Monday of the Second Week in Lent
As we begin this second full week of Lent, we are reminded of our human sinfulness. In God, we have a wonderful, loving Father, and yet so often we choose to do other than God’s will for us. Our sinful actions hurt ourselves and others and they even rupture our relationship with God. Hence we are “shamefaced”! This is the sentiment of our first reading from the book of Daniel.
The passage from Daniel contains a threefold confession of sorts. It is a confession of faith in God because it is a prayer addressed to God. It is a confession of sin because of the acknowledgment of sin. But lastly, it is a confession of belief in God’s mercy. And if recognizing and atoning for our human sinfulness is one of the great themes of Lent, even more so is God’s mercy a theme of Lent.
The psalm response for today beseeches God not to “deal with us according to our sins.” And indeed, when we consider that all we have is from God – God created us, God loved us into being, God gave us the world to make as our home, God sent his only Son who died for our salvation, and God sent the Holy Spirit to help us to live the gospel – we ought to realize that we sin constantly in not being aware of God’s presence and in not striving to do God’s will more fully. If God were to judge us according to our human notion of justice, we would certainly be doomed, for none of us can live as perfect a life as we ought to live.
But the good news of Lent is that God is a merciful Father. Even though we deserve punishment and condemnation, we are rewarded with the possibility of eternal life. Even though we sin constantly in what we think, what we do, and what we fail to do, God still loves us and wills our salvation. God makes up in us what we are lacking, and for this we are grateful. We are so grateful that it should transform our lives. In the gospel passage from Luke, Jesus instructs his disciples to be like this merciful Father. Instead of judging and condemning and holding grudges, Jesus invites us to give and forgive. We are called to a spirit of generosity that at once recognizes that all we have comes from God and that the best we can do is to return those gifts to God.
In this season of Lent, we undertake mortifications or penances that are meant to lead us closer to God. Let us remind ourselves that these penances should make us more like God, more like the merciful Father who gives and forgives, even when this contradicts our human notion of justice. As we engage in prayer, almsgiving, and fasting, let us strive to offer our sacrifices in a true spirit of generosity and pray that God will give us the grace to become more like Him each day.
- Maria Morrow