Seeking New Members is Our Major and Most Useful Mortification

Seeking new members is our major and most useful mortification.

March 11 - 3rd Sunday in Lent

What do you think of the First Reading this Sunday? Boy, what a list of laws and prescriptions! Is that what we mean by the "freedom of the children of God?" Reads like a document from one of the Government Departments! "You shall have ..." "You shall not . . ." Well, there is a method in this apparent madness. The plain fact is that, burdened by the sin of our First Parents and the billions of sins since, we come into the world blinded in mind and weakened in will and quite unprepared to make our way properly through life. The Lord comes to our assistance: "do this . . . and that. . . and you will make a great success of your years on earth!"

If we still have any doubts on this point, the Responsorial Psalm should clarify them: not only are the  Lord's rules good, in a "pious" sense but they are good in a very practical sense. Don't we think God knows a  ittle more than you and me? If we do, then we begin to obeying ("for the sake of peace") and end up by grasping the guidance of God as Jesus grasped his cross, certain that this is the best possible way of living.

The Second Reading offers a welcome relief. St. Paul, writing to the Ephesians, sets a beautifully positive tone highlighting the essential nature of God, not anger but love in the fullest sense of that word. He remarks that the Ephesians were " dead though their sins," but the Son of God endured his terrible Passion and Death and the infinite power of that super- heroic gesture is greater than their sins or, indeed, all the sins of all sinners of all times. We find the same thought in Paul's Letter to the Romans: "God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us" ( Rom 5, 8) Doubtless Paul always had in mind his own personal experience for which he was permanently grateful.

The Gospel highlights the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus - a noble exception to the generally negative, not to say hateful, attitude of the Religious leaders. The basic theme of today's liturgy is the rebirth of humanity which involves the coming of the Son and, of course, his crucifixion and triumphant resurrection. The text generally is restatement of the main theme and reminds us that soon we will be participating in the Holy Week ceremonies. Time rushes onward - or so it sometimes seems to us - so this Sunday is a good opportunity to see how we have lived Lent so far, not just in terms of prayer but most of all in terms of renewed commitment to our Institute obligations. Last September we had a minor revival of vocations' recruiting. How has it gone since? How have YOU contributed? The patient and persevering attention to vocation promotion is certainly the major mortification for all of us - make sure you can face the Master with openness and sincerity as Nicodemus did.

~ March 2012 Concord