Monday of the 2nd week of Lent
Gospel: Luke 6:36-38In today’s Gospel, Jesus sets before us a demanding yet liberating measure of love: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” Compassion, in the heart of Christ, means refraining from judgment, resisting the impulse to condemn, and choosing instead to understand and accept others as they are. It also means giving without calculating, forgiving without keeping accounts, and loving without setting conditions. The measure we use for others becomes the measure applied to us. During Lent, this teaching challenges the hidden tendencies of our hearts, to compare, to criticize, to control. True compassion flows from recognizing that we ourselves live by mercy. When we stop measuring others strictly and begin to give generously, we reflect the Father’s own heart and create space for grace to transform both them and us. Let’s reflect: Lent is choosing to live mercifully by suspending judgment, accepting others as they are, and giving without measure as the Father gives to us.
Don Giorgio