LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #9

Love sees the intention not the incident

Friday, First week in Lent - 10th March, 2017

Ezek 18: 21-28; Mt 5:20-26

I remember when we were doing our college, it should be so even now, there would be three internal assessments and they would take the better two of the three for the final tabulation. This comes very close as an imagery to explain the message of the Word today.

Or let us consider another imagery - that of a person who wins a gold medal in an event at one occasion and he or she lives on with that glory for all his or her life. 

A Christian version of Righteousness is not such as the above titles - you do your best now and then and they are picked and chosen for your reward, or you peak at a certain moment in your life and you think you can live in that glory for all your life. There are two elements that bring about that difference. The first one is, consistency of one's goodness, which determines the authenticity of the righteousness.

The second and the more important element is the fact that love does not value so much what is done as  why it is done. if love is capable of forgiving faults against it, it is because of this truth. Love rejoices in the interior goodness of the person, who might sometimes falter, more than the external acts of goodness which has intentions of a different nature, What matters most is the intention - even the best of acts done with an intention that has a tinge of evil in it cannot go well with true love; while even a simple act but with the noblest of intentions will be considered precious, because love sees the intention and not the incident.