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February 17, 2024One of the great challenges facing a parent is attempting to teach a very young child to share their toys with another child. This attempt to help a young person think outside themselves, to respond to the desires and needs of others, is a lesson we continue to learn for the rest of our lives. The state of society today would lead us to believe that it’s a very hard lesson to absorb.
Today’s First Reading continues yesterday’s reading from Isaiah. That reading began with God’s denunciation of religious practices through which a person or community tries to gain God’s favor while ignoring the needs of the neighbor. In these first days of Lent, the Church confronts us with the truth that authentic Lenten penance bears fruit in compassion, service to our suffering brothers and sisters, and genuine worship of God. Jesus will underscore this same message with Monday’s Gospel in his teaching about the last judgment from Matthew’s Gospel.
In the light of this Lenten lesson, it is appropriate that we make our prayer the words with which this reflection began: “Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.”
[click here for the readings of the day]
