Dear friend,
Not many of us enjoy or look forward to a disciplined routine because we feel it will mean hard work, cutting out fun and frolic and constantly being on target. Yet, our experience tells us that we need the discipline approach to put things right in matters of health, career and achieving the goals we set ourselves. This season is lent to us, given to us, to get our bearings, check how we are progressing in life and make the necessary changes, to be on the path to God and life. Let's make the symbolic ritual, a life-giving conversion of life! Fr. Jude
Sunday Reflections: Ash Wednesday - "Rend your hearts, not your garments! Repent and believe the good news!" 5-Mar-2014
The first reading from the prophet Joel reminds us that sometimes God invited the people of Israel to come back to Him through the great disasters that befell them. It was after one such disaster that the prophet Joel conveyed the message that God would come to their rescue. The disaster that befell the Israelites at that time was the invasion of locusts that came in large numbers from the desert and devoured everything. The people were devastated and the prophet Joel called them to prayer and to penance. He assured them that if they came back to Yahweh, Yahweh would provide them with food they needed. He reminded them that everyone should do penance, the priests and the laity, the young and the old, even the children. They needed to ask God's pardon as a family, as one community and God would forgive them all.
Find someone in need
Dr. Karl Menninger, the famous psychiatrist, once gave a lecture on mental health, and then answered questions from the audience. "What would you advise a person to do," asked one man, "if that person felt a nervous breakdown was coming on?" Most people expected him to reply, "Consult a psychiatrist." To their disappointment he replied, "Lock your house, go across the railway tracks, find someone in need and do something to help that person." -Don't sit and pout. Get up and do something for others!
Brian Cavanaugh in 'The Sower's Seeds'
The Gospel of today speaks to us of three paths that can lead us back to God: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. However Jesus reminds us that these three practices by themselves will not lead us to God unless we perform them with a humble heart. We can perform them diligently but from the wrong motives; so that others may notice our good works. Lent is a time for renewing our prayer life. We are reminded in today's gospel. "But when you pray, go to your private room and when you have shut the door, pray to your Father, who is in that secret place, and your father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you." Is Jesus against praying in public with the community or prayer group? Are we putting on a performance to make an impression on others? Would we do the same if no one was watching? Our community prayer life needs to be balanced with private and personal prayer. The second practice recommended is fasting and abstinence and again we are reminded that how we do it is more important than what we do. If fasting makes us irritable, if we fast with long faces and put on a gloomy look and make all around us miserable, there is something wrong with that kind of fasting. The heart of fasting is to do without something that we like and believe we can't do without, in order to realize that God can supply our every need. We may observe the letter of the law but have missed out on its spirit. What about a weekly fast from our favourite TV serial? The third practice of the devout Jew was almsgiving. Again the admonition is the same: "So when you give alms do not have it trumpeted before you to win men's admiration... your left hand must not know what your right hand is doing, your alms giving must be secret." By alms is meant any kind of help, material or spiritual we give to our neighbour. We could help our neighbour in need, we could give them encouragement, we can appreciate the goodness in others, we can help someone in spiritual danger. Are we bringing people to Jesus by our words, our good example and our deeds?
Ready to change?
Once, a king was walking through the streets of the capital city when he came upon a beggar who immediately asked him for money. The king did not give him any money. Instead he invited him to his palace. The beggar took up the king's offer. On the appointed day he made his way to the royal palace, and was duly ushered into the king's presence. However as he came into the king's presence he was acutely conscious of his rags and felt ashamed of them. They were an eloquent symbol of the wretchedness of his life. The king, an exceptionally kind man, received him warmly, took pity on him, and among other things gave him a new suit. However, a few days later the beggar was back to begging on the streets, dressed in his old rags. Why did he give up the new suit? Because he knew that to wear it would mean that he would have to live a new life. It would mean giving up the life of a beggar. This he was not prepared to do. It wasn't that the new life did not appeal to him. It did. It was just that a change of life would be slow, painful and uncertain. In other words he was too much steeped in habit to change.
Flor McCarthy in 'New Sunday and Holy day Liturgies'
The Nail Post
A father wanted his son to really understand the importance of making right choices, of obeying and doing what's right. And so if his son made a bad choice or a wrong decision, he'd give him a hammer and a nail to take out into the backyard and pound into a fence post. Every day the son went through the whole day making good decisions, he'd let the boy go out and take out one of those nails. Until the boy was fifteen, there were always two or three nails in the post, -seemed he'd be nailing new ones as often as he'd pull out others. The youth started to mature and make better decisions and finally one day all the nails were removed from the post. That was when his dad took him back and said, "I want you to notice something about the post." The son looked at the post for a moment and realized that all the nails that once were driven in and then later removed had left small holes in the post. The holes were the remaining effects of the nails. His dad said," I want to tell you something son, about bad choices and decisions. Even though you may be totally forgiven from your bad choices or decisions, and there are no nails visible, there are the remaining effects, the consequences, of those choices or decisions; just like the holes in that fencepost."
Author Unknown
Clean up time!
Recently, I took my great niece to Burger King for lunch. Distracted by our interesting chat, I dipped my jacket sleeve in the ketchup. First I wiped the mess with napkins, then I washed the sleeve with water and soap in the washroom. Did the ketchup leave a mark? I hoped not. Later, when I got back in the rectory, I quickly headed for the laundry room. Before putting it in the wash, I carefully checked the sleeve for stains, I found none. No traces of ketchup anywhere on the sleeve. But just to be sure, I washed the jacket anyway. It is only a jacket, yet I took time to check for stains. It is only a jacket, yet I washed it even when it didn't 'look dirty.' It is only a jacket... What about my soul? My life? How many marks, how many stains, how many faults are there to be cleansed? The ash that we receive on Ash Wednesday is a sign that we intend to clean the mess in our lives in forty days, and get back on track to the reign of God. Today, we are reminded, "There is a little good in the worst of us and a little bad in the best of us."
John Pichappilly in 'The Table of the Word'
Forty days of Lent
Today we begin the forty days of Lent. The church invites us to walk along this path of prayer, penance and alms giving in order to reach the feast of Easter, where new life is to be found. Along the way we will be tempted to believe that the journey is too difficult, that we cannot make it, that it is pointless to hope for new life. However, if we persevere in observing the Lenten discipline, we will be assured of the joy of Easter. Lent begins with Ash Wednesday when ashes are imposed on our foreheads, reminding us that we are sinners and that we need to repent and change our ways. The word Lent sometimes causes some uneasiness perhaps because of the forty days of fasting, penance and alms giving. We read in the Old Testament that the Chosen People of God spent forty days wandering in the desert before they entered the Promised Land. Elijah, the prophet, walked forty days in order to escape Jezebel until he reached Mount Horeb. Jesus spent forty days in the desert praying and fasting before he began his public ministry. We are invited to spend forty days in prayer, fasting and alms giving in order to prepare for Easter. Are we ready?
Elias Dias in 'Divine Stories for Families'
May we courageously enter into this holy season of Lent to be transformed by it!
Fr. Jude Botelho
PS. The stories, incidents and anecdotes used in the reflections have been collected over the years from books as well as from sources over the net and from e-mails received. Every effort is made to acknowledge authors whenever possible. If you send in stories or illustrations I would be grateful if you could quote the source as well so that they can be acknowledged if used in these reflections.
These reflections are also available on my Web site www.NetForLife.net Thank you.
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