather gets very hot and it gets dark, but it’s warm, I could drape myself in a sheet and go around to these mansions, within walking distance of my little place, and in the hot weather they leave windows open on the ground floor and go to various windows, “Repent..... Spread the wealth..... Be a pal to a poor priest.... The name is Dibble, D... I... B...”

I’ve still got the old crumpled index card I got so many years ago from that guy whose life is so good now. “Lord, you keep steering the boat (my life). I’ll keep rowing in the right direction. But, please Lord, be patient with me.”