Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows
Change Your Ways
"Cast away from you all the crimes you have committed, says the LORD, and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit."
Brethren, the above verse is the verse before the Gospel which can summarize what is expected of us in this Lenten season: to change our ways. Let's endeavor to create a new spirit, a new beginning, a new relationship with God and neighbors, for God has really called us for this change. In the first Reading the Lord warns the leaders of Sodom and the people of Gomorrah to change and turn away from their old ways of life otherwise, they are doomed to destruction.
This reading shows that our God is merciful; He can never pass judgement on us without prior warning. God always warns us to turn away from our sins through his word every day, his chosen gospel heralds and all agents of evangelisation. If we don't change, we are doomed to die in our sins and the consequences of dying in sin is eternal hell just as Sodom and Gomorrah due to their resistance to change and conversion, were destroyed. This warning calls for both personal and general conversion. Let us pray unceasingly for the present generation which has been taken up by secularism, characterised by less regard for God. Who knows if God is very 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 of parents to their children, dress code so embarrassing even in the church, love of money which have led to all crimes in the society, prostitution both physical and online, dirty games, atheism, Antichrist movements, materialism, individualism to the extent of not knowing your immediate neighbors, disregard of clergy, corrupt political leaders, terrorism, secularised kind of life especially 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 unceasingly for the renewal of the face of the Earth, the world is becoming the worst place to live instead of being good as it was at creation.
This general conversion starts with an individual conversion and metanoia. Self-conversion involves a radical change of thoughts, the source of all evil in our lives. When our thoughts are not watched they become our words. When our words are not watched they become our actions, when our bad actions are not watched, they 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 evil, a destiny which will make us suffer for the whole of our lives, then we don't have reason to live. We have to understand that all evil starts with individuals, and so the entire conversion of the world presupposes the individual conversion.
Self-conversion requires being truthful to oneself, not like hypocrites whom Jesus challenges 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 they are the evil doers. 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 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 ask the Holy Spirit to help us live out what we preach and believe.
The last virtue we can reflect on is humility. Jesus is always emphasizing this in all the gospels and in today's Gospel too. Humility is the fundamental virtue for Christian Life, lest we become 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 Humblest people. for the "the greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted."
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.
Let us Pray.
Lord Jesus, you became a servant for my sake to set me free from the tyranny of selfish pride and self-concern. Teach me to be humble as you are humble and to love others generously with selfless service and kindness. Amen
Be blessed.
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