Thursday, March 4, 2010


THIRD WEEK OF LENT

MONDAY OF THE THIRD WEEK OF LENT (2Kings5,1-15;Lk.4,24-30)The first reading has always intrigued me. How one young girl could start the “ball rolling”. She says her thing, and then is quickly forgotten by all. But if it was not for her nothing would have happened. The fact that the general listened to her is also surprising. Not too many generals would do that.
I think of the girl with admiration. She did not forget her tradition. She was a captive in a foreign land and remembered who she was.
As we live in the foreign land of life, looking forward to going to our true home, do we remember? She knew the ways of her people. Not only did she know, but she wanted to share. She was quite convinced that what she had was good and was meant for everyone. She did not wait to be asked but rather saw the opportunity and did what was right. She was committed to the ways of her fathers and was not embarrassed at all to let everyone know.
This young girl whose name has not even been passed on to us shared her tradition and her God with people and as a result great things did indeed happen. So often I have wished that I could be like her. She is indeed a model for those who ant to spread the Good News.

TUESDAY OF THE THIRD WEEK... (Dan.3,25,34-43;Matt.18,21-35)The girl remembered and the unjust servant forgot. As the girl is a model of those who remember their God so the unjust servant is a model of those who soon forget the goodness of God. These two people, the girl and the servant, come back to back almost as though the Word is trying to remind us that we have both of them within us. We are the coin with two sides. The one is thankful, remembering, convinced. The other forgetful, closed in a jail of selfishness. The one is courageous, the other afraid. The one side of us is going out to people and helping them, the other using and abusing them.
They seem always to be fighting for our soul. We want the good but so often the other wins out. We want to walk in the fresh sunshine of a heart singing thanks to God, of a heart filled with the memories of His goodness to us...But the other side is there trying to pull us away, clouding the sunshine, dimming the memory...Lent is the time of the year to remember, to be thankful, to let that side of who we are burst forth.
Question:
1:Are you using Lent to become who God has made you?

WEDNESDAY OF THE THIRD WEEK .(Dt.4,1,5-9;Matt.5,17-19)The words from the Book of Deuteronomy :“ Hear the decrees which I am teaching you to observe, that you may live”...That you may live pop off the page. What do they mean? What is the connection between obedience to the law of God and life? There is no doubt that such a connection exists...One way would be to say: eternal life is the reward of keeping the commandments. This is true but is there perhaps another meaning? Do we have to look forward to death before this promise is fulfilled? To live means to enter into a relationship. The decrees of God are what bound us to this relationship with Him. To live means really to be free and to be able to love. That is what God is talking about when He says “that you may live...His ways are the ways to love and freedom which are the two signs of human life.
To love means to be able to cast aside the “I” and to look at another, but not only to look at the other but much more importantly to look in the same direction as the other. We can state this by simply saying: to share the dream of the other. To be free is to have this love to motivate us that the shackles of selfishness are done away. To obey the commandments is not simply some sort of blind obedience but rather it is sharing the dream which God has for us.
Lent can be a time of entering into more and more this dream of God .
Question
1: What does God expect of you and what do you expect of God?


THURSDAY OF THE THIRD WEEK The Feast of St. .Joseph, the Husband of Mary (2Sam.7:74-5,12-14a,16; Rom.4:13,16-18, 22; Matt.1:16, 18-21, 24a) The doors are open to many possibilities in reflecting on this feast. Joseph calls us to look at our faith, our commitments, our courage. He challenges us to listen to our dreams. What strikes me now about Joseph is that he is a man who tried to do the best he could. Many times he was not sure , there were times when he just did not understand, but he kept on going.
OR
THURSDAY OF THE THIRD WEEK OF LENT (Jer.7,23-28; Lk.11,14-23) Some would say that the ultimate sin is to attribute to the devil that which is being done by the working of the Holy Spirit. This is what happened in today’s Gospel…They look at the good things which Jesus was doing and could not or would not accept them as the working of God so they had to explain them another way. They were afraid that if they accepted them they would have to acknowledge who Jesus was and therefore their power would be ended with. He presented a threat to who they thought they were and consequently he had to be denied. The deeds of God were cast aside because of selfishness, fear and envy.
When we see good in the world, do we say this is the work of God, give thanks and rejoice or do we try to hide it? This is especially true when it comes to dealing with and perception of other people. The gifts ,which God gives to other people, special talents, intelligence, good looks, may intimidate us . There is the danger of seeing them not as the working of God but rather as threats to who we are. Sometimes they present such a threat that we start talking about the person to diminish the gift and to make ourselves feel better. Instead can look at the gift and thank God for it. In so doing we will eventually come to realize our own gifts and give thanks for them. If we see the working of God in other people it becomes so much easier to see the working of God in our own lives.
Question:
1: Do you thank God for the gifts He has given to other people even if these gifts may intimidate you?

FRIDAY OF THE THIRD WEEK OF LENT (Hosea14,2-10; Mark 12,28-34 ”I will be like the dew for Israel.”What a marvelously beautiful image of God. The morning dew makes things fresh, gives them life and the strength to go through the heat of the day to make things blossom. God explains who He is in so many ways, ways that we come into contact with everyday. Rock, water, wind, sun, are all concrete ways which in God describes Himself and they are all invitations to grow a little more in love. The little things speak so loudly and we are so deaf. Things we see and touch and hear every day are lost because they are not “new”. They become old; what a shame. What a shame the marvel of running water, the briskness of a spring day, the gentle wind of summer, are not seen as the images of God among us.
If these become “old” then it is really possible that we become “old” in the sense that we no longer see the newness which God is working in us. This constant unfolding of the “I” which God created and still creates. If I can look at myself and see something new every day then I can look at the things around me and see the newness, conversely, if I see the newness of things everyday then I will see my own newness. The dew of God’s love makes all things blossom.
Question:
1: Has God ever made you “new?”

SATURDAY OF THE THIRD WEEK... (Hosea6,1-6;Lk.18,9-14) Appropriation is taking something which belongs to another and claiming it as your own. Today’s Gospel reminds us very forcefully how easy it is for us to appropriate what is God’s as our own. It would have been so simple if the first man was doing something wrong...But he wasn’t he was doing all the right things. Perhaps if we had been there we would say: “what a good man.” It wasn’t so much that he was bragging, it was just that he was taking the working of God within himself and saying that it was his work. The real sin was not that he bragged but rather that he did not acclaim his dependence on God. His prayer would have been so much nicer if he had said: I thank you God that you have given me the grace not to be crooked or adulterous, I thank you Lord that you have looked down on my weakness and given me the strength to fast twice a week and to be generous with what I own. I thank you Lord for the grace of seeing the publican and reminding me that the only things I can claim for myself is my sin and that everything else comes from you. The publican has reminded me of my poorness and that in bragging what I am really doing is just recounting your astounding deeds in my life” The Gospel reminds us that even the good things we do for God are really only our response to what God is calling us to do...Everything begins with Him and ends with Him.

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