THE WORD IN LENT - Wednesday, 2nd week in Lent
March 3, 2021: Jeremiah 18:
18-20; Matthew 20: 17-28
The Word today presents to us the stark contrast between the Jesus' way of thinking and the worldly terms of thinking. These are two contrasting paradigms, and we become conscious of them.
Jesus' way of thinking is Reign mode of thinking; thinking of the
primacy of God, thinking of the framework of love, thinking of the criterion of
service, thinking of the fullness of life of all!
The worldly mode of thinking is thinking of one's gains at all costs,
thinking of one's comfort mindless about the struggles of others, thinking of
scaling the ladder and not serving my brothers and sisters, thinking of every
one and every situation as an opportunity for my own gains! Look at the
hundreds of millions of scams that are being spoken of these days, even in
nations so poor where millions go hungry out of misery everyday... what heights
of greed and selfishness!
But before
pointing a finger, before blaming someone, let each of judge for ourselves, in
which mode we live our life today. At times our worldly mode may be the most
justified looking at the way everyone else lives all around; and the Reign mode
might seem totally ‘out of the world!’ Are we going to give into that
conformity to the world? Or sometimes the modes may be off and on; that is,
occasionally we may have the two of them alternating between themselves. But
which of it is the predominant mode?
When are we going to clearly switch to the Reign Mode? St. Paul instructs in his letter to the Philippians: 'Put on the mind of Christ' (2:5). That is the hope that the Christian way of life can offer to this battered world...but are we living up to that mission? If we have to...let us live our everyday in Reign Mode!