4th Sunday of Lent

03-10-2024Weekly Reflection©LPi — Father John Muir

Our national pastime isn’t baseball. It’s what the Bible calls “condemning the world.” We generally enjoy pronouncing curses upon those whom we see as trouble, wrong, or evil. Don’t believe me? Listen to almost any podcast, cable news network, or social media platform to hear it. It will be some version of: “We all agree that if they are eradicated, things will be great.” Condemning is almost always clothed in virtue. It basks in its good intentions. That’s why it is so attractive. Condemning seems like our best path to saving what is good.

What a shock, then, to hear Jesus announce: “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him” (Jn 3:17). He comes to save the world, as we all want, but he will accomplish it without an act of condemnation. How hard it is to accept this! Condemning feels godlike. I judge who and what must be lost to protect the good. But in the light of Jesus’ endless mercy and love, this is the least godlike thing we can do.

Lenten challenge: This week, I invite you to give up the delicious experience of condemning whomever in the world you most would like to see gone. Perhaps write down their names. Secondly, I invite you to consider fasting from any media that feeds the tasty but deadly tendency to condemn.