Month: April 2011

Lenten Reminder

Today pilgrims made their way to the Basilica da San Lorenzo in Lucina.  This church lies nestled in a quiet piazza.  Just a few yards away one finds the busy Via del Corso lined with boutiques and shops.  Contrasting the quiet church piazza and the busy via offers a great Lenten reminder.  It calls to mind this season’s invitation to take some steps back from the interests of this world to reflect instead on God and to seek first His Kingdom.

In the Gospel we hear Christ tell the scribe, “you are not far from the Kingdom of God.”  Christ speaks these words just as much to each of us today as he did to the scribe in the Gospel.  We do well to remember that we believe the Kingdom exists both “already” and “not yet.”  While the fulfillment of the Kingdom will be marked with Christ’s return, we nevertheless believe that through his Incarnation, Passion, Death and Resurrection it has already been inaugurated.  Each one of us can here and now draw closer to the reality of that Kingdom.  For Catechumens and Candidates, they will do so at the Easter Vigil by being fully received into the Church.  For others, drawing nearer to the Kingdom this Lent may involve returning to the practice of the faith and/or seeking the sacrament of Reconciliation.  For most of us, I imagine that drawing near to the Kingdom lies in the small daily conversions which aim to bring us closer to God.  Often this is the fruit we desired from our Lenten practices.

Our Call to Rejoice

This Sunday the Church marks Laetare Sunday.  She invites us to “rejoice!” as we cross this threshold over the midpoint of Lent and, more importantly, come closer to the Resurrection, Christ’s victory over sin and death on our behalf, which serves as the true source of our joy.  This midpoint provides a wonderful opportunity to take stock of our Lenten practices.  For some of us this will be a cause for rejoicing and giving thanks as we take note at how God has used these practices to turn us more towards Himself.  For others of us it is still a cause for rejoicing!  Although we may have experienced difficulty up to this point with our practices, there is still time and God is generous!  Just recall the parable of the landowner (Mt 20:1-16).  He paid the laborers he called at the waning hours of the day the same amount as those who had been at work from the early morning.

Written by Francisco Aquirre

Photos by Fr. Justin Huber

Who is it today that you’re finding it difficult to love? Is it someone at home, on the job, in the neighborhood, at church, in the public spotlight? Whoever it may be, today’s gospel challenges us to make the intentional effort- to go the extra mile- to love that person.

As we heard, a scribe asked Jesus what he thought was the first of all the commandments. But Jesus didn’t just give him the first, which is the commandment to love God above all else. Jesus gave him the second as well, which is the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus did this because we cannot love God if we don’t love our neighbor.

But just how are we to love? What are we supposed to do? St. Thomas Aquinas said, “Love is wanting what is best for a person and doing what you reasonably can to bring goodness and good things to that person.”

Applying this to the person we’re finding it difficult to love will take different forms, depending on the circumstances. We may need to exercise patience, swallow our pride, offer forgiveness, be intentionally kind, give them some type of help, or make amends for something hurtful we may have done to them.

But regardless of what we might need to do to these difficult people, love them we must, if we wish to be people who truly love God.

Readings for today’s Mass: http://www.usccb.org/nab/040111.shtml

Photo Credit: tourist_on_earth via Creative Commons