Tuesday of the Second Week in Lent
As we continue asking for the grace to listen well to the Word the Father sends us, we hear today that our Father is one, our teacher is one, our Master is the one Christ. (Mt 23:8-10) Yet, there are others who contend for the place of God in our lives. We are barraged with the messages of advertisers targeting us based on electronic records of our purchases or even our searches. We are sent mailings and subjected to commercials of those seeking to assure us that if we only offer our support without asking any questions, they can change all manner of things for our material benefit. For all this, there is only One who loves us most and who wants more than any other to give what no other can give and what alone will satisfy our hearts: Himself. The Lord, through the Psalmist, offers an extremely challenging question: “Why do you recite my statutes, and profess my covenant with your mouth, though you hate discipline and cast my words behind you?” (Ps 50:16-17) Listening to the Word of the Lord when others are jostling to get their words before us is not easy. Let us ask for the grace we need to keep the words of our One Father ever before us, and so evaluate every other word in light of His standard setting love.