Parish of St. Edward the Confessor Daily Lenten/Easter Reflections


lent
February 16, 2008

By

Sue Karpovich


lent

Reading 1
Psalm
Gospel

Text of Reflection:  
February 16, 2008

Today is the day.  That is what I tell myself every morning when I wake up.  I have high hopes of having a great, positive day, doing everything right—the way God wants and commands us to do.  God gives us rules and commandments to make life easier for us.  Those rules and commandments should apply in all that we do—home life, school, the workplace, our social gatherings, shouldn’t it?  We don’t have to think about how to treat one another—God tells us how.  All we have to do is act on it.  Sounds easy, doesn’t it?  For me it’s not as easy as it sounds, though with every day I get a little better at it.
 
There is no doubt that I feel more blessed and can be more of a blessing to others on my “good” days.  I am more conscious of God’s presence in my life and in the faces and situations of those around me.  But that certainly doesn’t mean he’s not there on my “bad” days—I just can’t hear him as clearly.  I guess my yearning to follow God’s commandments is my blessing.  As I yield my actions and responses in confrontation to God’s ways, I come closer and closer to “keeping his statutes”, and I am grateful for his unconditional love and patience in trying to keep me “firm in his ways”.  My heart that grows daily from one of stone to one of gratefulness is my blessing and my hope.
 
God’s ways are not the easy ways.  Love our enemies?  Some days it’s hard enough for me to love my family—loving my enemies seems like an unreachable goal.  But because of God’s grace and his blessings to me I continue to work toward that goal.  God’s grace flows to all people, without judgment, all equal in his eyes.  His blessing to me is the same everyday, whether it is a good day or a bad one.  Loving only those who love us back is the easy way.  Loving our enemies and those who hate us—God’s way—means that there is hope in the world, hope for all those having a “bad” day, hope for all who have to say, “Today is the day”… yet one more time.