An Intervention of Healing

Homily for Sunday, March 1, 2026
The Second Sunday in Lent
Genesis 12:1-4a
Psalm 121
John 3:1-17

I quote from a recent issue of The Atlantic:

Amanda Bauer, a teacher at a Minneapolis elementary school… struggled to maintain her composure as she described the day… when ICE showed up in force outside her school.  Agents had been circling the school since December, seemingly learning its routines, and they arrested some parents just before the winter break.  But this time,agents leapt out in riot gear and began entering the apartments just across from the school, where many students live. “We had to lock down and keep the kids inside… ” Bauer said. “We had a student who was looking out the window and saw them break into his apartment and just sobbed, ‘That’s my house. That’s my home.’  We shut the blinds, but it was too late…”  “We kept them physically safe,but the kids saw what happened.” – Robert Worth, for The Atlantic, Jan26, 2026

That the children might have been physically safe but saw what happened is similar to what Augustine describes in Book 6 of his Confessions in which he speaks of his student and friend Alypius who, while in Carthage, much to Augustine’s dismay became drawn to the spectacle of the Roman gladiatorial games.  It was only grace and a mentor-ly intervention by Augustine that helped pull Alypius away from returning again and again to view the violence and bloodshed.  But when Alypius left Augustine and went off to study in Rome… (and here I quote Augustine):

He one day met by chance various of his fellow-students returning from dinner, and they with a friendly violence drew him, vehemently objecting and resisting,into the amphitheatre, on a day of these cruel and deadly shows.

Alypius, not wanting to be caught up again in the spectacle of the games, determined to keep his eyes shut.  But would that he also had shut his ears,writes Augustine…

For upon the fall of one of the gladiators, a mighty cry from the crowd stirred Alypius, and he, overcome by curiosity… opened his eyes and [writes Augustine] was struck with a deeper wound in his soul than was the gladiator in his body.

Alypius “imbibed a savageness,” writes Augustine, describing the wound…

…and,drinking in the madness unconsciously, became delighted… and even drunken with the bloody pastime.  He was no longer the same as he came in but was now as one of the throng.  With them he watched, shouted, became excited, and got carried away with the madness that would lead him to return, not only with those friends who first enticed him, but also with others whom he himself would invite.

Again, an intervention was needed to rescue Alypius and to restore him to his right mind.

As did the Romans with their gladiatorial games, we live in a world marked by weapons and force and that condones the use of violence.  Like the ancient Romans we, too, make violence and fighting into “spectacle,” viewing it not in amphitheaters but on our phones and computers. As in ancient Rome, today nations sponsor this spectacle,creating “content” of, say, drones attacking boats, or of masked men with guns in city streets, or of officers making arrests, or of tattooed prisoners subdued behind bars, all of which are posted online for our viewing.  As with Alypius in ancient Rome, when we imbibe such savagery, we can be wounded in our souls. And some of us like Alypius get so caught up in this spectacle that Augustine might say that we are struck with a deeper wound in our souls than are the victims in their bodies.

As in the case of Alypius, an “intervention” is needed to heal us from the wounds occasioned by our present-day “spectacle.”  Beginning today and continuing through the Fifth Sunday in Lent, our Sunday scriptures map out this intervention that can pull us away from the violence we have seen and heal the wounds in our souls.  These scriptures culminate in a few weeks in the reading from Ezekiel in which dry bones are given flesh and breath and stand up on their feet; and also on that same Sunday with the story Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.  As they were for Alypius, so are new life and resurrection possible for us.

Today our intervention begins with God telling Abram to, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you…”  “Go. Leave this land behind,” God tells Abram.  “There is another land – the Gospels will call it a ‘kingdom’ – a land not marked by weapons and violence.  Go. I will show it to you.”  

Our intervention begins likewise in today’s Gospel story of the encounter between Nicodemus and Jesus.  Nicodemus comes to see Jesus by himself, and he comes in the dark.  Alone and in the dark, there is no opportunity for “content creation,” but only for a close, face-to-face encounter with Jesus. If we would find healing, it could be that we like Nicodemus are being invited to turn off the lights and to come away from the crowds to spend time one-on-one, face-to-face with Jesus. When we do so, he may challenge us – as he said to Nicodemus, “If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you of heavenly things?” – [Jesus may challenge us,] but ultimately, when we allow ourselves to encounter Jesus, he speaks a language not of violence or force but of love:  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.”

Like the children in Ms.Bauer’s classroom, we may be physically safe, but we see what is happening, and the sights can wound our souls.  The scripture lessons of Lent invite us to begin an intervention of healing.  Why not this week take time, like Nicodemus,to seek Jesus out?  Set aside some time –even just ten minutes maybe three times in the coming week – to leave behind the “crowds” and to go to a place where you will not be disturbed.  Leave behind the “lights and cameras” by turning off your cell phone and computer. Alone and in the silence, listen for Jesus’ words that tell not of violence but of love.  Love for you, yes you.  And experience how much allowing ourselves to encounter Jesus is healing for our soul.