THURSDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK OF LENT - 2022

LENT 2022

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Blessed are those who,
with a noble and generous heart,
take the word of God to themselves
and yield a harvest through their perseverance. LK 8:15


JEREMIAH 17:5-10 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

It is very consoling and at the same time very humbling to know that nothing is hidden from You. We can hide nothing - You know our most secret sins. You know our motives. You know what prompts us to act in a certain way and whether or not we do what we do to please God or people.

Ever since the fall, we attempt to find happiness and fulfillment apart from You. We shrink from discipline and self-denial for the things of the world are so much more appealing to our fallen nature. Too often we spend our whole lives seeking to satisfy the clamor of the senses to the detriment of our souls.

Divine wisdom points out that nothing good, lasting, and true can be gained from the things of the world. Anyone who puts their trust in people is doomed to be disappointed. The flesh decays and the world and everything in it perishes.

Time and time again we are reminded that the wise person chooses to be planted in You. To put down roots deep in You so we can receive all that is necessary for us to live, thrive, flourish, and bear good fruit that will last. 

We have only to look at those who have given their lives over to hedonism and see them spiraling downwards as they embrace the demonic culture that is spreading everywhere in the world.

To those who have ears, the Spirit speaks encouragingly and constantly.

‘A blessing on the man who puts his trust in the Lord,
with the Lord for his hope.
He is like a tree by the waterside
that thrusts its roots to the stream:
when the heat comes it feels no alarm,
its foliage stays green;
it has no worries in a year of drought,
and never ceases to bear fruit.’

We are created for eternity and we alone can make a choice for eternal life or eternal death

‘I, the Lord, search to the heart,
I probe the loins,
to give each man what his conduct
and his actions deserve.’

LUKE 16:19-31 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Indifference is a curse that makes us blind and insensitive to those less fortunate than ourselves. We become so self-involved, so wrapped up in our own little world. So attuned to the clamor of our own appetites we fail to notice those under our very noses who hunger just to be seen.

In today's parable, You speak of a rich man who had everything that this life could offer. He pampered his flesh with all kinds of luxuries denying himself nothing. He clothed himself in the most expensive garments and feasted on rich food every single day. This though was not his sin, he was a wealthy man and was entitled to use what was his as he pleased. What was caused his eternal separation from God was the grave sin of indifference to his neighbor who was at his gate, under his gaze. He went to and fro from his luxurious home several times a day blissfully unaware of Lazarus covered in sores, hungry, thirsty, naked, longing for the scraps that fell from the rich man's table and was denied even that. Dogs were more sensitive to his plight. 

The end for both the rich and the poor is the same - death is a great leveler. Both died the rich man and Lazarus one to eternal damnation and one to eternal joy in the Kingdom of God.

Now as the tables are reversed the condemned man finally notices Lazarus and ironically he now pleads with Abraham to send Lazarus to ease his pain. Wow! In life he was so blinkered he did not notice this miserable, dying man at his gate and now in torment, he actually expects Lazarus to provide him relief.

He finally learns that by squandering the time he had on earth by using it as his personal playground blind and deaf to the needs of the less fortunate he will reap what he has sown.

Concerned for his family, that they who are like him will not end up where he is, he pleads for Lazarus to be sent to warn his brothers. Abraham rightly points out, “They have Moses and the prophets,” said Abraham “let them listen to them.” “Ah no, father Abraham,” said the rich man “but if someone comes to them from the dead, they will repent.” Then Abraham said to him, “If they will not listen either to Moses or to the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone should rise from the dead.”’

Many of us like the rich man, are so preoccupied with ourselves we become blind to others, especially those who will disturb our well-ordered lives. You have given us all we need to help us on our way from this life to the next but many of us reject to heed the call to conversion and hence bring about our own damnation.

The time is now - tomorrow may be too late.