Reflection for Friday 1st Week of Lent 

By

 

Fr. Aloysius Santiago sdb
Rector and Parish Priest
Don Bosco Shrine
Lingarajapuram, Bangalore

Today's WORD of GOD

Mathew 5:20 

For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 

Today's Reflection 

Freedom & Responsibility

Ezekiel Calls Us to Persevere in Doing Good Across a Lifetime. JESUS Roots the Discernment of Good & Evil in the Depths of the Human Heart . We must Do more than Keep a Set of Rules, Refraining from Robbing or Murdering Others; We must Aim to be at Peace with Them & Not Harbour Anger or Resentment. JESUS Names the Objects of Our Patience & Kindness: They are Our Brother & Our Sister. 

At 1st, This Designation might Seem to Make the Practice of Tolerance somewhat Easier. Yet Common Experience Tells Us that People often Lose Their Temper More Quickly & Find Forgiveness Harder Within Their Own Family.

This Process of Reconciliation Begins 1st in Our heart when We Decide to Do what We Can to Make Peace with the Alienated Person. On that Condition We can Continue with Our Eucharist in Good Conscience. The Effort must be Continued for, as Ezekiel Warns: “If the Virtuous Person Turns from the Path of Virtue to Do Evil… has Broken Faith & Committed Sin,… He shall Die!”

Does This Ask Too Much? 

GOD Asks Nothing Without 1st Giving Us the Grace of a “New Heart &… a New Spirit” & Putting HIS Own SPIRIT Within Us (Ezekiel 36: 26 - 27). 

Then There is the Assurance Us that whatever be Our Offence Against Life & Goodness, GOD Forgives Us if We Turn from Our Evil Ways. Ezekiel’s Understanding of GOD'S Outlook Concludes with This Great Phrase, 

“I have No Pleasure in the Death of Anyone… Return & Live!”


Invited to Go Further

JESUS Calls HIS Disciples to a Virtue Deeper than the Virtue of the Scribes & Pharisees. A Major Commandment was “You Shall Not Kill.” 

The Call of JESUS Goes Deeper than that; It Goes Below the Actual Act of Killing to the Underlying Attitudes & Emotions which Lead People to Kill or Injure Each Other. 

The Renewal JESUS Calls for is Not Something We can Bring about on Our Own. We Need the HOLY SPIRIT to Work that Kind of Deep Transformation Within Ourselves. 

A Traditional Prayer Puts It very Clearly: “Come HOLY SPIRIT, Fill My heart, & Kindle in Me the fire of Your Love.” It Calls on the HOLY SPIRIT Spirit to Recreate Deep Within Us the Love that Shaped the Person of JESUS; It Prays for the Roots of that Deeper Virtue which is what GOD Really Wants for Us.


Good Morning

Have a blessed day

God bless you