May the Lord give you grace and peace in the Holy Spirit during this Lent.
It is on 01st March 2023.
We reflect on Jonah 3:1-11 and Luke 11:29-32.
Are we reluctant to come back to the Lord? Are we attracted to God or the Evil One?
As we begin a new month dedicated to St. Joseph, we are invited to repent, return and renew our lives.
St. John Chrysostom describes the need to return even when we feel wounded by sin and wander away from God. “Do not be ashamed to enter again into the Church. Be ashamed when you sin. Do not be ashamed when you repent. Pay attention to what the devil did to you. These are two things: sin and repentance. Sin is a wound; repentance is a medicine. Just as there are for the body wounds and medicines, so for the soul are sins and repentance. However, sin has shame and repentance possesses courage.”
These forty days convince us to return to the Lord no matter what it takes. God is never tired of forgiving us, so why take our sweet time to acknowledge our brokenness?
The first reading instils that there is always hope in the Lord. If the nonbelieving city of Nineveh could return to the Lord, what is stopping us? The unchanging God could also melt down when we repent. At times we are afraid, and reluctant to be sorrowful for what we have done and thought and so consequently we either postpone or become stubborn to repent.
Repentance is a serious series of dialogue with God by encountering our brokenness with remorsefulness and conviction to change.
May the Lord grant us the courage to repent. God bless you.