Lenten Reflection - Sunday, March 15, 2015 Twenty- Fourth Day "Choose Light!

Choose light!

Indeed one of the darkest times in the Jewish history was the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Babylonians and the subsequent exile of the people of God.

It was brought about by people “kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words, and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord against his people became so great that there was no remedy.”

Mary at La Salette said, “ I will be forced to let go the arm of my Son. It is so strong and so heavy that I can no longer hold it back”. 

Infidelity angers God always. And yet we see God’s compassion, mercy and fidelity once again revealed in His action toward the Israelites. King Cyrus of Persia allows the Jews to return to Jerusalem. 

Out of darkness came light. It was not the case that God’s salvation came because the lives of the Judeans were now lived in perfect righteousness, but because God looked in mercy upon his people. 

God did not wait for them to achieve righteousness but allowed the conditions for righteousness to flourish. Paul would say to the Ephesians how God reached out to humanity “even when we were dead through our trespasses.” 

All is grace because God takes initiative for redemption for “by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” 

St. John in the Gospel tells us that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”  

What is our response to God’s unconditional generosity? 

Our ‘deeds have to be done in God’ as Johns says those in the “light” do their “deeds” in God. Good works or deeds of kindness, joy, generosity, charity, justice and peace must mark our lives. 

If not we are all in the dark. Mary at La Salette said, “if you are converted rocks and stones will turn into heaps of wheat, and potatoes will be self-sown in the fields”. 

On this Laetare Sunday let us be sons and daughters of Light, Life, Grace and Mercy and that will tells us that we are closer to Easter.