Labyrinth located on the office grounds of St James
Catholic Church - Tupelo, Mississippi
Today is the last day of ordinary time before we start the
holy season of Lent. Many people in our
part of the country celebrate Mardi Gras and Fat Tuesday today. Our youth are having a pancake breakfast
fundraiser to celebrate today and to earn funds for their Catholic Heart
Workcamp trips this summer.
As we hear today’s Gospel that tells us about the Pharisees
confronting Jesus as they see his disciples as disobeying the Jewish ritual
purification ritual of washing one’s hands, we might think about the rules we
follow as a part of our faith. The
Church asks us to obey specific rules and rituals as a part of our Lenten
preparations for Easter. We fast on Ash
Wednesday and Good Friday, and abstain from meat on those days and on all Fridays
during Lent. We are called to the
Sacrament of Reconciliation in a special way during this season. We are called to give something up in our
lives during Lent as part of the penitential character of this season. We are called to spend more time in prayer
and to reach out to those in need in our community. As I was visiting the CCD classes last
Wednesday evening, I heard one of the teachers explain to the children that
these Lenten disciplines are not only important in the way we observe this holy
season of Lent, but they should also affect our behavior and our faith after
the season of Lent ends.
Perhaps this gets to the heart of what Jesus was telling the
Pharisees. Any rituals or rules that we
follow are not to be done for their own sake or done to prescribe to rules that
man has made, but they are to be connected in a direct way to God and to our
faith. As we enter Lent tomorrow, our
task today is to think of the special ways we are going to observe Lent this
year and use this holy season in a special way that will help us grow in our
faith and help us grow in our relationship with God.
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