Moses said to the people:
See, I have today set before you life and good, death and evil.
If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I am giving you today, loving the LORD, your God, and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statutes and ordinances, you will live and grow numerous, and the LORD, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to possess
Deuteronomy 30: 15-16
Moses sets the record straight. It’s a simple “if then” statement. If we follow God, by inscribing His statues on our hearts to become living temples of His Love, then His blessings will follow. Here we are over 3500 years later, and we still haven’t gotten it right. What’s so difficult?
When we receive ashes today, we are instructed to “repent and believe in the Gospel.”
It might be easier for some of us to repent then to truly embrace the Gospel. Heck, we don’t have to dig too deep to notice all our glaring imperfections. I don’t know about you, but if I spend a few circumspect moments in my mind and scour my heart, I experience a plethora of ugly broken thoughts, questionable intentions, insidious judgments, and whimpering insecurities.
These rotten things hold me hostage. Who doesn’t want to let go of them? So, if repenting, which is the act of being truly sorry for all the wondrous ways we fall short, brings our failures to light, and offers us an opportunity to show them the door, then we’re ready to sign up.
Repenting has us swallowing our pride and taking an honest look at ourselves. However, it turns out that we’ve got more to do to qualify for those blessings then just repenting. We are commanded to believe in the Gospel. It’s not enough to profess our faith and observe a few outward gestures. Truth be told, the real power of believing the Gospel can be vexingly elusive. Why is that?
Well maybe it’s because the Gospel is BEYOND FANTASTIC. Let’s break it down. We are…
- eternal creatures with souls made in the image of God,
- sons and daughters of the Most High God,
- cleansed of our sins through the passion, and death of God’s only Son Jesus Christ,
- freed from the slavery of death, and
- granted an inheritance in Jesus’ eternal kingdom of endless, Peace, Joy, and Love.
As Citizens of heaven with priestly, prophetic, and kingly responsibilities we are commanded to embody the Gospel. We are enlisted in Kingdom Building work where becoming stewards of each other’s hearts and souls is our number one priority.
When we believe in something it becomes an integral part of our fabric. Everything we do proceeds from this inner truth that fuels who and how we are in the world. Jesus preached the Gospel not to turn us into theologians full of lofty understanding of great mysteries but to become servants of His Way… His Way and Truth that have self-forgetting, self-giving Love at the heart of everything. Jesus invites us to embrace Love as an emerging, unfolding reality animated by the ever renewing – every changing – ever creating Fire and Wind of the Holy Spirit.
If we repent by recognizing our failings, changing our ways by seeking His healing, and believing in the Gospel, then God will bless us.
What are God’s blessings? We need to be careful of limiting these blessings to material expressions. God does attend to our needs. These are incredible blessings and worthy of our praise and thanksgiving, but these flow from an even greater blessing that is an inviolable part of God.
God is Love. Our earthly life comes with its share of challenges and “Job like” episodes of deficiencies. Despite these tests, trials, and tribulations, we can be assured of God allowing our need to know and love Him (in His True image and not one of our own makings) as our greatest need. He will always attend to this need and endlessly bless in this way. Fulfilling this need above all others or at least in balance/conjunction with our other needs, sets us up for our everlasting life with Him.
John the Baptist kickstarts Jesus’ ministry by declaring “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30). During this Lenten journey let’s find new ways to make Him the center and source of our life.
Jesus we surrender our life to you – take care of everything.
(Fr. Dolindo Ruotolo, Surrender Novena).
Jesus, we trust in you.
(St Faustina, Chaplet of Divine Mercy).
