From Our Pastor's Desk
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From Our Pastor's Desk
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FINDING GOD Dear brothers and sisters: We have begun one of the richest periods of the liturgical year: LENT. We have 40 days to accompany Jesus in his struggle against the devil and in his encounter with God. The silence and solitude of the desert make a strong impression on us. We are also surprised to see the holiest of men tempted by the devil, just like any of us. But Christ fights and wins. It is a lesson for us. We will over-come if we are with him and if we fight as he did—with fasting, penance, and prayer. 1. A short time before, Jesus had made a great impact on his townspeople in the synagogue of Nazareth by announcing the redemption of the poor, comfort for afflicted hearts, and the coming of the Kingdom. It seemed he was in a hurry to change the world, yet he does not rush. Obeying an impulse of the Holy Spirit, he withdraws into the desert. How many lessons he gives us, we who want to do everything hurriedly and without effort! 2. Going into the desert means coming face-to-face with ourselves in the light of God. Monks and hermits found a physical space in the desert; we, at least, must seek a time of desert. In the midst of the bustle of daily life, we need to carve out an empty space around us to listen to the beating of our hearts, to free ourselves from the noise of our trivial urgencies and irrational schedules, from our im-provised commitments, and to enter into contact with the deepest sources of our being. 3. Contact with a world living far from God can affect us without our noticing it, which is why Lent is like a kind of detox therapy for the soul. We are somewhat “intoxicated” by activism. Escaping, distracting our-selves, amusing ourselves—these are ways of fleeing from reality. Have you thought about attending a set of spiritual exercises this Lent to fill that emptiness? It is said that the Pharaoh of Egypt once declared about the Hebrews: “Increase their workload so they stay busy, so they won’t listen to Moses’s words and won’t dare to plot their freedom.” Today’s “pharaohs” say: “Turn up the noise to deafen them so they do not think, do not decide for themselves, but simply follow the trends, buy what we want them to buy, consume the products we promote.” Living in the desert does not only mean living without other people, but living with God and for God. The de-sert then becomes a place of encounter with God. It is a certain presence, but hidden and secret. May the Spirit who “drove Jesus into the desert” prepare us to celebrate Easter, renewed spiritually! Source: ePriest.com / Best Practices and Homily Resources for Catholic Priests Comments are closed.
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