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taking account

Reflection for Quinquagesima Sunday 2025

“A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.”

Welcome to the third Sunday of the Pre-Lenten season.

The Holy Church gives us this season so we might not jump into the Great Lent unprepared, but ready for a spiritual journey of transformation. What we are at the end of Lent needs be quite different from what we are now.

This season is akin to the stretching exercises an athlete does before they head out onto the track. This season of stretching ourselves helps in preventing spiritual injury – regrets and disappointments – because we were unprepared for our Lenten Walk.

I have noted that God uses imagery so we might clearly understand His intent for us, the picture He envisions for us. We will continue this study of God’s imagery throughout the Great Lent. We will see God drawing all sorts of pictures that at the most basic of levels create for us a vision of where we are to be, the choices we have along the way, and the destination God desires we arrive at.

As we prepare to enter Lent, God uses imagery to call us to humility derived from self-reflection. We are asked to take account of ourselves and in all honesty to turn from those areas where we do not meet God’s vision for us.

Sirach reminds us that what we truly are will be revealed. It is a warning and an opportunity. Through Sirach, God calls us to take account and work to meet His vision so all we are lines up. If we do so, our words and actions, our character, integrity, and centeredness as we face troubles – as Sirach says – tribulations will show forth virtue. We must work to know God’s vision for us and work to bring it closer to completion.

St. Paul reinforces this call to taking account and the work of necessary change by telling us to be firm, steadfast, always fully devoted to the work of the Lord. In other words, to stay focused on meeting the painting God has created of us – the best image of ourselves.

Jesus words are a formula of opposites. Will we be a blind person trying to lead the blind or will we open our eyes to the work of necessary change? Will I pretend to be teacher in my pride or will I be a disciple and learn from Jesus’ vision. Will I have the humility to address what is in my life, the log in my eye, before I begin nitpicking others? Will I be a rotten tree with bad fruit, will what I produce be covered in thorns? Or will what I offer be good.

As we begin our Lenten journey let us take account of these questions and commit to meeting God’s vision.

Posted on 1 March 20251 March 2025 by admin
Posted in From Father Jim, ReflectionsTagged humility, image, picture, Pre-Lent, Quinquagesima, Schenectady, taking account, virtue, vision

Reflection for the 2nd Sunday of Advent 2024

John went throughout the whole region of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 

We have arrived at the second of the four Sundays of Advent, and we continue to contemplate the Advent and all its implications.

As mentioned last week, Advent has several shades of meaning. It can mean beginning, revelation, expectation, dawning, and a start. Throughout this season we are led through the various ways we will prepare for and encounter Jesus in this new Church year.

Last week we focused on our preparation for Jesus’ return. This week we focus on personal preparation for needed changes in our lives.

Today we encounter a key figure in these days of preparation, John the Baptist, the Forerunner of Jesus the Messiah.

The importance of John the Baptist is underscored by the number of times the Holy Church honors him throughout the year. There is this season of Advent when we hear his proclamation of preparation through repentance, his baptism of Jesus celebrated in the Christmas season, his nativity on June 24th, and his beheading on August 29th. We encounter him in the various gospels during the year. He is always pointing toward Jesus.

Forerunner, literally one who comes before another, underscores the call to personal preparation. While Advent is not a deeply penitential season, as Lent is, we are still called to pause to increase penance and prayer to prepare for Jesus’ return. It is a time of checking our personal books to see where our accounts are.

Are we rich in the graces Jesus offers us? Are our ledgers full of good works, generosity, and the proclamation of the Kingdom? Are there indications that we have spoken out, as John did, against wrong and evil, or are we at a deficit in any of these areas?

If there are deficits, it is an opportune season to close them out, to repent, do penance, increase prayer and good works, and move from the red into the black.

As part of our preparation, look at some old Christmas movies. You will generally see the decoration of the Christmas tree on the eve of Christmas day. Can you imagine? Does anybody still wait?

What the symbolism of those movies calls us to is making this a season of the forerunner, that which comes before the next. Are we taking a breath, slowing the headlong rush, easing anxiety, and enjoying this blessed Advent time of preparation? Doing so helps us best appreciate what we are preparing for. Then we can celebrate the full forty days of Christmas well prepared.

Posted on 7 December 20247 December 2024 by admin
Posted in From Father Jim, ReflectionsTagged Advent, Christian witness, Forerunner, growing, ledgers, personal growth, preparation, Schenectady, taking account

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