Tuesday of the First Week of Lent
As Christians we are called to renew our efforts at living the Christian life during the season of Lent. I find myself at this time of year thinking more about how to pray. The scripture readings for today help us to reflect on this question. In the first reading, Isaiah speaks of God’s promise that his word will not return to him void. It must have an effect, since God is powerful and does not do things for no reason, without accomplishing or doing anything. To show this, Isaiah uses a powerful image, comparing the words of God to rain that pours forth from the sky to water the earth. This water then nurtures plants and crops, which allows people to make bread. This image becomes more striking when a connection is made between God’s word, as Isaiah describes it, and Jesus. Jesus himself is the Word who is sent out into the world to do God’s will.
The theme of God’s word is continued in the gospel reading, where Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray. The words of the Lord’s prayer are very familiar to us. We say them every time we go to mass. Perhaps we also pray them at home as part of our daily prayer. It is interesting that Jesus contrasts this prayer to that of the pagans. As Christians we do not need to appease God with sacrifice of many words. Instead, Jesus says, God knows what we need before we even ask for it. This should give us confidence that God loves us and will hear our prayer. But it also suggests that God forgives us even before we ask.
The gospel for today has us meditating in particular on one line of the Lord’s prayer. During Lent it makes sense to emphasize the line where we ask God to forgive our sins just as we forgive those who sin against us. At various times in life, we may find that this is in fact the hardest line in the prayer for us to pray. Although God has already forgiven us, yet we need to respond personally to this forgiveness. We need to acknowledge it and have it bear fruit in our lives by forgiving others. I’ve heard it said that forgiving is not forgetting. It seems to me that forgiving others is not the same thing as paving over or whitewashing wrong actions or pretending that evil does not occur. Jesus isn’t asking us to ignore sin. In fact, it seems that as Christians we have more of a responsibility to speak out against it and to speak out about the effects of sin in the world.
By now we are finishing up the first week of Lent. How is it going for us? Has the process begun to focus our attention on what is really important? In what ways has it led us closer to God? Has it shown us ways that we have been forgiven and indicated things for which we need to seek forgiveness? Has it led us to show kindness, mercy, and compassion towards others?
Joel Schickel