Homily for Friday
1st Week of Lent
Feb. 27, 2026
Ezek 18: 21-28
Salesian H.S., New Rochelle, N.Y.
The 7 capital sins and the 4 last things
(Hieronymus Bosch)
“Thus says the Lord
God: If the wicked man turns away from
all the sins he committed, if he … does what is right and just, he shall surely
live” (Ezek 18: 21).
It’s a welcome
message from God that we hear on this early day of Lent. God wants to forgive our sins and give us a
fresh start. He’s eager to forget our
past and give us a future. He finds joy
in our efforts to be good, to be “right and just”: “Do I not rather rejoice when he turns from
his evil way that he may live?” (18:23).
There’s not one of us
without some evil to turn away from. Don
Bosco knew he was a sinner. At least
once, he told his boys, “I would tell you even my sins—only I’m afraid I’d send
you scurrying away before the roof fell in.”[1] He had a regular confessor—he always went to
the same priest—and he went to confession every week. The Pope goes to confession regularly, and so
do the priests and brothers you know.
So the Lord God in
Lent, this season of repentance, invites us to admit our sins, big or little—disrespect
for parents, picking on siblings, cheating, lies, theft, impure thoughts or
actions, missing Sunday Mass, laziness, abusive language (we heard an example in
the gospel).
Whatever our sins,
God says if we’re sorry and do our best to turn away from them and practice
virtue, then we “shall surely live.”
“With the Lord is kindness and plenteous redemption; he will redeem
Israel”—and us—“from all their iniquities” (Ps 130:7-8).
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