Wednesday, the Fifth Week of Lent

   Do we sometimes try to interpret what Jesus said in order to satisfy what we wish he had said?  For instance Jesus very clearly told us that marriage is a life-long commitment.  Yet today over fifty percent of marriages end in divorce.  We make many excuses for this but the reality is we are ignoring Jesus’ teaching.

   Jesus told us that we are not to kill.  Yet we kill our babies in the womb through abortion.  More and more we kill our elderly through so-called assisted suicide which is just a polite way of saying euthanasia.  We also kill those we convict of certain crimes.  There is a lot of disagreement about the death penalty and many think it is a legitimate course.  I believe it is an act of vengeance and only God has the right to exact vengeance.

   Jesus told us that the first and most important commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul.  How many of us can truly say we give our all to the Lord?  Many seem to think that an hour or so on Sunday is all that is required.  We can’t you maintain a loving relationship with a spouse by only paying attention to them for only a couple of hours once a week.  Neither can we maintain a relationship with God in that manner.

   Do we love our neighbor as ourselves?  Maybe the right question is how do we love our selves?  We all do things that we shouldn’t, we all commit sins.  Do we then hate ourselves?  How do we deal with the wrongs we do?  If we truly love ourselves we will go to God for forgiveness and accept that He has forgiven us.  Should we do less for our neighbor.  Imagine if you asked God to forgive your sins and He refused.  Isn’t that what we do when we refuse to forgive others?

   How many Catholics deny that the Eucharist is truly the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ?  Jesus told us very clearly that He is the bread of life and unless we eat His body and drink His blood we do not have life within us (see John, chapter six). We believe that Jesus changed water to wine, raised Lazarus from the dead, healed the blind and fed thousands with a few fish and loaves.  Yet some refuse to believe He can miraculously give us His Glorified Body and Blood through the Eucharist.

   There are many more of His teachings that we tend to redefine more to our liking as well.  This Lent maybe we need to reflect on what Jesus actually said rather than what we would have preferred that he said.  We believe in Jesus, shouldn’t we also believe Him in His teachings?