“Repent and Believe in the Gospel.” Jesus proclaimed these words to the people of Ancient Israel. He still proclaims those words today as we come to our Ash Wednesday Mass, as we receive a smudge of ash on our forehead. We live in a world with many mixed messages, but many people are searching for something more in their lives. Many in our modern world are drawn to Jesus and his proclamation of God’s kingdom in their search for meaning in their lives. Maybe that is why so many flock to our churches on Ash Wednesday at the beginning of this Holy season of Lent.
“Be merciful O Lord, for we have sinned.” We come to the Lord today with the words of the psalm reverberating in our hearts. We come to this holy season of Lent to look inside of ourselves to see how God is calling us to change our lives, to see where God is leading us and calling us as we journey with Jesus on his way to the cross. No matter where we are on our journey, we are on a search for God in our lives. Our theme this Lent is “Seeking God in All Things.” We seek God in the reality of our lives: in our joys and sorrows; in the silence and the noise; through our frustrations and our accomplishments; through our questions, our hopes, and our dreams. We are to seek God through the devotions of our Church during the days of Lent: through the way we pray to God on our knees; through the way we journey with Jesus in the prayers of the Stations of the Cross; through being with God in the silence of adoration; through the things we give up during Lent; and through the way we reach out to our neighbor in works of charity. The Gospel today mentions prayer, fasting, and works of charity; these are the traditional Lenten disciplines that the Church calls us to live out.
The inspiration for this theme comes from two great figures in the Catholic faith: St Ignatius of Loyola and Thomas Merton, The 20th century Trappist Monk Thomas Merton from Gethsemene Abbey in Kentucky stated this: "We must in all things seek God. But we do not seek God the way we seek a lost object, a 'thing.' God is present to us in our heart, in our personal subjectivity, and to seek God is to recognize this fact.” St Ignatius, a Spanish priest from the 16th century and a founding member of the religious order of Jesuits has at the heart of his spirituality the theme of discerning God’s presence in the reality of our world, of finding God in all things in a diverse, grace filled yet imperfect world.
This little magnifying glass you receive today is a reminder of how we are to seek God in all things. Seeking him to recognize his presence with us every step of the way. We pray that this Lenten season be a meaning part of our journey of faith this year.
No comments:
Post a Comment