Come Away By Yourselves

As we enter Holy Week, we contemplate the suffering of Jesus in his passion.  This suffering reveals to us both the gravity of sin and the unfathomable love of God for us in Jesus Christ.  To contemplate our Lord in his passion can and should be a spur to personal conversion. 

https://comeawaybyyourselves.com

A short reflection in honor of St. Patrick. 

God entrusts St. Joseph with his most precious possessions, his mother and his Divine Son.  We too are entrusted with a sacred responsibility in life: to care for and love God's children.  Everything and everyone in our life--including ourselves--is a gift from God, something valued by God himself.  This calls for a great reverence and respect on our part.  We can't "do whatever we want" with ourselves or others.  Like King David, our reverence for what belongs to God gives us pause whenever we are tempted to damage it. 

https://comeawaybyyourselves.com

"By your patience you will win your souls."   Endurance, perseverance, patience: life is hard at times and seems long, to be faithful to Christ and others we need to stick it out over the long haul.  

https://comeawaybyyourselves.com

The great commandment is to love God "with all of your mind, with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your strength."  Adoration is how we love God most directly as God.  This humble recognition of God's holiness, transcendence, and radical goodness is essential for our lives as Christians.  Like most things, however, we have to learn to adore God by practicing it.  We need to enter into the presence of God in our prayer, be still, and "know that he is God."

In Lent we turn our gaze towards the sufferings of Jesus.  Jesus suffers voluntarily, freely, out of love for us.  Our Lenten penances are an opportunity to do the same for him.  Self-denial is an essential aspect of moral strength and freedom.  Without it we are incapacitated to love God and others as we should.

https://comeawaybyyourselves.com

Lent is a wonderful opportunity to find our peace, joy, and comfort in God.  We do this by denying ourselves our usual sources of support, distraction, and pleasure.   To be filled by God is to run the risk of emptying ourselves out of other things.  This takes trust, courage and patience.   God always responds to this kind of personal faith, even when it is imperfect and needs to grow.   

https://comeawaybyyourselves.com

In this week's Gospel, Jesus cures a leper who tells him, "If you will, you can make me clean."  In confession, Jesus always wills to cleanse us of sin.  These last days before Lent are a great time to pray about the conversion from sin that God is asking of us.

https://comeawaybyyourselves.com

Today's reading from the Gospel of Mark continues directly from last Sunday's gospel reading.  Read together, they give us a picture of a day in the life of Jesus.  Jesus's day is filled with work, prayer, and service.   He approaches his tasks and situations with generosity and self-forgetfulness.  This day in his life is a good model for any day in our own lives. 

https://comeawaybyyourselves.com

The parable of the prodigal son is a parable of freedom and filiation.   The prodigal son and his older brother both misuse their freedom.  They mistakenly feel constrained by their relationship with their father and end up rejecting him.  The prodigal son rediscovers his sonship by reflecting on the truth of his situation.  This speaks to a close connection between true freedom and the truth itself.  The elder son acts correctly for the most part, but does so without charity, without an identification with his father's heart.  This leads him to a resentful and self-righteous fulfillment of his duties.  To avoid all of these pitfalls, we look to Jesus, who always acts freely because he always wants to please his most loving Father.

https://comeawaybyyourselves.com