Homily for the 1st Sunday of Lent

In January 2006,  an explosion at the Sago Mine in West Virginia led to the deaths of twelve miners, eleven of them by carbon monoxide poisoning. Rescue crews desperately tried to reach the miners in time. Still, the twelve were found dead late the following day, along with one survivor who recovered from his devastating injuries after months of hospitalizations and therapy.

One of the miners was Martin Toler. As he huddled with his fellow miners, trying to find shelter from the poisonous air, Martin took out an insurance form he had stuffed in his pocket and a pencil. In faint sentences, he managed to scribble out a goodbye to his family, assuring them that he and the others died peacefully.

The note read: "Tell all I'll see them on the other side. It wasn't bad; I just went to sleep. I love you."

Other notes were found. The messages assured their families that they had not suffered, that they had just gone to sleep. The miners scratched out their farewells and last proclamations of love, care, and concern on any scrap of paper they had.

Such extraordinary grace and selflessness: Despite the imminence of their own deaths, the miners managed to find a way of offering some assurance, some peace, some final expression of love to their families.

The miners of Sago left an essential lesson to all of us as we begin the season of Lent: Lent confronts us with our own mortality, with the reality that our lives are all too brief and fragile.

As Jesus was led to the desert to confront the mission before him, we are called to the desert of our own hearts and spirits to face what we are making of this time we have been given, what we want our lives to stand for, what we want to leave to those

we love.

 May the Spirit of God give us the courage and wisdom to face the reality of this life's limits and to accept the hope of the life of the resurrection to come.