A Laetare Sunday Thought to Start the Week Off Right
Today, the fourth Sunday of Lent, "Laetare Sunday," we get a little glimpse of Easter. In addition to our usual Sunday respite, it brings a little burst of inspiration and energy to propel us through the last few weeks of Lent. Enjoy the break and the boost.
Lately we've focusing our Sunday thoughts on the reasons for and benefits of our Lenten discipline in the hopes that this would encourage us in our efforts to persist through these 40 days. A recent example of such benefits: The strength we gain from our our sacrifices will assist us in faithfully observing the Ten Commandments. Last Sunday, Saint Pope John Paul II provided clear instruction on just why that's so fundamentally important. We saw how the Ten Commandments - and the moral law derived from them - are not just ideals to which we aspire without any realistic expectation of success, as some have recently claimed. To the extent we fall short, we sin. Our Lenten discipline strengthens us - through God's grace - in our daily struggle with temptation, as we strive to do good and avoid evil.
Today we turn to another sainted Pope, Leo the Great. The first lesson we might derive from his words, spoken 1600 years ago(!): the constancy and consistency of Church teaching on the fundamental importance of the moral law. On a more personal level, Pope Leo insists that each of us darn well knows right from wrong, and therefore just how important is this struggle of good vs. evil. In his own words:
Which of the faithful does not know what virtues he ought to cultivate, and what vices to fight against? Who is so partial or so unskilled a judge of his own conscience as not to know what ought to be removed, and what ought to be developed? Surely no one is so devoid of reason as not to understand the character of his mode of life, or not to know the secrets of his heart. Let him not then please himself in everything, nor judge himself according to the delights of the flesh, but place his every habit in the scale of the Divine commands, where, some things being ordered to be done and others forbidden, he can examine himself in a true balance by weighing the actions of his life according to this standard.
The key here: We all know "this standard." There's no mystery about it. To be told that we somehow can't know this, or that, knowing it, we can't adhere to it, doesn't fly with Pope Leo; nor should it fly with us. Of course, the knowing is one thing, the doing another. But - and this is a BIG BUT - no one ever said it was supposed to be easy to be good.
Lent provides us with an opportunity to both perform acts of penance in reparation for our past sins and to gain the strength we need to avoid sin in the future. Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving provide the means to this end. It's really important that we keep up our efforts to repent our past sins and to gain strength for the struggle ahead. Laetare Sunday provides us with the graces we need to persist through these entire 40 days in our Lenten discipline. Let's open our hearts to the graces that God gives us on this special Sunday.
Lately we've focusing our Sunday thoughts on the reasons for and benefits of our Lenten discipline in the hopes that this would encourage us in our efforts to persist through these 40 days. A recent example of such benefits: The strength we gain from our our sacrifices will assist us in faithfully observing the Ten Commandments. Last Sunday, Saint Pope John Paul II provided clear instruction on just why that's so fundamentally important. We saw how the Ten Commandments - and the moral law derived from them - are not just ideals to which we aspire without any realistic expectation of success, as some have recently claimed. To the extent we fall short, we sin. Our Lenten discipline strengthens us - through God's grace - in our daily struggle with temptation, as we strive to do good and avoid evil.
Today we turn to another sainted Pope, Leo the Great. The first lesson we might derive from his words, spoken 1600 years ago(!): the constancy and consistency of Church teaching on the fundamental importance of the moral law. On a more personal level, Pope Leo insists that each of us darn well knows right from wrong, and therefore just how important is this struggle of good vs. evil. In his own words:
Which of the faithful does not know what virtues he ought to cultivate, and what vices to fight against? Who is so partial or so unskilled a judge of his own conscience as not to know what ought to be removed, and what ought to be developed? Surely no one is so devoid of reason as not to understand the character of his mode of life, or not to know the secrets of his heart. Let him not then please himself in everything, nor judge himself according to the delights of the flesh, but place his every habit in the scale of the Divine commands, where, some things being ordered to be done and others forbidden, he can examine himself in a true balance by weighing the actions of his life according to this standard.
The key here: We all know "this standard." There's no mystery about it. To be told that we somehow can't know this, or that, knowing it, we can't adhere to it, doesn't fly with Pope Leo; nor should it fly with us. Of course, the knowing is one thing, the doing another. But - and this is a BIG BUT - no one ever said it was supposed to be easy to be good.
Lent provides us with an opportunity to both perform acts of penance in reparation for our past sins and to gain the strength we need to avoid sin in the future. Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving provide the means to this end. It's really important that we keep up our efforts to repent our past sins and to gain strength for the struggle ahead. Laetare Sunday provides us with the graces we need to persist through these entire 40 days in our Lenten discipline. Let's open our hearts to the graces that God gives us on this special Sunday.
We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee.
Because by Thy holy Cross, Thou has redeemed the world.
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