2017 Busy Catholic’s
Online Lenten Retreat
Living Lent With Love
Day Seven
Sunday,
March 26
Today’s Scripture
(John
9:1-41)
As
he passed by Jesus saw a man blind from birth…. [H]e spat on
the ground and made clay with the saliva, and smeared the clay on his eyes, and said to him, “Go wash in the Pool of Siloam”…. So he went and washed, and came back able to
see. …[T]he Pharisees…said to him, “…We know that this man is a sinner.” He replied, “If he is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know
is that I was blind and now I see…. If this man were not
from God, he would not be able to do anything.” They answered and said to him, “You were born
totally in sin, and are you trying to teach us?” Then they threw him out…. When Jesus heard that
they had thrown him out, he found him and said, “Do you believe in the Son of
Man?” He answered and said,
“Who is he, sir, that I may believe?” Jesus
said to him, “…the one speaking with you is he.” He said, “I do believe,”…. Then Jesus said, “I came into this world for
judgment, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might
become blind.” Some of the Pharisees …heard this and said to
him, “Surely we are not also blind, are we?” Jesus said to
them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you are saying, ‘We
see,’ so your sin remains.”
Pope Francis’s
Reflection
How
can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of
exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case
of exclusion…. Today everything comes
under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest…. We have created
a “throw away” culture which is now spreading. It is no longer simply about
exploitation and oppression, but something new.
…[T]hose excluded are no longer society’s underside or its fringes or
its disenfranchised—they are no longer even a part of society.
(Apostolic
Exhortation/The Joy of the Gospel #53)
Let us pray.
Loving
God, I certainly don’t like to be left out, to be ignored, dismissed or
overlooked. Yet sometimes my attitudes or actions may make others feel that
they’re invisible or without worth or that their presence counts for nothing.
Remind me, and often, that you are a God without borders. That there is a place
for everyone at your banquet table. That the only requirement is to simply show
up and know oneself as God’s beloved. Amen.
Material in this
year’s online retreat is excerpted with permission from Living Lent with Love.
This material is
copyrighted and all rights are reserved.
Published by special
arrangement with Creative Communications for the Parish
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