March 14: Fourth Sunday in Lent
Joshua 5:9-12
Psalm 32
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
“If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (2 Cor. 5: 17)
The goal of life is to be transformed into Christ. The good news is that this transformation is mostly God’s doing. Though we are fragile and wounded human beings, prone to act in less than loving ways, God is always at work in us: inviting us to relationship and softening the wounded edges of our spirits. Most of us, like the prodigal son’s brother, have a hard time understanding that God never gives up on us. God’s love is abundant and never-ending, and God always longs to lavish that love upon us. Most of us are just too busy or preoccupied to receive it.
So God finds ways to invite us in, to gently draw our attention to what matters most: knowing we are loved by God and others and loving in return. If we take the time to stop and listen, we become aware of this deep Love that is all around us and within us. Meditation is a great way to listen, as is prayer. Just sitting in quiet for a few minutes a day helps us to become mindful that we are not alone: there is a great Mystery running through our lives that is the undercurrent of all creation.
“Even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way.” (2 Cor. 5: 16b)
As we enter into relationship with the God of Love who seeks to always communicate that Love to us, our vision starts to change and grow. This is not anything that we do ourselves; it is the result of God working in us. As frail and wounded human beings, we are unable to see ourselves and others the way God sees us; as people of great dignity, worthy of respect. So in our actions toward ourselves and others we stomp all over each other, hurting one another in countless different ways.
Lent is a time to allow our vision to change and grow. Again, because of our frailty, we do this not in grand and sweeping ways, because we are incapable of this, but in small ways that show we are cooperating with the work of God in us. As God’s children, worthy of great respect, we allow God to show us where we need to grow, and we begin to make small changes that reflect both God’s work in us and our desire to change. We know we cannot transform ourselves by our own will alone, and so we ask God for the grace to be open to change and to help us grow into the people God has called us to be.
Therein lies great joy.
AMEN!