THE WORD IN LENT - 3rd week, Tuesday
March 17, 2020: Daniel 3: 25, 34-45; Matthew 18: 21-35
Point for Dialogue #17: My state of life and the Goodness of the Lord
Do unto others what you want done unto you - this is the golden rule and it is common to almost all ideologies and religious teachings. While it can be interpreted as a kind of business-type or contractual relationship, the wisdom behind it cannot be missed.
The Word today reiterates that wisdom to us, inviting us to pay heed to the way we judge or evaluate persons and events in our daily life! It invites us to a dialogue between our state of affairs and the goodness of the Lord that prods us to goodness, within us and in the world around.
The first reading underlines one of the most important factors to be kept in mind while making an evaluation of a situation: your self-awareness - that is knowing about yourself, acknowledging your limitedness, accepting your weaknesses, looking to make changes that would make you progress in goodness! It is not merely a self-negation, falsely proclaimed as if to say I have no inherent value within myself. Neither is it a self-absolutisation, foolishly making oneself the centre of the entire universe!
Gospel continues to reflect on the fact that the Lord is so good that in spite of all our weaknesses and failures, we are accepted and loved and above all, forgiven. If we have experienced that goodness so undeservedly from the Lord, what have we to do? It places within perspective that an unforgiving mind is an ungrateful mind, a judging intolerant attitude is a lack of realistic self-awareness.
The more we become aware of our vulnerabilities, the more holistic we grow. That is certainly a paradox. But it is true anyway, because our goodness comes from the ultimate Goodness that the Lord is. Let us get more and more in touch with the Goodness of the Lord, to grow in our own goodness within.