My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, peace be with you on this Thursday after Ash Wednesday. As we begin Lent, our readings will speak to us about saving our lives. Because life is precious, life is a gift of God. And in the Old Testament this would be accomplished through fidelity to the commandments which God had given his people. But in the New Testament it is accomplished through fidelity to Christ, who is the fulfillment and the perfection of the law and the prophets.
So we start off with our first reading from Deuteronomy. The context to this reading where Moses says to the people, and I quote, “Today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and doom. If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I enjoin on you today, loving him, and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statutes, and decrees, you will live and grow numerous, and the LORD, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy” (Deuteronomy 30:15–16). These words are spoken while the people of God are awaiting their entrance into the Promised Land. They've just traversed the desert for 40 years. God has been with them. He has shown them mercy, love, compassion, and now they are about to enter into the land he has promised. But it comes by way of a reminder, a covenantal reminder where God has kept his part of his relationship with his people. And now, as is fitting, the people were being reminded to keep their part of the relationship, to follow his commandments, to love him and love one another through the statutes and the decrees that God had indicated to them. So, for example, honor your father and mother, do not steal, do not murder, do not covet your neighbor's goods, do not covet your neighbor's wife, etc., etc. So the Lord was saying to them, I am blessing you, and now show your gratitude and build upon the relationship which I have started with you.
Fast forward to the dawn of salvation to when our Lord God Himself had then come into the world among that people within that land that they had occupied. And yet he is coming into a situation that is difficult because they are being oppressed by the Romans. And our Lord is now saying that to save one's life, it's not only about keeping commandments, but it's about losing our life for his sake in order to save it. And I quote Jesus directly here, “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it” (Luke 9:24). Now what does losing our life for the sake of Jesus, what does that look like? Well, it means the sacrifices we will have to make. In fact, he himself clarifies, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). So we must be willing to walk out into the battlefield of spiritual warfare every day and listen to the words of Jesus and apply them to our lives, in other words, to pray, to allow him to speak to us through His Word, and then to apply his directions to our own lives, directions which oftentimes mean that we are going to die to ourselves.
In other words, somebody has angered me. Man, do I ever want to tell that person off. But wait. The Lord has asked me to be humble, so let me calm down. The Lord has asked me to forgive, so let me pardon this person. The Lord has asked me to be heroic in my virtue, so let me try to love this person. “For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?” (Matthew 5:46). So losing our life for the sake of Jesus means that we obey his words, especially when they are difficult, and when we do that, when we forgive somebody else, you know what's happening there. We're not only giving this other person another chance and extending mercy, but we're also letting ourselves out of prison, out of that prison of bitterness and anger, hostility and hatred. Because if we wallow in those things, we die little by little. But if we deny ourselves, do the difficult thing for the sake of Christ, he liberates us. He restores us. He gives us life in its fullness, not life bogged down by bitter rivalries, hostilities, quarrels among the family. No, that's not the life that Jesus wants for us. He wants us to live a life that is full, to love each other, to help each other, to be happy, to be prosperous, to enjoy the fruits of this world, the beautiful fruits of all creation together. But in order to do that, we must listen to His Word.
Just as the Old Testament people were asked by Moses in today's first reading to obey the commandments of the Lord, we are being called to be those wise people who listen to the words of Jesus and build on them, and so build our houses on solid ground. The storms will come. They will blow against that house. It will be difficult. It will be ugly, but that house will not fall because it is built on solid ground on the Word of Jesus. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary, may Almighty God bless you, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. May your Lent be blessed, and may the Lord continue to illuminate your heart and your mind. Amen.
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