Love as he loves!

For the past few weeks, our entire nation has been preoccupied with the mysterious disappearance of MH 370. Although, it seems hardly possible to detect any silver lining in this otherwise sad and tragic incident, we finally have some needed reprieve from the continuous and unprecedented barrage of vitriolic hate speech coming from ultra nationalistic groups which was dominating the headlines prior thereto. Before the recent outpouring of good will and solidarity crossing religious and cultural divide, the country had been experienced an episode of polarisation that no one has ever witnessed before. It has left many thinking – where could so much hate, prejudice and of course, fear, come from? I guess the element of love seems to be disappeared in the society. Of course, this might cause fear among the people. Perhaps, one should ask what is the best and sure way to peace, happiness, and abundant life? 

The prophet Hosea addressed this question with his religious community - the people of Israel. Hosea's people lived in a time of economic anxiety and fear among the nations. They were tempted to put their security in their own possessions and in their political alliances with other nations rather than in God. Hosea called his people to return to God to receive pardon, healing, and restoration. He reminded them that God would "heal their faithlessness and love them freely" (Hosea 14:4). God's ways are right and his wisdom brings strength and blessing to those who obey him.

How does love and obedience to God's law go together? The Pharisees prided themselves in the knowledge of the law and their ritual requirements. They made it a life-time practice to study the six hundred and thirteen precepts of the Old Testament along with the numerous rabbinic commentaries. They tested Jesus to see if he correctly understood the law as they did. Jesus startled them with his profound simplicity and mastery of the law of God and its purpose.

What does God require of us? Simply that we love as he loves! God is love and everything he does flows from his love for us. God loved us first and our love for him is a response to his exceeding grace and kindness towards us. The love of God comes first and the love of neighbor is firmly grounded in the love of God. The more we know of God's love and truth the more we love what he loves and reject what is hateful and contrary to his will.

What makes our love for God and his commands grow in us? Faith in God and hope in his promises strengthen us in the love of God. They are essential for a good relationship with God, for being united with him. The more we know of God the more we love him and the more we love him the greater we believe and hope in his promises. The Lord, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, gives us a new freedom to love as he loves (Galatians 5:13). 

Paul the Apostle says: hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us (Romans 5:5). 

Distracted During Prayer?

During the season Lent, we are called to prayer, fasting and good works (alms giving). Lent is a season of repentance and conversion during which we become aware of the richness of God's mercy, love and forgiveness. It is a time of enlightenment and purification. I guess many of us would have missed the whole idea of lent when we are too engrossed with our earthly affairs. Simple act such as prayer might not seem to be an important task to start off a day. We will find a whole long list of excuses to justify our action of not praying enough. Some even said I will get distracted easily when I pray!

Prayer is Man’s natural reaction to the yearning for God that is implanted deep within him.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us “In the New Covenant, prayer is the living relationship of the children of God with their Father,…with his Son Jesus Christ, and with the Holy Spirit.” (CCC 2565).  Jesus encourages us to pray when he says, “Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Lk 11:9)  He goes on to show that this is true by performing various miracles for people who ask him to do so, curing a leper and a blind beggar who come before Him in good faith, and promising the Kingdom of Heaven to the good thief who repents at Calvary.

In addition to hearing the prayers of the people, Jesus Himself is found praying numerous times throughout the Gospels, both alone and in the company of his disciples and crowds of followers.  He prays before the most important times in His life, including His Baptism, Transfiguration, and many of the miracles He performs.  During His Passion, the most trying and difficult hours of His life, prayer flows once again from Jesus' mouth.  He prays for strength in the Garden of Gethsemane and continues praying up until His very last words on the cross: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” (Lk 23:46). If Jesus, the perfect, divine God-Man prayed so frequently and fervently during His life on earth, how much more do we, as sinners, have a need for prayer as a part of our daily lives? Yes, one might say I pray! But whenever I pray, most of the time I will get distracted.

Article from Fr. Joseph Esper- (Catholic Exchange) precisely addressed some of the issues face by most of us while we pray by giving some example of the saints in heaven. St. Francis of Assisi, whenever he was about to enter church for Mass or to pray, would say, “Worldly and frivolous thoughts, stay here at the door until I return.” Then he would go inside and pray with complete devotion.

St. Bernard was traveling with a poor, uneducated farmer, who boasted, “I’m never distracted when I pray.” Bernard objected, “I don’t believe it. Now let me make a bargain with you. If you can say the Our Father without one distraction, I’ll give you this mule I’m riding. But if you don’t succeed, you must come with me and be a monk.” The farmer agreed and began praying aloud confidently, “Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name . . .” Then, after pausing for a moment, he asked St. Bernard, “Does that include the saddle and the bridle, too?”

Sometimes distractions are caused by an insufficient dedication to prayer. Bl. Clare of Rimini was leading a carefree life in which religion wasn’t something to take too seriously. At age thirty four, she entered church one day, only to hear a rather blunt message from Heaven: “Clare, try to say one Our Father and one Hail Mary to the glory of God, without thinking of other things.” Chastened by this rebuke, she took her religious duties more seriously.

Jesus taught His disciples the importance of praying sincerely; indeed, He offered the Our Father as a model of such prayer (Matt. 6:9-13). When someone asked Bl. Jordan of Saxony the best form of prayer, he said, “The way in which you can pray most fervently.”

St. Edmund tells us, “It is better to say one Our Father fervently and devoutly than a thousand with no devotion and full of distraction.” In fact, St. Thomas Aquinas warns us, “Purposely to allow one’s mind to wander in prayer is sinful and hinders the prayer from having fruit.” If instead we try our best to remain focused on our prayer, we will not only please God, but also make great spiritual progress. According to St. Louis de Montfort, “He who fights even the smallest distractions faithfully when he says even the very smallest prayer, will also be faithful in great things.” To achieve this, we should begin by following the simple advice of St. Teresa of Avila: “Never address your words to God while you are thinking of something else.” God is worthy of our full attention. It’s admirable to pray as we work or while we drive or do other things — as long as we make the Lord’s presence central.

Something you might try today: St. Teresa of Avila suggests that, at the beginning of prayer, we close our eyes “in order to open wider the eyes of the soul,” thereby lessening the chance of distractions. Some valuable advice on praying comes from St. Paul of the Cross: “When you want to pray, it doesn’t matter if you can’t meditate. Make little acts of love to God, but gently, without forcing yourself.” St. Paul also says, “Concerning distractions and temptations that occur during holy prayer, you don’t need to be the least bit disturbed. Withdraw completely into the upper part of your spirit to relate to God in spirit and truth...”

Relent, Return and Repent

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the season of Lent. This is the time to take those three penitential acts, praying, fasting and giving alms. Why did Jesus single out prayer, fasting, and almsgiving for his disciples? The Jews considered these three as the cardinal works of the religious life. These were seen as the key signs of a pious person, the three great pillars on which the good life was based. Jesus pointed to the heart of the matter. Why do you pray, fast, and give alms? To draw attention to yourself so that others may notice and think highly of you? Or to give glory to God? The Lord warns his disciples of self-seeking glory the preoccupation with looking good and seeking praise from others. True piety is something more than feeling good or looking holy. True piety is loving devotion to God. It is an attitude of awe, reverence, worship and obedience. It is a gift and working of the Holy Spirit that enables us to devote our lives to God with a holy desire to please him in all things (Isaiah 11:1-2).

Let us take one step back to examine the meaning of Lent. Lent is a 40-day period of preparation for Easter Sunday. We follow Jesus into the desert, that harsh arid environ, that barren landscape both fascinating and terrifying, and for many of us, the last place on earth we would want to end up in. It lacks the necessary vegetation and foliage that would provide shade from the accursed sun. It lacks water necessary for life. The desert is literally deserted, a place not meant for the living, just for the dead. It is there that the power of death holds sway. And yet, the desert is the perfect place to spend Lent. In the Gospels, Jesus is tempted in the wilderness to be a different kind of Messiah; to take the path of spectacle and power rather than that of humble service. Each year, in imitation of our Lord, we retreat into the desert for the forty days – the liturgical season consecrated for personal conversion and preparation to celebrate the great mysteries of our redemption.

The forty days of Lent is the annual retreat of the people of God in imitation of Jesus' forty days in the wilderness. Forty is a significant number in the scriptures. Moses went to the mountain to seek the face of God for forty days in prayer and fasting. The people of Israel were in the wilderness for forty years in preparation for their entry into the promised land.  Elijah fasted for forty days as he journeyed in the wilderness to the mountain of God. We are called to journey with the Lord in a special season of prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and penitence as we prepare to celebrate the feast of Easter, the Christian Passover. The Lord gives us spiritual food and supernatural strength to seek his face and to prepare ourselves for spiritual combat and testing. We, too, must follow in the way of the cross in order to share in the victory of Christ's death and resurrection. What is the sure reward which Jesus points out to his disciples? It is communion with God our Father. In him alone we find the fullness of life, happiness, and truth.

Today, as the beginning of Lent, on Ash Wednesday, the blessed ashes are "imposed" on the faithful as a sign of conversion, penance, fasting and human mortality. The act of putting on ashes symbolizes fragility and mortality, and the need to be redeemed by the mercy of God. Far from being a merely external act, the Church has retained the use of ashes to symbolize that attitude of internal penance to which all the baptized are called during Lent. St. Augustine of Hippo tells us that there are two kinds of people and two kinds of love: One is holy, the other is selfish. One is subject to God; the other endeavors to equal Him. We are what we love. God wants to free our hearts from all that would keep us captive to selfishness and sin. Rend your hearts and not your garments says the prophet Joel (Joel 2:12). The Holy Spirit is ever ready to transform our hearts and to lead us further in Gods way of truth and holiness.

As we begin this holy season of testing and preparation, let's ask the Lord for a fresh outpouring of his Holy Spirit that we may grow in faith, hope, and love and embrace his will more fully in our lives. May the prayer of Augustine of Hippo, recorded in his Confessions, be our prayer this Lent: When I am completely united to you, there will be no more sorrows or trials; entirely full of you, my life will be complete. The Lord wants to renew us each day and give us new hearts of love and compassion. God also implores us to "re-lent," that is, to enter year after year into the spirit of Lent with our whole heart. He tells us through the prophet Joel to "re-turn" to Him and "quit" the ways of the world, even those which might be good (Jl 2:16), for His sake. Through the Church, He calls us to "turn away from sin and believe in the Gospel." We don't just turn away from worldly things; we turn to the Lord God.

Re-Lenting and re-turning must lead to repenting. During Lent, focus on the Sacrament of Reconciliation. With true sorrow, repent of your sins, confess them to the Lord, and let Him take away the guilt of your sin (see Ps 32:5). Repent of turning to the lifestyle of the world and the preoccupations of the flesh. Return to Him (Jl 2:13). Abandon yourself completely into this season of returning, repenting, and relenting. The Lord says: "Return to Me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God" (Jl 2:12-13). This year, don't simply go through the exercises and motions of Lent. Re-lent, repent, and re-turn to the Lord.