Daily Reflection Friday of the First Week of Lent

Today’s readings begin with Ezekiel 18 and the prophet’s teaching on repentance as opposed to what we might call relapse. The two are rather jarringly transposed with repentance gaining us everything and everything done prior to it forgotten (by God), whereas relapse is the reverse, where everything we had disappears and we are back as if we had never repented. It reminds me of the parable of the unclean spirit in Matthew 12:43 where having rid himself of an unclean spirit, that one does not replace it with the Spirit of God but rather, pretends that all is now well and ends up worse with seven even more evil spirits than the one he thought he had rid himself of!
 
The gospel passage today from the beginning of Matthew’s sermon on the mount in chapter 5, takes this theme to a deeper level in the teachings of Christ. It begins a series of teachings that continue to the chapter’s end that start with one of the ten commandments and then lead to Jesus’ expanding on each to a higher level of holiness, a level that, “Exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees.” It begins with the commandment, thou shalt not kill. But Jesus tells us that even to give in to anger or judgement of another, goes against God’s commandment to love.
 
What Jesus is asking us to see here is that repentance, the initial turning away from sin (selfishness and what we want) to God and God’s will and God’s love, is but the beginning of our spiritual journey. If our attitude is that we have, in repenting, done what needed to be done and that is it, we will be like that one where the seed fell on rocky soil, springing up immediately but having no root and thus unable to sustain itself. As Jesus will say at the very end of the sermon, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like the wise one who built their house on rock.”
 
For there is always more to become aware of, more depths that we can be led to, more that will be revealed to us if we continue to seek and do God’s will. It is like the parable of the wedding feast where the host goes to his guest who sat in the lower place and invites him to, “Come up higher!” We are always being invited by God to continue to, “Come and see,” to continue journeying and not stand still. There is always more that the Spirit longs to teach us, to show us, to reveal, to simply give to us. More that we can be freed from, more of the love of God for us to experience. The journey never ends, but we will never want it to once we really begin it.
 
It is a journey because it takes time. There is a reason we live in that great mystery we call time. We are always given another chance, always being invited in further, deeper into the heart of Jesus and our own hearts at the depths of which, as in every human heart, is God. If we would but accept God’s loving, gentle invitation, and begin to seek to turn our will and our selves over to God’s love and care, then God would remove the heavy, fearsome yoke we have yoked ourselves with and yoke us to Jesus himself whose yoke is easy and burden light. When two oxen are properly yoked, their combined strength is far greater than one alone. How much more will our strength be when finally united to Jesus and God? We will learn what the power of love can achieve, how it will take away our fears, our hesitancy and our lack of faith. God will do it all for us.
 
The one gateway to it all is through continual daily prayer and meditation. “Seek and you will find,” Jesus told us, “Knock and the door will be opened to you.” That is all we really need to do. But it must be done. We must do something; we must act, as Jesus said. We cannot expect to just sit there and be changed as if it were by magic. Resist saying, “Someday.” Make that decision to begin now, today, and to persevere, “For now is the acceptable time. Now is the day of salvation!”