Living
Fourth Sunday Of Lent
Fourth Sunday of Lent (Year C)
Josh 5.9-12; Ps 33; II Cor 5.17-21; Lk 15.1-3, 11-32
PERFECT CONTRITION
1. The message of today’s gospel seems obvious enough on the fact that we need to learn how to forgive and seek forgiveness. How many of us ever make an act of truly perfect contrition for our sins? What is ‘perfect contrition’? It means being sorry for our sins not because they make us feel bad about ourselves but because we know that sin offends the Lord. That is highest and the most important motive for repentance.
ATTRITION
2. Even if we lack contrition in its purest sense, the Church says that attrition is regret for sin, a regret coloured by motives other than the pure love of God. Fear can be part of attrition. So can shame. Neither fear nor shame constitute perfect sorrow for sin, but they can be the start of our way back.
3. Do we receive God’s mercy in abundance and yet take it for granted? We do well to recall Saint Paul’s words to the Galatians: “Do not delude yourself into thinking that God can be cheated: where a man sows, there he reaps; if he sows in the field of self-indulgence he will get from it a harvest of corruption; if he sows in the field of the Spirit he will get from it a harvest of eternal life.”
LAETARE 2022 AND BEYOND
4. As we celebrate Laetare Sunday today, we are called to journey to Jerusalem with Jesus in joyful hope. This is what the Paschal Mystery is all about! This is what it means to be a follower of Christ. Jesus suffered and died for us so that we might enjoy new life with him.
N.B. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS…THE RETREAT WAS SUCCESSFUL DO HAVE A JOYOUS SUNDAY
Fr. Joseph Osho OSJ.
