Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent

(Isaiah 1:10.16-20; Matthew 23:1-12)

People today want to be “cool.”  That is, they want to be noticed.  Even if being cool means committing an injustice, they want to be known as someone that matters.  This warped desire conflicts directly with Jesus teaching in today’s gospel.

Jesus is giving instructions to his followers and to Jewish peasants.  He admonishes the former to avoid the hierarchies of the Jewish leaders who vaunt themselves with titles.  He consoles the humble who feel the onus of those same leaders’ laws.  To both groups he recommends service without self-seeking.  He promises them a due reward in their common Father’s Kingdom.

We should be questioning our motives as part of our Lenten examination of conscience.  Do we act to serve others or are our actions motivated by the desire to be looked up to?  Alternatively, do our actions cause others to give thanks to God or do they make their lives more difficult? Now is the time to rectify both motives and deeds.  As Isaiah says, though our offenses be as odious as blood on snow, they may become as pure as lamb’s wool.

Monday, March 13, 2017

Monday of the Second Week of Lent

(Daniel 9:4b-10; Luke 6:36-38)

The Myers-Briggs Personality Indicator has been used for decades to help us better understand ourselves.  It operates by people taking a test which measures their different personality types in terms of opposites.  One is evaluated as introvert or extrovert, thinking or feeling, sensate or intuitive, and judging or perceiving.  We may want to ask whether a judging person can abide by Jesus’ commands in today’s gospel.

In a sense no one can stop judging.  People have to make decisions which require an assessment or judgment of the reality which they confront.  When Jesus says to his disciples that they are to “be merciful” and to “stop judging,” he wants them to take good care before criticizing others.  Judging types should become more perceptive and perceiving types should consider the numerous factors which limit perfection.  Most importantly, Jesus wants his followers to forgive one another so that they may work together on behalf of God’s kingdom.  Brewing resentment will impede the pursuit of justice and peace.

We all want due consideration for ourselves when we are being judged.  We should not deny it to others.  If we are to live in a society where all can develop their potential, then we must allow people to learn by recovering from their mistakes.  When we do so, we not only allow ourselves some slack when needed, but we also imitate our merciful Father.

Friday, March 10, 2017

Friday of the First Week in Lent

(Ezekiel 18:21-28; Matthew 5:20-26)

At the beginning of “Paradise Lost” John Milton claims his intent is to “justify the ways of God to men.”  He is needed after reading the passage from Ezekiel which says that God might condemn a person after making just one false move.  As school children will ask, would a man really be damned to hell after failing to attend mass one Sunday morning and then being hit by a dump truck on the way to the store to buy ice cream?

O.k., the example is frivolous, but the question remains crucial.  How can it be said that a person might not be judged on the totality of her actions but for one malicious deed?  As always, the best way to address the issue is to defer to Jesus.  Today’s gospel is taken from his Sermon on the Mount where he presents his New Law or righteousness.  He says that people will not be judged so much on their outer actions as on their heart’s intentions.  A man may bow before another not out of esteem but in deception.  His action will be judged as wanting.  A woman may say nice things to another one day and gossip about the person the next.  Her words will convict her of duplicity.

In any case we need to be slow about judging others.  The human heart is often so twisted by life’s contingencies that it does not know what it desires. And then there is God’s overwhelming mercy!  We pray that everyone will be saved as we try to purify our own intentions.  In these ways we trust that God will not condemn us.

Thursday, March 9, 2017

Thursday of the First Week of Lent

(Esther C12:14-16; 23-25; Matthew 7:7-12)

Why do people pray? The age-old question is probably made more by unbelievers than by believers. Still, the faithful need to ask themselves if they think that they might change God’s will by their efforts.  Is He not changeless?  If so, then why bother to seek His helpim??

Prayer is the most urgent of Christian actions.  Christians cannot help but pray because it is the Holy Spirit that is prompting them to do so.  Their prayers do not change God, but through their prayers God is changing them.  First, prayer enables them to see that God has at his disposition myriad ways of improving an undesirable situation beyond what they have considered.  Then in prayer they discover how God may want them to address the challenge at hand.  Finally and most importantly, prayer aligns them with the only true order of things: not theirs but God’s is to be done.  It has been wisely said that God’s posture toward those who pray does not change with their prayer; it always remains one of pure love.

In today’s gospel Jesus urges his disciples to pray for what they need.  The first reading pictures the Jewish Queen Esther doing that as she prepares to meet her husband, the king of Persia.  Her prayers will lead to the salvation of her people as God unmasks the maliciousness of their persecutor.

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Wednesday of the First Week in Lent

(Jonah 3:1-10; Luke 11:29-32)

There was a time within the memory of many living today when most Catholics would eat meat only once a day and fast between meals during the Lent.  Of course, they never ate meat on Fridays at that time.  The communal Lenten penance provided a sense of solidarity among the people much like what is indicated in today’s first reading.

Although there is no historical record of an Israeli prophet converting Nineveh or even of a city so large that it would take three days to transverse, the narrative from the Book of the Prophet Jonah provides readers with a profound religious truth.  It tells them that God expects them to acknowledge not only that they have sinned individually but also that their faults have caused others to sin.  As a result there is need that they help one another overcome sinful ways.  They should fast and pray together so that God might forgive their sins and bring the nation true peace.

We fast during Lent for various reasons.  We want to show remorse for our sins by denying ourselves some pleasures.  We also want to show our love for the Lord who has provided us with the goods of creation.  We also want to help one another live a life of moderation – very much in need today.  Doing so we demonstrate that it is not created things but the Creator who gives our lives permanence and peace.