Monday of the Second Week of Lent

Reading 1 Dn 9:4b-10

Responsorial Psalm 79:8, 9, 11 and 13

Gospel: Lk 6:36-38

Perhaps you are feeling a little tired of all the somber Lenten readings at this point. Just take the responsory for today: Lord, do not deal with us according to our sins. Gloomy stuff, right? Well, sort of.
You see, the truth of the matter is that sin, death, mortification, repentance—this is what the forty days of Lent are all about! Yet this shouldn’t be a cause of sadness but rather one of hope. Why?Because these forty days of Lent are none other than a preparation for the fifty days of Easter.So often in the Christian life we can fall into one extreme or another. Perhaps we possess a more melancholic temperament, and so we tend to overemphasize the dark and difficult aspects of Christianity. In severe cases, this can lead to very damaging forms of scrupulosity.

On the other hand, there might be times when we’re guilty of an overly lax Christianity, acting as if we’ve already achieved heaven on earth, and easily forgetting the hard-hitting aspects of Jesus’s preaching.
The truth of the matter is that real Christianity consists in a balancing of all these things, and that is what makes it so beautiful. St. John Henry Newman made this point in An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine when he warned that, “[O]ne aspect of Revelation must not be allowed to exclude or to obscure another; and Christianity is dogmatical, devotional, practical all at once; it is esoteric and exoteric; it is indulgent and strict; it is light and dark; it is love, and it is fear.”
So yes, Jesus loves us, cares for us, forgives us, and welcomes us back. But also yes, He warns us, rebukes us, challenges us, and even judges us. We must not over emphasize one aspect of Jesus’s message at the expense of the others. Rather, we must simply strive to remain faithful to Him, trusting that He will give us the grace to do so: “For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get” (Matt 7:2).

Do I truly accept Jesus for who He is even when it makes me uncomfortable?

Or am I guilty at times of “putting Him in a box” and reading my own biases and preconceptions into what He wants to say to me?

Reference:

Journey Through Lent: Reflections on the Daily Mass Readings by Clement Harrold