March 7th

March 7, 2023
Tuesday of the 2 nd Week of Lent
Braeden Levario: Senior
Readings: Is 1:10, 16-20/Mt 23:1-12 (231)

The Lenten season is a time when we the children of God are meant to return to him and do what
we can to grow closer to him, going as he told the people of Sodom and Gomorrah: “wash
yourselves clean! Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes; cease doing evil; learn to do
good. Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan's plea, and defend the
widow.”
We are called to do the same now. But the lesson still applies especially in this reading, and just
as in all the others, there has been a lesson that has been shown in this one. It is all about
repentance and humility. This reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah goes on to tell the
people in the city to repent and come back to God; to cease what they are doing wrong and let
themselves be washed from all unrighteousness. In that same vein, God is speaking to us
wanting us to return to him now that we can, especially this Lenten season recognizing the fact
that when there is more sin than anywhere in the nations there must be an incredible amount of
forgiveness for the people there offered by God.
And that is the moment in front of us now to seek repentance. That is but one thing that God has
asked us and that is one of his hardest to do because most times we fail to recognize how God
constantly calls us to himself. The Lenten season is one of those times and ways through which
God calls us to repentance. In another place in Matthew 23, the Church calls us to embrace
humility and remember that we are the children of God with a promise that God is still our
Father and our Creator who welcomes us to himself no matter what. It is the same humility,
which we must have to succeed in our lives, there is a saying that I would like to quote here that
said, “never outshine the master”. While this can be seen as needing to hold back our own
ability, let it rather be a lesson on not letting ourselves come to see ourselves as greater than our
master Christ. Without this humility, we cannot achieve the forgiveness of God in our lives.
And to that it must be the humblest of all, doing our good and our actions in private, and not
seeking attention like the Scribes and the Pharisees in today’s Gospel. The Scribes and the
Pharisees used their positions and actions to honor themselves and not God. When a person
brings honor privately into themselves or their home it brings that same honor to God and that is
truly what we have been taught to do in all that we do during this season of Lent and always.