Thursday of the Second Week of Lent

Today's Mass Readings

St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta’s religious order, the Missionaries of Charity, specializes in its foundation house on one thing. They find people on the streets of Calcutta who are dying in abject poverty. They bring them to their hostel, wash them, give them a clean bed, and treat them with the dignity of a person made in the image and likeness of God. The sisters care for these people when they are most helpless: as they die.

We see over and over again how celebrities have money but it does not buy them what matters most to human beings. It cannot buy them trustworthy friends. It cannot buy them unconditional love. It cannot even buy them sleep – witnessed by the many overdoses from sleeping pills and painkillers.

Money is not the problem. Money is morally neutral. The Bible says it is the love of money that is the root of all evil (1 Tim. 6:10). There are many rich people who wish to use their money to help others. Conversely, poverty does not make one’s soul pure. The charism of poverty in religious life is meant to do this, but often those who find themselves poor did not make a conscious choice to turn to God in need.

St. Paul tells us that in the course of his missionary journeys, he learned how to live in both excess and in wont (cf. Phil. 4:12-13). The key is being blessed because you trust in the Lord. The key is to find integration of your belief in all aspects of your life – and that is why we do three different things for Lent that include prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. We want to integrate and not compartmentalize our faith. God blesses those who live in the dignity of the children of God.

Reflection by Fr. Pachomius Meade, OSB