10th Day of Lent: March 14, 2014 “I have even heard people say ‘We are praying for him (Francis) to die as soon as possible,’”

 10th Day of Lent: 

                               March 14, 2014

“I have even heard people say ‘We are praying for him (Francis) to die as soon as possible,’”

Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, head of Francis’ hand-picked advisory group of eight cardinals, told a German Catholic news agency recently. “That is wicked — but such people think they are Christians.” How can any one come to the table to the Eucharist with this kind of attitude? Addressing this issue in his Ash Wednesday homily, in fact, Francis at one point looked up from his text on penance and stared at the Vatican churchmen arrayed around him. “When I watch, in this little everyday environment, various power struggles for position, I think to myself: These people are trying to play God, the Creator,” the pope said. “They still haven’t realized that they are not God.” Against this background we hear today's Gospel where Jesus says, “If you bring your gift to the altar and there you recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother and then come and offer your gift. In a ritual way we do respond to his injunction at the beginning of Mass by admitting: I confess... to you, my brothers and sisters.... But the reciting of ritual formulae can easily slide past our lips coming from our memory without coming from our hearts.
I have at times felt the need to leave the altar at the time of the offertory and look for the brothers and sisters, who may have anything against me. Not the most practical desire, given that those brothers and sisters may not even be in church at that moment (not to mention the risk that, if everyone else took that injunction literally, I might be facing an empty church). But I feel grateful for the urge all the same, for it challenges me to take the Lord’s words seriously and it commits me, at least for the immediate future, to make the effort not to give any brothers or sisters a reason to have anything against me. Jesus takes it really serious the way we worship. Reconciliation is so crucial to the worship. The attitude of peace and reconciliation you bring to the Eucharistic sacrifice makes it clear that your worship flows into you life and life flows into the worship. Forgiveness is giving up the right to resentment, putting a painful past behind and move on to forge a new relationship with God, oneself, others and the whole of creation. So you cannot really, sincerely, wholeheartedly be present to God let alone worship or adore him if your heart is full of anger, hatred, jealousy, fear etc. A filthy heart cannot see the God of Truth, peace and joy. So this season of lent calls each one of us to make a trip to the confessional and look for the green light and be reconciled. Open your heart to the Lord and he will heal you and strengthen you along the journey of life.

   

God Bless you always!
Sincerely Yours,
Rev. Fr. Cyriac Chandy Mattathilanickal, MS

Wishing you and yours A Holy Lent!

Rev. Fr. Tom Puthusseril, M.S.

Shrine Director