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In this holiest of weeks, we are challenged more than ever to think about our own relationship with money and material goods. Are we in danger of letting it come between ourselves and our God or ourselves and our loved ones?
The tension between material possessions and the spiritual life has always been part of religious life. We see it in our own religious institutions and in our own lives.
The cross is before us now with its wordless challenge to love beyond death. Take some time this week to think about events in your own life that have given you an experience of Jesus’s command to pick up your cross and follow him.
Even after his conversion, Francis retains something of his antipathy for the Perugians, historical enemies of Assisi and the faction that imprisoned him in his fighting days.
Francis understood that the way to imitate Jesus was by doing the good works that he had done, but there was also a mystical dimension to that identification.
Francis wanted to make sure that his brothers understood that any glory they might experience always reflected more on God’s goodness than on any merit of their own.
In modeling his life on the Gospels, Francis hoped that people would see in him and in the Lesser Brothers an example of what they, too, could achieve if they would only follow Jesus.
Francis prayed continually to be identified with the crucified Christ. His efforts throughout his life to conform himself to the Gospel eventually resulted in a visible manifestation of that prayer.
As we approach the final week of Lent, the spiritual stakes are high. At some point in our journey, we each are called to spend time alone with Jesus, hearing him speak to us the words he spoke to the woman in today’s Gospel.
The promise of resurrection at the heart of our faith allows us to celebrate our loved ones even in their passing, because we know that life, not death, is the final reality.
