Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent
I have been confronted lately with the many things that are going on in the world. The economy continues to improve, but too many people are still unemployed. Wars continue to rage, and non-combatants get caught in the crossfire. All we have to do is turn on the news to hear another story of how horrible people can be to each other, or of a problem that seems insurmountable. In such times, I am tempted to despair. Sometimes, too, when I am confronted with my own faults and sinfulness I am tempted to despair that they can be overcome. Joel Schickel
The first reading for today begins with a picture of despair. The kingdoms of Israel and Judah are in ruins. Isaiah begins to indict the people for their sins. They have forgotten how to practice justice. They have turned away from the LORD to serve other gods. And although though make sacrifices to the LORD, their deeds do not match the words they profess with their lips. Their faith is not genuine. And God regards their sacrifices as worthless.
Yet this is not where the reading ends. Isaiah continues to speak the words of the LORD: “Come now, let us set things right, says the LORD: Though your sins be as scarlet, they may become white as snow” (Isaiah 1: 18). Even here the LORD holds out the possibility of redemption. All the people have to do is return to the LORD and they will be forgiven.
There are two possible responses to the recognition of sinfulness—our own and of other people. One response is despair. We may conclude that the situation we find ourselves in is hopeless, that there is nothing that can be done to improve it. We may feel that we are stuck with the way things are and that the world is the way it is and cannot be changed.
The other response is hope. We may hope that our past failings may not be held against us, that they will be forgotten, that God will not hold them against us. The scriptures we have been reading this Lent remind us that such hope is not irrational or misguided. In fact, it is this very hope that makes sense of our sacrifice in these forty days of Lent only makes sense when we keep in mind the possibility of our redemption through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This Lent, we are called on not just to work on ourselves but also to be on the lookout for ways we can help to make the world around us a better place. The only way to fail is to give up hope before we begin.
As we go through the rest of our Lenten journey this year, let each of us take the steps to choose hope over despair.
-