Becoming Like God

Gospel: Matthew 6: 7-15

In our first parents' fall from paradise, the serpent tempted them by saying they would become like gods if they ate of the fruit, having knowledge of good and evil.  The sin was not in becoming like God but in the particular attributes of God we seek.  The desire for omnipotence and omniscience are what we desire and it leads to our ruin.  

But our life is indeed to become like God, and if God is love then our becoming like God is to love as God has loved us.  The point of our prayer life is precisely this. In giving us a prayer to say Jesus repeats and emphasizes its core message: to be merciful as God has been merciful to us.  This is how we are to be like God - by extending his mercy outward to others in the world, by forgiving others and providing others with the material works of mercy that is our judgment day charge.  

If we are honest with ourselves, our emphasis in the Lord's prayer is in God giving us daily bread and leading us not into temptation - God doing things for us.  But that is not the emphasis Jesus puts on the prayer.  In this season of mercy given to us we recommit ourselves to this way of selfless love that Jesus provides and is.   

The Final Exam

Gospel: Matthew 25: 31-46

The final exam is not a catechism quiz.  It is not a membership qualification check, nor is it based on attendance at or adherence to particular liturgical expressions.  In fact, it is not even based on belief in God or not.  The final exam is based solely on on whether we have or have not loved our neighbor in specific, concrete ways: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, visiting the sick and imprisoned, welcoming the stranger.

What is more, this love is to be directed to every human being, for all our brothers and sisters, for all are children of God made in his image and likeness.  To attempt a distinction in order to exclude another from love is to fail this final examination.  There are no worthy and unworthy, friend or enemy, citizen or alien.  There are just people whom God loves and whom God requires us to love.

The fact that Christian life is concentrated so little on these elements of the final exam and so much on other things tells us all we need to know about the decline of faith in the world.  We may look for bogeymen and scapegoats, but it is we who are the goats, and not in the good way.  Lent is our time to refocus on what really matters and put aside that which is peripheral.  

The Daily Struggle

Gospel: Matthew 4: 1-11

"The desert is not big enough for two." - Nikos Kazantzakis

The desert represents the world in its totality and full reality.  It is a harsh place of struggle; it is also the place of ultimate encounter with God.  The desert cannot be avoided; it must be entered in order to encounter God.  In both the life of Israel and Jesus this truth had a geographical reality to it: from Egypt to Israel, from Galilee to Jerusalem one has to pass through the desert in order to arrive at the place of ultimate encounter with God.

The trials in the desert are not one time only events; it is a daily encounter that we must ultimately face alone and by ourselves.  Yes, we have the community of the Church with us, but fundamentally each one of us must face this struggle ourselves, face this encounter with God alone.  Religion is only a preparation for this encounter; it is not the encounter itself, for the encounter takes place within each individual person.  

The forty days of Lent remind us that the encounter with God in the desert is a daily occurrence, that God alone is our source of support and strength in the struggles and trials of the desert.  "The desert is not big enough for two" - we must go there, like Jesus, alone, relying solely on God in this harsh place.