leap year saint

Jonah 3:1-10; Ps 51 A heart contrite and humbled, O Lord, you will not spurn; Luke 11:29-32

WOrds that end the first reading, "When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil that he threatened to do to them, he did not carry it out."

Words of JEsus, "there is something greater than Jonah here."

Something greater. This should be the battle cry of lent. Why do we do what we do? Because there is something greater calling us forth ion the newness of life.
Now for today:

Why do we have a leap year? Why do we have an extra day in February?
The answer to both questions is simple, it is about keeping it real. Leap year has everything to do with reality.

It takes the earth to revolve around the sun 365.2422 days. So every four years we add an extra day in order to keep our calendar in step with reality, in order to keep the way we measure time aligned with the way time unfolds. It is about real time.

Today, we celebrate St. Oswald's feast day. In the year 992 on February 29th St. Oswald was on his knees doing what he always did as Bishop each day during lent, he invited 12 poor men from the street into the Cathedral and he washed their feet and kissed their feet and blessed them.

On February 29th, after he washed the feet of the 12th man, kissed his feet, and then gave a blessing, he died. He simply died. He died keeping it real. He let his faith dictate his actions, order his life. He lived and died loving the Lord with his whole heart, soul, mind and strength.

This is what Jesus invites us to do, today. He wants us to be real. It is not enough to simply understand the command to love God with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength. We must live it. We must allow the kingdom to be built in us, through our heart, that is in our conscience, at the center of our being, through our soul, having our desires and affections sanctified, through our mind, by the thoughts we think and choose to entertain, and through our strength, by our actions and abilities, in all we do and say. Then the kingdom can be truly be built on Earth through us.

This is how we become real. This is how our will is aligned with God's will. The more we live this then truly we are headed toward that day when we will leap ahead into eternity. The ultimate leap day awaits us all, that one day added to our lives in which time and eternity are all aligned with love and we leap for joy into the heavenly hymn and we all become leap day saints.