Lenten Reflection: Day 8

Gospel, Luke 11:29-32

The crowd about Jesus in today’s gospel apparently has been pushing Him to give them a sign. They wanted God, at Jesus’ behest, to intervene somehow, to assure them that God approves of Jesus’ words and works. Sometimes we think that it would be a great remedy if Jesus appears among us today. Present with us in person and hearing us. In today’s Gospel, God is expected to intervene in a manner which calls for Him to show a sign to the peoples.

Both Jesus and Jonah preached and people turned to God in repentance. But preaching probably is not enough of a sign to turn the hearts and minds of people who are hard-hearted and constantly seek factual or tangible experiences to believe. What sign will ever satisfy a person who has no faith?

The sign of Jonah is the sign of Christ’s resurrection. Jonah was in the belly of the fish, within darkness and helpless. But Jesus who was in the tomb for three days, entered into the underworld to give the good news to the captive souls, those who have been dead from the very time of Adam. Death did not make Jesus helpless in the tomb, rather it opened the door for Him to draw to himself all those who desired to be saved and have been bound by the shackles of hopelessness.

Listening and feeding on the Word of God is healing to body, mind and soul. It is the will of The Father that His Son Jesus proclaims the good news to the captive and sets them free. It is for this purpose and for the purpose of dying an ignominious death for the redemption of mankind that Jesus became God incarnate. The belly of the earth could not contain the Divine power of Jesus, who conquered death and made life reign for all eternity.

The Queen Sheba was a foreigner and yet she believed, so what excuse did the Jews have to not believe? Jesus states that His ministry is greater than Jonah’s, yet His people did not repent. John 1:10-12 says, “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”

The one greater than Solomon is Jesus. He is the Lamb of God, He is the greatest among all prophets, He is the High Priest, He is the New Adam, He is the Son of God. The voice from heaven affirms this during His baptism. Therefore, no sign is greater than the life if Christ on earth. His message is for all of mankind. Those who have ears will listen, those who seek Truth will believe and those who desire salvation will walk in His ways.

Lenten Reflection: Day 7

Gospel, Matthew 6:7-15

We all have the need to communicate our thoughts, desires, expectations and feelings. Many a times we also face the need to communicate our silence, as silently as possible. We either have conversations with people or at times just with ourselves. But when we converse with God, every such communication becomes a prayer. How? Prayer is doxology (short hymn of praise to God), praise, thanksgiving, confession, supplication and intercession to Deus (God). Even in times of resentment, anger, doubt and denial, the dialogue with God by those who hunger and thirst for Him are rendered to Him as prayers (see reference – Psalm 13, 64:1, 142:1-2).

When an infant utters only sounds, even that makes perfect sense to the mother’s ear and heart. In a way we are like little infants while praying, making a lot of sounds to our parent who is God. These sounds (words) may or may not always express what our hearts truly desire. But God who is our Father, understands every syllable and craving of the soul. Our speechlessness too is louder than the thunder to God who knows the thirst of our heart even before our minds could put words to it.

In order to ensure that our desires are perfectly aligned to the will of God, Jesus is constantly praying for us to His Father. He prays in ways we cannot understand. For He and the Father are one, and their will for us is one. This is why Jesus expects us to simply echo His prayers to the Father. However, because we are children of the same Father, through baptism, Jesus teaches us to present our prayers, which reflect His loving conversations with the Father. When the disciples asked Him how they should pray, He tells them not to blabber like those who have never learnt that the Father knows what they need before they ask Him.

The Our Father is not simply a prayer, it is as if the soul of man reaffirms obedience to its heavenly mandate, acknowledges its right to blessings on earth and in heaven. As well as its dependency on God’s fortification against its mortal enemy – Satan. The prayer is in plural because Jesus assures that His Father is the Father of all. Therefore, my friends, let us own this right to call the Heavenly Father as Our Father and practice what St. Alphonsus Ligouri said, “Acquire the habit of speaking to God as if you were alone with Him, familiarly and with confidence and love, as to the dearest and most loving of friends.”

Lenten Reflection: Day 6
Gospel, Matthew 25:31-46

God’s creation is unfathomable. Every iota of His incredible genius is a universe of mysteries. Among all that He created and saw them to be ‘very good’ (Genesis 1:31), He created the Angels, referred to as a massive army of heavenly creatures. In his “Epistle to the Corinthians” St. Clement of Rome writes, “Let us think of the whole hosts of angels, how they stand by and serve His (God’s) will, for scriptures say: “Ten thousand times ten thousand were doing service to Him, and they cried out: Holy, holy, holy, Lord Sabaoth; the whole creation is full of His glory.” This text about the host of angels could serve our purpose to certain measure, to illustrate the starting verse of today’s Gospel (Matthew 25:31): “When the Son of man comes in His glory, escorted by all the angels, then He will take His seat on His throne of glory”.

The Andreas Center (www.andreascenter.org) based in Massachusetts, USA, is a group of people exploring Christian thoughtfulness. This center was named in the honour of Andreas who was the Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia who wrote a Greek commentary on the Book of Revelation. Their work on the importance of sheep and goats in the ancient Jewish times, sheds good light to understand the work of Christ in separating the sheep (righteous) from the goat (unrighteous / sinners) during the events of His triumphant second coming. According to the Andreas Center, ‘the centre of gravity of the Hebrew religious calendar is the Annual Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16). The Priests at the Temple selected one of the goats by lot, from a pair, and with its blood atoned for the sins of the people. He sent the other goat away into the wilderness, symbolizing that the sins of the people we carried far from them. Goats are considered to be undisciplined and disorderly. This is why they are symbolic to the separation of the holy from the sinful, by Christ on The Judgement Day.

Another important learning from today’s Gospel is about the importance of the ‘corporal works of mercy’. Our Holy Mother Catholic Church teaches these to be: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, visiting the sick, visiting the imprisoned and burying the dead (www.catholicculture.org). Christ categorically emphasizes on the importance of these virtuous deeds as acts of intense love and charity, expressed undoubtedly to His very person. Doing so to those who are considered least among the peoples, is as true as doing in it to Christ Himself. Blessed Mother Teresa always made the world know that she saw Jesus in the poor, the suffering and the outcast. This is why she served them selflessly and with an outpouring of ‘Christ like love’. Saint Francis of Assisi saw the attaining of heavenly treasure in serving the poorest among the poor. He made himself one among them, for he saw his Lord Jesus Christ in the person of the lowly and unwanted.

Therefore, my friends, may this lent be a time to patiently and faithfully strive to be among those who, The Lord Jesus would chose to include in His Father’s eternal kingdom. Let it be a time to consciously and joyfully sacrifice our desires and wants, in order to serve the needs of the poor, the neglected, the suffering and the marginalized. For in doing so we wait upon the needs of The Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Amen.

Forty days recalls various periods of preparation in the Old Testament, including the forty days Moses spent fasting and with God on Mt. Zion at the giving of the Law (Ex. 34:28), the forty days the Israelites spent spying out the Promised Land (Num. 13:25), and the forty years that the Israelites spent wandering in the wilderness before entering the Promised Land (Num. 14:34).

The Gospels speak of a time of solitude for Jesus in the desert immediately after his baptism by John. Driven by the Spirit into the desert, Jesus remains there for forty days without eating; he lives among wild beasts, and angels minister to him. At the end of this time Satan tempts him three times, seeking to compromise his filial attitude toward God. Jesus rebuffs these attacks, which recapitulate the temptations of Adam in Paradise and of Israel in the desert, and the devil leaves him “until an opportune time” (Lk. 4:13) [CCC 538].

Pope Benedict explains: Lent is like a long “retreat” in which to re-enter oneself and listen to God’s voice in order to overcome the temptations of the Evil One and to find the truth of our existence. It is a time, we may say, of spiritual “training” in order to live alongside Jesus not with pride and presumption but rather by using the weapons of faith: namely prayer, listening to the Word of God and penance. In this way we shall succeed in celebrating Easter in truth, ready to renew our baptismal promises [Angelus, Feb. 21, 2010].