Thursday February 18 – claretonline

THURSDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY

FIDELITY BRINGS LIFE – Time of Penance

Introduction

Faithfulness is not easy except if we are intensely committed to a person we love. If we are loyal, we share in the joys and trials of the other person and we never lose our serenity or basic happiness. This is also true in our relationship with God, which we live most intensely if we are strongly dedicated to Christ. We follow him in his passion to rise with him in joy. For if we are with him, even death brings life and happiness.

Opening Prayer

Lord our God,
you love us and you invite us
to share in your own life and joy,
through a personal decision.
Help us to choose you and life
and to remain ever loyal
to this basic option
by the power of Jesus Christ, your Son,
who was loyal to you and to us,
now and for ever.

Reading 1: Dt 30:15-20

Moses said to the people:
“Today I have set before you
life and prosperity, death and doom.
If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God,
which I enjoin on you today,
loving him, and walking in his ways,
and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees,
you will live and grow numerous,
and the LORD, your God,
will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy.
If, however, you turn away your hearts and will not listen,
but are led astray and adore and serve other gods,
I tell you now that you will certainly perish;
you will not have a long life
on the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and occupy.
I call heaven and earth today to witness against you:
I have set before you life and death,
the blessing and the curse.
Choose life, then,
that you and your descendants may live, by loving the LORD, your God,
heeding his voice, and holding fast to him.
For that will mean life for you,
a long life for you to live on the land that the LORD swore
he would give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6

R. (40:5a) Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.

Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.

He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.

Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.

Verse before the Gospel: Mt 4:17

Repent, says the Lord;
the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Gospel: Lk 9:22-25

Jesus said to his disciples:
“The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected
by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised.”

Then he said to all,
“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.
What profit is there for one to gain the whole world
yet lose or forfeit himself?”

Intercessions

– That God may give us every day the courage to follow him, also when the choice between good and evil is difficult, we pray:

– For the People of God, the Church, that we may have the insight and the bravery to accept the reform needed to be true to Christ, we pray:

For the good people who help others in their difficulties, that their good deeds may bring them closer to the Lord, we pray:

Prayer over the Gifts

Lord our God,
Jesus went the way of the cross
because he was loyal to you
whatever the cost.
May we be loyal with him
and accept crosses that come our way in life
without rebellion or discouragement.
May Christ give us this strength now,
that we may live with him for ever.

Prayer after Communion

Lord our God,
by the strength of this eucharist
we return to our work and to people.
Help us to live our faith consistently,
as Christ wants us to live it,
without compromise or bargaining.
May Christ give us this strength
of being loyal to his person
now and for ever.

Blessing

Those who accept the difficulties of life to serve God and people, “who lose their life for my sake,” as Jesus says, are taking up their cross and following Christ. May almighty God bless them and us, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Commentary

Quo vadis Domine?

The apocrypha of the Acts of St. Peter narrates a story of Peter running away from Rome when faced with increasing persecutions in the city. Peter and some other early Christians decided that it would be best if he left Rome and continued his work elsewhere so that he would escape the threat of persecution. As Peter was fleeing Rome, feeling confident that he was doing what was best for him and the early Church, he had a life-altering encounter with Christ. Peter had a vision of Jesus walking back toward the city. In pure shock and confusion, Peter asked, “Quo vadis, Domine?” which means, “Where are you going, Lord?” Jesus answered him, “I am going back to Rome to be crucified a second time.”
To understand the Gospel text better, we should understand the situation in which Jesus makes this prediction about his suffering and death. Peter had just proclaimed his faith in Jesus as the Messiah of God. But his understanding of the Messiah was totally different from the truth. The similar texts of the synoptic gospels will tell us that Peter could not accept a Messiah who would suffer and finally be killed. His understanding was of a triumphant messiah who would establish his kingdom and Peter and his companions would occupy important positions there.
Our faith in Jesus is sometimes like that of Peter and his companions. It is difficult to believe in a God who suffers rejection and death. And it does not stop there. He says, if anyone wants to follow me, has to take up his cross daily and follow! Who does not want to preserve their life? Self-preservation is an instinct. Jesus in the Gospel reminds us that a life spent focused only on ourselves and our self-advancement is ultimately a recipe for self-destruction. The only way to live is, like Jesus, to offer our lives for others in love, in caring, in solidarity, in compassion, in justice. Because these are the nature of God. When we fail to show this nature God for the suffering brothers and sisters, we forget that it is the Lord himself who suffer injustice, rejection and persecution. Like Peter who was fleeing Rome, we try to run away from sufferings and pains, rejections and discriminations. In this Lenten season, would you mind to stop a while before Jesus and raise the question: Quo vadis Domine?