Monday, February 23, 2015

Monday of the First Week in Lent

(Leviticus 19:1-2.11-18; Matthew 25:31-46)

A few weeks the Vatican announced that it is arranging free haircuts and shaves for street people in Rome.  Already a section of St. Peter’s colonnade has been sectioned off for showers and toilets for these poorest of the poor.  Now the Church is also providing a space for barbers to come on their day off to provide their services.  It is not so much that Pope Francis thinks “cleanliness is next to Godliness” but that he knows caring for the poor is God’s will.

The first reading today is part of the “holiness code” of the Old Testament.  Its emphasis on justice shows that religion in the Jewish tradition demands more than prayer and asceticism.  Jesus pushes the idea to its extreme.  He tells his disciples that they reverence him when they serve the needy.

The poor surround us.  They are not necessarily begging on street corners.  They may be serving us breakfast or cutting our lawn.  We must not look pass them.  Quite the contrary we need to see in them a reflection of Jesus.  In a way like taking the body and blood in the Eucharist, meeting their needs provides access to eternal life.

Friday, February 20, 2015

Friday after Ash Wednesday

(Isaiah 58:1-9a; Matthew 9:14-15)

Fasting – Isaiah in effect denies it in the first reading today, and Jesus delays it in the gospel.  There is, therefore, cause to wonder about its worth. 

Physicians often require patients to fast before undertaking various kinds of medical procedures.  Of course, people needing to lose weight regularly fast for salutary reasons.  Religious traditions, despite the reservations of the readings today, have long considered fasting a way to purification.  Not only does it allow the body to purge itself of contaminants, but it signals a victory over one’s desires.

Although the practice almost mocks the meaning of the term, Catholics are bound to fast only on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.  That is, on these two days we are not allowed to eat between meals.  But individual, more strenuous fasting is encouraged.  Skipping a meal and even passing an entire day without eating can express genuine love for the Lord.  We must remember, however, the fasting that pleases God most.  As today’s reading from Isaiah proclaims, God wants us to work so that all people may be free.  That is, we are to free the poor from excessive want so that their fasting may be a willful act of love and not an inescapable necessity.

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Thursday after Ash Wednesday

(Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Luke 9:22-25)

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,” writes poet Robert Frost discerning the direction he should take in life.  One road, he says, “bent in the undergrowth” as if it was so well traveled that one might lose oneself on it.  He took the other one because, he claims, it seemed less worn.  Is that second trail the road of life, which Moses exhorts the Israelites to follow in today’s first reading and which Jesus delineates in the gospel?

Moses also refers to a choice.  He exhorts the Israelites to choose wisely in what may be called a fork in the road ahead.  One prong will lead them to life and prosperity through love of God and compliance with His commandments.  The other will bring them to dissolution through self-indulgence and injustice.  Jesus explicates what God desires of humans: that they deny themselves for His sake.  He too mentions a choice.  One can gain the whole world and be imprisoned in it.  Or she can lose everything that she has and find herself in the company of Jesus, the resurrected one.

Lent is a period of grace to reflect on the choices which the readings today propose.  We are to spare ourselves of comfort so that we can focus on Jesus.  He gave up everything so that we might choose life with him.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Ash Wednesday

(Joel 2:12-18; II Corinthians 5:2—6:2; Matthew 6:1-16.16-18)

In the great American novel The Scarlet Letter a married woman has sexual relations with a church minister.  When she is discovered with child, she is made to wear the letter “A” meaning adulterer on her cloak.  For years she walks about the town doing countless acts of kindness.  In time the people come to think that the letter sewn on her cloak stands for angel.  The ashes put on Christian foreheads today should experience a similar change of meaning.

Some proudly wear ashes today.  They think the ashes symbolize their being Catholic.  But a person should no more be proud of wearing ashes than of wearing dirty underclothes.  Ashes are a sign of sin.  By seeking them on Ash Wednesday, Christians recognize that they have disobeyed their Creator and turned their backs on their Redeemer.  For this reason, the minister will sometimes say when imposing ashes, “Repent and believe…”

Yet ashes are not to stay on our foreheads forever.  Of course, we soon wash them off.  But more importantly, we confess our sins and change our ways.  Particularly during this season of Lent we pray, fast, and do works of mercy as today’s gospel recommends.  The ashes then take on new meaning.  They are not signs that we have sinned but stimuli that have drawn us closer to the Lord.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Tuesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 6:5-8.7:1-5.10; Mark 8:14-21)

We are about to begin our annual forty day retreat known as Lent.  We should be asking ourselves what penances we will do: how might we intensify our prayer, overcome our craving for material satisfaction, and practice extra works of mercy?  If the project sounds overwhelming, we are like the disciples of today’s gospel in the boat with Jesus.

The company of disciples begins to worry that they have not brought bread for the journey.   But Jesus reminds them that they have witnessed him feed thousands with meager amounts.  Underscoring the need to trust in him, he admonishes the disciples not to imitate the Pharisees or Herod.  At least the former have demanded that Jesus perform signs on request before they believe in him.

Let us make no mistake.  Lenten penances are for our good.  They enable us to deepen our relationship with God, liberate ourselves from frivolous needs, and help one another.  They are not impossible and seldom really difficult to fulfill because Jesus accompanies us.  Trusting in him, we will discover a better place than anywhere that we have been.