These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.
Thus says the LORD:
If you remove from your midst oppression,
false accusation and malicious speech;
If you bestow your bread on the hungry
and satisfy the afflicted;
Then light shall rise for you in the darkness,
and the gloom shall become for you like midday;
Then the LORD will guide you always
and give you plenty even on the parched land.
(Is 58:9b-14)
Biblical “holiness” is always practical, it’s almost always about justice: removing oppression from our midst (for example, systemic racism), bestowing bread on the hungry (not just a once a year hand-out). Maybe this Lent, if we want to get holy, we might need to get our hands dirty.
This, rather, is the fasting that I wish:
releasing those bound unjustly,
untying the thongs of the yoke;
Setting free the oppressed,
breaking every yoke;
Sharing your bread with the hungry,
sheltering the oppressed and the homeless;
Clothing the naked when you see them,
and not turning your back on your own.
(Is 58:1-9a)
Jesus’s spirituality is always rooted in bodies. If we want to get closer to God, then we need to get closer to our neighbor, to do the works of justice. Doing justice brings us closer to God.
I have set before you life and death,
the blessing and the curse.
Choose life, then,
that you and your descendants may live.
(Dt 30:15-20)
“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself
and take up his cross daily and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
(Lk 9:22-25)
A good reminder of what it means to follow Christ during this Lent. We embrace the Cross to live with Him.
“When you fast,
do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.
They neglect their appearance,
so that they may appear to others to be fasting.
Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you fast,
anoint your head and wash your face,
so that you may not appear to be fasting,
except to your Father who is hidden.
And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.”
(Mt 6:1-6,16-18)
The Lord says it all . . . so, ready, set, SMILE.
When the LORD saw how great was man’s wickedness on earth,
and how no desire that his heart conceived
was ever anything but evil,
he regretted that he had made man on the earth,
and his heart was grieved.
. . . .
Then the LORD said to Noah:
“Go into the ark, you and all your household,
for you alone in this age have I found to be truly just.
. . . .
Noah did just as the LORD had commanded him.
As soon as the seven days were over,
the waters of the flood came upon the earth.
(Gen 6:5-8;7:1-5,10)
Even though God’s “heart was grieved,” Noah and his family and all the animals are saved. And so the ark becomes a symbol of salvation.
