Friday, February 26, 2010


SECOND WEEK OF LENT

MONDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK (Daniel 9:4b-10; Luke 6,36-38) The Gospel for today has a rather simple message. All it is asking us to do is go into our hearts and ask one question: What are those things which I want? The answer comes up; forgiveness, understanding, patience. Having answered for ourselves we are further challenged to give those very things to those around us.
Question:
1: What are those things you want which you can give to someone else?

TUESDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK ( Is.1,10,16-20; Matt.23,1-12) The spiritual “ladder climber”...piling up a large amount of things we have done “for God”...verging on an attempt to bribe God. It happens, most times unconsciously, but the equation of: “I’ve done this therefore...”.is still operative in the spiritual lives of people. The mentality of the broad phylacteries and long tassels is not over…It is so easy to fall into the way of the scribes. When we look at it there is a certain security involved. We pay the money of our good works for the security that God will give almost like going to a super-market.
We are being asked to surrender that “security” for the “insecurity “ of service. Not to worry or be concerned about rewards...Just to do it because it is part of the covenant with God...Instead of climbing the ladder ourselves, we are being asked to hold the ladder so that other people may climb to God...We hold it by prayer, by fasting and good works...these lead to good example that in turn help people along the way. This type of service while being insecure is in fact the most secure.
Question:
1: Is your security in the things you have done or have or in the Lord?

WEDNESDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK (2Sam.7:74-5,12-14a,16; Rom.4:13,16-18, 22; Matt.1:16, 18-21, 24a) The doors are open to many possibilities in reflecting on this feast. Joseph calls us to look at our faith, our commitments, our courage. He challenges us to listen to our dreams. What strikes me now about Joseph is that he is a man who tried to do the best he could. Many times he was not sure , there were times when he just did not understand, but he kept on going.

THURSDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK (Jer.17,5-10;Lk.16,19-31)What is my attitude towards the things of creation? Or more basically towards the things which I possess.? Today’s Gospel forces us to consider these questions because the bottom line is that the rich man looked at things as “this is mine”...We may call this attitude a form of greed. The sense of interdependence was not there. The rich man, did not see that he was tied into the poor man sitting at the front door. We use the word “charity” but that could be very misleading. This interdependence which we have with one another demands “justice”. When I give, it is not just giving something which I possess, but rather something which the poor person has a right in justice to demand.
Many years ago there was a group of people distributing rice cakes to the homeless in Tokyo. It was a very difficult hurdle to get over realizing that these people in taking the cakes were not taking “charity” but rather something which the homeless could in distributive justice claim as there own.
Of course, the poor can be greedy also. They may want and want, and put demands which go beyond the claims of justice. This is the point where concrete decisions are necessary. We can be unjust by enabling someone to remain where they are...but at the same time we must realize that what we have in some way belongs to them...
I think, after having gone through this Gospel, what it teaches us is stewardship and not ownership, to use God’s possessions without saying that “this is mine”....Interdependence with others rather than living in my own isolated world is my reality. People have a right to know who I am.
Question:
1: How do you envision justice and charity?

FRIDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK .(Gn.37,3-4,12-28;Matt.21,33-43,45-46) The allegory in this Gospel is very clear.. The landlord is the Father, the servants are the prophets and the son is the Son. Listening is so important. Not only is it important but it is probably one of the most difficult things we have to do in life. It is a science and an art which few of us every truly master. We miss so many things...And of course some of the things we hear we do not want to hear and tuck them away in some safe place where they do not cause us any inconvenience.
Sometimes we hear things which beckon us to give up something which we treasure. Probably the people of the Old Testament to whom the prophets were sent had this problem. They were prosperous but they heard words about their prosperity which hit them in the heart and they did not listen. It just was not convenient to do, it meant letting go of too much. Their own thoughts were too precious to them ...The way they looked at reality did not permit this “other” voice to change it; it was a voice they could not understand through the darkness of their own self interest. Their greed had closed their hearts to any voice except their own.
It does not take too much imagination to see the connection to our own lives. The words which are spoken in the Gospel are so difficult to really hear and to put into action. They seem to bounce off of us like the wind. They find it so difficult to penetrate our hearts. The voices calling us to God are all about us: in scripture, in nature, in the newspapers, nature, in the voice of a friend or even of an enemy
They are there trying to penetrate the noise of our hearts.
Question:
1: “Blessed are they who mourn” are you willing to mourn over the loss of something good in order to draw closer to God?

SATURDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK (:Micah 7,14-15,18-20; Lk.15,1-3,11-32) Who is the lost son? The usual way of interpreting this is that the lost son is ourselves. The traditional way of looking at the son is as a figure of all of humanity: sinful, having turned from God, and hopefully turning back to him. He is our representative in asking the Father’s forgiveness...The parable of the lost son is one with which most of us have no difficulty identifying with....
There are words which the Gospel uses that could possibly give us a new way of looking at the lost son. At the end of the Gospel such expressions as “ he was dead but is now back to life” bring to mind the resurrection of Jesus. I think the lost son is Jesus, he is talking about himself. But every time Jesus talks about himself He is talking about us...He is saying that He has taken all the sins of man kind on himself. He who is without sin has become sin for our sake. Then he runs to the Father. The Father sees Him coming and runs to Him. It is the parable of us being caught up in the very mystery of Christ and His bringing us back to the Father.
Question:
1: What do you think of Jesus picking up all your sins and making them His own?

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