LENT DAY 6: WHEREVER SUFFERING EXISTS, MY FACE IS THERE. (Homily for February 15, 2016. Monday of the First Week of Lent)


Bible Study:  Leviticus 19, 1 to 2 and 11 to 15. Matthew 25, 31 to 46).


Our first reading this morning summarizes the meaning of holiness. To be holy as God is holy is to love your neighbour as yourself. This entails treating others as you would love to be treated; you shall not steal, you shall not lie, you shall not cheat or deceive others, you shall not oppress your fellow human being or refuse to pay for work done, you shall not treat a physically challenged person with disrespect, you shall not harbour hatred in your heart, you shall not take vengeance or bear grudges against anyone.

You may be wondering how possible it is to do all this, isn’t it? The key to be holy as God is holy is to see the face of Christ in everyone and especially the poor and the suffering. Hence Jesus gave us the parable of judgement day in the Gospel passage. On that day, Christ will welcome us into paradise because we fed him when he was hungry, we clothed him when he was naked, we opened our house to him when he was homeless, we visited him in the hospital and gave him strength in prison.

True poverty is not lack of money but lack of care and sympathy to the needy.

Pope Francis in the message for Lent says: “The real poor are revealed as those who refuse to see themselves as such. They consider themselves rich, but they are actually the poorest of the poor. This is because they are slaves to sin, which leads them to use wealth and power not for the service of God and others, but to stifle within their hearts the profound sense that they too are only poor beggars. The greater their power and wealth, the more this blindness and deception can grow. It can even reach the point of being blind to Lazarus begging at their doorstep (cf. Luke 16, 20 to 21). Lazarus, the poor man, is a figure of Christ, who through the poor pleads for our conversion. As such, he represents the possibility of conversion which God offers us and which we may well fail to see. Such blindness is often accompanied by the proud illusion of our own omnipotence, which reflects in a sinister way the diabolical “you will be like God” (Gen 3, 5) which is the root of all sin.

Christ is not far from you, he is not only found in beautiful tabernacles and magnificent cathedrals, neither is he restricted to pilgrimage centres. He is very close to you, in the face of that child who is crying relentlessly, in the face of that man sitting by your gate who has not eaten since yesterday, in the face of boy with a terrible sore unable to go to the hospital for lack of funds. Touch Christ in the poor, adore him in the poor, worship and pray to him in the poor and he would be there for you when you need him.

Let us Pray:
Lord Jesus, cure me of my blindness that I may see your face in the poor around me. Amen.


God bless you. Good morning. Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. Happy new week.

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