Monday of the Second Week in Lent
By Beth DeCristofaro
O LORD, we are shamefaced, like our kings, our princes, and our fathers, for having sinned against you. But yours, O Lord, our God, are compassion and forgiveness! (Daniel 9: 8)
Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.” (Luke 6: 37-38)
Piety
Great and awesome God, grant me your mercy. Look not on my sins but on my faith, Loving and Eternal God. Grant me your compassion, and uphold the covenant made with me by your Obedient Son. From your Glory, Gracious God, fill me with yourself that I might stop judging but rather love and forgive those upon whom you cause the sun to shine and the rain to fall. Thank you, dear God, for your gifts without which I would have so much trouble forgiving others.
Study
http://www.usccb.org/nab/021808.shtml
For those of us who have baked, we know the prohibition: don’t compress the flour or sugar into the measuring cup or it will pack down and be too much for the recipe. Rather, pour in and swipe a knife or spatula edge across the top to even the measurement at the correct line. What an image Jesus gives us: Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. (Luke 6: 38). Do you recall the mess on the counter or floor as we attempt to teach a six-year-old child how to measure the flour for chocolate chip cookies! (Or, admit it, when we attempt to level the flour ourselves.) Jesus turns this into an extravagant image of God’s overflowing, encasing mercy. God’s mercy is too much, it fills and brims over, it expands and transforms everything it touches. How can we not, like eager six-year-old children, laugh and ask for God’s mercy?
However, like the Israelites, we too often want it our way. We have sinned, been wicked and done evil; we have rebelled and departed from your commandments and your laws. We have not obeyed your servants the prophet… O LORD, we are shamefaced, like our kings, our princes, and our fathers, for having sinned against you. (Daniel 9: 5-6, 8)
Albert Haase, OFM, says: “…For many of us the ego is a perpetual two year old that screams to be fed with power, prestige and possessions…asking the same question over and over, ‘What’s in it for me?’... However, we belong to Jesus Christ the moment we rise from the waters of Baptism bearing his name. Christian means ‘Little Christ’. … To follow in (His) footsteps is to embark upon a journey of words and deeds which chip away at the dominion of egotistical pride. Indeed the footsteps of the Master are molded by actions which erase the outline of the ego – forgiveness of the enemy, prayers for those who persecute us, turning the other cheek, compassion for those who suffer and unconditional love. It is a self-emptying lifestyle focused on ‘thee’ and not ‘me’.”[1]
That is the trap which the Israelites fall in to again and again; it is the same trap with snares us when we cannot see God in one another so we pronounce judgment rather than have mercy. Our own freely chosen actions mold us to compassion for others or to self-centeredness. Fr. Haase offers St. Francis’ Peace Prayer as one tool to, step-by-step, mold ourselves in a self-emptying lifestyle. Or think of it as a baking process, the more sifted over with the powdery flour of Jesus, hiding our identity under the dusting of love and mercy, the closer we rise up toward God.
Action
Pray “Look not on our sins but on our faith.” Ask for God’s mercy and guidance to choose to be merciful rather than the center of your own universe: For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you. How are your actions molding or kneading you, today?
[1] Instruments of Christ: Reflections on the Peace Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, Fr. Albert Haase, OFM, St. Anthony Press, p. 8, 10.
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