February 27, 2013
Wednesday of the Second
Week in Lent
By Colleen O'Sullivan
Heed me, O Lord, and
listen to what my adversaries say. Must
good be repaid with evil that they should dig a pit to take my life? Remember that I stood before you to speak in
their behalf, to turn away your wrath from them. (Jeremiah 18:19-20)
“... (W)hoever wishes
to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among
you shall be your slave. Just so, the
Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a
ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:26b-28)
Piety
Lord, help me to empty myself of all desire for praise,
acclamation, wealth, or power. May my
heart be filled with compassion for the needs of my brothers and sisters. Grant me the grace to follow in your
footsteps as a servant to others.
Study
Jeremiah is one of my favorite characters in the Old
Testament. He’s so human. He’s beset by so many of the same frailties
that afflict you and me. God sends this
prophet to the people of Judah in an attempt to bring them back to their
God. Jeremiah proclaims the message God
gives him. But now, in today’s Scripture
reading, he begins to sound like you or me.
Okay, Lord, I’ve been
faithful. I’ve spoken your words to the
people. But this whole thing just
doesn’t seem fair. I did what you asked,
and my reward is a death threat! The
people are digging a pit; they want to throw me into it and murder me. Such a man of this world, believing that good
deeds are rewarded with earthly admiration or well-being (or, as we sometimes
believe, prosperity or acquisition of power).
And then along comes Jesus, challenging our deepest notions about
ourselves and our world. He reminds us
as we journey through Lent with him that we are on the way to Jerusalem, to
suffering and death, before we get to the Resurrection. His faithfulness in proclaiming the Kingdom,
his love for all of us as manifested by the many times he touches people’s
lives with healing and forgiveness are not rewarded with any kind of
well-being, but with an ignominious death on the Cross. As he responds to the mother of the sons of
Zebedee’s request that her sons be awarded seats of honor in heaven, he lets us
know that in his Father’s Kingdom, all our world-inspired assumptions about
greatness, fairness, and rewards get turned upside down. If we truly want to be great in God’s eyes, we
have to die to ourselves and become servants to others. No prosperity gospel here; just plain talk
about being last and least in order to be first in the Kingdom.
Action
From the moment that we begin to toddle around, the world
teaches us that actions have consequences.
As a two-year-old, if you do what Mommy says, you are rewarded with her
smile. Later, if you pay attention in
school and study hard, you’ll get an A.
If you wear the right clothes and hang out with the right people, you’ll
be popular. If you go to college, you’ll get a good job. If you work hard, you’ll get a promotion and
a bigger salary. Then you can buy a
bigger house and a sportier car. If you
become the CEO, you’ll have power over others. This is the gospel according to
the world. (It doesn’t, however, prepare us for bad things happening to good
people, for discrimination, for learning disabilities, for ill health, for job
lay-offs, or for underwater mortgages, etc.)
How often do you find yourself sharing Jeremiah’s feelings? How difficult is it for you to tune out the
world’s gospel and hear Jesus’ words instead?
What are you doing this Lent to serve others?
February 20, 2013
Ash Wednesday
Jonah began his
journey through the city, and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing,
“Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,” when the people of Nineveh
believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on
sackcloth… When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way,
he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them, he did not carry
it out. (Jonah 3:4-5, 10)
At the judgment the
men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the
preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah
here.” (Luke 11:32)
Piety
My sacrifice, O God,
is a contrite spirit; a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not
spurn. (Psalm 51:19)
Study
Eons ago, before time as we know it began, there was
God. One day, for reasons
incomprehensible to the human mind, God decided to create the universe and all
that is in it. With a surge of joy, he
placed the stars, the sun, the moon, and the planets in the skies. With great pleasure he covered the earth with
lands and seas, flowers, plants and trees as well as fish, birds, and every
other type of animal.
Then, in a further outpouring of his love, he created the
first human beings. With that same love,
God created you and me, knit us in our mothers’ wombs, thought about all the
plans he had in mind for us. Like a new
mother, he gazed upon us with eyes of wonder and delight. All he asks of us in return is that we love
him back and love everything he has created, including all his other children.
Lent is the time of year when we reflect on God’s great love
for us, a love that issues forth in his sending his Son into our world to die
for us, to redeem us from our sins, to be our Savior. From the very beginning, we human beings have
found it impossible to love God with the same single-minded devotion with which
God loves us. Sometimes it’s because we
love ourselves more. Or we like being
our own little gods. In other cases,
we’ve fallen in love with the ways of the world and discover that we treasure
wealth or power over everything and everyone else.
If the Ninevites, who were Assyrians and didn’t even know
the God of Israel, could turn from their sinful ways to the Lord at the word of
Jonah, how much more we should be able to turn from sin back to the God we
profess to love. We know Jesus and, through Jesus, we know the
Father. The Holy Spirit dwells within
us. Through the Holy Trinity we are
loved into being, accompanied on our journeys, rejoiced with in our delights,
comforted in our sorrows, and empowered to love others. All God asks for is our love in return.
Action
What in your life do you love more than God? Are you willing to give it up, to turn away
from sin, to repent and turn to the Lord?
If you would like to confess what it is that comes between you
and your love for God, for the fourth year in a row, the Arlington Diocese is
sponsoring, “The Light is On for You,” an opportunity where every Wednesday
from February 20 – March 27, from 6:30 – 8:00 p.m., a priest will be available
in every parish to hear confessions.
See your parish bulletin for additional opportunities for the Sacrament
of Reconciliation.
