INVITATION. We begin this year’s Lenten season with the Lord’s invitation (JOEL 2:12-18): “Return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing.” God calls everyone — “assemble the aged; gather the children, even infants… the bridegroom and the bride.”
The prophet Joel reminds us to renew our faith, deepen our relationship with God, and continue to follow His teaching with all our hearts. Jesus reiterated this when he declared the most important of all the commandments: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ (Mark 12: 30). Our faith must be so that our hearts feel and our minds accent to because “we are ambassadors for of the Jesus our Messiah (2 Corinthians 5:20).
As modern-day prophets, we bring the Lord’s words (not our own) to the people. What is the message? His gracious initiative is to reconcile us to Himself by revealing His will entirely through His Son. What is our fitting response? To be aware of His grace and accept it wholeheartedly.
We recall what God said to Noah: “I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants, and with all living creature — never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth” (GENESIS 9:8-15). This covenant again shows us the deep bond that our Creator has with us and all of creation.
Every season of Lent, we commemorate God’s faithful love expressed in our Savior’s passion and death on the Cross. “Christ suffered for sins once and for all to bring us to God. So great a love; there is much to learn and be grateful for. Let us pray that we may know God’s plan for us, recognize the gift of different charisms within our parish community, and re-discover the richness of traditions and rituals of the Catholic Church.
Fra. Francis Victor Mateo, OFM Conventual
February 18, 2024