We have come more than halfway through the season of Lent, and the liturgy over the past several weeks has helped us to look into the heart of the Heavenly Father, relentlessly calling His children to come back home, to our inheritance. Today’s liturgy invites us to place our individual lives in place of the people of God in the Old and New Testament and see for ourselves if we have been living in any differently. It gives us yet another opportunity to repent.

The First Reading speaks of the hard-heartedness of God’s people and the persevering heart of God, filled with pity on His people, even the pope, including priests and leaders became more unfaithful to God. Rather than looking around and pointing fingers at others, today is a good day for us to look into our own lives. How have we responded to the call of God to love Him and love our neighbour? Do we continue to live the same way, turning away from the grace that flows from the Sacrament of reconciliation? Do we ignore the voice of the Father inviting us to respond in love instead of reacting to our family, work colleagues and those in parish and prayer community?Have we moved out of God’s favour, exposing our lives and those of our loved ones to the law of cause and effect, becoming vulnerable to the assaults of the enemy?
It is heartening to see how God, the author of all creation moved the heart of a gentile king to build His temple, and to give leadership and support to His people to get back to their land. I believe that would have been the last thing they expected to happen while in exile on hostile land. “In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfil the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm…” (2 Chronicles 36:22). What does this teach us today? God’s word is eternal and cannot be changed. If we have received a promise from The Lord in prayer, from the Scripture or a word of knowledge, we can rest assured that it has already been done in heaven and is manifested on earth when we wait in faith and with a thankful heart.

Today’s Gospel proclamation is so beautiful that the more we pause to reflect on it, the more we dive into the vast ocean of the Father’s love. It simply says that God’s love for me was such that He did not spare His own life, The Son and the Father being the one and the same. The Father planned the final assault on sin and death and the Son obeyed and fulfilled the Father’s will. All that is asked of you us is to believe in this loving Saviour and inherit eternal life. Does this seem reasonable and fair? Definitely not! What about the payment for the debt of our wrongs? How can it be so easily forgotten and cancelled? Dear brothers and sisters, the payment was not forgotten or cancelled, it was paid in full on the cross by the broken Body and the Precious Blood of the Son of God. The Light of the world arrived, thus dispelling the darkness of sin and death. Through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus, and the subsequent release of the Holy Spirit into the hearts of all who believe in Him, we too carry this same Light in us. Let us think for a moment. Do we dispel the darkness in the hearts of those around us by the Light of Christ we carry in us? Do we give a ray of hope, comfort and joy to those we meet by our smile, loving and encouraging words and kind deeds? Is our light visible to others only in the church or at prayer meeting?

We might feel that these are good ideas, and are certainly doable when life goes well for us, but not that easy or rather near impos- sible when we ourselves have our share of illness, financial burdens and disappointments. How can we still be a light to others at those times? The Second Reading gives us the answer. We who accept Lord Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, have received a new status and have been seated with Him in the heavenly realms, and this is not something that is to happen after we finish our earthly life but is already here and now, while still in this earthly life. We have at our disposal, the unlimited grace of God, as The Father now sees His Son Jesus when He looks at us.“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10). Further, we belong to the One who, in all things, works for our good, because we love Him and have been called according to His purpose. (Cf. Romans 8:28). And we have His Spirit, the deposit that guarantees our inheritance as God’s children, to empower us to love the unlovable, to comfort when we ourselves are hurting, to be generous while we ourselves are in need. The result is that we bring heaven down to the earth and reveal the Father’s love to those who are yet to meet Him.

Prayer: Abba Father, we pray for the grace never to forget even for one moment, the love You have for us. Amen