Reflections on Sunday’s Mass: March 14, 2010

Lent 2010: A Journey into the Compassion of God

This Sunday is the 4th Sunday of Lent. Our focus is on Connected in God’s Compassion 

God’s compassion is love’s embrace, accepting us as we are, even as we are challenged to live with greater love and integrity. We can come to God in our brokenness, with our mistakes and failures, and in our “not-yet-ness.” God welcomes us with open arms: God’s compassion provides a space where healing, forgiveness and fullness of life can happen. Sometimes, though, we need to be reminded that God’s compassion is for all – and that we are all connected in the compassion of God, even when we feel disconnected from each other. As Christians, we are charged with being “ambassadors of reconciliation.” We can “dig deep” into the compassion of God to help us be reconciled and reconcilers when we can’t find the desire, strength or resolve in ourselves. 

Core questions: Who am I unwilling to embrace? In what ways do we individually and communally carry on the work of reconciliation? 

Scripture Reflections: 

• Joshua 5:9a, 10-1. The community reached the Promised Land and the manna of the desert was not needed. However, the power of their exodus faith, manifested in the continual celebration of the Passover, gave them strength for the new challenges of life as a people of God. 
• 2 Corinthians 5:17-21. God’s purpose in sending Christ is to bring about reconciliation of the entire world. and its inhabitants. We are called to be ambassadors of this reconciliation. 
• Luke 15:1-3, 11-32. Jesus was willing to share table with sinners as a way of bringing about the reconciliation of all people. Who isn’t welcome at our table? Our merciful God longs to embrace and celebrate the homecoming of each of us – what keeps us from being reconciled or from being reconcilers? Can I embrace this “prodigal” God?