13-Feb-2015 Dear Friend, Once again we begin the season of Lent with this Ash Wednesday celebration. Lent is a time for repentance and renewal yet the Preface of Lent will call it the joyful season of Lent. We should remind ourselves that originally Lent was a time for preparation for Baptism and for Easter. Later on as the practice of adult baptisms died out, it became a time of baptismal renewal as well as a time of repentance and a proximate preparation for Easter. As we begin this new season may we find our joy in coming back to God. Have a ‘prayer-filled’ weekend! –Fr. Jude Sunday Refl. Ash Wednesday “Harden not your hearts! Repent and believe in the Gospel” 18-Feb-2015 Joel 2: 12-18 2 Corinth. 5: 20-6: 2 Matt. 6: 1-6; 16-18
The key ceremony on Ash Wednesday is the imposition of the ashes on our forehead. “Remember thou art dust and to dust thou shall return.” In a sense, this ritual reminds us of our beginning and our end, we are back to basics. It is meant to give us a right perspective of life. We are dust, we are finite, we are human, we are creatures, dependent and capable of mistakes. At times, with all our successes, our possibilities, our capabilities and the power we try to acquire, we are led to believe we can manage on our own, that we don’t need anybody, we don’t need God! Lent puts things in proper perspective. We need God, who does not look down on the dust that we are, our humanness, our weakness, but renew his covenant to human beings, he breathes life into the earth and creates us and recreates us. The first reading from the prophet Joel reminds us that sometimes God invited the people of Israel to come back to Him through the great disasters that befell them. It was after one such disaster that the prophet Joel conveyed to the people the message that God would come to their rescue. The disaster that befell the Israelites at that time was the invasion of locusts that came in large numbers from the desert and devoured everything. The prophet Joel called them to prayer and to penance. He assured them that if they came back to Yahweh, He would provide them with food they needed. He reminded them that everyone should do penance, the priests and the laity, the young and the old, even the children. They needed to ask God’s pardon as a family, as one community and God would forgive them all. The Nail PostA father wanted his son to really understand the importance of making right choices, of obeying and doing what’s right. So if his son made a bad choice or a wrong decision, he’s give him a hammer and a nail to take out into the backyard and pound into a fence post. When the son went through the whole day making good decisions, he’d let the boy go out and take out one of those nails. Until the boy was fifteen, there were always two or three nails in the post, -seemed he’d be nailing new ones as often as he’d pull out others. The youth started to mature and make better decisions and finally one day all the nails were removed from the post. That was when his dad took him back and said, “I want you to notice something about the post.” The son looked at the post for a moment and realized that all the nails that once were driven in and then later removed had left small holes in the post. The holes were the remaining effects of the nails. His dad said, “I want to tell you something about bad choices and decisions. Even though you may be totally forgiven from your bad choices or decisions, and there are no nails visible, there are the remaining effects, the consequences, of those choices or decisions; just like the holes in that fencepost.”Author Unknown The Gospel of today speaks to us of three paths that can lead us back to God: Prayer, Fasting and Alms. Jesus reminds us that these three practices by themselves will not lead us to God unless we perform them with a humble heart. Lent is firstly a time for renewing our prayer life. When we pray, do not pray to be seen or heard by others? Is Jesus against praying in public with the community or prayer group? What Jesus is speaking about is the motive of our prayer practices. Are we putting on a performance? Would we do the same if no one was watching? Our community prayer life needs to be balanced with private and personal prayer. The second practice recommended is fasting and abstinence during lent, but we are reminded that how we do it is more important than what we do. If fasting makes us irritable, if we fast with long faces and put on a gloomy look and make all around us miserable, there is something wrong. The heart of fasting is to do without something that we like and believe we can’t do without, in order to realize that God can supply our every need. What about a weekly fast from our favourite TV serial? The third practice of the devout Jew was almsgiving. Again the admonition is the same: “So when you give alms do not have it trumpeted to win men’s admiration.” Almsgiving is any kind of help, material or spiritual we give to our neighbour. We could help our neighbour in need, we could give them good advice or encouragement, we can help someone in spiritual danger, we can encourage people to attend to their spiritual needs. Perhaps the help that people need is more spiritual than material. Are we bringing people to Jesus by our words, our good example and our deeds? A Good LessonA young man, a student in one of our universities, was one day taking a walk with a professor, who was commonly called the students' friend, from his kindness to those who waited on his instructions. As they went along, they saw lying in the path a pair of old shoes, which they supposed belonged to a poor man who was employed in a field close by, and who had nearly finished his day's work. The student turned to the professor, saying: "Let us play the man a trick: we will hide his shoes, and conceal ourselves behind those bushes, and wait to see his perplexity when he cannot find them." "My young friend," answered the professor, "we should never amuse ourselves at the expense of the poor. But you are rich, and may give yourself a much greater pleasure by means of the poor man. Put a coin into each shoe, and then we will hide ourselves and watch how the discovery affects him." The student did so, and they both placed themselves behind the bushes close by. The poor man soon finished his work, and came across the field to the path where he had left his coat and shoes. While putting on his coat he slipped his foot into one of his shoes; but feeling something hard, he stooped down to feel what it was, and found the coin. Astonishment and wonder were seen upon his countenance. He gazed upon the coin, turned it round, and looked at it again and again. He then looked around him on all sides, but no person was to be seen. He now put the money into his pocket, and proceeded to put on the other shoe; but his surprise was doubled on finding the other coin. His feelings overcame him; he fell upon his knees, looked up to heaven and uttered aloud a fervent thanksgiving, in which he spoke of his wife, sick and helpless, and his children without bread, whom the timely bounty, from some unknown hand, would save from perishing. The student stood there deeply affected, and his eyes filled with tears. "Now," said the professor, "are you not much better pleased than if you had played your intended trick?" The youth replied, "You have taught me a lesson which I will never forget. I feel now the truth of those words, which I never understood before: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"Author unknown, retold by Artin Tellalian Minor Irritants of LifeA young man had just hiked across a long, barren stretch of land. Reporters asked what he found hardest about it. “Was it the loneliness of the hike?” “No,” he replied. “Was it the hot sun beating down on you?” “No”, he replied. “Was it the dangerous nights by the roadside?” “No”, he replied. “Well then, what was it?” “The sand in my shoes,” he said. That is often the case in everyday life. It is not the big things that get us down, more often, it’s the tiny irritations! May be, accepting the tiny irritations with family, friends, colleagues, office workers, that come our way each day, could be a good way to start our Lent!Anonymous RenewalOnce, long ago a musician well-known for the beauty and sweetness of his songs was asked to play for the royal audience. The king was so pleased with the performance that he made the musician part of the royal court. His highness loved one particular song so much that he had the musician play it over and over, several times a day. It went well for the musician who had everything he needed, and fame and prestige as well. After a time the musician grew weary of repeating the melody and no longer played with the same zest and passion as he once did. This disturbed the king, because his favourite song now lacked much of its original vibrancy. So in order to re-kindle the musician’s interest in the song, the king ordered someone, who had never heard the song before, to be brought to the palace everyday. When the musician saw the new person he was inspired and he played with new vigour. But the king was getting tired of finding a new person everyday and so he consulted his advisors who suggested that the musician should be blinded! The musician was drugged into sleep and his eyes put out so he never knew what had happened, and he never saw a human form again. From that time on the blind musician would sit continually before the king. Whenever the king wanted to hear his favourite melody, he would say. “O musician, here comes someone new, a person who has never heard you play before.” And the musician would play his song with the utmost skill and spiritedness, as if for the first time. What is the meaning of this parable? It is left to you to determine! For in the words of an Eastern sage: “When you go to the market to buy fruit from the green grocer, you do not ask him to chew it for you!”Anonymous Find Someone in NeedDr. Karl Menninger, the famous psychiatrist, once gave a lecture on mental health, and then answered questions from the audience. “What would you advice a person to do,” asked one man, “if that person felt a nervous breakdown was coming on?” Most people expected him to reply, “Consult a psychiatrist.” To their disappointment he replied, “Lock your house, go across the railway tracks, find someone in need and do something to help that person.” –Don’t sit and pout. Get up and do something for others!Brian Cavanaugh in ‘The Sower’s Seed’ Ready to Change?Once, a king was walking through the streets of the capital city when he came upon a beggar who immediately asked him for money. The king did not give him any money. Instead he invited him to his palace. The beggar took up the king’s offer. On the appointed day he made his way to the royal palace, and was duly ushered into the king’s presence. However as he came into the king’s presence he was acutely conscious of his rags and felt ashamed of them. They were an eloquent symbol of the wretchedness of his life. The king an exceptionally kind man, received him warmly, took pity on him, and among other things gave him a new suit of clothes. However, a few days later the beggar was back to begging on the streets, dressed in his old rags. Why did he give up the new suit? Because he knew that to wear it would mean that he would have to live a new life. It would mean giving up the life of a beggar. This he was not prepared to do. It wasn’t that the new life did not appeal to him. It was just that a change of life would be slow, painful and uncertain. In other words he was too much steeped in habit to change.Flor McCarthy in ‘New Sunday and Holy day Liturgies’ May Lent find us ready to change whatever needs to be changed in our life with God’s help! Fr. Jude Botelho [email protected] PS. The stories, incidents and anecdotes used in the reflections have been collected over the years from books as well as from sources over the net and from e-mails received. Every effort is made to acknowledge authors whenever possible. If you send in stories or illustrations I would be grateful if you could quote the source as well so that they can be acknowledged if used in these reflections. These reflections are also available on my Web site www.NetForLife.net Thank you.
