Saturday of First Week of Lent

March 15, 2003

In the first reading Moses reminds us that we are a covenanted people with the Lord; for us to obey Him and Him to love and protect us.

Sometimes vie might think like young children, that our reward, our approval, is conditioned upon obedience. We find ourselves in a system that says: If I please my employer, I may get a raise. If I visit my crabby aunt, she may remember me in her will. If I vote for a certain political candidate, I may get a tax break. It all sounds so simplistic.

But as people of the Covenant, we have pledged to believe, accept and respond to the grace of faith as revealed by Jesus in the gospels. Our good works do not earn us eternal life with God but bring our faith to life, to confirm for others who we truly are. In this way we walk the walk and not just talk the talk.

Alas, if we were perfect in the living of that covenant, we would have no need for a season of Lent and Passion tide. But Jesus words in today's gospel are particularly challenging to every human being. Our faith can be tremendously beneficial, but it is still our human nature to react against our enemies.

Jesus makes it very bold in today's gospel that we are not permitted to hate our enemies, to harbor feelings of resentment, revenge and rage; we are commanded to love the enemy and pray for the enemy. “If you love only those who love you, what merit is there in that? Do not pagans do as much? In a word you must be perfected.” There is no question that the challenges of Christianity are boldly contrasted from the ideas of society.

Those of you who have been attending this Mass for the last eight months or so know the excruciating physical pain in my back and leg that I was enduring for 11 months of the past year. Tests, X‑rays, medicines, therapies, all seemed to only make things worse.

My persecutors were once healthy bones that carried me from one stage of life to another. They enabled me to hold someone's hand as a child or adolescent. They enabled me to run, to swim, and to climb ladders. Now I couldn't even do stairs. I was literally falling apart.

I prayed very hard that one day my bones might be able to carry me again. After 11 months I finally found the right combination of medicine and therapy and am in the process of being rebuilt.

But it is very difficult to pray when one is in great pain. While waiting for the painkillers and sleeping pills to work, all my best intentions for praying most often ended in frustration. But I tried to persist for I remembered the words I have so often given as advice to others.