Category: Reflections

Honesty and humility are two of the most important ingredients in our growing in our faith.  In today’s Gospel, the centurion (who would not have been a likely follower of Jesus) asks for the Lord’s help.  When Jesus suggests He will come and heal his servant; the centurion responds with the words we remember in perpetuity: “Lord, I am not worthy to have You come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed!”  A form of this statement has become our humble (and hopefully) honest confession before receiving Holy Communion – a recognition that we too are not worthy to have the Lord come to us as He does at Mass and as we receive Him whole and entire, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Eucharist.

We need to try to be honest with ourselves; admit where and when and how we go wrong, but also where and when and how we are weak.  Honesty also means that we recognize that despite our sins and weaknesses, we are deeply loved by God and we cannot afford to get mired in any way in sin.  I have had many conversations with people who misunderstand Catholic Christians as “too focused on sin” and that may be because there are some of us who come across that way – all we talk about is what is wrong with the world and people.  That cannot be an honest assessment of the world we live in, because there are many people (I mean them every day) who are trying hard and trying their very best.  This is NOT Sodom & Gomorrah, where we were hard-pressed to find even a few good people; good people are everywhere!  If we have a hard time seeing that, we need to be honest about that.

We need to be humble as well; our faith, being Catholic Christians, is not about being part of an exclusive club.  It’s about recognizing a loving God who has given us all that we need to follow Him and then we need to spend our lives “humbly walking with the Lord”.  We humble ourselves when we confess our sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation; we humble ourselves when we do our very best and don’t expect anything for it in return; we humble ourselves when we consider God and others always and everywhere before ourselves AND we humble ourselves when we profess the words, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof, but only say the words and I shall be healed.”

We might be considering in our personal reflections of today’s Gospel – the personal crosses we bear and take the time to “configure” those crosses to the Cross of our Lord: a worthy exercise to be certain and most definitely a part of the Christian experience.  We might even be prepared at this point to “weather” the comments from people who ridicule us for this as the “absurdity” of Christianity that we create for ourselves a way to put on a happy face about suffering in this life, but delude ourselves.

Something worthy of consideration today might be to ask ourselves: “am I prepared to see today’s Gospel in light of the crosses I bear in serving others”?  Denying ourselves – taking up our cross – following Jesus.  These are all important parts of the Christian life of service too.  In serving others if we are truly servants, there will always be a growing commitment to self-denial.  True Christian service cannot be seen as a part-time desire, it requires a certain part of ourselves that will always bring about the tension of our own desires.  Of course we need to take care of ourselves too – this is important – but we need to be constantly seeking and searching for ways and places to serve others whom the Lord has put in the path of our Christian vocation.  This is going to require self-denial.  Sometimes putting the needs of others before our own needs.  Often being more generous with our time.  Often being more generous with our availability.  Often with a greater sense of awareness and focus on the needs others present to us.

The crosses we may bear might at first glance seem self-evident; but I would suggest that this might be the discomfort of self-denial.  It’s in helping others carry their crosses sometimes, or carrying the cross of being there for others that are the crosses we bear in service.  And it’s those crosses that we must consider – always knowing that as heavy as they may seem sometimes; our Lord is carrying the heaviest part (that person’s and your) Cross Himself.

Finally, we need to remember for every helping action we take, every moment we give, every kindness we extend, everything that we do – we do for the Glory of God and in the Name of Jesus Christ!  Always and without exception.  This may not be something that we talk about or even need to say.  “They will know we are Christians by our love…” was the title of a song I recall from my childhood.  This too often is the truth of today’s Gospel.

How many of us kept the ashes we received at Mass today on our forehead?  How many of us wiped them off after Mass and as we headed back home or work?  How many of us wore them as a source of pride?  Certainly if the Cross was pronounced or stark, it would be a talking point for some.

Now how many of us felt a little perplexed to ask what should we do, in light of today’s Gospel?  Jesus tells us not to make a spectacle of our faith and make a show of it – INSTEAD, we should “pray in our room and in secret”.  Have we got it all wrong in keeping our ashes?

I think it’s how we wear those ashes that matter, my friends.  If we wear them “as a source of pride” or ANYONE around us can see a contradiction between the ashes we carry and the person behind them…we’ve got work to do.  I think most of us humbly begin Lent recognizing that we have work to do anyway.  When we look in a mirror, are we reminded of what those ashes signify?  That we are mortal and that our lives, while they are of great value and matter greatly to the Lord our God and surely to many other people too – are more than the earthen vessel (our bodies) which contain our immortal souls.  Is what “moves” us to action a recognition of a need to be like Christ?  Or are we comfortable to be inactive; living for ourselves, for comfort, for today, for the lesser things in life – in which case, we do the world a disservice wearing ashes or calling ourselves God-loving, God-fearing people.

Friends, if and ONLY IF we are prepared to wear our ashes as a sign of a new beginning today, then we can wear them in the Joy of Christ who shall be ever closer to us through these forty days ahead.  May God bless you!

Today’s Gospel gave me occasion to reflect once again upon two contrasting periods of my own life; my youth and young adulthood and my middle adulthood and conversion.  As a boy, a teen and a young man I was lost and without a “compass” in my life.  Surely now I know the constant anger I carried with me was one born of this sense of loss without hope.  In that period of life, I most definitely did not “know” or have Jesus Christ in my life, and while much of the reason for that was my own anger, ignorance and stubbornness (walls the Lord tore down and continues to in my life); it was also due to the very bad example of Christians in my life at those times.  I had them, and while it might at times seem “just” to name names, I know the Lord who brought me to conversion can do so with those who “in the name of Christ” gave me the sense I never wanted to be a Christian.

The other period was my slow-moving and wonderful conversion of heart.  Still skeptical, resistant, hard-headed in many ways – I was open enough to let the Lord in!  It was also very much the amazing example of generous and devout Christians who showed me the joy my life could be about, not living for myself but for the Lord and for others.  They didn’t merely talk about it, they lived it.  They admitted their imperfections but didn’t live in sin.  They knew they were sinners, but well aware of God’s love for them.  They made Jesus Christ and His Church attractive and I was captivated for several years before I actually “made the plunge” and asked to become a Catholic Christian myself.  That was 16 years ago now, and while I struggle to be a better Christian day by day; it’s a joyful struggle.  It’s joyful because I am filled with hope now.  Hope that God truly does deliver on His Promise.  Joyful because I too know that despite my sins and weaknesses (and I have many) I am a loved sinner.

Today’s Gospel highlights for me the importance of being a good Christian!  It gave me cause to reflect (from my own life experience) on what could happen to a person when we aren’t a good witness and while bad examples contributed to keeping me away from God for many years; I am not resenting or unforgiving towards those people.  Instead I pray for them.  I pray that if they’re alive or if they are gone, that Jesus won them back.  In my own conversion story, they gave me cause to forgive and the grace when I did so.

The other part of this story is that I don’t reflect back on that time of my life now and point a finger at those people without accepting that it is very possible there are people in my life now who did not see the best example of a Christian in me.  There’s a possibility that I have been that bad example too, and while I might not even be aware of who those people are; I pray they have found Jesus sadly, without my help and I pray that if I were to come to know them I would have the courage and strength to ask forgiveness.  This morning, as we consider God’s love and mercy expressed in the readings, most especially the Gospel – can we have the strength to commit ourselves today and each day to being the best Christians we can be?