In this week's Gospel, we hear God saying to us, “This is my beloved son. Listen to him.” One of the most important things we will ever do in this life is to listen to Jesus.
During Lent, we attempt to grow closer to Jesus, by making sacrifices, giving additional offerings to the poor, and studying scripture to better understand the meaning of God’s words. Lent is a time to take an accounting of our lives and determine what changes we need to make in order to become more faithful followers of Jesus. We have yet another opportunity, another Lent, to grow into active and practicing disciples of Jesus.
We need to remind ourselves that God loves us and never wants to give up on us. Lent is a time where we focus on clearing our souls from sin and opening our hearts to Jesus. It is a difficult concept for us, this pure unconditional love that Jesus offers to us. We believe that our sins, like our failures, make us unworthy of God’s love. Many of us feel overwhelmed and separated from God by our sins. Lent is a time of asking for the forgiveness of Jesus, as well as sharing our love of his mercy with others.
Remember that Jesus wants us to be with him in Heaven. Jesus always has a plan and it always works for our good. Think of all the great Blessings that Jesus has given each one of us. Think of our beautiful families, our health and all the special friends that Jesus has brought into our lives. Those special people help us to grow closer to Jesus on our journey of Faith each day.
Let this Lent be a time of thanksgiving as well as a time of self reflection. Be thankful to Jesus for another Lent, another opportunity to develop our Faith based on the never ending love of our Savior Jesus Christ.