God's Request of Us this Lent and Always

“Be merciful to me for I have sinned,” (Luke 18:13) are the words of the tax collector!  These words come to me as I reflect on today’s first reading, Isaiah 58: 1-9a. The people are complaining that God does not notice their fasting and the ways in which they afflict themselves. God responds by reminding them that “on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits and drive all your laborers. Yes, your fast ends in quarreling and fighting, striking with wicked claw….Do you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?  The Lord then tells us what kind of fast He wants of us, what is acceptable to Him and gets His attention. “This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own.”

Who have I bound or imprisoned "in a cold cell”  by  attitudes of jealousy, by anger and resentment, by withholding love, by a lack of gratitude, by distancing myself from them, by setting myself above them, by acting superior and unworthy of them?  Have I placed yokes upon others, expecting them to reach perfectionistic standards and, in pride, to be perfect as I am perfect, and thus refuse to serve them in any way? Who will experience freedom today because of my generosity, my forgiveness, my gratitude, my genuine service? Who will experience relief from their oppression and hunger because of my nonjudgmental  actions and thoughts today? Whose nakedness and shame will decrease or be covered today because I took time to listen to their heartbreak without criticism or without giving advice but showing empathy?

Who Am I Trying to Please

In today’s Gospel, Matthew 11: 16-19, the people complain about John the Baptist as being possessed by a demon  because he did not drink nor eat with them as they expected.  Jesus, on the other hand,  did eat and drink with people and they called him a “glutton and a drunkard.”  Matthew concludes this passage with the statement: “…wisdom is vindicated by her words.”  We probably all know that we will never please everyone no matter what we do.  We can try but our efforts will be in vain and we will be left feeling empty and a bit crazy!  “…wisdom,” in our lives, will be “vindicated” by the works we do in accord with God’s will for us, not by whether or not we pleased everyone.   If we are true to what we are called to as unique persons with a special mission/purpose  to fulfill  as the Spirit leads us through the gift of each day, Wisdom will vindicate us. We will then be at peace. On the other hand, if our goal is to please everyone we will not rest in the peace of Christ, a peace the world cannot give. The choice is ours to make.

Being Filled with Knowledge of God's Will

In today’s first reading, Colossians 1: 9-14, St. Paul prays for us, asking that the Lord fill us with knowledge of God’s will and that we  walk in ways that are worthy of the Lord and fully pleasing to Him.  We are capable of fully pleasing God only because Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead to new life, ascended to His Father and dispatched the Holy Spirit to be with us until the end of time.

 With Jesus, we, too, have died to sin and rose to new life in Him, with Him and through Him in our Baptism,  at our Confirmation, and by our participation in the Eucharist and the sacrament of Reconciliation. The God-life within us and in the world is secured by the Power of the Holy Spirit, with whom we are cooperating when we do what is right and just in God’s eyes, when we follow God’s commands and seek to do His will. 

We see the power of God operative in human life in the story given in today’s Gospel, Luke 5: 1-11 where Peter and his companions cooperate with Jesus.   Jesus gets into Simon’s boat and asks him to move out a short distance from the shore. From there He teaches the crowd and, when finished, asks Peter to row out into the deep waters and lower their nets for a catch. Peter tells Jesus that they have been fishing all night long and caught nothing but at His command will again lower the nets. The catch is so great that their nets were being torn and they needed help getting the fish into the boat. Two boats were filled to the point of sinking. Seeing this, Peter falls down before the Lord and says: “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”

Can anyone of us not afford to partner with Jesus and obey the will, the commands, of our God?