Love and sacrifice are the fundamental principles of the redemption story. Love gives all without reservation. While sacrifice endures all for the sake of love. Both are a form of complete or total self-giving, self-donating, or self-emptying.
In a nutshell, the passion and death of Jesus Christ is an exemplification of courage versus cowardice on the part of all the actors involved. From Christ himself to the least participant in the passion and death narrative. In Christ, we see a journey of courage from the inception of his public ministry till his death on the cross.
The Feast of the Annunciation of the Lord is a total and complete Mary´s yes to God without reservation. It is a conscientious ascent to motherhood. This motherhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary announced to her on the Feast of Annunciation of the Lord 25, March occurs exactly nine months to the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord, 25 December. It is a joyful feast of Mary´s cooperation with the eternal plan of God to save the fallen human race. It is celebrated motherhood of God, of ours and the Universal Church.
All our Lenten observances point to one single and simple fact that is the willingness of dying to self. This is all Lenten season is all about taking an introspective journey to fix or mend our brokenness by sins, failures and weaknesses. Hence, Lent revolves around the practices of prayer, fasting, almsgiving and penance. This entails dying to self to ascertain spiritual growth and Christian maturity.
The fatherhood of Saint Joseph is a virtue worthy of emulating in our time where the figure of the father is disappearing. It is an imitating standard too in Christendom where fatherhood is a big problem as marriage and family lives are in crisis. St. Joseph a quiet, silent, innocent, obedient, loyal, humble, hard-working, provident, protective and loving father and spouse invite us to a profound reflection of fatherhood.
he Christian life is an unmerited grace of God. No one is a Christian because he or she merits being one. It is all grace and nothing but grace. This is the most humble fact we must be conscious of daily.
God is love (1John 4:8). Hence, to love is not only to be religious and spiritual but also to be God-like. Inarguably, love is at the basis of our religious teaching, preaching, doctrines, theology, philosophy, ideology, practices and even rituals and rites. If these are devoid of love then religion is as useless as any human venture.
The spirit of Lent is one of sacrifice. A sacrifice that leads to transformation and renewal. A sacrifice of Lent is the Easter joy of the resurrection. Hence, Lent invites us to renounce something precious in us: ego, desire or things. It is a time of penitential sacrifice to give up something we hold dear for the sake of the gospel.
In our human life or existence, temptations are always bound to come our way. Interestingly, these temptations are not meant to ruin, to obstruct or to destroy us. They are tests or trials meant to strengthen us, to empower us as winners not losers in Christendom.
The Lenten season is a moment of grace that God a given to us through his Church. It is a sober moment that calls for a pause and a reflection on what is the essence of life. It is a period to know life is nothing with God.