Third Sunday of Lent: From shame to trusting Faith in examination of conscience

Is this the picture of superficiality? Does this look like Someone who is satisfied with a superficial response? Don't you think He can handle your shame?

The Samaritan woman met the Water of Life at the well who read her conscience and transformed the source of her shame in sin into reason for trust and saving faith in Him.

"... whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

"This truly is the Savior of the world."

"When his brothers saw that their father loved him best of all his sons, they hated him"

‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.’(Gn 37:3-4, 12-13a, 17b-28a)

The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
by the Lord has this been done,
and it is wonderful in our eyes. - Psalm 118, 22


"For a Christian, believing in God cannot be separated from believing in the One he sent, his 'beloved Son', in whom the Father is 'well pleased'; God tells us to listen to him. The Lord himself said to his disciples: 'Believe in God, believe also in me.' We can believe in Jesus Christ because he is himself God, the Word made flesh: 'No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known.' Because he 'has seen the Father', Jesus Christ is the only one who knows him and can reveal him." (CCC 151)

"Like a tree planted beside flowing waters": our leaves never fade if the Eucharist is the lifeblood of Faith

The Gospel story of the rich man's plea for water as he gazes longingly upon Lazarus who rests in the bosom of Abraham is a warning, but not against riches. The failing of the rich man was that he did not live his blessings with a view to the waters that never cease to flow: those which come from God alone.

Whether rich or poor, we live as trees planted beside flowing waters when our actions are rooted Eucharistically in the love of Jesus Christ, a giving and fraternal love for others and God. The rich man refused to share his bounty with Lazarus despite his knowledge that the poor man needed food.

No matter in what season of life we find ourselves, old or young, rich or poor, it is not what we have that determines life but how we live with what we have.

"I, the LORD, alone probe the mind
and test the heart,
To reward everyone according to his ways,
according to the merit of his deeds."

The Lord invites us to share in His love by deeds. When our actions flow from the Eucharist they always have God's love as source, that "fountain welling up to eternal life".

Thursday of the Second Week in Lent

"If the wicked man turns away from all the sins"

... he committed, if he keeps all my statutes and does what is right and just, he shall surely live, he shall not die.

 - Ez 18:21

"Sins can be distinguished according to their objects, as can every human act; or according to the virtues they oppose, by excess or defect; or according to the commandments they violate. They can also be classed according to whether they concern God, neighbor, or oneself; they can be divided into spiritual and carnal sins, or again as sins in thought, word, deed, or omission. The root of sin is in the heart of man, in his free will, according to the teaching of the Lord: 'For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a man.' But in the heart also resides charity, the source of the good and pure works, which sin wounds." (CCC 1853)

Friday, First Week of Lent 

“This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign"

"it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah."

-- Lk 11:29-32

But there is more. Jesus links faith in the resurrection to his own person: "I am the Resurrection and the life." It is Jesus himself who on the last day will raise up those who have believed in him, who have eaten his body and drunk his blood. Already now in this present life he gives a sign and pledge of this by restoring some of the dead to life, announcing thereby his own Resurrection, though it was to be of another order. He speaks of this unique event as the "sign of Jonah," the sign of the temple: he announces that he will be put to death but rise thereafter on the third day.

-- CCC 994

Wednesday, First Week of Lent 

"Choose Life": the heart is the place of truth where we choose life or death

"Choose life, then,
that you and your descendants may live, by loving the LORD, your God,
heeding his voice, and holding fast to him.
For that will mean life for you,
a long life for you to live on the land that the LORD swore
he would give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”  Dt 30:15-20

The heart is the dwelling-place where I am, where I live; according to the Semitic or Biblical expression, the heart is the place "to which I withdraw." The heart is our hidden center, beyond the grasp of our reason and of others; only the Spirit of God can fathom the human heart and know it fully. The heart is the place of decision, deeper than our psychic drives. It is the place of truth, where we choose life or death. It is the place of encounter, because as image of God we live in relation: it is the place of covenant. (CCC 2563)

Quinquagesima Sunday: "Fratres: Si linguis hóminum loquar, et Angelórum, caritátem autem non hábeam, factus sum velut æs sonans, aut cýmbalum tínniens."

[1] If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. [2] And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. [3] And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. [4] Charity is patient, is kind: charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely; is not puffed up; [5] Is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil; [6] Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth; [7] Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. [8] Charity never falleth away: whether prophecies shall be made void, or tongues shall cease, or knowledge shall be destroyed. [9] For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. [10] But when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away. (1 Corinthians 13) " 'If I . . . have not charity," says the Apostle, "I am nothing." Whatever my privilege, service, or even virtue, "if I . . . have not charity, I gain nothing."103 Charity is superior to all the virtues. It is the first of the theological virtues: "So faith, hope, charity abide, these three. But the greatest of these is charity.'"104 (CCC 1826) "The practice of all the virtues is animated and inspired by charity, which 'binds everything together in perfect harmony';105 it is the form of the virtues; it articulates and orders them among themselves; it is the source and the goal of their Christian practice. Charity upholds and purifies our human ability to love, and raises it to the supernatural perfection of divine love." (CCC 1827) "The practice of the moral life animated by charity gives to the Christian the spiritual freedom of the children of God. He no longer stands before God as a slave, in servile fear, or as a mercenary looking for wages, but as a son responding to the love of him who 'first loved us'" 106 (CCC 1828) "If we turn away from evil out of fear of punishment, we are in the position of slaves. If we pursue the enticement of wages, . . . we resemble mercenaries. Finally if we obey for the sake of the good itself and out of love for him who commands . . . we are in the position of children."107 "The fruits of charity are joy, peace, and mercy; charity demands beneficence and fraternal correction; it is benevolence; it fosters reciprocity and remains disinterested and generous; it is friendship and communion: Love is itself the fulfillment of all our works. There is the goal; that is why we run: we run toward it, and once we reach it, in it we shall find rest."108 (CCC 1829)