“Becoming a Christian means becoming communio and thereby entering into the mode of being of the Holy Spirit.”
Pope Benedicy XVI
Lent is a period of roughly 6 weeks , where our attention is focused on Loving God and Loving Neighbor. This idea is epitomized in the Good Samaritan as well as the Separation of the goats and sheep.
The Importance of how we treat the Other is looked at very closely, since we tend to do it so poorly.
As we go through the various readings in Lent, we should realize that God is sending a message to His loved ones. He sent His son and Jesus died fo r our sins. As people we can easily forget that Jesus was simply a man with a good moral compass… Bu, it Jesus is reduced to that, none of us are saved, because man cannot undo that which we did to initiate the Fall.
Jesus must be God becasue He loved us so… even those 2000 years later. We recognize God by his action of love. And our actions of love shoudl bring about our deification , Just as God is “Communio” of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are a communion of Dave and Bill and Sarah.. all those who have ever been human. Together as children of God
Week One Reflection
As we look at the readings that we have during the past week, there are of course many Reflections on Lent that can be had. But it should be important that we see that there are some consistencies amongst God’s message to us. Primarily God is telling us, we need to look at the other. Who is this other? Well, it is asked of Jesus what is the greatest of the commandments? His answer is to first Love God, but then love your neighbor as yourself.
This is the 10 commandments in a nutshell. But, it draws our attention into who is the neighbor but we can even more generalize it by asking who is the other?
Laws and Decrees
At the beginning of Lent, we are shown that God asks of everyone to follow his laws and decrees. We can get the mistaken idea that we are doing this for Him. But, the truth goes much deeper.
Remember God is perfect nothing can be added or taken away from Him and therefore needs nothing for himself. So why the attention on us doing His laws and decrees? He cares and loves each of us. For Him, every one of us is the “other” And the “other” is His pride and joy.
Learning of love
That is the focus that we should notice. Yes, there are numerous lessons upon what are the laws and decrees. We hear about Love God and love others. Additional information is given on the 5th, 6, 7 etcetera commandment. We even hear that the goal which we each have is to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.
But above all we are taught that we each have a choice in the matter. We can do or we will not do his commands. He loves us enough to allow us to make this choice. We have to remember the primary beneficiary of us following God’s decrees and laws is not God, but the “other” God is focused on the other because of His perfection
Ezekiel has us bending over backwards
We have read where God takes no pleasure in the death of a wicked man, but rather in his conversion that he may live. That is our concern then as well. We help in this conversion. We can stand up and speak Gods truth like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel have so far.
We can stand up and speak the words of Jesus which also is good. But we do this not to create any great claim with God. We do this simply to aid the “other” allowing him to live.
Goats and Sheep
Jesus made it very clear this Monday that those things which we do or we don’t do for another person, we do or don’t do to Jesus himself. Feed him, cloth him, give him drink etc. the Other gets needed temporal benefit, God is pleased that we are following his decrees, and we know we have helped another in their journey here in life and moved closer to God’s perfection.
Continue to learn “Communio”
As we are relearning the lessons we have received from the Church, we need to remind ourselves that we should be sure that our needs are met. That is important. But, we also need to be sure that the needs of the “other” are met as well. This puts our focus entirely on Jesus and we always should make Jesus first in our lives and in our hearts.
When we love God with all of our heart, mind, and soul, we are loving the heart mind and soul of the other who is so important to who we care so much about as well.
- Readings for 1st Week of Lent
Videos related to today's reflection
If you like these videos there are many more. Click like on the video and Subscribe by Subscribe by clicking on the For the Love of God icon