THE WORD IN LENT - Wednesday, First week of Lent
February 24, 2021: Jonah 3: 1-10; Luke 11: 29-32
Waking up a sleeping person is not as difficult as waking up someone who pretends to sleep. Lent is all about conversion; and conversion is something absolutely personal. External signs of it are appreciable, but they are not all. At times we can have splendid external signs of religiosity and concern for others while they may merely be hypocrisy and hidden agenda. But the good or bad news is that, God knows our innermost thoughts and yearnings. That is the source of Christian Hope too!
We create and maintain whatever image we would like with those around us, but with God it is always the truth and nothing but truth. It is the absoluteness of Truth that gives us hope. Christian Hope is not a false consolation towards something that does not exist; it is all about the truth, the Truth that God is. When we are with the Truth, we have hope that one day everything will change for the good. And that change begins from within each of us.
Jesus in the Gospel, gives the Jews, the so called chosen people the challenge of the simple people of Nineveh. Even today, the highly sophisticated, the so called devoted, and the self proclaimed Spiritual Masters are given the challenge of the simple and unsophisticated persons who convert, who change in the heart of their hearts toward God. They would be much greater and much closer to the Reign of God than the so-called VIPs!
Conversion is a matter of the heart... an internal and absolute choice for God. God has never given up hope on us and expects that we will keep growing in true Christian living. Lent is an apt time to make that choice, a personal, internal and sincere choice to change... to change our thoughts and our ways.