Lent Week 2: Tuesday
MORE POWERFUL THAN ANY DETERGENT
Sitting desperately and thinking: can God really forgive my sins?… when I commit the same ones again and again?… when I break my resolutions as easily as I make them?… when I promise to myself that I will change and yet my mind and heart cannot seem to agree?… Will there be forgiveness for me?
This Lent, let us remember that if God is serious about one thing, it is about his offer of love and forgiveness. He was not joking when he invites his wayward children to come home. He was not in a light mood when he says he wants to save us from our sins, our weakness, our fallenness, and our brokenness.
God is serious in dealing with human frailty and with every one of our falls. Isaiah describes the power of God so vividly when he says through the Prophet Isaiah that though sins be as tainted as scarlet or dark blood-red, they will be white as snow, and pure as the finest, high grade wool. In the Lord’s heart, there is a cleansing agent more powerful than any detergent or stain remover; it is his mercy and love.
Pope Francis reiterated in his many speeches and writings that we are the ones who grow tired of asking forgiveness, but the Lord never exhausts his offer of love and reconciliation. The temptation of the enemy is to hide from the Lord after we have sinned, because of the guilt and shame we feel. But there is no one in the world who knows the longing of a broken heart for restoration and renewal than the Lord who planted that desire in every human heart.
The Gospel shows how Jesus castigates the scribes and the Pharisees, who have hardened their hearts to the call of change and transformation. They, like many of us, are content in outward show and pretension of religiosity. They relish their titles and achievements and think that these will bring them God’s favor. But Jesus also says, it takes humility to discover the path of true and lasting conversion. Now, this does not mean perfect discipleship because humility must include the realization that our weaknesses follow us everywhere. I like the words of Venerable Bruno Lanteri: If I should fall a thousand times a day, a thousand times I will begin again.
The Lord is serious in his call to come to him and ask for forgiveness… a thousand times each day. Let us pray for the grace of humility to heed his voice, to trust in his promise, and to continue to hope in his love. Amen.
