Thursday AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY

 

Fidelity Brings Life — Time of Penance

 

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.

 

First Reading: Deuteronomy 30:15-20 

 Look at what I’ve done for you today: I’ve placed in front of you

Life and Good
Death and Evil.

And I command you today: Love God, your God. Walk in his ways. Keep his commandments, regulations, and rules so that you will live, really live, live exuberantly, blessed by God, your God, in the land you are about to enter and possess.

But I warn you: If you have a change of heart, refuse to listen obediently, and willfully go off to serve and worship other gods, you will most certainly die. You won’t last long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

call Heaven and Earth to witness against you today: I place before you Life and Death, Blessing and Curse. Choose life so that you and your children will live. And love God, your God, listening obediently to him, firmly embracing him. Oh yes, he is life itself, a long life settled on the soil that God, your God, promised to give your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

 

Gospel: Luke 9:22-27 

 He went on, “It is necessary that the Son of Man proceed to an ordeal of suffering, be tried and found guilty by the religious leaders, high priests, and religion scholars, be killed, and on the third day be raised up alive.”

Then he told them what they could expect for themselves: “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat—I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? If any of you is embarrassed with me and the way I’m leading you, know that the Son of Man will be far more embarrassed with you when he arrives in all his splendor in company with the Father and the holy angels. This isn’t, you realize, pie in the sky by and by. Some who have taken their stand right here are going to see it happen, see with their own eyes the kingdom of God.”

 

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. Amen.

 

Reflection:

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 and moreover, could spread the Gospel elsewhere too.
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 merciful nature of 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 for a while before Jesus and ask him to guide us in the path that he wants us to walk?

 

Video available on Youtube: Quo vadis, Domine?