Good morning. As we prepare for the penitential season of Lent, which starts this Ash Wednesday, the man in today’s Gospel gives us a perfect question to reflect on and take to prayer. He asked our Lord Jesus Christ, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He then answered Jesus by saying that he observed all the commandments from his youth. What did Jesus do? He affirmed the man for all he had done from his youth. We can know this because Scripture tells us that our Lord looked at him and loved him. Then, and here is the hinge, Jesus said to the man, “You are lacking in one thing.”
This is important for us to meditate on in our spiritual life, especially for us here who faithfully come to Mass every morning at 6:30 to pray before our Eucharistic Lord and to receive him at Holy Communion during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Our prayer ought to be: “Here I am, Lord. I have come to do your will. What am I, or where am I, lacking in my life when it comes to honoring you. . . when it comes to giving you all praise and glory, Lord?” Then, be prepared for God’s answer and, more importantly, pray for the courage to follow His will. I did this spiritual exercise last week and this was what the Holy Spirit revealed to me in prayer of that one thing that I was lacking. I received my answer through this reflection that I read:
“Perhaps we are more available to those outside our family than we are to our family members. Over the years, Pope Francis has often encouraged parents to “waste time” with their children—to be available to them in unstructured ways. Marriage Encounter addresses the challenge of “married singles”—spouses each so busy with their own lives that they don’t share the intimacy they are meant to experience. Do we give those in our family focused attention? Attention and availability are concrete ways of loving and serving as Jesus did.”
My sisters and brothers in Christ, when we discover that one thing that we are lacking, then perhaps, we can come closer to finding the answer to the question: “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Therefore, this Lent, if this one thing that we lack is a habitual sin that we fall prey to over and over again, then let us not be afraid to confront that sin with the help of God, bring it into the light, and allow Jesus to heal us and the Holy Spirit to help us overcome the sin. This is what our Lord Jesus Christ desires for us, as we heard in today’s first reading:
“To the penitent God provides a way back, he encourages those who are losing hope and has chosen for them the lot of truth. Return to him and give up sin, pray to the LORD and make your offenses few. Turn again to the Most High and away from your sin, hate intensely what he loathes, and know the justice and judgments of God, Stand firm in the way set before you, in prayer to the Most High God. . . How great the mercy of the LORD, his forgiveness of those who return to him!”
Saint Katherine Drexel, pray for us.
. . .
Gospel of the Day (Mark 10:17-27)
As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up,
knelt down before him, and asked him,
"Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Jesus answered him, "Why do you call me good?
No one is good but God alone.
You know the commandments: You shall not kill;
you shall not commit adultery;
you shall not steal;
you shall not bear false witness;
you shall not defraud;
honor your father and your mother."
He replied and said to him,
"Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth."
Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him,
"You are lacking in one thing.
Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor
and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."
At that statement, his face fell,
and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.
Jesus looked around and said to his disciples,
"How hard it is for those who have wealth
to enter the Kingdom of God!"
The disciples were amazed at his words.
So Jesus again said to them in reply,
"Children, how hard it is to enter the Kingdom of God!
It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle.
than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.”
They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves,
“Then who can be saved?”
Jesus looked at them and said,
“For men it is impossible, but not for God.
All things are possible for God.”
No comments:
Post a Comment