A Homily for the Third Sunday of Lent

+ Oculi mei semper ad Dominum… “My eyes are always fixed on the Lord…” My brothers and sisters, in these very first words sung by Our Holy Mother the Church on this Third Sunday of Lent in the Introit of this Holy Mass—which are of course taken from Psalm 24, which we sing at Matins each Sunday—we have so much for our instruction and contemplation that it would be quite understandable if we became caught up by them and took in little else of the riches of the Sacred Liturgy this morning.

For what else do any of us need to do other than to keep our eyes always firmly fixed on the Lord? What rule of life do we need to adopt—in whatever our particular vocation may be—than to resolve always to have our eyes fixed on the Lord, on His Truth, on His Goodness, on His Beauty and to act accordingly unto God’s glory and for the salvation of our souls and of those of others?

The Monastic Office insists that we recall this reality by having us sing of it on no fewer than five days of each week as we return to Choir in the midst of the various demands and distractions of the working day at the office of Sext, using the words of Psalm 122:

Ad te levavi oculos meos,
qui habitas in caelis.
Ecce sicut oculi servorum
in manibus dominorum suorum;
sicut oculi ancillae in manibus dominae suae:
ita oculi nostri ad Dominum Deum nostrum, donec misereatur nostri.

To you I lift up my eyes,
O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
As the eyes of servants
look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid
to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the LORD our God,
until he has mercy upon us.

Yes, our eyes are to look to the Lord. And yet, how often our eyes look elsewhere! How often do we instead look in the mirror, seeing in ourselves all that we wish to see or desire, indulging in that subjectivism and even narcissism which excludes anything that God has to say to us, calls us to do in this life, or even, ultimately, anything that He promises us! We become our own gods; we worship our own wishes and desires; eternally, we reap our own counterfeit reward. Even a monk can ‘achieve’ this catastrophic failure if he is permitted to pick and choose those elements of the Rule he observes or not, rather than keeping his eyes fixed on the precepts of the Master.

And how often do we look elsewhere, at other false gods, be they the gods of pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, sloth or any other temptation with which the devil tries to captivate our attention! Saint Paul warns us against such myopic evils in the Epistle of this Holy Mass, calling us to forswear the darkness in which they thrive and to walk in the light of the Lord. Oculi mei semper ad Dominum…

In the Gospel of Saint Matthew Our Lord sternly warns us that: “If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.” (Mt 5:29) This is stern advice, yet it is sound. For if our eyes are to be focussed on the Lord we must resolutely do everything that is necessary to avoid those situations which we know distract us and lead us down sinful paths. We must avoid the occasions of sin—we know only too well where they lead: and it is not to God!

Our Lord teaches us in this morning’s Holy Gospel that those who hear the Word of God and keep it are blessed, not necessarily those who belong to His family. Our Baptism, certainly, establishes the life of God in our souls and opens to us the necessary door to salvation, but we, by not being faithful to the Word of God, by not keeping our eyes on the Lord, can close that door again and even walk away from it. In playing sport one learns very quickly that if you do not keep your eye on the ball, not only will you not succeed but you may also expect to be injured.

Our task is to keep our eyes on the Lord; to not only hear His Word, but also to keep it, and to keep our eyes on Him in the daily, practical circumstances of our lives. If we have failed—when we fail!—so to do, we must return to Him, yes, even with downcast eyes, humbly to seek His mercy and forgiveness in the Sacrament of Confession, most particularly during Lent, regardless of the gravity of our sins, for His eyes are always upon us, full of mercy and compassion, simply waiting for us to lift up our eyes and return to the purifying power of His loving gaze.

Oculi mei semper ad Dominum… This focus, this recollection, my brothers and sisters, is our daily duty: always to keep our eyes on the Lord. May the privilege that we have in this and in every Holy Mass of gazing upon Him truly present in the Sacred Host and the Chalice renew our resolve and our strength that we may indeed both hear the Word of God and keep it. +