Dear brothers and sisters, it is a joy to be with you as our Lenten journey into Easter enters its second week. By this time some of us may have already broken our Lenten penance. Well, there is no rule that says you cannot take up the fight again. Our merciful Father always allows and even expects us to begin again. In fact, our penance can then be even more fruitful because it will have lost any thought that it achieved some target to be proud of and will now be humbler.
In our Station Masses thus far we have seen how Lent is God’s special gift to us to fill our discipleship with gladness. Lent is not a sad season but a joyful one because we are preparing in hope for the wonderful coming of Our Saviour, Jesus Christ, and the New Life He brings at Easter. Lent summons us to rebirth, as a Church and personally as Christ’s followers, so we can share more fully His companionship as sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father.
In last week’s Station Masses we reflected upon how Jesus declared Himself to be
something greater than Jonah and all the Prophets of the Old Testament
, and so a more perfect sign of the Heavenly Father’s Kingdom. When I was a lad there was a famous Irish TV comic whose catchphrase was:
C’mere, there’s more! I am delighted to say his son is now a good friend of mine and a fine priest in the north of England. But that catchphrase,
There’s more, can really help us understand what Jesus means when He calls Himself something greater!
In Jesus there is always something more to discover because Jesus is God among us and in Him dwells the fulness of God Himself. Consequently, He is always calling us, as a Church and personally, to come closer to Him, to give more, to become even more like Him. The discipleship Jesus invites us to is nobler than the
righteousness of the Pharisees, who simply contented themselves with keeping the Law and leaving it at that
. Instead, Jesus invites us to follow Him on the higher road of the Gospel by living what we call the evangelical counsels. By these evangelical counsels Jesus invites us to us to go beyond the letter of the law, to go the extra mile, because it only there that we discover Who Jesus really is and the thrill of being His disciple. The ‘more’ that Jesus calls us to live is a life of simplicity in our personal lives, chastity in our relationships, and obedience to some rule or plan of life in our spiritual affairs.
Reflecting on His call to live simply in our personal lives we discover His invitation not to be so preoccupied about providing ourselves with our daily crust but instead to try to know a bit of the joy of depending on Him and on
every word that comes from His Father’s mouth to get ourselves through our lives
. Reflecting on His call to live chastely in our relationships we discovered how chastity is not a negative virtue bent upon denying ourselves the rightful consolations of intimate love but is the positive value of self-possession. When we love we give ourselves, and we can give only what we possess. People consumed by passions end up using others for their own pleasure, but those who are pure in heart and in possession of their passions can give their love over to their beloved’s good, peace and even holiness.
The final evangelical counsel is Christ’s invitation to us to obedience, which we can think of as surrendering ourselves to some rule or plan for our spiritual life. It means submitting our freedom in spiritual and pastoral matters to the guidance of a spiritual father, be it our priest or bishop, or spiritual mother, as in a religious sister or the like. It is about discovering the paradox that it is only once we can surrender our life, plans and hopes to the direction of another that we are really free, because we have won freedom from ourselves and our tendency to self-centredness, autonomy and control.
In today’s Gospel Jesus is the perfect example.
Now the Son of Man is about to be handed over to the chief priests and scribes. They will condemn him to death. We hear, as the Consecration of Holy Mass approaches, how this was
a death Jesus
freely accepted. But it was not a death He would have chosen for Himself. Rather, He accepted it as His Father’s will and He invited His disciples to join Him in a life lived not according to their own dreams but according to His Father’s will.
If we are being honest, is the alternative way the disciples wanted not really the way we live our lives most of the time? James and John wanted to
sit one at (the) right hand and the other at (the) left of Jesus in His Kingdom. They showed their preference not for the way of obedience but for an opportunity to rule the roost, for places to lord it over others and tell them what to do, rather than at the Lord’s feet, where they would receive orders not of their choosing. The indignance of the other ten showed they also wanted control over others rather than being servants who take commands. Jesus patiently reminds them that true discipleship is never about
making their authority felt but about assuming the condition of a servant, even a slave under orders, seeking only to be of service, even to the point of giving their lives.
Brothers and sisters, we live in a world that prizes autonomy and choice as the essence of living life to the full and it has affected deeply our Christian discipleship. So, we feel free to choose which teachings of the Church to accept or reject, which bishop to follow and which to ignore, and go to Mass not every Sunday but when it is not inconvenient. So, we live a pick and mix religions, our spiritual lives haphazard, expecting our faith to fit into our lifestyles without unnecessary sacrifces. The path the Lord calls us to is a path of dying to ourselves to live according to His commands. This Lent it is good to give alms in charity but we also cleanse our hearts by following the way of Christ, obedient to His Father’s will, even when it cost a lot and He did not understand.
We turn to Mary who saw Herself as the handmaid of the Lord, content that
what the Angel said be done to Her. The path Her Son asked Her to follow meant Her surrendering everything to His will and He called Her blessed, yes because Her womb had borne Him but, above all, because She
heard the Word of God and kept it. This Lent may She teach us the rule of obedience that leads to life.