Thought for the Week

First Sunday of Lent 21st Feb 2010

Simple thought for this week. Yes, give up something through Lent– it is good to improve self control. Yes, give your time to do something good for others throughout Lent – it is right that your self control also benefits others.

Family Fast day is on Friday 26th February and is a great way of giving to Cafod whilst realizing in a very practical and effective way what it is like to go without. What most of us cannot really know is what it is like when each day is like this not out of choice but through necessity and poverty.

Remember the Cafod Collection next Sunday!

Second Sunday of Lent 28th February 2010

As always, the readings today present us with a challenge. In the Gospel today Jesus is on the mountain top talking about his passing from this life to the other. What is important to remember is that Jesus didn’t stay on the mountain top; he didn’t watch our chaotic world from a safe distance. He lived it with us. His cross was that he loved us and he asks us to do the same. He doesn’t want us to be onlookers – he wants us to be active participants. If we do this, it will be our cross also. He asks us to come down from our mountains and our high horses and get involved in the suffering, sacrifice and disappointment of the world.

What part does fasting and penance play in this? When the going gets tough we want to run away and hide just as Jesus was tempted to do in last weeks Gospel reading. Penance can however help us to lead the kind of life that Jesus lived. Without this it is meaningless. If it does not help us to go on when we want to give up, if it does not help us to love when we want to hate, if it does not help us to visit people instead of just praying for them, if it does not help us to heal when we want to hurt or to listen when we just want to talk, it is unlikely to serve any purpose. If it helps us to gain control of our lives and sort out our values, then it will be of great use in helping us live the Gospel and be fully involved in the world.