Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent
Prince of Gomorra! What a name! Why is Isaiah calling his readers this? There must be some bad people that the sacred author is addressing, right? But rather than punishment or vengeance, God is calling for repentance. ‘Set things right. Make justice your aim.’
If you’re reading this, you probably don’t consider yourself a prince or princess of Sodom. So is there anything in today’s reading for us, or is this just something we can throw at sinners even worse than you and I?
Perhaps the Church paired the first and second readings together to show us disciples that we can’t get stuck in the weeds of doctrines and teachings. We’ve got to act. Yes, we must pray and worship, but that prayer, and especially the Mass, needs to drive us to loving action. God has called a people to himself so that we can be a blessing for the Earth. Our personal salvation is caught up in the charity and justice we create in the world around us. Orphans and Widows in the Bible are the persons without a voice in society. In today’s society and economy, here in Dayton, who lives on the margins? Who doesn’t have a voice? Who lacks the power to meet their own needs? We know who: the unborn and the immigrant, the poor and the non-white, among others. These people are the ones our tradition commands us to serve. We are supposed to help protect and help them. And in many ways some Catholics are doing that. The question is, how am I helping? How are you helping?
Today, let us get these ideas out of our heads and into our hearts and daily actions. God is calling us to repentance. It’s not that we have to do more; in the Spirit of Lent, we must pray for the modern ‘widows and orphans’, fast from what distracts us from God’s call, and give alms by serving marginalized people; by fasting we participate in the Jesus’s saving plan for our life: to channel wasted energy away from sin and into useful, saving grace for us and our neighbors. Holy Spirit, convert our hearts today, so that we may become a true blessing for Dayton and for all the Earth.
—Chris Nieport