1st Week of Lent 2020 - Monday - "You did it for me"

On Ash Wednesday, our Gospel reading from the Sermon on the Mount every year, calls us to the Lenten Observances of Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving. Our Gospel today, certainly touches upon the third of the Lenten practices—Almsgiving—and emphasizes not only are we to give to the poor, but we are to recognize something about the poor. In some mysterious way, when we give to the poor—the hungry, naked, thirsty, and alienated, we give to Jesus Himself: “That which you did for the least of my brethren, you did for me.”

The Lord identifies with every human person who suffers and is in need of compassion—regardless of age, sex, nationality, or creed. Being their creator, his image is pressed upon every living person. Our love for God and love for neighbor are intrinsically bound. Our love for God impels us to care for those created in his image.

It is not easy to see Jesus in the unwashed, addicted, homeless. It is not easy to see Him in the lonely, hardened, bitter widower or widow. But our Lenten practices help us to see Jesus in all. Our Lenten prayer, if it is genuine, opens the eyes of our hearts not just to God, but to the needs of those created in his image. Our Lenten fasting, frees us from our attachments to food and other created things, that we might more freely give of ourselves in service to the Gospel and to the poor.

For those who have difficulty finding God in prayer, yes they should persevere in prayer, but they should also seek the Lord in service.

Mother Teresa often called the poor “Jesus in disguise.” Consider her powerful words references our Gospel passage today: “In order to help us deserve heaven, Christ set a condition: that at the moment of our death you and I, whoever we might have been and wherever we have lived, Christians and non-Christians alike, every human being was has been created by the loving hand of God in his own image shall stand in his presence and be judged according to what we have been for the poor, what we have done for them…”
 
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For the needs of the poor, the hungry, the homeless, those who are sick, unemployed, or suffering from addiction, mental, or physical illness, imprisoned, and those most in need: that the Lord in his goodness will be close to them in their trials.  We pray to the Lord.
For mercy for the most vulnerable of our human family, the unborn; that their mothers may choose life and be supported by a culture of life.
For the young people of our Church. May they be strengthened to be witnesses to the Gospel of mercy and work for a future that embodies a genuine culture of mercy.
For those preparing to enter the Church at Easter: that they will be profoundly blessed in their preparation for full initiation into the Body of Christ.  We pray to the Lord.
For the Holy Spirit’s guidance in the selection of Cleveland’s next bishop, and that our next Bishop may be a man of true faith and conviction for the Gospel.
For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, for all the poor souls in purgatory, and N. 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.