2nd Week of Lent 2020 - Tuesday - Learn to do the good

At the beginning of the liturgical year, we read extensively from the prophet Isaiah, to prepare for our celebration of the coming of Christ during the season of Advent. Well now, during the season of Lent, it should be no surprise to hear from the great Advent prophet as well, as we prepare for the paschal festivities of Easter during this season of penance and prayer.

We heard from the beginning of the first chapter of Isaiah today, who gives a series of instruction: “Wash yourselves clean! Put away your misdeeds…cease doing evil; learn to do good. Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow.” During Lent, we do well to take these instructions to heart.

Yet, Why does Isaiah instruct us that we must “learn to do good?” St. Basil comments: Since moral understanding is neither self-evident nor clear to all, we must learn to do good deeds through our study of sound doctrine.” Doing good is not always self-evident, it’s not always easy to discern, and it’s not always easy to put into practice. Generosity, forgiveness, self-control, it’s not always clear how to put these into practice, and certainly in the face of temptation we aren’t always even thinking about the need to put them into practice.

But in order to lead the sort of lives that God wants, we need to learn, we need to be properly schooled, we need to take the position of a student, of a disciple.

In the Gospel, the Lord condemns the Pharisees for setting themselves above the rest. They liked to be called father, teacher, master all the while forgetting the need to learn what is truly good in the eyes of God, becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Lent, when we our honest, should humble us and teach us how much we need to learn. Lent does humbly sets us on the path of learning right at its beginning, on Ash Wednesday we recall we are NOT master, we are NOT teacher, “we our dust”. And by our Lenten observances of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we put our lessons into practice.

They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but that must not be true for us. To be a disciple of Jesus is to be a life-long learner. Learning justice, repentance, courage, balance of priorities, calmness, and generosity. May the Lord find us at his feet, as his humble students today and all days for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the season of Lent may bring the most hardened hearts to repentance and bring to all people purification of sin and selfishness.

For those preparing for baptism and the Easter sacraments, that they may continue to conform themselves to Christ through fervent prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

For the Holy Spirit to guide the appointment of our next Bishop—that he may be a man of true faith and courage.

That we may generously respond to all those in need: the sick, the suffering, the homeless, the imprisoned, and victims of violence. And for all victims of the coronavirus and their families. And for the Church in China and all places where the Gospel is silenced.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Grant, we pray, O Lord, that your people may turn to you with all their heart, so that whatever they dare to ask in fitting prayer they may receive by your mercy. Through Christ our Lord.

2nd Week of Lent 2018 - Tuesday - Imitating the Lord's humility

When St. Augustine was asked to name the three most important virtues, he gave an interesting answer. The first he said is “humility”, the second he said is “humility”, and third he said is “humility”

Our Lord stressed humility, telling us that we must become humble like little children or we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. After exposing the pride of the Pharisees, in the Gospel today, he teaches, “Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, but whoever humbles himself shall be exalted."

The Lord didn’t simply teach humility, he lived humility. The divine Word, emptied Himself and was born a human babe in a poor stable at Bethlehem. As a baby, he was a Refugee in Egypt. He lived in the obscure village of Nazareth. He had the menial job of a carpenter. During His public ministry, Jesus had nowhere to lay His head. Paul writes to the Philippians, “He humbled Himself even to death on a cross, the death of a slave.”

St. Francis of Assisi said: “Every day, Jesus humbles Himself just as He did when He came from His heavenly throne into the Virgin's womb; everyday He comes to us and lets us see Him in abjection, when He descends from the bosom of the Father into the hands of the priest at the altar. He shows Himself to us in this sacred bread just as He once appeared to His apostles in real flesh.”

The Lenten journey is one of humility.  We began Lent sprinkling our foreheads with ashes while hearing the words, “Remember man, you are dust, and to dust you will return.”  If our Lenten observances of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are to help conform us to Christ, they certainly will help us grow in humility.

We are to give alms without the blowing of trumpets, pray behind closed doors, and fast without show. We are to shun the spotlight, turn away from seats of honor, and take up the washbasin to wash the dirty feet of our neighbor, and to do so without hope of earthly repayment or notoriety. We are to broken, shared, and poured out like ordinary bread and ordinary wine.

As the Lenten Eucharistic preface states: the Father wills that our self-denial should give Him thanks, humble our earthly pride, contribute to the feeding of the poor, and so help us imitate Him in his kindness.”

May this Lent help us grow in humility, by decreasing our instincts of self-aggrandizement and self-promotion, that we might truly learn to love and serve others for their own sake, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That our Lenten prayer, fasting, and almsgiving may humble our earthly pride and bring about conversion and renewal within the Church.

For all those preparing to enter into Christ through the saving waters of Baptism and those preparing for full initiation this Easter, may these final Lenten weeks bring about purification from sin and enlightenment in the ways of holiness.

For those who have fallen away from the Church, who have become separated through error and sin, for those who reject the teachings of Christ, for their conversion and the conversion of all hearts.

For those experiencing any kind of hardship or sorrow, isolation, addiction, or illness: may they experience the healing graces of Christ.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Grant, we pray, O Lord, that your people may turn to you with all their heart, so that whatever they dare to ask in fitting prayer they may receive by your mercy.