THE WORD IN LENT - Saturday after Ash Wednesday
March 08, 2025 - Isaiah 58: 9-14; Luke 5: 27-32
"Show me, Lord, your way," we pray in response to the Word today - because it is inevitable that we know the way in order that we could return to hope. Hence, the call today is to know the way, choose the way and walk the way.
Knowing the way, is possible because the Lord reveals the way to us - and Jesus declared it in clear terms: I am the Way. The block that rests preventing us from knowing the way, or getting to know the way is, more than ignorance, arrogance which makes me think that I have nothing more to know. The human tendency today is this, that with the little that we know, we think we know everything and we feel we are self-sufficient. We miss the truth in the bargain.
Choosing the way, is the crucial transitionary phase - most of the times we know the way, and the way will certainly lead us to that experience of salvation and hope, provided I choose that way. Let us look at those phrases today in the first reading - "if you do away," "if you give your bread," "if you refrain," "if you consider Sabath delightful," "if you honour the priority of God"... these are direct indications of the importance of a choice, choice of the way we know very well. We know what is the way to peace, to serenity, to hope and to an experience of salvation - but what matters is that we choose it!
Walking the way, refers to the decision, the commitment we are ready for in response to the call that the Lord has for us. Two important things that we could pay attention to here are - one, daring to say the initial "yes" to the Lord which includes saying so many no's, just as it is explained be it in the first reading, be it in the Gospel; the second, the moments when we become aware of our shorcomings - when we falter, fall, tremble or doubt - to tell ourselves, that our Saviour knows it all! He came not to call the just and the righteous, but the sinners and those who are struggling. The call remains unchanged even in the midst of our failures, to regain our confidence, to recommit ourselves and keep following the Way.