Greetings on this the Thursday after Ash Wednesday
Readings: Dt 30:15-20; PS 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6; Lk 9:22-25
Notes
Today is the Thursday after Lent. In a very real way it is the reset point of Lent.
- Starting with the third speech of Moses in Deuteronomy – The Choice of Way.
- Continuing with the first of the Book of Psalms – The Choice of Way.
- Ending with the Cost of Discipleship – The Choice to be a Disciple.
Summary
Deuteronomy, Septuagint of 17:18, deuteronomion, “copy of the law”, is our first reading. Here Moses describes the ‘cost-benefit’ of being a disciple of the Law.
See, I have today set before you life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I am giving you today, loving the LORD, your God, and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statutes and ordinances, you will live and grow numerous, and the LORD, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. If, however, your heart turns away and you do not obey, but are led astray and bow down to other gods and serve them, I tell you today that you will certainly perish. I call heaven and earth today to witness against you:m I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live (Deut 30:15-16, 17-18a, 19).
Psalm 1
A preface to the whole Book of Psalms, contrasting with striking similes the destiny of the good and the wicked. The Psalm views life as activity, as choosing either the good or the bad. Each “way” brings its inevitable consequences. The wise through their good actions will experience rootedness and life, and the wicked, rootlessness and death (NABRE Commentary on Psalm 1, reference: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/1#23001001-1)
The gospel portion has Jesus describing the choice of The Way. Jesus for his part must suffer and die at the hands of the leadership yet he will rise again (the promise). For our part, Jesus asks us to share our small (infinitesimal by comparison) sufferings too. Not to suffer for suffering sake. But a suffer that is redemptive and a sure salve for a hurting world. He stressed for us the need to not amass the goods of the world, good as they are. But the spiritual good of divine love. The Superior over the Inferior.
Reflection
We choose things every day, every hour of every day, every minute of every day. Reading this blog post is a choice. We have such power to choose it is amazing. Choosing with true free will we chose the best option – the divine invitation to the easy yoke of the law of love.
Personal Reflection
My best choices:
- To see the good in others.
- To see the divine love within others, emerging in others, budding to life in others.
- To come to the aid of others in the corporal and spiritual works.
The tools? Prayer, fasting and almsgiving. These aid in The Way. They are not The Way exactly in the sense I am using it today. They are choices that lead to The Way.
First Reading
The Choice Before Israel.
Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the LORD, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him.
Responsorial
Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.
Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.
Gospel Acclamation
Repent, says the Lord; the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Gospel
The Conditions of Discipleship.
Jesus said to his disciples: “The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.”
Then he said to all, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?”
Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry