Merciful love in action

Two weekends before the beginning of Lent, here is the text of the meditation I offered to those who came to pray with us.  Inspired by the scripture passages provided for the celebration of the liturgy for the fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time, these thoughts might help us to recognize God's merciful love at work in us, and spur us on to share the marvels we discover with others.

Born of mercy to proclaim mercy

Every person in this church today has a story to tell.  Even if each one of us were to answer a simple question: Why are you here today? - we would be able to fill the pages of a book, and the story would be well worth publishing.  One such story is told in the first reading we heard today.  Jeremiah was only a young boy – most probably a teenager - when he heard the word of the Lord: Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you … I consecrated you, I appointed you a Prophet to the nations (Jer 1:5).

I wonder how long Jeremiah had heard these words echoing in his heart before he actually paid attention to them.  The truth of the matter is that God formed each and every one of us in our mothers’ wombs.  He has known each one of us from the very first moment of our existence.  He has set out a plan for each of us and has waited with infinite patience for us to respond to his invitation.

You might ask: What is it that God wants of me?  Some of us he calls to be parents, others he calls to be priests, still others he calls to be religious sisters, contemplatives, or to live single lives as witnesses of his love in the world.  Young people and elderly alike, each of us must seek to listen for his guidance if we are ever to discover what it is that he asks of us, and once we have heard his invitation, we must pray for the strength and the grace to respond in trust.

Even Jesus had to take time to pray, to be still, to listen for the Father’s voice.  Only in this way could he be filled with the power of the Spirit (Lk 4:14) and be able to speak the truth that was in his heart.  The same is true for us today.  The challenge set before us is to speak the truth that is in our hearts.  At times this truth is only a whisper, easily drowned out by other preoccupations that clutter our lives, but if we are willing to listen, and to believe the words that we hear uttered in the depth of our hearts, we will discover there the beating heart of tender love and forgiveness that is the gift of our loving and merciful God.  In a little less than two weeks’ time, we will begin the liturgical season of Lent.  Even now, as we prepare for that period of grace, we can begin praying for divine guidance, listening for the gentle voice of our loving Father who is tender and full of mercy.

When Jesus spoke in the synagogue that day, it was probably the case that every one of his hearers knew him.  They had known him as a child, they had watched him grow to adulthood, yet his words that day astounded them: No prophet is accepted in his hometown (Lk 4:24).  Even today, Jesus words may surprise us, but the truth is that God never gives us a gift or a blessing so that we can keep it and treasure it for ourselves.  The first and the most precious gift that God offers to us is love, and like all God's gifts, his love challenges us even as it comforts us.  Saint Paul tells us that love is patient, love is kind, love is not envious, boastful, arrogant or rude.  It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful, it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rather in truth (1 Cor 13:4-6).

As we prepare to live the upcoming season of Lent, each of us should take some time to ask ourselves: Have I heard God’s gentle voice speaking in the depth of my heart? How well do I manage to be a living example of God’s merciful love for the sake of those whose paths intersect with mine?