The good news today is that not only are we supposed to have sunshine but that today and tomorrow it will be above freezing. The other good news today is that 13 percent of New Jersey residents have received a first dose of the vaccine, the transmission rate is only .91, and that hospitalizations are down. It wasn’t just the weather but a sense of communal responsibility that has helped.
Our communal responsibility should be even stronger in this period of Lent, a time when we consider who and what we are supposed to be – followers of Jesus, the One who did not turn away when people called to him for help. And we cannot turn away either.
We are part of a community which, just like a family, includes people we really don’t like. Loving and liking are different. Loving is acknowledging that the person we don’t like has just as much worth as ourselves and is just as valuable in God’s sight as we are. That can be difficult to acknowledge, but it’s one of the lessons in this time of Lent.
Prayer for the Day
Not wanting to recognize our own limitations, O God,
We point to the shortcomings of others to make us feel better;
Not wanting to acknowledge our inability to love, O Lord,
We use the failure of others to justify ourselves.
But you, O God, invade our hearts and minds
Making us confess our weakness of discipleship.
In the name of him who calls us to follow,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Jesus calls us to his rest, and meekness is His method. The meek man cares not at all who is greater than he, for he has long ago decided that the esteem of the world is not worth the effort.
- A.W. Tozer, American Christian pastor (1897-1963)
I really only love God as much as the person I love the least.
- Dorothy Day, Founder Catholic Worker Movement (1897-1980)
We grope like the blind along a wall, groping like those who have no eyes;
We stumble at noon as those in twilight, among the vigorous as though we were dead.
We all growl like bears; like doves we moan mournfully;
We wait for justice, but there is none, for salvation but it is far from us.
For our transgressions before you are many, and our sins testify against us.
Isaiah 59: 10-12