Saturday in the First Week of Lent
“Yet the sun still rose the next day.” Often, when we wish to downplay the significance of a decision, we will point out that the sun still rose, the rain still fell, and life proceeded as normal. This has been especially true of the cultural shifts of the last decade. But Jesus tells us today that God “makes His sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust” (Mt. 5:45). God will sustain us whether we act rightly or wrongly, so we need a better standard than a sunrise of whether we acted rightly.
In the end, we must cultivate an attentiveness to God’s voice. Lent reminds us of the loving relationship we ought to have with God, of growing in our trust of God, of turning to God alone for our needs. All of this amounts to speaking with God, and listening closely to the sound of His voice. A child knows its mother’s voice because it has listened to it even in the womb. In our Lenten penances, we may learn to distinguish our wishes for God’s voice. We must take this Lent as an opportunity to moderate our own voices so that we may hear God’s voice, and so obey His will.