I think of Isaiah and the prophets as we hear wisdom from Isaiah today. Those poor prophets were called to a very challenging task: to bring the people
back to the Lord after they had turned their backs on him and had gone
astray. Isaiah calls out the people on account of their sins, but he gives them hope,
telling them that those crimson stains of sin can be washed white as snow. Isaiah calls the people to set things right, to obey the Lord.
Obedience can be a tricky thing, can’t it? We can say that we are
going to be obedient to God and the Church, and that is all fine when we don’t
have to make any sacrifices to be obedient. But being obedient when we don’t agree and when we don’t understand – that is
something very different, isn’t it? As a priest, I am called to a very high level of obedience. I can advocate and disagree, but at the end
of the day, when I called to obey to the Bishop and to the Magisterium, that
takes precedence over everything else, over my personal desires and opinion.
I saw this quote from Fulton Sheen, and in his own words, he express this
another way: "Lenten practices of giving up pleasures are good reminders
that the purpose of life is not pleasure. The purpose of life is to attain to
perfect life, all truth and undying ecstatic love – which is the definition of
God. In pursuing that goal we find happiness. Pleasure is not the purpose of
anything; pleasure is a by-product resulting from doing something that is good.
One of the best ways to get happiness and pleasure out of life is to ask
ourselves, 'How can I please God?' and, 'Why am I not better?' It is the
pleasure-seeker who is bored, for all pleasures diminish with repetition."
Are we obedient to God? Do we think
about the ways we can please God? May we think about that today as we continue on our Lenten journey.
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