Living for God is living for the other!

Listening to God is living for God

THE WORD IN LENT 2026 - MONDAY SECOND WEEK

March 02 - Daniel 9: 4-10; Luke 6: 36-38

Listening to God is living for God - that is what the Word of God emphatically established yesterday. We were called to let go, let God and live for God... living for God is the core of the message today. But living for God is not so easy, as the first reading tells us today: we have not listened to your servants, we have sinned, we have done wrong! But our faithfulness does not depend on our capacity, it depends on the Integrity of the Lord! 

We continue to walk with the Lord not because of our merit, but because of the integrity of the Lord. That is why we pray in the responsorial - Lord do not deal with us as our sins deserve, but according to your mercy, to your integrity. It is this that saves us from an eternal damnation, because God is merciful, loving and forgiving. That is the grace to which we appeal and that demands that we do the same to the other who appeals to us, for the amount we measure out will be the amount we will be given back. 

The key is, living for God is actually living for the other. The Other here is anyone who appeals to us - in their need, in their weaknesses, in their vulnerability, in their fallenness, in their inability, in their repeated failures. Are we ready to pardon them, accept them and embrace them? If so, we are disposing ourselves to the same pardon, acceptance and embrace of the Lord. When we opine that the other does not deserve our graciousness, we are deciding too that we have to be dealt with how we deserve to be, how our sins and our failures deserve to be death with. Is that not alarming?

The Word today has a simple but challenging call: do unto others what you want done unto to you! If you wish to live for God, begin with living for the other.

LISTENING TO GOD IS LIVING FOR GOD

Letting go...letting God... living for God

THE WORD IN LENT 2026 - SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT 

March 01 -  Genesis 12: 1-4; 2 Timothy 1: 8-10; Matthew 17: 1-9

Listening and Fasting - Lent as a time for conversion... that is our project. Listening to the right voice, was the project underlined last Sunday! Continuing that line of thought, the Word today explains what it means to listening to God, really. It means, living for God. 

There are two figures presented to us - one, in the person of Abraham who listened to the voice of God; and the other, in the persons of the apostles with Jesus on the mount, especially among them Peter. 

When Abraham listened to the voice calling him to leave his country and go where the Lord leads him... it was a great challenge of letting go of everything that mattered to him... just as Peter and apostles who are there on top of the mountain with Jesus. Letting go... is a call, and we are part of that call too, in the way we accept the call from God to believe and accept.

But this letting go does not guarantee everything... Abraham not only let go of everything, he also let God lead him. He did not ask God where God was leading him...he just followed. He humbly submits. This is where impetuous Peter resembles us... we think we are letting go of everything but at the same time we have so many plans and projects, like making three tents, achieving this, accomplishing that, establishing our names and make ourselves important. The voice immediately stops them and tells them: this is my Son,  Listen to him! May be we have to check our tendency here... and let God, let God lead, let God act, let God reign. 

Thirdly, letting God, is not passivity. It is actively living for God, making a choice for God which means at every moment trying to discern God's directions and making the right choice in the right way... that we may behold the glory of the Lord all the time with us, but shining out when we allow ourselves to be led by God. 

Living for God is the most authentic sign of listening to God.