Discovering the Path that Leads to Redemptive Love

March 3, 2019

Every path leads somewhere.  Every path allows us a possibility of adventure.  In Lent we place ourselves on a path to discover redemptive love.  At Easter and during the sacred three days of the Triduum, we are to become vessels ready to receive God’s redemptive love.  Since that is the goal and finish line, our time of preparation, our time in Lent is to allow us to make sure the path we choose leads us to that end goal, that place.  For Lent the path we choose invites us to discovery.  It is the first step.  Where do we find God?  Where do we feel His real presence?  How can what we do lead us to a place where we can be the best of vessels, and the best receivers of the redemptive love?  When we are receivers of His redemptive love, the world changes.  Death has no power.  Love brings new life to our brokenness.  It is a powerful season and the steps we take are crucial to get us to where we belong.

There are many paths and there are many steps we are invited to take, but what is the right one?  To choose redemptive love we must put ourselves in a place, a way of thinking, a state of hope.  When did we first know God’s love was redeeming?  For many or most, it is a place connected to forgiveness.  When we are truly forgiven by another, when we are loved even though we feel unworthy, redemptive love makes its way into our hearts.  This Lent the path we choose must put us in connection to the experiences of forgiveness that have happened in our past or need to happen in the future.  Real change happens when we are loved at the time when we most feel unworthy.  We say these words every time we celebrate Eucharist, “Lord I am not worthy…”  How do we meditate and reflect on these words so deeply that we crush the voice of our pain and allow Jesus to overcome our unworthiness?  This place on the path is a necessity during Lent.  God will overcome our unworthiness.  Jesus dying on the cross has paid the penalty for our sins.  Wednesday we begin with a mark of humility.  Wednesday we make a promise that the path we choose will better prepare us for Lent.

There have been many finish lines in my life and I embraced all of them.  Many had incredible impacts on me.  The finish lines of the World Marathon Majors including Chicago, Boston, Berlin, New York, London and Tokyo have all changed my life.  Each one has been profound in a unique way.  All revealed to me different blessings and challenges.  Each one taught me about myself; yet even greater to us than any of our finish lines is the finish line of God’s redemptive love.  His love leads us from darkness to light, from sin to redemption and from death to new life. May this Lent find each of us choosing the path that leads there.

Father John