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Browsing Father Michael Deering's Sunday Homilies

God believes in giving Mulligans!

God believes in giving Mulligans!
Homily originally presented March 14, 2021
by Monsignor Deering

 

Those of you who play the game of Golf, know about the term Mulligan.

It’s a silly name ... that means that you’ve been given a courtesy ... namely the opportunity to take your golf shot over againa second chance to do good.

 

For example, if you tee up the ball and your swing tops the ball so that it just skims the ground for 20 feet or so, you might say, “Can I take a Mulligan on that shot?” and if your buddies agree, then you get to tee the ball up and swing again.

 

Mulligans happen a lot around water when your shot goes off course and plops in the pond! A Mulligan enables you to take your shot over again.

So, instead of being dead in the water, you get a second chance to save your game.

             

Rarely do you get more than one Mulligan per game.

 

The concept of a Mulligan is found in other sports as well, such as in Tennis when your serve touches the net, or in Billiards when your cue slips off the cue ball so it goes nowhere, especially on the opening break. So take it over. Gimme a break!

 

But the game where getting a Mulligan is most appreciated … is the game of Life!

 

Are there things you’ve done in your life that you wish you could do over?

Wouldn’t that be great?

Have you ever been given a second chance to rethink and re-do a big decision?

Are there choices that you’ve made where things would be so much different today

if only you would have had the chance to try them over again?

 

If we’re honest, we will freely admit that we’ve made many mistakes in our life.

Sometimes we’ve been given a break ...and

sometimes we just have to stay with what we got.

 

The higher the steaks, the higher is our appreciation of being able to get a second chance to do something over that we’re not happy with.

Maybe it was the way we treated someone.

Maybe it was the person we dated ... or the person we didn’t date.

Maybe it was the school we went to ... or the choice not to go to school.

Maybe it was the job we took ... or the job we got fired from.

 

We humans make mistakes and it’s so nice when we have the chance to recover

and try things a second time.

Thank goodness for Mulligans … for the opportunity to start over and try again.

 

And thank goodness, God believes in Mulligans. In fact He has generously bestowed

them upon us human beings many times in Salvation history.

 

In our First Reading today from the Old Testament book of 2nd Chronicles we heard of how the people of that time (~ 6oo BC) were committing grave sin:

“adding infidelity to infidelity and practicing all the abominations of the nations.”

 

But even though the Chosen People of God were openly offending Him,

God offered them a Mulligan … a courtesy … a chance to start over …

by sending them Prophet after Prophet to call them back to following God’s Law.

 

We definitely have a patient God

Whose first desire is to pardon those who have offended Him.

 

But there’s a limit to His patience. So when the people of that time refused to listen, God allowed them to be taken into captivity by the Babylonians ...

for 70 years of slavery.

 

Then after that long period, known as the Babylonian Exile, the Chosen People were given another Mulligananother chance to start over and begin again.

This occurred when King Cyrus, King of Persia, set them free from captivity and allowed them to return to the holy city of Jerusalem and reoccupy the Temple.

 

Oh, what a happy time for the people! Many Psalms tell of the joy they felt in having the chance to return to their land!  It was a second chance … a fresh start!

 

But sadly, the Chosen People eventually strayed away from God again and so God, so full of compassion, sent His Son into the world to call them back to goodness.

Jesus, the Only Begotten Son of God, came as the Light of the world.

 

But as St. John tells us in our Gospel today ...

 the people still preferred darkness to light because their works were evil.

People who do evil hate the light because then their wicked deeds get exposed.

 

The biggest mistake evil-doers make is thinking that “no one will ever know!”

Many people sin when they’re away from home, they think no one will ever find out.

Many people sin in the privacy of their own home; they too think no one will know.  For example, the Internet has opened up an easy access to pornography and violence that was never there before. There’s even what’s calledThe Dark Net Again people think, no one will ever know.

 

What a mistake!

First of all, you’ll know! And the knowledge that you’re doing something wrong

will affect everything that you do.

 

Secondly and most importantly, God will know what you do in darkness.

He sees everything everywherethere is no darkness to God!

 

Thirdly, society today, has many ways of finding out people’s dark secrets.

Just read the papers and see the dirt that the Press love to discover about people.

 

Law enforcement is using sophisticated methods to discover and uncover sin.

 

Not so long ago, a couple had their computer in for repair and the technician noticed images of child pornography. So he called the Fed’s ...

and both the computer and the couple were taken into custody!

 

Years ago, my backyard neighbor in Atlanta was a man with a wife and 5 kids.

One day the FBI came in and arrested him for Child Pornography.

They had been tapping the phone lines in the neighborhood and found him to be the receiver of these images. They took him away and he went to serve 5 yrs. in prison.

 

Scripture says that one day, everything now hidden... will be exposed

to the awesome light of God.

People’s wicked ways will not remain hidden forever.

The day will come when all will see their sin.

 

The Mulligan of all Mulligans that God has ever given us ... took place when

He gave His Only Begotten Son, Jesus, up to death in order to redeem the world.

That one event, the Christ event, gave the world the chance to really start over!

 
What did God the Father do?

He illuminated a darkened world with supernatural Light  ...

when He sent Jesus, the Light  ...to be with us.

Jesus showed that His Light overcomes all the Darkness.

 

and He promised that ...

if we enter into His Light ... we will win out over darkness.

 

19 years ago, Pope St. John Paul II added new mysteries to the Holy Rosary.

He called them the Luminous Mysteries, meaning they are Mysteries of Light!

They call us to reflect on Jesus, who is The Light

and how He brought His Light to this dark world.

 

The 5 New Mysteries are:

  1. Baptism - this is how we let the light of God into our souls!
  2. Wedding Feast – Jesus, the Light made visible His power, first public miracle.
  3. Proclamation of Kingdom of God –Jesus, the Light, spreading the light to all.
  4. Transfiguration – Jesus shows the radiant Light of His glorified body (ours)
  5. Eucharist – Jesus, the Light of God, remains with us in the Holy Eucharist. ...

     to illuminate our minds and hearts.

 

 

These are the Mysteries of Light!

They are the Mysteries of God … who is forever The Light of the World!

 

We affirm this truth every time we pray our Creed at Mass.

Knowing that God is Light and that Jesus is the Son of God,

we pray: “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God”

 

Jesus is the Light … He said so Himself!

 

Jn. 8:12 - Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world.

Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

 

Jn. 9:12 - Jesus said, “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."

 

                God wants us to live in His Light because He loves us.

 

How much does He love us?

 

In our Gospel today from John chap. 3, the evangelist tells us,

“for God so loved the world that He sent us His only begotten Son,

so that all who believe in Him might not perish, but might have eternal life.”

 

The Father offered up his Son to death so that we could have Eternal Life with Him!

 

Jesus is Light from Light. Jesus is the Light of this world!

And staying with Jesus is the way that we overcome the darkness in the world.

 

The ongoing Mulligan that Jesus offers all of us is called Confession!

 

Unlike the game of golf … There’s no limit!

We can go as often as we want and take as many mulligans as we need!

 

In Confession, we bring our sins to the Light ... where the Light of Christ scatters the darkness of sin and releases us from the bond of Satan.

 

Let’s make the remainder of Lent a time to get rid of darkness and let in the Light.

 

Rejoice! We know the end of the Story … Jesus overcame darkness and death!

 

And He lives on to give second chances to those who call upon Him for help.

 

In great gratitude, let’s use the many Mulligans that God offers us ...

and in doing so … begin again and again ... to live in The Light!

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