Readings Dan
9:4-10; Ps 78; Lk 6:36-38
In the first reading
of today, we hear a cry of a people who have come to the awareness of their sins
against God. Acknowledgment of our sins is the first step towards conversion. We
have to accept the fact that we are sinners, and like the psalmist says, if God
should mark our sins no one will survive (Ps 51). God is so merciful that he does
not treat us according to our sins. That is the reason why Jesus Christ in the
gospel asks us to extend this act of mercy which we receive from God to our neighbors.
He asks us “be compassionate as your Father is compassionate. Do not judge and
you will not be judged, grant pardon, and you will be pardoned”.
Put differently,
Christ is asking us in this Lenten season to be compassionate, not to judge or
condemn the unfortunate fellows in our communities like the prisoners, people
with HIV/AIDS, teenage mothers, the beggars in the streets, and the stereotyped sinners in the society because we are not
better than them as we may think. We humans are birds of same feather that
flock together under the tree of sin. We are always good at pointing who was
wrong and who is with sin while losing sight of our own iniquities. May God
open our eyes that we may see the gravity of our sins and give us the grace to
be compassionate to others.
