3rd Week of Lent 2022 - Tuesday - Forgiveness and Inner Healing

The somber days of Lent provide us with an opportunity to do some serious soul-searching: examination of our conscience, reflection on our vices and virtues and habits and attitudes, with the hopes of identifying any obstacles in our hearts which keep us from imitating Our Lord and growing in holiness.

I always encourage folks to give up television, movies, video games, and diversionary use of the internet during Lent, these things which often occupy a lot more of our time than we think.  And once they’re gone, we have a little bit more time to think about our lives, our relationships.  We strip away some of those external distractions, and when we do that, our interior lives can begin to grow.

I think many people are resistant to give up these external distractions, because their interior lives are not all that pleasant.  Many of us can carry around some serious interior burdens in the form of resentment and bitterness over past hurts—old wounds which have gone unhealed for many years.

So Lent provides an opportunity to bring those wounds to the healer—to Jesus, the medicus vitae—the doctor of life.

In the Gospel today, Jesus teaches the most important remedy for the healing of our wounded souls and wounded relationships: forgiveness.  Through Jesus’ passion and death, God has forgiven us—our wounded relationship with God is healed.  And we are called to practice that same forgiveness towards others.  Just as there is not a single sin God will not forgive, so too there isn’t a single sin that we are not called to forgive.

Jesus says to forgive not just seven times, but seven times seven.

In the Hebrew tradition the number seven is a sacred number and refers to the limitless holiness of God.  When Jesus commands his disciples to forgive “seventy times seven” times, it is to say that his disciples are to have no limit in their own forgiveness.  

It is difficult to forgive those who betray us—who offend, who harm us with their words and actions.  To forgive them sometimes feels like we are giving them a free pass.  Forgiving once, is sometimes hard enough, when we are hurt, there is that part of us that says, “I don’t want to talk to them, I don’t want to see them, I don’t want to be near them, I don’t even want to think about them.”  A Christian must never say, “I will never forgive you.”  

For Christ came to heal the wounds of sin and division—our division from God, and the division we continue to create between ourselves.  

So we need to be constantly about the work of forgiveness.  If upon self-examination you detect any anger or any hurt, now is the time to let it go.  And if the Holy Spirit is urging you to seek the forgiveness of a family member or neighbor you may have offended, go, do your best to be reconciled, to make peace, 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, bring healing to wounded hearts, and bring purification of sin and selfishness to all people.

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

That we may generously respond to all those in need: the sick, the suffering, the homeless, the imprisoned, and victims of war and violence. 

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.

27th Week in OT 2020 - Monday - Unconditional love of Jesus Christ

 The parable of the Good Samaritan is usually interpreted in one of two ways.  The first is to read it literally as Jesus’ answer to what mercy, compassion, and neighborliness looks like.  The scholar of the law asks Jesus, “who is my neighbor?” And Jesus answers: even the person that you would normally overlook, even the person that the rest of the world considers unclean, that’s your neighbor, and you need to pick him up when he has fallen, you need to see past your preconceived notions and stereotypes and prejudices, and you need to treat him with mercy and compassion and tenderness.

The second way of interpreting the Good Samaritan parable is to see in this allegory a description of what God has done for each one of us in Christ Jesus.  God has raised us up when we fell upon robbers and have been “half dead” because of sin.  We’ve been raised up, tended, cared for, restored to life because of Jesus’ sacrifice for us. 

Jesus is the Good Samaritan. And as each one of us has been treated with compassion by God, we must extend that compassion to others. The entire Christian life is essentially a response to what God has done for us through Christ. For us love of God and love of neighbor are inseparable for in Christ love of God and love of neighbor were inseparable.

So the answer to the scholar’s question, who is my neighbor? The answer is “everybody” because everyone is treated as “neighbor” by God—without condition. Jesus gives his life for all, he loves all, and so must we.

No one must be excluded from our charity. There’s not anything anyone has to do in order to become “deserving” of our charity, just as there was nothing that we had to do in order to deserve that Jesus laid down his life for us—he did not die for the righteous, but for the unrighteous. 

Just as the priest and the levite thought they had pretty good reasons for stepping over the man, we often develop reasons for holding back our charity. But this parable of Jesus really calls us to love without condition, to go the extra-mile, not just for those who can pay us back, but especially for those who can’t. 

But when we do, we love in a Christ-like, godly way, and make the goodness of God known, and present, and palpable. This is a love that transforms the world, may we be free from all that keeps us from the unconditional love of Jesus, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For the grace to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, to love our neighbors and enemies and those who persecute us, and to share the truth of the Gospel with all.  We pray to the Lord.

That during this election season, civility may prevail, and that those with differing political views may work together for a good, just, and righteous society. Let us pray to the Lord.

That during the month of October dedicated to the Holy Rosary, we may be strengthened in devotion to Our Lady and trust ever-more in her maternal intercession. Let us pray to the Lord.

For all the needs of the sick and the suffering, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, the underemployed and unemployed, victims of natural disaster, war, and terrorism, for all those who grieve the loss of a loved one, and those who will die today, for their comfort, and the consolation of their families.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish and all the poor souls in purgatory, for those who have fought and died for our benefit, and for N. for whom this mass is offered.

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord.