LENTEN EVENING REFLECTION ON THE MONDAY OF WEEK FIVE OF LENT
Br. Brillis Mathew
Readings:
Daniel 13:1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62
Psalm 23:1-6
John 8:1-11
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In yesterday's readings, we reflected on how God raises up from our graves and gives us life.
Fullness of life
God has called each one of us to live in the "fullness of life": a life with the purpose of glorifying God and fulfilling the mission He has entrusted to us. "Ad maiorem Dei gloriam": we are all called to praise the Lord with not only with our lips, but even more so with our hearts, and still more with our lives. Jesus our Lord said, "Father, I have glorified you on earth by finishing the work that You gave me to do." (John 17:4)
Fulfilling our mission
We all have a work which has been entrusted to us. St. Paul has said, "I have run the race to the finish, I have finished the mission that has been entrusted to me." (2 Timothy 4:6-8) Each one of us is entrusted with a specific ministry, through which we glorify the Lord. Sometimes people struggle to find meaning and purpose in their lives, being lost in the comforts and pleasures of this world. The time of Lent can be put to good use to re-discover, re-prioritise, re-order and re-align our lives with God's divine plan for us. Once we do that, our lives will be different: we will start experiencing joy, passion and purpose.
Experiencing peace even in the midst of difficulties
The sisters Martha and Mary, whom we encountered in yesterday’s Gospel, were led by the Lord from unbelief to belief. After conversing with Jesus, even when confronted by the death of their brother, they were both able to affirm that in the Lord there was Life, a Life which was more powerful even than death. The beautiful words from the prayer of St. Teresa of Avila also invite us to move towards such an attitude, towards the peace that comes from the Lord even in the midst of difficulties: "Let nothing disturb your peace. Nothing is wanting to those who possess God. God alone suffices." During this particular time, when because of a seemingly "small" virus, systems have been paralysed and disrupted, and when our own plans are thrown into disarray, let us try to tune ourselves and be open to God’s plan for each one of us. I remember one of my friends telling me that he had to experience all his plans being shattered before he could say “yes” to God’s plan.
Encountering the Christ who lives within us
Let us now move to the words of the opening prayer of the mass today, where we prayed that we may “pass from former ways to newness of life". Lent is a time when we are on a journey to experience the newness of life in Easter. Some of us may wonder, “This Easter however, when I will not be able to even go to Church, how are things going to move ahead?” When our own means of approaching God fail, brothers and sisters, let me assure you that God is infinitely able to recharge us in completely new and unexpected ways! Let us therefore, use these events as a divine invitation to do something that we may not have done before: visit Him within the sanctuary of our souls. How is this possible? Scripture gives us the answer: "Blessed are the pure in heart, they shall see God." (Matthew 5:8) It is by sanctifying ourselves that we will experience the Lord who lives within each one of us, and as the One Who loves us and assures us that He will never abandon us.
A spirituality of this present time
Let us therefore be happy and rediscover the “spirituality of this present time”: "If Christ is in me, I have everything". We too start having the experience of Moses, who prayed in Exodus 33, "Lord, if you don't come with me, do not send me". The answer of the Lord was, "I myself will come with you and grant you rest." During this time, let us all experience our God as someone who walks with us, comforts us and guides us by discovering the spirituality of "Christ within us". In reality, this period of difficulty is a time of special grace for each one of us.
Susanna
I would like to share some points which touched me from the Readings of the day. In verse 23 of chapter 13 of the Book of Daniel, we read that Susanna made a bold choice: she was able to proclaim in front of the men who plotted their death that she preferred to “fall innocent into their power rather than sin in the sight of the Lord.” The Old Testament is in fact a shadow of things to come. Both the story of the innocent Susanna, who was led like an lamb to the slaughter, and the story of the innocent Isaac who was demanded as a sacrifice from Abraham in the Book of Genesis, chapter 22, are in fact, prefigurations of the truly innocent Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who was sacrificed so that we sinners might be in turn restored to innocence.
Moving to verse 31 of the same chapter, we read that Susanna was “graceful to look at”, a prefiguration of the Blessed Virgin, who was “full of grace”. In verse 45, we read that God “roused the holy spirit residing in a young boy called Daniel”. This verse too illustrates how the innocent are moved, roused and inspired by God. Let us all strive to be innocent!
No fear even in dark valleys
In the Response to the Psalm, we hear, “Even if I were to walk in the dark valley of death, no evil will I fear” (Psalm 23:4). In a certain sense, we are all walking in the dark valleys of death during this time. However, the presence of Christ within us casts out our fears. The letter of John reminds us that “perfect love drives out fear” (1 John 4:17-21).
In the Gospel, on the other hand, we find Jesus face to face with a person who is “not innocent”, a sinner, condemned by the Pharisees to be stoned to death. Through this incident Jesus teaches us two important lessons: the first, that He does not condemn the sinner, and the second, those without sin are those alone may cast the first stone. The Lord reminds us that all of us are sinners, travellers on the same ship, experiencing, in a certain sense, the same “sea-sickness” of sin. Though we ourselves are sinners, how often we succumb to the tendency of throwing stones at others! Through this incident, however, the Lord asks us to desist from the temptation to condemn sinners but rather to be merciful. Let us imitate our Lord Jesus Christ who loved and was merciful to the sinner though He hated sins of every sort.
To conclude, brothers and sisters, the merciful and kind Jesus wishes to restore our life. Let us never be afraid of approaching Him or striving our best to walk with Him faithfully and humbly. He does not ask us to do impossible things, but only that we do our best. As long as we try our best, the Lord will never abandon us.
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