18 March 2020
Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent
“Praise the Lord, Jerusalem” – Psalm 147
We hear, in our first reading today, Moses passing on to the people of Israel the law he has received from God. This law will be a leaven guiding the actions, the hearts, and the minds of the people in their daily lives. At the end of the reading, we hear another call to memory as a key aspect in our spiritual lives, building on the theme of yesterday. Moses’ says: “take care and be earnestly on your guard not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen, nor let them slip from your memory as long as you live but teach them to your children and to your children’s children.”
We see a double command here from Moses: to fortify one’s memory and hold on to all the ways that God has acted and spoken in your life, and secondly, to pass this on to your family and to the following generations. God’s word can be a leaven for our actions when it is firmly entrenched in our memories. Again, our readings counsel us to strengthen our memories, to really hold on to all those moments – small and big – where we have tasted the Lord’s presence, graces, and gifts. To commit to memory the commandments and words of the Lord in scripture and, having done so, to become witnesses to others of God’s goodness and mercy. The graces the Lord gives us are not for us alone but are meant to be shared with others. God offers to us, so that we might in turn be witnesses to Him for others. The saints teach us that no one gets into heaven alone, the Church is a communion of Saints, and God’s grace is meant to overflow from us to others.
Let us pray today to have the Lord fortify our memories of all the times he has blessed us and revealed himself to us, and from this gift to reflect on ways we can share this with others.