Dear Friends,

The theme of this last Sunday of our Lenten journey is the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is professed in the Nicene Creed, “He is to come with the same body and with the glory of the Father to judge the living and the dead; of His kingdom there is no end.” Thus we are called to make a sincere and deep self-evaluation as to how well we are living out our Christian calling. For each and every one of us will be called to make an accounting of what we did with this blessing of life that God has given us - have we been ego-centic or theo-centric? Have we been arrogantly self-serving or have we manifested our love for God by humbly serving others?

Today’s gospel lesson (Matthew 22:35-40) makes it very clear for us: And one of them, a lawyer, asked him (Jesus) a question, to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.”

The gospel lesson continues with a detailed summation of the various ways that the Pharisees made an hypocrisy of their religion and our blessed Lord pronounces a strong condemnation of this. “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; so practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice.”

Remember that our Lenten practice of fasting and indeed all our church traditions in general are never to be seen as ends in and of themselves. Rather they are given to help us grow in our love for God and for neighbor. Happy is the one who succeeds in the spiritual journey that we’ve all been invited to embark upon.

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With prayers.
Hayr Simeon
March 9, 2008