Sunday, February 15, 2026 – The Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Three weeks ago, Winter Storm Fern came and ravaged a great part of our nation with heavy snow and ice. As I write this, some areas are still in recovery mode. Here in the Greater Cincinnati area, we too were hit hard with approximately ten to twelve inches of snow.
As I think back to that stormy weekend, I think about those who plowed our property and those who took care of our city streets. From Saturday night through Sunday, and I believe once on Monday, we here at the parish were plowed about four or five times as our provider attempted to stay ahead of the constant snowfall. On Sunday, one of our provider’s trucks broke down, or the hydraulics in the plow ceased to function. I have been thinking about our snow plowers.
The experience of the snow plowers and their goal to clear our streets and parking lots can parallel our experience in day-to-day life. The plowers tried and tried to clear the areas they were responsible for and for much of the time, to no avail; the white stuff continued to fall. As we navigate through our days, we are trying to clear our own life paths. We try to stay organized during the day and accomplish the tasks we set out to do. We want to keep our desks clear. We want to manage what needs to be managed and appear professional. But there always seems to be various and sundry items/events which get in our way and derail our daily check lists. These distractions seem to materialize as the snowflakes did falling from the sky that weekend. And like the plowers, we never get caught up. And as the truck broke down in our parking lot, we too can become depressed and want to give up.
This is also true in our spiritual lives. We want to pray more, be kinder, address some of our personal limitations which interfere with our relationship with God. But as in daily life, as we attempt to clear our path, making those improvements to our spiritual lives, the “stuff” keeps showing up, blocking our relationship with God.
As we begin the Lenten Season this Wednesday, we again have the opportunity to take stock and examine how we can become closer to God and enhance our spiritual lives. Let us commit to new efforts to better navigate the distractions with grace and care. As people of faith, we believe that God can be that guide to lead us to that clear road/path back to Him. In these coming weeks, pray that the Almighty can lead us and clear the distractions on our way, perhaps as the Israelites were led across the Red Sea. Let’s keep on plowing to new life in Christ in daily life.