ASH WEDNESDAY
Joel: 2:12-18
2cor. 5:20-6:2
Mt: 6:1-6.16-18
God’s longing
Once again the Ash Wednesday, we rush to the churches to receive ashes. We hear the word repentance, which fires our hearts to renew our life in relationship with Jesus. The Lenten season invite us to fast, pray and give alms. We are so sincere to keep all these because we love the person Jesus and we long for him to be in our life journey. Lent is a way to place ourselves before God humbled, bringing in our hands no price whereby we can ourselves purchase our salvation. It is a way to confess our total inadequacy before God, to strip ourselves bare of all pretenses to righteousness, to come before God in dust and ashes. It is a way to empty ourselves of our false pride, of our rationalizations that prevent us from seeing ourselves as needy creatures, of our "perfectionist" tendencies that blind us to the beam in our own eyes.
God’s longing is deeper than all of our longing. My struggling brothers and sisters must be consoled and treated justly. This must be the real meaning of my longing for God by the way of fasting, praying and alms giving. When there is a call to go back to God, there is a call to turn to my neighbors, whom I may know – I may not know – but God knows. God longs us to be found in their midst, because God is with these needy, he wants to love everyone equally. Christ’s presence among the poor is not to condemn the rich but to condemn the dignity of rich who possess.
Through prayer that gives up self, we seek to open ourselves up before God, and to hear anew the call "Come unto me!" We seek to recognize and respond afresh to God’s presence in our lives and in our world. We seek to place our needs, our fears, our failures, our hopes, our very lives in God’s hands, again. And we seek by abandoning ourselves in Jesus’ death to recognize again who God is, to allow His transforming grace to work in us once more and to come to worship Him on Easter Sunday with a fresh victory and hope that goes beyond the new clothes, the spring flowers, and the happy music.
What kind of fasting God expecting form us? It’s a fasting that corresponds to Gods longing, that’s realizing those bound unjustly, carrying the yoke of hunger, homelessness, nakedness etc. Let us identify Gods love in our life. He has created us a new through Jesus Christ that as St. Paul says while we were still sinners Christ died for us and brought us a new life, so that we are new children of our heavenly father. If he has loved us we must share the love with another. Jesus has shown us his loving kindness let us then pass it on to and fellow men and not to keep it for ourselves, for love is only when it is given away. As the song in the sound of music states:
A bell isn’t a bell, until you ring it
A song isn’t a song until you sing it
Love isn’t put in the heart to say:
Love is given, to be given away.
So as John of the cross tells us let us put our love where thee is no love and we will find love. In this way we will not only become loving person but love itself like God who is love. With this in mind let us start our lent season - longing for Gods love – Who is waiting for us to give his love.
Joel: 2:12-18
2cor. 5:20-6:2
Mt: 6:1-6.16-18
God’s longing
Once again the Ash Wednesday, we rush to the churches to receive ashes. We hear the word repentance, which fires our hearts to renew our life in relationship with Jesus. The Lenten season invite us to fast, pray and give alms. We are so sincere to keep all these because we love the person Jesus and we long for him to be in our life journey. Lent is a way to place ourselves before God humbled, bringing in our hands no price whereby we can ourselves purchase our salvation. It is a way to confess our total inadequacy before God, to strip ourselves bare of all pretenses to righteousness, to come before God in dust and ashes. It is a way to empty ourselves of our false pride, of our rationalizations that prevent us from seeing ourselves as needy creatures, of our "perfectionist" tendencies that blind us to the beam in our own eyes.
God’s longing is deeper than all of our longing. My struggling brothers and sisters must be consoled and treated justly. This must be the real meaning of my longing for God by the way of fasting, praying and alms giving. When there is a call to go back to God, there is a call to turn to my neighbors, whom I may know – I may not know – but God knows. God longs us to be found in their midst, because God is with these needy, he wants to love everyone equally. Christ’s presence among the poor is not to condemn the rich but to condemn the dignity of rich who possess.
Through prayer that gives up self, we seek to open ourselves up before God, and to hear anew the call "Come unto me!" We seek to recognize and respond afresh to God’s presence in our lives and in our world. We seek to place our needs, our fears, our failures, our hopes, our very lives in God’s hands, again. And we seek by abandoning ourselves in Jesus’ death to recognize again who God is, to allow His transforming grace to work in us once more and to come to worship Him on Easter Sunday with a fresh victory and hope that goes beyond the new clothes, the spring flowers, and the happy music.
What kind of fasting God expecting form us? It’s a fasting that corresponds to Gods longing, that’s realizing those bound unjustly, carrying the yoke of hunger, homelessness, nakedness etc. Let us identify Gods love in our life. He has created us a new through Jesus Christ that as St. Paul says while we were still sinners Christ died for us and brought us a new life, so that we are new children of our heavenly father. If he has loved us we must share the love with another. Jesus has shown us his loving kindness let us then pass it on to and fellow men and not to keep it for ourselves, for love is only when it is given away. As the song in the sound of music states:
A bell isn’t a bell, until you ring it
A song isn’t a song until you sing it
Love isn’t put in the heart to say:
Love is given, to be given away.
So as John of the cross tells us let us put our love where thee is no love and we will find love. In this way we will not only become loving person but love itself like God who is love. With this in mind let us start our lent season - longing for Gods love – Who is waiting for us to give his love.
Written By
BRO. RINU JOSE SCJ
FIRST YEAR THEOLOGY STUDENT.
posted by PRIESTS OF THE SACRED HEART, ELURU at 8:08 am
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