Claire Smith

Scripture:

Hosea 6:1-6
Luke 18:9-14

Reflection:

 O God, be merciful to me a sinner. –Luke 18:13

Lent is a time of the liturgical year that requires me to reflect on my journey to becoming the person that God created me to be, my relationship with God and those around me. The readings throughout Lent take us through different aspects of human failings or hurdles, as I like to call them. These hurdles are challenges to growth in our spiritual life. Today’s readings bring us to another hurdle, judgement, and our efforts to recognize our own sinfulness.

In the first reading, the prophet Hosea reminds us of the things that God wants from us. In this reading we hear the love and knowledge of God is worth more than sacrifices and that piety is shallow and fades away quickly. Knowing God through prayer and reflection can be worth more than our Lenten sacrifices. Taking time to “Be still and know that I am God” (Ps 46:11) can do more for our relationship with God than giving up sugar in our tea!

The Parable of the Tax Collector and the Pharisee point out the light and dark sides of humanity. The dark side is described as judging others by our own standards of how we live our spiritual life. The Pharisee rattles off all the tasks that make him a more worthy individual before God than the Tax Collector who is an outcast because he works for the Romans and takes the hard-earned money of the people. The Tax Collector takes on the physical posture of humility. He recognizes that he is a sinner and asks for forgiveness before God. This is also one of the qualities of the Saints. They knew and recognized that they were sinners, keeping their condition at the forefront of their minds every day. This allowed them to have humility and thus be able to open their hearts fully to God.

Humility is not about degrading ourselves. It is about how we think of ourselves in the presence of others. The readings today remind us that humility is one of the goals to have to allow us to enter more fully into the Light of Christ.     

May your Lenten journey be fruitful.

Linda Schork is a theology teacher at Saint Xavier High School in Louisville, Kentucky.

Scripture:

Hosea 14:2-10
Mark 12:28-34

Reflection:

The two greatest commandments: Love God and Love our Neighbor!  The first is pretty much a given, loving God who loves us unconditionally is really a no-brainer!  How can we do anything else but be grateful, thankful and blessed to know that no matter how many times we stray from that love, we are always welcome back!  The second commandment to love our neighbor can be more challenging!  It’s easy to love those who agree with us, share our hopes and dreams, challenge us lovingly to be a better person. Most of the time these folks are our closest friends, family, co-workers, people who literally do live next door to us.

Jesus calls us to love all people, especially those we don’t really care for, those who have different views, those who may not even like us! we live in such a fractured world.  It is very easy to get caught up in the infighting on social media or the harsh words exchanged at the dinner table or board room.  We must work to be that light to the world, to be that small flickering sign of Christ’s love for all.

Our parish theme for Lent this year is ‘Return to Me and Be Transformed.  Lent calls us to stay connected to our loving God and see that love and goodness in all of creation.  Truthfully, this is not easy for any of us.  During this Lenten season, may we find it in our hearts to be Christ for all those we encounter. Let us be transformed as we turn our negative thoughts into positive energy as we feed the hungry at the local soup kitchen, organize a call to action to help the poor in our neighborhoods have better access to adequate housing and employment, visit a friend or relative we have been avoiding because their views may not be our views. Let us do all we can to send positive energy into our world.

However you choose to spend these Lenten days leading up to the great celebration of Easter, may you remember the two greatest commandments to LOVE God and neighbor which calls all of us to be a strong witness of Christ’s love to the world, especially in the difficult times.  Peace!

Theresa Secord is a retired Pastoral Associate at St. Agnes Parish, Louisville, Kentucky.

Scripture:

Jeremiah 7:23-28
Luke 11:14-23

Reflection:

What does the Kingdom of God look like?  Today’s gospel tells us – or better, it shows us.  “Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute, and when the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the crowds were amazed.”

This exorcism led to a debate among the crowd: How did Jesus accomplish this wonder?  Some rejected Jesus.  Beelzebub, the prince of darkness, or literally “Lord of the Flies,” must be the power behind Jesus’ healing.  In other words, demonic powers control Jesus, and therefore his healing is evil.  Others took a wait and see attitude.  We want more proof, they demanded.  More miracles might persuade them.

These two possibilities – reject Jesus or give more proof – summarize the reaction of many in the crowd, and of many even today.

Jesus took these arguments to their absurd conclusion.  If Jesus casts out demons by Satan’s hand, then by whose power do their own followers cast out demons?  Did they really want to degrade the activity of their own exorcists by such logic?  They were stuck in a dilemma.  “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste and house will fall against house,” he argued.

Then Jesus offered another alternative, one he unveiled with dramatic flourish.  “But if it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons,” he said, “then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.”  Jesus is telling the crowd – and us – that his exorcism was not meant to astound, or amaze, or even to give proof of the existence of God.  No.  This and all the wonders he performs are testimony, evidence of the arrival of God’s promised, redemptive rule.  In Jesus, the Kingdom has arrived.  God is breaking peacefully into this creation through Jesus to reclaim humanity from Satan’s mute grip.  Jesus’ exorcism was loaded with theological meaning.  Satan’s power is the power to make mute, to silence.  But Jesus’ power is the power to exorcise us from Satan’s silence so that we might boldly proclaim that the Kingdom is at hand.

In this struggle between demonic silence and the proclamation of the Good News there is no neutral territory, no Switzerland.  “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me, scatters.”  Jesus rejects fence-straddlers.  He warns us that lukewarm neutrality is equivalent to opposition to him.

Today’s gospel should remind us of the memorable remarks made by Nazi Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.  “We must take sides,” Wiesel declared.  “Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.  Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.  Sometimes we must interfere.”  To remain mute in the face of injustice, poverty, and discrimination is to be complicit with the forces of darkness.  He summons us to interfere, to speak out on the side of the oppressed, the victim, the tormented.  Lent is a time to make a choice, to ultimately surrender to the Love of God.  The Kingdom of God looks like that.

Deacon Manuel Valencia is on the staff at Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.

Scripture:

Deuteronomy 4:1, 5-9
Matthew 5:17-19

Reflection:

Amnesia: A medical condition characterized by a partial or total loss of memories, facts, information and experiences.

In today’s scripture selections from the Book of Deuteronomy and the Gospel of Matthew, there are some serious references to the Law that comes from God. Moses is on the banks of the Jordan River imploring the people to not forget the commands of the Lord as they prepare to enter a new land after leaving captivity in Egypt. Jesus implores his disciples to stay faithful to the Law. But even Jesus understood that he needed to boil the Law and Commandments down to the essentials:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.

Yet we seem always to be afflicted with amnesia. Time and again we forget. We create and then worship idols. We imagine that others should be made in our, not God’s image and likeness. We raise up as contemporary “golden calves” pop stars or influencers or politicians.

Lent, at its best, is an opportunity to remember, that is, to be mindful of God’s goodness to us even when we fail to remember the source of all that is good. Even when we place our trust in idols made from our own hands or crafted from our prejudices, we can take a moment to remember…to be mindful again and hence make real again in our lives…that it is God and God’s love that gives meaning and joy to our lives.

Robert Hotz is a consultant with American City Bureau, Inc. and was the Director of The Passion of Christ: The Love That Compels Campaign for Holy Cross Province.