Listening to God is living for God
THE WORD IN LENT 2026 – FRIDAY SECOND WEEK
March 06 – Genesis 37: 3-4,12-13,17-28; Matthew 21: 33-43, 45-46
Listening to God is living for God; and living for God is living
for the other… that is what we have been reflecting on these days inspired by
the Word. Today the Word of God has a very drastic request to make – even if
you are unable to live for the other, at the least can you rejoice in it when
others get to live their lives well? We may wonder why this question, but if we
honestly check our so-called “human” tendencies, this question will certainly
make sense. When someone has a success, someone finds a fortune, when someone
gets lucky, what is our immediate and spontaneous reaction? That would speak a lot
about the tendency that we are referring to – that which we see in the readings
today, the tendency of jealousy and the resultant treachery.
Letting the other live - Leave alone
living for the other… can we rejoice in seeing the other live well? This is
where the world has to begin today: letting others live. The brothers of Joseph
in the first reading could not bear him live so well, so blessed and so loved,
living a ‘dream-life’. They wanted to do away with him. This seems to be accepted
today as “normal” today in the world…how cruel it is!
Letting go that the other might live – The second
level is, beyond just letting the other live, letting go some of my hard-won
rights or some of my treasured goodies, that the other might live off it. This
letting go can be hard, but can become meaningful and profound when it defines
me – it defined Joseph…he let go and remained blessed forever.
Giving oneself that others might live – This is a
third level, not just letting go of something, but giving oneself, a
self-giving that can make the other live. This is what Jesus preaches today in
and through the parable that he narrates and the allusion that he has in it, to
himself. As the Gospel acclamation reminds us, God so loved the world that God gave
the only Son, that we may live! Jesus gave himself that we may live – that is
Christ-ian living.
This is what we can learn from Jesus: living for God to the extent
of dying for God… dying in our daily lives… letting others, letting go for
others, and giving of ourselves for others.