Reflection for Monday of the First Week of Lent

Today's Mass Readings

 

We all have had (or should have had) plenty of “Thou shall” or “Thou shall nots” in our life! It’s the rich and necessary heritage we’ve been given since childhood. We needed those “bumper barriers” as we careened through our formative stages. But as we grew older, and perhaps wiser, those external guidelines began to reside in that place of conscience where we had to answer to our inner best self.

Today’s daily readings at Mass provide us with clear examples of how those external and internal guidelines play out in our life. The listing coming from the Book of Leviticus about living a good and harmonious life with others is a stern negative list of “You shall nots” until it comes to the very last item of the list. Here the negative changes to the positive: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.”

That provides a wonderful transition to our reflection on the Gospel. Jesus is teaching the apostles that there must be an accounting in life. However one might imagine the last judgment to take place, we can be sure from the words of Jesus that our good or bad report will not be based solely on how well we followed the external “rules” of good order.

The final words of Leviticus to love your neighbor as yourself take us to a different and higher level of accountability. How much and why would you love yourself? Is that something you can judge and measure by a set of rules and standards?

“Have I been good to myself today? Have I forgiven myself of the dumb things I’ve done today? Have I had some noble intentions about what to do with my life?” The value meter rises further when Leviticus simply adds the statement: “I am the Lord.” Suddenly there is an element of creaturely belonging, a relationship to the Lord. “Can a mother ever forget the child of her womb?”

Can we allow the words of Jesus to take us to an even deeper meaning? “What you have done to the least of these, you have done to me!” Those are shocking and disturbing words! No more slipping by with minimal obedience to the dos and dont’s. How could we say “My Lord and my God” before the Blessed Sacrament exposed, and mean it, and then dismiss a homeless person as a nobody?

A question for you: What have I done, or should do, during Lent, if I take the words of Jesus literally about Him being “in the least of these?” What do I feel about giving my tax money to feed and house the poor?

Reflection by Fr. Daniel Petsche, OSB

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