3rd Week of Lent 2025 - Friday - Rediscover divine love in the desert

On Ash Wednesday, we heard God’s powerful invitation through the prophet Joel to all of us: “return to me, with all your heart.”  The heart, in biblical language, symbolizes the center of the person, the whole person.  So that Ash Wednesday call to return to God with your whole heart sets a tone for the whole season of Lent. That Lent is about returning to God fully, wholly, and entirely.

Return from where? From our sins of course, from our wandering, from our cavorting with empty promises and false Gods. Sin always involves venturing into territory we should not enter.

In the reading today from the prophet Hosea, we hear again that call to return to God: “Return, O Israel, to the LORD, your God; you have collapsed through your guilt. Take with you words ,and return to the LORD”

Hosea is the story of Israel, called to be God’s bride. Yet, instead of clinging to God her husband, she has been like an unfaithful adulteress; she allowed herself to fall into forbidden relationships with the false gods of the surrounding Canaanite culture.

So God said, “I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart.” In order to free Israel from her adulterous relationships, God would bring her into the desert. He would lead her away from those sinful attachments, that she might realize the importance of that fundamental relationship with God—that she might fall in love with God again, and allow God to love her as he wishes.

So, too, for all of us. Lent is the call to allow God to lead us into the desert—that place free from distractions and sinful attachments. There are no tv’s, no iphones, no gossiping, no casinos, no bars out in the desert.  It is the place where we are free to hear God beckoning us back into a relationship of love and trust. It is the place where we are most free to return to God with all our heart.

But we have to make use of this time, by allowing God to lead us deep, to that place where we are free to hear him. So many fail to allow God to lead them away from their distractions, they fail to enter the desert. They are like the addict who cannot imagine himself happy without his drug.

But when we trust God and let go of our attachments we come to experience such healing and peace in his presence.

In the Gospel, Jesus repeats that language, and takes it even further: “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength.”

To love God with everything, to love God with total self-abandonment, to love God utterly, completely, wholeheartedly: this is the point of Lent.  All of our Lenten penances, all of our prayer has the aim of freeing us from all that keeps us from the pure love of God.

May we accept the Lord’s invitation, that, we may be constantly drawn away from our disordered and unruly desires, that we may come to know God’s purifying love, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

 

 Trusting in God's merciful love, let us humbly present our prayers and petitions.

For the Church throughout the world, that this Lenten season may draw all her members closer to God, freeing them from distractions and sin to experience His purifying love. Let us pray to the Lord.

For those in positions of authority and leadership, that God may guide them in wisdom, justice, and integrity, leading nations away from conflict and toward peace. Let us pray to the Lord.

For all who struggle to break free from sinful attachments and addictions, that during this Lent they may courageously enter the spiritual desert, finding healing and peace in God's loving presence. Let us pray to the Lord.

For the success of our parish Lenten mission this weekend, and for blessings upon our mission leader Fr. Laniaskas.

For the sick, the suffering, and the lonely, that they may experience God's comforting presence and be strengthened by His grace to persevere in faith and hope. Let us pray to the Lord.

For all who have died, especially our family members and parishioners, that they may rejoice eternally in God's merciful embrace. Let us pray to the Lord.

Heavenly Father, lead us away from all that distracts us from your love. Hear our prayers and help us return to you wholeheartedly, through Christ our Lord.