“’Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?  When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’…Amen I say to you as long as you did it for one of the least, you did it for me.” Matthew 25, 31-46 Readings

Jesus was tempted to be a messiah of another kind, a messiah marked by ” power, success, and dominion and not by the total gift on the Cross, not by the messianism of gift and selfless love.” (Benedict XVI)

You don’t need to be hungry, thirsty, or sick; you don’t have to die. You can be above all that, Satan said to him. You can have all the kingdoms of this world. You can be a privileged religious leader who tells God what to do. One who receives instead of gives.

“Away with you, Satan,” Jesus says and he leaves the Jordan Valley. He goes, not to Jerusalem, center of religious and political power, but fo Galilee to give to those who “live in darkness and the shadow of death.”, to those described in today’s gospel as “the least:” the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the stranger, the sick, the prisoner. Jesus identifies with them.

“You shall love your neighbor as youself,” Moses teaches in today’s first reading. We must follow him. How? The readings this week tell us–by prayer.  “When did we see you?…” they say. Prayer helps us to see. Remember how much prayer was a part of Mother Teresa’s ministry to the poor. She saw in “the least” “Christ in disguise.” She saw because she was a woman of prayer which gave her eyes to see. Duk Soon Fwang in her painting of the saint befow has tears from her eyes giving life to an abandoned child.

There’s a grace in this season for seeing the least this way. Let’s ask for it

Lord Jesus Christ, may I see you in my neighbor, especially those “in disguise.” those in need who may seem unlike you.

May I love you in my neighbors, and find you in the least of them. Amen.

I ask myself who gave me the gift of life? I breathe, I know things, above all I know God and can hope for the kingdom of heaven and the sight of glory, however darkly as in a mirror I see it now.

I’m a child of God, one with Christ. Where did I get this; who gave it to me? I look at the world around me. Who gave me eyes to see the beauty of the sky, the sunlit universe,  the countless stars, the harmony of living things?

I feel the rain nourishing the earth bringing food to us all. I have family, friends. Who gave them to me? Can I see how generous God is to me and not be generous to all creation? How can I misuse the gifts I have been given?

God sends down rain on the just and the unjust. The sun rises on all creation. Birds have the air; fish have water. God gives abundantly. How can I say it’s only mine that’s meant for all?

Adapted from a reading from St. Gregory Nazienzen

For Today’s readings; http://www.usccb.org

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For this week’s homily please watch the video below.

Our pilgrimage on earth cannot be exempt from trial. We progress by means of trial. No one knows himself except through trial, or receives a crown except after victory, or strives except against an enemy or temptations.

But we are not left on our own. Christ chose to foreshadow us, who are his body, by means of his body, in which he has died, risen and ascended into heaven, so that the members of his body may hope to follow where their head has gone before.

  He made us one with him when he chose to be tempted by Satan. We have heard in the gospel how the Lord Jesus Christ was tempted by the devil in the wilderness. Certainly Christ was tempted by the devil. In Christ you were tempted, for Christ received his flesh from your nature, but by his own power gained salvation for you; he suffered death in your nature, but by his own power gained glory for you; therefore, he suffered temptation in your nature, but by his own power gained victory for you.

  If in Christ we have been tempted, in him we overcome the devil. Do you think only of Christ’s temptations and fail to think of his victory? See yourself as tempted in him, and see yourself as victorious in him. He could have kept the devil from himself; but if he were not tempted he could not teach you how to triumph over temptation.”

Commentary on Psalm 60, St. Augustine

 The disciples of John approached Jesus and said, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,and then they will fast.”  (Matthew 9,14-15)

The disciples of John and the Pharisees seem to measure fasting in terms of quantity and a neat little list they consult. Like the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the Taxcollector they have it down to numbers, “I fast twice a week, I pay tithes on all my income.” (Luke 18:24) Fasting twice a week, paying tithes takes care of it. The job is done.

Lent is meant to unsettle us, not to make us smug. Our reading from Isaiah warns against that kind of rote fasting and dangerous self-satisfaction. It’s not a matter of numbers or how many times you bow your head to the ground, the prophet says. In fact, like the Pharisee in the temple we can miss what’s really important– mercy, an unsettling gift.

This, rather, is the fasting that I wish:
    releasing those bound unjustly,
    untying the thongs of the yoke;
Setting free the oppressed,
    breaking every yoke;
Sharing your bread with the hungry,
    sheltering the oppressed and the homeless;
Clothing the naked when you see them,
    and not turning your back on your own.

Fasting should come from seeing the needs of others and doing something about it– not “turning your back on your own.” Jesus Christ saw the needs of others and did something about it. He saw everyone as “his own” and turned to them.

He is the “Bridegroom” with us this holy season. May we see our world with his eyes and his heart.

Open our eyes, O God, to the gift of your Son, Jesus Christ,

The Word who made the universe,

The Savior sent to redeem us.

Give us grace to rejoice in his presence these days of Lent

and listen to him, learn from him, be with him..

He graces us these days, these holy days of lent,

Help us be friends of the Bridegroom.

Readings for this Friday of Lent.