By Fr Antony Christy, SDB –
THE WORD IN LENT – Monday, Second Week
February 26, 2024 – Daniel 9: 4-10; Luke 6: 36-38
Through the desert, God leads us to freedom… by now our focus has shifted from the first part “through the desert,” to the latter part, “to freedom.” However, what the journey through the desert does to our effective progress towards freedom, is an important consideration, never to lose sight of. The journey through the desert, as we have time and again insisted, is an exceptional opportunity to realise who we are and where we are.
One of the most radical ways of progressing towards true freedom is, profound self-realisation. At times, we live our lives without a sense of reflection, and that is why what Socrates said becomes so much a reality – an unreflected life is a wasted life. There are so many things in life that we need to unlearn, and our sojourn in the desert would help us to become aware of them. One of those important elements to unlearn is the fact underlined in the Word today: there is much in our life that we experience which we do not deserve!
Let us begin with the compassion of God – do we deserve it at all? What a great realisation it is, that the psalmist today teaches us: Do not treat us according to our sins, O Lord! In fact, the Lord does not, and we cannot thank God enough for that.
In another place the psalmist would say: Oh, would that you treat us according to our sins, who would stand your judgements O Lord! (cf. Ps 103). Should we not be careful before we pass judgements such as, you suffer because of your sins. Just like those friends of Job, will we not be failing to understand the entire truth – that none of us ever can be deserving of God’s love. It is God’s unlimited mercy and compassion that drenches us in God’s merciful love! How important it is to realise that!
In our daily concrete experiences, when we take the goodness of others towards us for granted, it is a clear sign that we are living an unreflected life, we think we deserve all the goodness we experience. Instead, the more we become aware of the gratuitousness of the goodness that is meted out to us, by God, through others, the more righteous we grow. We begin the feel the need to become compassionate ourselves, humble, forgiving and generous – that is the surest way to true freedom of the children of God.
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005, who has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (Specialisation in Catechetics). He holds doctoral research in Theology at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the Young towards a World of Peace and Dialogue is the passion that fires him on.