Reading I: Isaiah 1:10,16-20,
Psalm 50:8-9,18-17,21,23
Gospel: Mt. 23:1-12 Full Readings
Cast away from you all the crimes you have committed, says the LORD, and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.
The above verse is the verse before the Gospel which can summarize what is expected of us in this Lenten season. Let's endeavor to create a new spirit, new beginning, new relationship with God and neighbors, for God has really called us for this change.
In the first Reading the Lord warns Sodom and Gomorrah, to change and turn away from their old ways of life otherwise, they are doomed to death. This reading shows that our God is merciful,
He can never pass judgement without prior warning. God always warns us to turn away from our sins through his word every day, his chosen people and all agents of evangelisation. If we don't change, we are doomed to die in our sins and the consequences of eternal hell as Sodom and Gomorrah due to its resistance to change and conversion, were destroyed. This warning calls for both personal and general conversion.
Brethren I implore you to pray hard for the present generation which has been taken up by secularism, where there is less regard for God, who knows if God is angry with us and that's why we are facing a lot of problems, sicknesses and other misfortunes.
The present evils can't hide themselves from us, sexual immorality, murders, envy, moral degeneration especially with the youth, breakage of many families (we notice today many single parents), adultery and fornication, misuse of power, corruption, embezzlement of funds, bad examples by parents to their children, dress code so embarrassing even in the church, love of money which have lead to all crimes in the society, prostitution both physical and online, dirty games, atheism, Antichrist movements, individualism and materialism in that today you don't even know your immediate neighbors, disregard of clergy, corrupt political leaders, terrorism, secularised kind of life by the youth and many others. Living in such situations is not surely the will of God, and God is not Happy with us. We need a radical change and a complete turn from this way of living, otherwise, if we don't pray hard for the renewal of the face of the Earth, the world is becoming the worst place to live instead of being good as at creation.
This general conversion starts with an individual conversion and metanoia. Self conversion involves a radical change of thoughts source of all evil in our lives, words which when we don't watch over them become our actions, when our bad actions are not watched, the become our habits, if our bad habits are not watched, they become our characters, these bad characters gradually, become our destiny, and if our destiny is an evil one, a destiny which will make us suffer for the whole of our lives, then why do we need to live. We have to understand that all evil starts with individuals, so the entire conversion of the world presupposes the individual conversion. Take an example of corruption which we are fighting today in Kenya.
Self conversion requires being truthful to oneself, not like hypocrites talked about in the Gospel today. You will agree with me that there are many people preaching, teaching, and speaking against the evils in the world, but do different things. We preach water and drink wine, this adds more evil in the world because of the examples we give. Are we different from the Pharisees? We cannot continue to go to church, we put on a holy self as we enter into the church and then leave it as we leave the church, we go back to our evil ways. This dualistic life is even more dangerous than that of non-believers, because it is solely driven by pretense , and this is not a happy life. Let us as the Holy Spirit to help us live out what we preach and believe.
The last virtue I want to reflect on is humility. Jesus is always emphasizing this in all the gospels. Humility is the fundamental virtue for Christian Life, otherwise, we are Christians by name. We have to be different from the Pharisees, who seek places of honour, good seats in public places, and seek for popularity. Those who seek popularity will sure have a negative one. The most popular people are the most Humble people.
In a Christian way of living, and in the context of Lent, let no one Know what you are giving as alms giving, as Jesus says let your left arm know not what your right arm is doing. Humility is what we are expected, as Christians, for when we are humble we are imitating our Lord Jesus Christ who was humble even to accepting death on the cross.
Wish you the blessed Lenten period, as we pray for the changing of the world, from bad to the best place for us to live in, which starts with individuals.
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