(Second Sunday of Lent (B): This homily was given on February 23, 1997 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I. by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Genesis 22: 1-19; Mark 9:2-10.)

"The most challenging test in life."

Someone told me this joke earlier in the week. I share it with you because, believe it or not, it does tie in with the message of today’s homily.

One day, Frank Perdue went to visit the pope. He said, "Holy Father, I am prepared to donate 1 million dollars to the Catholic Church, to assist you in your many works of charity. I only ask that you do one thing--that you change the line of the Lord’s Prayer that reads ‘give us this day our daily bread’ to ‘give us this day our daily chicken.’"

The pope said, "Well, thank you very much Mr. Perdue for your offer, but I’m afraid that’s impossible. There’s no way I could do something like that." Two weeks later, Mr. Perdue comes back. He says, "all right, Holy Father, I’ll donate ten million dollars to the Church--just change that one word in the Our Father. Think about it, your holiness, ten million dollars, for changing ‘give us this day our daily bread’ to ‘give us this day our daily chicken.’"

The pope said, "Mr. Perdue, you are a very generous man, but I can’t change a prayer like that--it was given to us by Jesus himself."

Two weeks later, Perdue comes in again. He says, "Okay, Holy Father, I’ll make it one hundred million! I will give one hundred million dollars to you and the Church! Just make it ‘our daily chicken.’"

The Holy Father paused for a moment. His eyes widened. Then he said, "Wait here, Mr. Perdue, I’ll be back in a minute."

He went into the next room, called together some of the cardinals and he said, "Gentlemen, I’ve got some good news and some bad news. First, the good news--we’re about to receive a big donation--a very big donation. We can help a lot of poor people. But the bad news is, we’re gonna lose the Wonder Bread account."

I tell this lighthearted story this morning in order to illustrate a serious point:

Life is full of tests. The exams, unfortunately, don’t end when school ends. On this earth, our abilities are constantly tested. Our patience is often tested. Our love for members of our families is tested--sometimes every hour on the hour! Even our faith is tested.

Now I dare say, if you asked people the question, "What is the most challenging test of life?", most would probably answer that the most challenging test of life is coping with the death of a loved one, or dealing with some other devastating tragedy. And that would be a very understandable response. But I would disagree with it! Now don’t get me wrong--a tragedy like the death of a loved one is a very difficult test--a difficult test of faith, a difficult test of a person’s coping skills--I know that from my own experience. But, in reality, most people, with prayer and loving support from friends, relatives and counselors--most people weather a storm like the death of a loved one pretty well. In fact, in my 11 years as a priest I’ve noticed that many of the men and women who have experienced the most horrific tragedies in their lives--these individuals have ended up becoming the most devout. Yes, the tragedy tests their faith tremendously. But, when all is said and done, they pass the test with flying colors.

I remember listening to a talk by Bishop Sheen many years ago. And in this particular talk Sheen said that the greatest test we face in western culture today is whether or not we will divide our loyalties between Christ and the world. In other words, the greatest test we face is, "Will I compromise my faith?" I agree wholeheartedly with Bishop Sheen. I think he was right on target in his analysis. And the polls prove it! Think of how many Catholics today disagree with the Church on fundamental issues of faith and morals: on the necessity of coming to Mass every Sunday; on the sinfulness of contraception and abortion; on the reality of the Eucharist as the body and blood of Christ (according to one poll only 30% of all Catholics believe in the teaching of the Church on the Eucharist). Think of how many Catholics have compromised their faith in supporting political candidates who actively promote the sinful behavior that’s destroying our country at the present time. Or how about the teenagers who say, "I love Jesus" but who drink and party as much as their openly pagan friends? Or how about those Catholic doctors, who call themselves "pro-life," but who give out abortion clinic phone numbers to their patients? (I know of many cases where that kind of thing has actually happened.) That’s like saying you oppose drug abuse, and then giving people the phone numbers of local drug dealers. These, of course, are just some of the ways that the faith is compromised in the 1990’s. And much of it, you see, is socially acceptable. In fact, you will very often get pats on the back if you publicly compromise in one of the ways I just mentioned. And that’s why it’s such a difficult test to deal with--the pressure is constantly on for us to give in and water down our Catholic commitment to the Lord.

I told that fictitious story of the Pope and Frank Perdue at the beginning of my homily because it’s a humorous but great illustration of this type of test. Mr. Perdue was, in essence, saying to the pope, "Will you compromise your faith, by changing the words of the Lord’s Prayer?" In the story, sad to say, the pope failed the test. I’m quite certain that the real Holy Father would not give in--even if he were offered a trillion dollars.

This was also the type of test faced by Abraham in Genesis 22. We heard about that in our first reading. In effect the Lord told him, "Abraham, you say you trust me. You say that you have faith in me. Okay, now demonstrate it--offer your son up to me as a holocaust." Now let’s face it, it would have been very easy for Abraham to compromise at that moment and say, "Well, Lord, I trust you on most things, but on this one issue, I don’t think you know what you’re doing. Sacrifice my son--my only son--the son I’ve awaited for 100 years? With all do respect, Lord--are you out of your mind? Forget it." Abraham could easily have compromised in that way, but he didn’t.

And then we have today’s gospel text from Mark 9--the Transfiguration of Jesus. Here our Lord gives Peter, James and John an incredibly awesome spiritual experience. He takes them up Mount Tabor and gives them a little glimpse of his glory. (By the way, I went up Mount Tabor a couple of months ago when I was in Israel. They took us up on a narrow, winding road in taxi cabs that were traveling about 70 miles an hour. A few times on the way up I thought that I was about to see Jesus face to face like the apostles did. It was more exciting than the roller coaster ride at Six Flags.) But anyway, Jesus gave his apostles this experience 2,000 years ago for a reason--a very definite reason. He wanted to strengthen them in the face of his upcoming passion and death. In other words, he wanted to deepen their faith so that they wouldn’t compromise it on Holy Thursday and Good Friday.

Well, as we all know, they failed the test, and compromised. Every last one of them. Even Peter--the Rock--compromised by denying that he even knew our Lord. Should that depress us? No, actually that should give us hope. You see, God constantly offers us the very same grace he offered to Peter, James and John on Mount Tabor: the grace to be strong in our faith and resist compromising. But when we fail to respond to that grace, we can still go back to Jesus (as these apostles did)--by confessing our guilt, and recommitting ourselves to the Lord. That, of course, is what the sacrament of Confession is all about. In fact, when it comes to the test of compromising our faith, Confession is the place where "F’s" are turned into "A’s." We pray this morning that we will all become "A students."