Repent, says the Lord,
for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand. MT 4:17
DEUTERONOMY 30:15-20
My Soul's Beloved,
You, O Lord our God, created us for Yourself and to be truly happy, we must obey the commandments designed to help us flourish. Salvation history shows us how God's people either prospered when they were faithful, and the terrible sufferings they had to endure when they dishonored God, worshipped false gods, and were faithless. Today we are reminded once again as we enter the holy season of Lent that just as Moses set before God's people the choices that lay before them for life or death so too do we have to make a choice for life or death.
We must choose daily whether we will walk the narrow way, pick up our cross daily, endure whatever suffering necessary for our purification, certain that we will never be alone but that You are yoked to us and accompany us every step of the way. When the world's allurements grow too great and concupiscence inclines us to sin, Lord, grant us the graces we need to withstand the temptations that lure us from the choice we have gladly and willingly made to remain in You. Have mercy O Lord, and for the sake of Your sorrowful passion, never let us choose anything other than life in You.
‘But if your heart strays, if you refuse to listen, if you let yourself be drawn into worshipping other gods and serving them, I tell you today, you will most certainly perish; you will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today: I set before you life or death, blessing or curse. Choose life, then, so that you and your descendants may live, in the love of the Lord your God, obeying his voice, clinging to him; for in this your life consists, and on this depends your long stay in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob he would give them.’
PSALM 1:1-4,6
Happy the man who has placed his trust in the Lord.
Happy indeed is the man
who follows not the counsel of the wicked;
nor lingers in the way of sinners
nor sits in the company of scorners,
but whose delight is the law of the Lord
and who ponders his law day and night.
He is like a tree that is planted
beside the flowing waters,
that yields its fruit in due season
and whose leaves shall never fade;
and all that he does shall prosper.
beside the flowing waters,
that yields its fruit in due season
and whose leaves shall never fade;
and all that he does shall prosper.
Not so are the wicked, not so!
For they like winnowed chaff
shall be driven away by the wind:
for the Lord guards the way of the just
but the way of the wicked leads to doom.
shall be driven away by the wind:
for the Lord guards the way of the just
but the way of the wicked leads to doom.
Happy the man who has placed his trust in the Lord.
LUKE 9:22-25
My Soul's Beloved,
The Church in her wisdom gives us the Lenten season to remind us that we are destined for eternal life with You. Our focus in the next 40 days is the Cross and the sufferings that come with it. If we wish to become Your disciple, we are invited to follow You closely. The student is not greater than the Master and the Way of the Master is the Way of Sorrow and the Cross. Our natural instinct is to run away from suffering but You show us by example that the only way to heaven is through the narrow way. The road from Gethsemane to Golgotha to the tomb is a total kenosis leading to death of self, only then can we hope to receive a share in Your glorious resurrection and new life that never ends.
Jesus said to his disciples:
‘The Son of Man is destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and to be put to death, and to be raised up on the third day.’
Then to all he said:
‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross every day and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, that man will save it. What gain, then, is it for a man to have won the whole world and to have lost or ruined his very self?’
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