The Gospel Thursday after Ash Wednesday Book of Deuteronomy 30:15-20. Moses said to the people: «Today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and doom. If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I enjoin on you today, loving him, and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees, you will live and grow numerous, and the LORD, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy. If, however, you turn away your hearts and will not listen, but are led astray and adore and serve other gods, I tell you now that you will certainly perish; you will not have a long life on the land which you are crossing the Jordan to enter and occupy. I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the LORD, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him. For that will mean life for you, a long life for you to live on the land which the LORD swore he would give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Psalms 1:1-2.3.4.6. Blessed the man who follows not The counsel of the wicked Nor walks in the way of sinners, Nor sits in the company of the insolent, But delights in the law of the LORD And meditates on his law day and night. He is like a tree Planted near running water, That yields its fruit in due season, And whose leaves never fade. Whatever he does, prospers. Not so, the wicked, not so; They are like chaff which the wind drives away. For the LORD watches over the way of the just, But the way of the wicked vanishes. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 9:22-25. Jesus said to his disciples: «The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.» Then he said to all, If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself? Commentary of the day Benedict XVI, pope from 2005 to 2013 General Audience of 17/02/2010 (trans. © copyright Libreria Editrice Vaticana) Following him The “favourable moment” (2Cor 6,2) of grace in Lent also reveals its spiritual significance to us in the ancient formula: Remember, man, you are dust and to dust you will return which the priest says as he places a little ash on our foreheads. Thus we are referred back to the dawn of human history when the Lord told Adam, after the original sin: In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return (Gen 3,19; 2,7)... Man is dust and to dust he shall return, but dust is precious in Gods eyes because God created man, destining him to immortality. Hence the Liturgical formula... finds the fullness of its meaning in reference to the new Adam, Christ. The Lord Jesus also chose freely to share with every human being the destiny of weakness, in particular through his death on the Cross; but this very death, the culmination of his love for the Father and for humanity, was the way to the glorious Resurrection, through which Christ became a source of grace, given to all who believe in him, who are made to share in divine life itself. This life that will have no end has already begun in the earthly phase of our existence but it will be brought to completion after the resurrection of the flesh. The little action of the imposition of ashes reveals to us the unique riches of its meaning. It is an invitation to spend the Lenten Season as a more conscious and intense immersion in Christs Paschal Mystery in his death and Resurrection, through participation in the Eucharist and in the life of charity, which is born from the Eucharist in which it also finds its fulfilment. With the imposition of ashes we renew our commitment to following Jesus, to letting ourselves be transformed by his Paschal Mystery, to overcoming evil and to doing good, in order to make our former self, linked to sin die and to give birth to our new nature (Eph 4,22f.), transformed by Gods grace. God bless...
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 00:41:13 +0000
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