+ The readings for today are an excellent choice for two days
before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. “To
the penitent God provides a way back, he encourages those who are losing hope,
and has chosen for them the lot of truth.” What excellent thoughts
for us to ponder as we, Catholic Christians, find ourselves steeped in the muck
and mire of national and world politics, and with a leader who seems to have no
clear grasp of what truth, accountability and responsibility for the sacred
human lives of others is even about.
And so, it is up to us to
stand up to him and his cohorts by being shining examples of what right
priorities, right choices and right consequences is about: it is about giving
up and abandoning selfish, egotistical, self-centered thoughts, words and deeds
– and returning to the source of truth, justice, beauty, goodness and life: to
God, his Son by the working of their Spirit of Love.
This is the time to return to the Lord, to make any new offenses few, to hate
what God hates, to loathe what he loathes: lying, deception, cunning, cheating,
and any form of anarchy or dictatorship of mind or body or spirit.
While we are alive in this
world: we can make a difference in the positive energy put forth to banish the
negative: we must praise and glorify God
in all our works, words and deeds of goodness.
We are called to become poor
in spirit, even poor in material possessions and obsessions (as the young man
in the gospel was called to do in order to follow Jesus more perfectly) – and we
too shall be able to spend this Lent fine-tuning our commitment to
discipleship, our commitment to life, love and our place in the global family
of man!
Let
the just exult and rejoice in the Lord.