“WARM WITH GOD’S LOVE”
Lenten Reflections
9thMarch 2018.
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FRIDAY, THIRD WEEK OF LENT
Reading 1: Hos 14:2-10 Hosea pleads to the people to return to the Lord, who will heal their wounds and recreate them as new beings.
Res. Psalm: Ps 81:6-11,14,17 I am the Lord your God, who brought you from the land of Egypt.
Gospel:Mk 12:28-34 When asked which is the greatest commandment, Jesus simply repeats what every Jew knows: It is total love for God and love of neighbor as oneself.
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LOVE THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART
Hosea is the prophet of faithfulness, of intimacy with God, of love that is offered again and again to those who prostitute themselves with other gods, serving their own desires and wants. Hosea’s message is almost too good to be true: Return to the first and truest love of your life: God. Hosea reminds us that all we have to do is acknowledge the goodness and compassion of God and remember that it is God alone who can save us, not any alliance that we make with others politically or economically. If only we turn our faces once more to God, then God will heal us and turn his wrath away from us. God will be like dew for us, and we shall blossom like the lily. Our strength and root will be like the Lebanon cedar, our splendor in God like the olive tree. We will dwell in shade and the fragrance of cedar, raising grain, and our fame will be like the wine of Lebanon. These images are lush with hope and abundance and full of peace. God wants to be all these things for us.
The scribe asked Jesus, “Which is the greatest commandment?” and Jesus answered “Love”. The love that we know and experience in life is a feeling that arises within us; an emotion we relate with things we have received or desire. In a way things and people control our love. However, what Jesus refers to “Love” is quite different. This is a love we control, we choose to give. God does not need our love to survive? Yet he chooses to give us life. This is not because he needs us, but because he wants to give it. This is the meaning of God’s “unconditional love”. What God commands us to do is to choose to love him just as he chooses to love us. And when we do so, we receive his blessings all the more, for we remain in the radiance of his love. Let us therefore, choose to love God with our whole being; then we will not be far from the Kingdom of God!
Prayer: Lord, Help me to be diligent in my commitment to know You and to seek to discover all the glorious truths of Your life. I thank You for all that You have revealed to me and I dedicate myself, this day, to a more thorough discovery of Your life and revelation. Jesus, I trust in You. Amen.
Lenten Act: Give a New Testament or inspirational book to someone who has not known Christ. This is the greatest act of love, to tell someone about God.