Friday of the First Week of Lent
“I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees,
you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven.”
It has been said that the reason one comes to community is to discover the mystery of forgiveness. Regardless of the community, it is a fine reference to the Church, the redeeming Body of Christ! Here God is making a wonderful deed, a new creation, the creation of a new sensitivity. Strangely, we can only come to this spiritual sensitivity by admitting and repenting of, our sin.
Coming to this repentance is the work of the Incarnate Word in our lives. One reason we as a Church pray the psalms and try to make them our own is to join their ancient Jewish authors who, in their piety often groaned in acknowledging sin. They sang from their depths appealing to God, opening themselves to God’s forgiving love and mercy. Standing in the midst of the community, the psalmist knew him or herself to be part of a sinful people. We too stand in such a solid place—solid not just as a community of fellow sinners, but as union in the Incarnate Word, Christ, the Beloved One. He it is who, St. Paul tells us, ‘became sin’ in order to take on our sin and redeem it. Only this sinless One is strong and bold enough to hold within His human heart all of the contradictory lines of our lives. He holds them here, before the gaze of the Father, so that we are not only forgiven but oriented, directed, guided to the beauty the Father meant us to be in creating us for eternal life.
Reflection by Fr. Xavier Nacke, OSB
Posted in Daily Reflections, Lenten Resources