Sunday, February 19, 2023 – Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle A Readings: Leviticus 19:1-2, 17-18, Psalm 103 “The Lord is kind and merciful”, 1 Corinthians 3:16-23, Matthew 5:38-48

     My dear brothers and sisters, this Wednesday we will begin the graceful season of lent that will lead us to Easter. We make this forty days Lenten season with the whole Church because God has called us to form his people reconstituted from him. We will be likening the Israelites in the first reading. They traveled through the desert for forty years so that God can form them as his special people. They have to learn how to be holy like him. The reason for this formation is more than the edification of individuals. Rather, God wants to use them, and now us, to instruct the world in his ways.
     It is quite a difficult mission to fulfill, particularly when considering the human tendency to sin. We need God's help without which we cannot fulfill the mission. Help will come to us precisely as a result of the Lenten journey. As Paul says in the second reading, God forms us as the "temple of the Holy Spirit.” This title involves tasks both inside and outside the community.
     First, outside, it is specifically left to the laity to transform the world according to the gospel by sowing the seed of the kingdom of God. They do it by living their lives in demonstrative ways of the Holy Spirit. Although not required, many lay people have ministries within the church. Teaching the catechism, which they have done for centuries, as well as reading the Word of God and distributing Holy Communion at Mass count as ministries. 
    Christ puts us on the Lenten journey with the part of the Sermon on the Mount that most anticipated our destiny. In the Kingdom of God we will not experience enmity. Rather we will all treat each other with love. As disciples of Jesus we are to practice this universal love in our daily lives. Lent serves us as training. First, we must condition ourselves not to react defensively when other people mistreat us. This is not a matter of allowing a bully to beat us up but of not caring how we appear to other people. Instead of returning insult for insult and blow for blow, we leave the other person marveling at how the Holy Spirit has rendered us     peaceful and kind in the midst of threats and insults.
     It seems that many Catholics think that it is enough to go to church on Ash Wednesday to fulfill their Lenten obligation. But the ashes serve as a reminder that we have been marked by God as his sons and daughters and the need to repent from sin and live the Kingdom virtues. On the route we will face various types of challenges. With our eyes fixed on Christ crucified we will not give up before them. Rather, we will end up more conformed to him. What sacrifice am I going to make this Lent? It is my prayer that the Lord bless you with a fruitful Lenten season. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Fr. Paschal Chester, SVD.