1ST Sunday of Lent - Fr. Leo
On Wednesday we entered this holy season of Lent, a ‘spring’ time of renewal. As we move through these forty days to Easter, crowned by the celebration of Pentecost, we are being given the opportunity to come to know the Lord who dwells in us and sustains our every breath, heartbeat, and movement of love.
Thus, this should be a joyful season even while it is penitential. If our drawing near the Lord shows us how far we’ve been from him, we rejoice, for now this awareness gives us the insight and the opportunity to accept the Love God has desired for us all along.
For us to repent is not punishment. It is coming to look for happiness in the right places. Rather than in competition and ego driven attitudes and actions, we let our true hearts come to the fore and, through love, look at all things and experience all things in life, as God’s gift, given in the indwelling of his Holy Spirit.
The beginning of this journey starts in the desert where humility teaches us what is ultimately good. From there we go forth as Jesus did to do the Father’s will. What Jesus did in His paschal mystery of suffering, dying and rising, and sending his Holy Spirit, is showing the Father’s love for us, and God’s desire for us to share in his divinity by letting God live in us, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.