Wednesday - February 24, 2021
Here is the difference between the joys of the world and the cross of Jesus Christ: after having tasted the first, one is disgusted with them; and on the contrary, the more one partakes of the cross, the greater the thirst for it.
- St. John of the Cross
TODAY'S READINGS
February 24, 2021
Wednesday of the First
Week of Lent
Lectionary: 226
The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time:
“Set out for the great city of Nineveh,
and announce to it the message that I will tell you.”
So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh,
according to the LORD’s bidding.
Now Nineveh was an enormously large city;
it took three days to go through it.
Jonah began his journey through the city,
and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing,
“Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,”
when the people of Nineveh believed God;
they proclaimed a fast
and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.
When the news reached the king of Nineveh,
he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe,
covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes.
Then he had this proclaimed throughout Nineveh,
by decree of the king and his nobles:
“Neither man nor beast, neither cattle nor sheep,
shall taste anything;
they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water.
Man and beast shall be covered with sackcloth and call loudly to God;
every man shall turn from his evil way
and from the violence he has in hand.
Who knows, God may relent and forgive, and withhold his blazing wrath,
so that we shall not perish.”
When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way,
he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them;
he did not carry it out.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (19b) A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me.
R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me.
R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
For you are not pleased with sacrifices;
should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it.
My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
Verse before the Gospel
Even now, says the LORD,
return to me with your whole heart
for I am gracious and merciful.
Gospel
While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them,
“This generation is an evil generation;
it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it,
except the sign of Jonah.
Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites,
so will the Son of Man be to this generation.
At the judgment
the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation
and she will condemn them,
because she came from the ends of the earth
to hear the wisdom of Solomon,
and there is something greater than Solomon here.
At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation
and condemn it,
because at the preaching of Jonah they repented,
and there is something greater than Jonah here.”
THE SIGN WE CAN TRUST
What sign are you waiting for that would prove that God really, really loves you? What resolution to a problem, what new job, what reconciled relationship? In today's Gospel passage, we find out that Jesus is the sign. We need no other sign.
In today's first reading, we see that Jonah's mission was to call the Ninevites to repentance. In the Gospel reading, we're reminded that, like Jonah, Jesus emerged from the belly of death to call you and me to repentance. He is the sign we are given.
Jesus died because he loves you. Then God the Father raised him from death because he loves you. Out of this tremendous love, God calls us to repent so that we can live in his love all the time.
Then why are we reluctant to identify our sins and repent? We're so determined to resolve our problems in the easiest possible way -- without making any sacrifices -- that we fail to recognize the sign of the cross. We fail to recognize the love that's there and the love we receive when we unite our problems to the cross of Christ.
Yet, we stare at a reminder of it every time we go to Mass and look at the crucifix. We hang reminders of it in our homes and workplaces, and we even wear them around our necks! But we think, "That was for you to do, Jesus. I don't want any part of it! I want resurrection in my life but I definitely do not want to go through the cross to reach it!"
When we sin, it's usually because we don't understand how to find God's love in the situation we're facing. Sin is a selfish attempt to do things our own way -- in other words, to take care of ourselves as if we are greater than God. Jesus' death and resurrection is a sign that we need to repent of this idolatry. We cannot understand God's tremendous love unless we trust in that love when the odds are against us. And we can't trust until we let go of our own ways of fixing problems.
Repentance means changing. Repentance means letting go of our ways when they're not God's ways. We need to sacrifice our resistance to the cross. Then and only then can we experience the joy of trusting God.
Joy amidst suffering comes from trusting that God cares about us all the time, no matter what. Joy comes from trusting that God is working a plan that will turn every bad situation into something much better than we can imagine. Joy comes from realizing that every problem is pregnant with God's activity, i.e., new life is developing in the secret recesses of God's womb.
Today's Prayer
Dear Lord, give me a docile, attentive, and persevering spirit to discover Your presence in my life. I yearn to be filled by You. Amen.
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The mother of Jesus promised St. Dominic that, “one day through the rosary & the scapular I shall save the world!”
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