Christian fasting

When Christians fast, we do not end up with sad faces. We fast because we want to leave more space in our lives for the greatest treasure of all: God. And where God is present there can only be joy.

Jesus, source of our joy

 Lent is a time of fasting. For many people fasting evokes deprivation and a serious, almost somber, demeanor. But Jesus himself has warned us against such a behavior. When we fast we shouldn't let others know about it. In other words, we shouldn't make others feel the burden of whatever sacrifices we make. If you want to work yourself to death, for whatever reason, don't make others feel guilty with your long  face!
Besides, Christian fasting should be done with the correct perspective. Self-deprivation is not the end itself. We deprive ourselves of something so as to make room for something with a greater value, nay, Someone of greater value: God.
Fasting should help us to focus our attention on Someone other than ourselves.
I don't think I have ever heard of anybody dying because of the Lenten fasting. But I hope that, little by little, the Lenten fasting will help me die in my desire for a superficial and easy life.

Reconciled

I went to Confession yesterday. Oh, what a wonderful encounter with God. How good Jesus is that He has instituted this sacrament. I am so sorry for those who do not have this privilege. I know that it is God who forgives sins, but through the priest's voice, God gives me the words of His forgiveness and other messages.
For me, the sacrament of Reconciliation is one of Jesus' greatest gifts to His Church. He knows that, human as we are, we understand and experience salvation through the mediation of visible and tangible signs.
The thing that makes Confession sometimes difficult for me is human respect, especially when I know the minister, or when I confess the same sin over and over again, or I confess something shameful (but what sin is not shameful!). But Jesus helps me to overcome this, as I remember that before God I stand stark naked, but He loves me just the same. I have nothing to boast of before God. Whatever good I do, I am able to because of Him. Whenever I sin, He is willing to forgive me "seventy times seven". I just have to trust more and more in the love of this marvellous God who defies human logic.
And what graces Jesus gives me through Confession! First of all, I have the certainty that I have been forgiven. I cannot doubt that, after all, I have heard the words of absolution. At the same time, through the priest's words, God gives me an opportune message as I continue my journey of conversion.
Indeed, what a great gift the sacrament of Reconciliation is.

In the desert

With the Spirit's help, I would really like to live this Lenten season "in the desert", bereft of my securities. I read somewhere that the desert is the place of the essentials.
With the passing of the years, my life has become complicated: so many knots, so many gray areas, so many rationalizations. Sometimes it is hard for me to see and to recognize my own values and convictions.

What or who do I hold dearest in my life?
I know that I have made a lot of decisions, big and small, that were dictated by convenience and utility - because I wanted to fit in, because that was expected of me, because I did not want to offend, because I just wanted to end the discussion, because I did not want to get hurt, etc., etc.

What are the securities that I have accumulated?
My experience of these past two years has made me realize that these so-called securities are false. Indeed, they make me feel more insecure because I hold on and I cling to them so desperately, and so I lose my freedom and spontaneity.

So, welcome to this 40-day desert experience. I know that by myself, I cannot do it.

The desert is not some exotic place we see in postcards. It is a place of hostile forces.
When the howling winds of my mistakes haunt me,
When the scorching heat of rejection and judgment is unbearable,
When the cold nights of solitude are just too much,
When the lack of water and other things I used to rely on make me crippled and desperate...
When these temptations call me to turn back, I need a deep Center, Someone who will stay with me through it all, so that I may enter the land of freedom, the Promised Land.

Jesus is that deep Center. He will walk with me through the desert and lead me to freedom.

We are the reason

May these Holy days lead us to a deeper experience of the breadth, length, height and depth of God's love.
Why did Jesus not go down from the cross, despite the fact that He could have done so?
Because He knows that so many of us cannot go down from our crosses. So He stayed there, to be with us and to show us that He knows our sufferings, our weaknesses, our failures.
But it didn't end with the cross. He will rise again. And so shall we, too, if we carry our cross with Him.

Carrying the cross

The mere fact of carrying the cross is not what is important... Every people, every family has on its shoulders sorrows and burdens to bear. That which gives fullness of meaning to the cross is to carry it behind Jesus, not in a journey of anguished solitude, hopeless wandering or rebellion, but rather in a journey sustained and nourished by the presence of the Lord. (Fr. Thomas Rosica, CSB)

Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday Hosanna Triumphant Entry Church Video from RCCG VICTORY TEMPLE on Vimeo.

God's patience

Yesterday's Gospel is a very challenging one for me, in terms of the God that I believe in. In fact, the reading guide entitles it "Repent or perish".

The God I believe in is Love that knows no bounds. It's not just an idea of mine but Scripture itself confirms this:

For this is how God loved the world: he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. (John 3:16)

There are so many other Scripture texts that show the same face of God.

How then can I understand this text of Luke 13:1-9. I am not an exegete, but in my everyday life, the Word of God gives me nourishment. I hope that it is not superstition, but in difficult times, it is God's promises that give me hope or a new lease on life. God's Word may not give me the answer to a pressing question, but It definitely helps me to hang on or to view the question from another perspective.

Well then, what is the message for me of this Lucan text? God is always patient. His patience knows no bounds. The "one more year" mentioned here in the text is not the literal one year according to our time measurement. The one year here is our "limited time" here on earth. God continues to nourish us and to give us what we need to attain true joy. He does His part but we have to do ours. When our "time is up" and we have to be "cut off", it is not that God has condemned us or has stopped dealing with us kindly; rather, it is we who have hardened ourselves, refusing His invitation to joy and fullness of life.

In the end, it is not He who condemns us, but we who condemn ourselves by choosing a pattern of refusing His love. Nothing in life is improvised. The daily no's that we say to God's love hardens our heart and leaves it closed to God's all-pervading kindness.

Lent lengthens our horizon

Dear brothers and sisters, Lent lengthens our horizon, it orients us to eternal life. On this earth we are on pilgrimage., "for here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come," says the Letter to the Hebrews (Hebres 13:14). Lent makes us understand the relativity of the goods of this earth and thus makes us capable of the necessary self-denials, free to do good. Let us open the earth to the light of heaven, to the presence of God in our midst. Amen.

(Benedict XVI)

Jesus is tempted

Tomorrow's Gospel is the Lucan version of the Temptations of Christ (Luke 3:21-22). Here is a good commentary of Fr. Thomas Rosica, CSB on the text:

The Holy Spirit did not lead Jesus into temptation. The Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness. The evil one would utilize the moment of Jesus' physical weakness and exhaustion in the desert to tempt him. Satan would consider this "an opportune time," and he would look for other "seasons" as well. The devil did the tempting, not the Holy Spirit!
It was after Jesus endured the desert wilderness that he withstood temptation. Alone and defenseless against the wind and the weather, exposed to both day and night, and even exposed to the seeming absence of God, this experience of desert wilderness is part of human growth and maturity.
In the first temptation in the desert, Jesus responds to the evil one, not by denying human dependence on sustenance, but rather by putting human life and the human journey in perspective. Those who follow Jesus cannot become dependent on the things of this world. When we are so dependent on material things, and not on God, we give in to temptation and sin.
The second temptation deals with the adoration of the devil rather than God. Jesus once again reminds the evil one that God is in control. This is so important for us to hear and believe, especially when our own temptations seem to overpower us, when everything around us might indicate shadows, darkness and evil. It is God who is ultimately in charge of our destiny.
In the third temptation, the devil asks for a revelation or manifestation of God's love in favor of Jesus. Jesus answers the evil one by saying that he doesn't have to prove that God loves him.
Far from creating a great divide between Jesus Christ and ourselves, our own trials and weaknesses have become the privileged place of our encounter with him, and not only with him, but with God himself, thanks to this man of the cross. Jesus has been tested in all respects like us - he knows all of our difficulties; he is a tried man; he knows our condition from the inside and from the outside - by this did he acquire a profound capacity for compassion. For one must have suffered in order to truly feel for others. From Jesus we learn that God is present and sustaining us in the midst of test, temptation and yes, even sinfulness.
As Christians, we are in a constant fight with the desires born of our sinful natures. We are unable to resist temptation without God's grace. We are called to trust the Lord (not ourselves) for strength to resist temptation before it becomes sin. It is not the temptation itself that leads us to sin, but the lack of resistance and trust in the Lord for deliverance.

(To read the whole comment go to zenit.org)

Lent is a call to conversion