Reflection for Friday of the First Week of Lent
When a person walks a long distance, they have plenty of time to think. We are left to our own thoughts. These are spiritually rich and even transforming moments.
We need these transforming moments in which the Lord stirs the embers of our hearts to find new perspectives about the past and present. This time in quiet thought is the seedbed where God’s grace reveals our faults as well as our blessings in preparation for some kind of action.
Lent is a time for action emerging as a product of contemplation. We listen to today’s readings from Ezekiel and Matthew, and we hear some clear directives concerning the inventory of what we’ve done. It is our conscience in action.
When we let our conscience speak to us, it is crucial to listen within the context or the realization of God’s overarching love for us. All the good that we do is in cooperation with the gift of the Lord’s loving presence assisting us. Likewise, any evil or sinful thing we do is rejecting the gift of the Lord’s loving presence. All is done in relationship to the Lord, turning either toward that relationship, or away from it.
Ezekiel’s notion of righteousness might appear to be measured only by how well or how badly we observe the dictates of the law. And yet an overview of the Old Testament understands righteousness as necessarily going beyond the letter of the Law to include the two greatest commandments, namely total love of God with all that we are and loving our neighbor as ourselves.
Jesus, in today’s Gospel, shows that righteousness calls for someone seeking forgiveness and reconciliation with one’s brother or sister as the first requirement in ritual worship. The power of the Lord that loves each one of us, even in our weakness and sinfulness, is the force that drives us to keep pursuing that forgiveness and reconciliation even when it seems distant.
A question for you: What or who stands in the way of a closer relationship with Your Lord?
Reflection by Fr. Daniel Petsche, OSB
Posted in Daily Reflections, Lenten Resources