Today’s Gospel speaks of the necessity to deny self in the fashion of Jesus. (Luke 9:22-25)
Jesus said to his disciples: “The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.” Then he said to all, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”
Lent is an opportunity for a clear-headed, humble and honest examination of one’s life in the light of Christ. We beg God for the grace to see ourselves as we are seen through his loving gaze. Indeed, the loving gaze of God is the point of departure for such self-examination to be true and beneficial.
The original sin of Adam is the haunting sin of every person, placing oneself at the center of reality in a manner that displaces the One who rightly possesses that position — God, the Creator of all things.
Each of us knows the pernicious way this “self-seeking” continuously rises up to try to foil our truly becoming sons and daughters of God through our adoption in Jesus Christ. Pope Leo spoke of this in an inspiring way on New Year’s Eve. He said that a spirit of thanksgiving calls for truthfulness of heart.
We are called upon to reflect on what the Lord has done for us over the past year, as well as to examine our consciences honestly, to evaluate our response to his gifts and to ask forgiveness for all the times we have failed to treasure his inspirations and invest the talents he has entrusted to us in the best possible way.
The older I get the more I realize that life is ultimately about a loving response to the infinite love of God. Honest, selfless love is at the heart of a life well-lived, which is a life that recognizes everything as gift and seeks to give back in every situation without counting the cost.
In his book “Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus,” Father John Croiset describes beautifully the love God has shown us through the incarnation, life, ministry, passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. He writes:
Men are usually more affected by benefits received than by any other mark of love, either because nothing else proves so well that the love is genuine, or because nothing is so pleasing to our self-seeking human nature as a love which is useful. It is by this way that Jesus Christ has tried to engage us to love Him. He has anticipated our wishes. He has conferred upon us countless benefits, the least of which surpasses all that we could merit, all that we could expect, all that we could reasonably desire.
God’s love for us is unconditional, infinite, unmerited, eternal and so much more! This is our starting point for honest self-examination, to stand before this truth and allow its light to illumine our understanding and conscience. Perhaps this Lent the greatest grace we can ask is the ability to abandon self in our search for God.
As always, we look to Jesus for guidance. God became human to show us divine love in a way we could understand. Our love for him in return must also “take on flesh” — in other words, be put into practical action. This is how we “invest our talents in the best possible way,” as Pope Leo teaches.
Jesus told his disciples that he came down from heaven “not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me” (John 6:38). This is the definition of abandoning our nemesis of self-seeking in our search for God.
This Lent, let us cast before the throne of God our selfish self-will, that we might make a proper gift of self (to God and to others) in fulfilling the will of the One who created us.
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