26 February 2023 – 1st Sunday of Lent (Year A)

By Fr Francis Anthony

My dear friends,

All of us know during this season of Lent, it is a time for us to look up to God and call for His love and His mercy. It is also the time where we see the goodness of God has been responsible for us to what we are and how we are. But we fall. Though the Divine help is there, we fall.

When we go for confessions or on our own, when we say we are sorry, we take the Act of Contrition. ‘Oh my God, I am sorry that I have sinned against You.‘ After that, ‘Because you are so good, I will not sin again.”

So in the center, it is God, the goodness of God. And this is reflected in today’s readings, I would not go to the detail, they are familiar text to you. The fall of Adam and Eve. Yes, that part in our first part of the Act of ‘I have sinned against you.‘ We are not going to camouflage. No. I was too weak, I come back. No. In front of the goodness of God, I am a sinner. It is that goodness that is going to transform and I have defiled You by my sinful ways.

Then I look into the goodness of God, the goodness of God is what has brought me to be what I am though I am struggling in my faith life, in my moral life, but He is there. Not as a judge. He is just telling me – Go sin no more.

Yes, that is the goodness of God. And during our Lenten season, let us look into this goodness of God and that is what is helping me to struggle and to come forward in my moral life, in my faith life. It is that goodness that is directing me. And the prayers say ‘I will not sin again.‘ I will make an effort.

So during this Lenten season, we are focusing on the goodness of God, not on our sins. Very often we think we are a big sinner. It is the goodness of God that has brought me to Him and ask Him to wash away my sins.

And in the Entrance Antiphon, we had a hymn and it is Psalm 90:-

When He calls (it is Yahweh speaking). (When anybody calls, turning towards me) I will answer, I will deliver, I will give him glory, I will grant him length of days.

That is the goodness. When we ask God, these are the riches He has, and ask Him to help me in all my human weakness, to be able to rise up and follow. That is what Jesus said in the Gospel, not today’s text:-

If you love me, take up your cross (whatever be your hardships in life) and follow me. Follow me. My goodness is for you to rise up.

So, dear friends, the Gospel text is very familiar to all of us. The temptation is always there, whatever be the temptations. But that goodness of God will help me to follow if I am turning to Him in all my weakness.

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