April 2: Purify Us, Lord / Purifícanos, Señor

As we know from the Scriptures (John 5, 17f for example), the leaders of the Jews were willing to confront Jesus and eventually threaten Him for working miracles on the Sabbath. How petty, though, is that argument? How can we take seriously these people who were concerned about whether or not good works could be done on the Sabbath? Long before, the Prophet Isaiah had explained how to genuinely “keep” the Sabbath: people should “do what is just . . . and let everyone join themselves to the Lord.” (Isaiah 56, 1-8).

Meanwhile, the legalists among us are fixated on the “rules” of Lent: when to fast, when to abstain, how far can we go and remain faithful to the disciplines of the season? How easily we become blind to the wonderful and the tender way God is working among us, preferring to argue a point of legal procedure! How easily we block our view of God’s gorgeous world, the people who fill it, and the natural beauty that surrounds us!

An important lesson of the Lenten season is: we dare not become narrow, prejudiced, blinded, and tied up in all types of anxious worry – while the news brings us stories of people are dying of starvation, immigrants who are deprived of what they need for a full life, and young people whose potential goes untapped for lack of resources. Lent can still purify us – so that we might live more aware of the wonderful grace of God, of the precious gift of life, and the beauty of the planet we inhabit. Will we let Lent purify us in this way?

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Como sabemos, nadie puede decir (con honestidad), “Dios me ha abandonado, el Señor se ha olvidado de mí.” Según las Escrituras, así como una madre no puede olvidar al bebé de sus entrañas, así Dios nunca podrá olvidarse de nosotros.

En los Evangelios, Jesus dice repetidamente que Él actúa junto con su Padre para salvarnos, para redimirnos. Pero la obra de redención se está realizando diariamente: el Padre y Jesús están siempre trabajando. Ambos continúan la misión de liberación, confortando y amando, proporcionando abundante alimento al pueblo escogido, y dándonos nueva vida y nueva esperanza. 

Dios declara apasionadamente que Él está con nosotros, que no nos puede olvidar, que quiere que vivamos en su amor, que Él es fiel a la Alianza, aun cuando su pueblo escogido no lo sea. Y Jesús es el signo palpable del amor de Dios. Él es la fuente de vida ahora entre nosotros.