Saturday – 1st Week of Lent – A

And in today's first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses speaks to the people and he tells them quite plainly: “This day the LORD your God commands you to observe these statutes and decrees. Be careful, then, to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. Today you are making this agreement with the LORD. He is to be your God, and you are to walk in his ways and observe his statutes, commandments, and decrees, and to hearken to his voice. And today the LORD is making this agreement with you. You are to be a people peculiarly his own, as he promised you, and provided you keep all his commandments. He will then raise you high in praise and renown and glory above all other nations he has made. And you will be a people sacred to the LORD your God, as he promised” (Deuteronomy 26:16–19).

My brothers and sisters, we need to know that we belong to God by the way we live in his presence, whether we're humble or proud, whether we're slothful or diligent in our prayer life, everything has a bearing on how it is we relate to our Heavenly Father. Now, a lot of people, after hearing that reading, will say, wow, God is so egotistical. He's like, focus on me, praise me, serve me, listen to me. But that's not at all what he's doing. Because had his commandments only involved him, one might be tempted to give some kind of weight to that argument. But the truth is, he commands us to enter into a union of love with him, but also, and this is important, with everybody that is in our lives, every other person, our brothers and sisters, because we all have him as our Father.

And Jesus goes into this in the Gospel today. He goes into this second most important aspect. So we love God with all our hearts, but we love our neighbor as ourself. So we're told in the Gospel today that Jesus said to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. “For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers and sisters only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:45–48).

Now, what our Lord is asking of us here requires a lot of virtue. But not just virtue — heroic virtue. Humility out of great love for God. Courage to be able to overcome our passions, to be pure in our hearts and untainted by the world, so that we're not won over by its corruption.

And who was untainted by the world? Today, as we celebrate this liturgy on a Saturday, we remember our Blessed Mother, so pure and holy, single-hearted in her love and affection for the Lord. Our Blessed Mother, who accompanies him throughout his life, nourishes him, and continually shows him signs of affection. Our Blessed Mother, who continually put herself at risk because she decided to say yes to our Heavenly Father, even when it meant pain, suffering, sacrifice out of love for others.

Why do we think our Blessed Mother endured that sword that would pierce her heart? That agonizing torment at the foot of the cross? Why do we think that she would go through all of that, if not out of great love for each and every one of us, her brothers, her sisters, her sons, her daughters?

If we, like her, do the will of the Father, if we, like her, listen to the words of Jesus, may our Heavenly Father, through the intercession of the Queen of Heaven, continue to bless you throughout this Lenten season. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.