We have a very powerful message in our Lenten readings today: be holy, be loving, your eternal salvation depends upon it!
One thing is for certain, God is very concerned about how we relate to one another. He has made it so that the amount and quality of the way we deal with one another is the measure by which we measure the amount and quality of our love for him!
In our first reading from the book of Leviticus, the Lord instructs Moses to tell the people: "Be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy." This statement is wonderful news. In telling us to be holy, the Lord also empowers us to be holy. He fills our minds and hearts with the information and motivation we need to be holy people: made in his image.
The reading goes on to give many examples of right, good and just treatment of neighbors – we need to treat them as we would want to be treated: without robbing them of what is rightfully theirs, either in property or good name; without defrauding them; without aggravating them or purposely annoying them; judging them justly when they must be judged; not hating them or taking revenge or holding a grudge: you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself.
In the gospel passage, Jesus, very clearly restates this idea in unequivocally simple imagery: in loving your neighbor: what you do for the least of my brothers and sisters, you do for me: and for this, and this alone, shall you be judged on that Final Day. If you give food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the ill, visit the imprisoned then you will inherit everlasting life: if you do not do these things you will inherit everlasting death and torment. The choice is yours!
It seems like an unlikely choice: who would not choose life? But some don't – in fact, a lot don't – in fact, a very many lot don't. So preoccupied with their own hungers and thirsts, and need for attention and clothing; so intent are they on their own illnesses, so disabled are they by their own voluntary imprisonments that they do not even see other people around them – and therefore, they stand as doomed: unless, in their lifetime someone can get through to them and help them see the very message that Jesus presents here.
We can help Jesus present this extremely vital message today by demonstrating how rewarding it is to put self last, others and God first and thus experience the pleasure, power and wealth that comes from genuine, authentic and real self-sacrificing
loving service: the very experience and reality of GOD IN HIMSELF!
Your words, O Lord, are Spirit and life: may we take them to heart and put them into practice today, for our good and for the good of our brothers and sisters everywhere!
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