Daily Scripture Reflection March 18

2^nd TUESDAY OF LENT, MARCH 18

Isaiah 1:10, 16-20

Matthew 23:1-12

Have you started your spring cleaning yet?  Since I am writing this before Lent even begins, I don’t know if the weather will have broken by the time you read this.  Maybe we have already had days of sunshine or maybe they are still ahead, but one thing I do know is that after putting the winter behind us, it feels good to do some deep down cleaning.  Perhaps it is the sun shining through our windows again that makes us notice how dirty the windows really are.  As long as we’re washing the windows, we might as well throw the curtains in to wash.  If we’re going to wash the curtains, shouldn’t we do something about the carpet, also?  And so it continues until we have purged our homes of dirt.

How appropriate that this ritual takes place during Lent!  This is the season we set aside for purging our hearts of all the dirt they have accumulated over the past year.  Through prayer, we ask God to shine a light upon the windows of our hearts, and then we begin to notice the smudges left by sin.  Cleaning up one area of our heart leads to cleaning up another and another until we have purged all the dirt that has been weighing us down.  In the Catholic Church, we have the sacrament of reconciliation to help us with the clean-up.  Once we have become aware of our sins, we want to set things right and begin to change our patterns & habits.  In reconciliation, we receive God’s forgiveness and are freed from the burdens of our sins.  Just like when the garbage truck hauls the bags of trash away from our homes, when we leave the sacrament of reconciliation, our sins are gone forever.

Some of you who are reading this right now are saying, “Yes, but I believe God can forgive right here, right now if I pray while sitting in front of my computer.”  Absolutely!  But the value of going to reconciliation is that you get to hear the words of absolution.  The priest speaks the words for God, and there is something powerful in hearing, “YOU ARE FORGIVEN!”  And during reconciliation, we also have the opportunity to talk about our failures and shortcomings and receive counsel on healing our relationships and habits.  Those are powerful parts of the sacrament, too!  Tonight there will be a special time of reconciliation designed for those who haven’t been to the sacrament in a while.  You are invited to attend “The Light is On” at St. Raphael Church from 7-9 p.m. this evening.

• By Lisa Lenard Chiles