Lent is Time for Forgiveness

 

I enjoy reading Fr. Benedict Groeschel’s daily Lenten meditations in his book The King, Crucified and Risen.  Here are some excerpts from this week.

He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters.
                                                               Lk 11:23

“Most of the time in life, when we support someone or go along with someone, we do so with qualifications, and we ought not to.  No one is perfect.  Even if we love people very dearly --- a parent, a spouse, or a child --- we will do them no good if we can’t correct them or at least see when they are wrong. 

But all disagreements and corrections cease when you read the words of Jesus and realize that you are not living up to His expectations of you.  Then you are scattering.  Often, we don’t see this.  What should we do when we realize we have scattered?  The simple answer is to admit we failed and pick up where we are and do better.

Get accustomed this Lent to facing up to old mistakes.  Maybe we did not do wrong, but we certainly could have done a lot better.  This realization may make us depressed, but get beyond your hurt feelings and disappointments. It’s a challenge.  The closer we get to God, the more His grace opens our hearts.  Then we realize that sometimes we gather with Him and sometimes we scatter.  But He is always there to help us if we let Him.  Often, He is most active when He seems far away.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, help me to gather with You.  I know that
I can be very stupid and scatter instead.  Help me to
be Your more fervent disciple and to give some of Your
fire to those whom I love.  Amen.”

 

Lent is a time for forgiveness.  Sometimes it is ourself we need to forgive.  None of us is perfect.  During this Lenten period, we need to read and meditate on what Jesus did as His earthly life neared its end.  He forgave.  He loved.  He prayed for even His enemies.  And on Easter morn, He started a new life.  In the Catholic sacrament of confession, we not only confess our sins and ask forgiveness, but we resolve to change our life going forward, our Easter if you will.

I’ve read the country will someday emerge from this corona virus pandemic a different country; we will be a different people, but who we will be has not yet cast in stone.  We have a freedom to choose, but what will we choose?  Will we be like a risen Christ, focused on ending sin and gaining eternal life?

I believe the world, this country, we, will be in a better place if we use this Lenten time as Jesus did, to forgive, to love, to pray.  He could have commanded the world and its people to be as He wanted THEM to be --- He is God --- but instead He showed US how to be.  And in showing us this glorious future compared to where we are today in our Passion, we may have forgotten His promise to always be with us; He gave us hope.

I read that the word “religion” did not come into existence until the 1500’s.  Until then, what we now call religion was seen as a description of how you lived your life.  That’s why when the apostles went out preaching, the first followers of Jesus were called Jesus-Jews.  The Jewish way of living said that a Messiah was coming, and those who believed He had come were still expected to live as Jews.  It’s what you did, how you lived.  Only later, in Antioch, did they begin to be called Christians, for many noted that they no longer lived like Jews --- following the Torah, Jewish feast days, Jewish ways of eating and acting.  These “Christians” were living differently.  One of the commonly said things to describe them was “see how they love! --- even their enemies” --- and they don’t even fear death; they have hope. ( I wonder if the word “religion” was later invented to define a people who were supposed to be living a certain way, but obviously they weren’t, so a new word was needed.  “Religion” is a generic word that doesn’t define a way of living with hope, nor an emotion.) 

Jesus showed us how to live a good life, a life defined by love.  It’s time to pray, to forgive, and to love this Lent, not as we wish things to be, but as He showed us --- and to live that life and hope in His promises.  This Lent I think we need to ask ourselves: “Am I living a Christian way of life?”  And then look at how Jesus and His followers lived, and then begin to truly follow Jesus.  And pray that our lives may ultimately become as new as His now is, and the world will be changed.

… and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us ….