Memorial of Saint Katharine Drexel, Virgin
Lift up your eyes! Look for the Lord! Focus! Turn, turn to the Living God!
We do understand the Lenten mission for Christians: Turn away from sin and live the Gospel message. It is quite succinct and crystal clear. The Church gives us two readings today: object lessons or cautionary tales about people who struggle to turn away from a deeply sinful focus on themselves.
Matthew’s Gospel describes Jesus preaching to the crowds and his disciples about the Pharisees and scribes. He knows they spy on him and definitely do not wish him well. As a sect or religious party within Judaism, Pharisees want all Jews to live, behave, and worship as they do. They will tell you how horribly unclean you are and what you must do to become ritually pure before the Lord. Jesus points out how they posture, preen, and dress up, fussing over the length of the fringe and the number of tassels on their robes! The Lord bids us to look and go in precisely the opposite direction: humble yourself and be exalted.
Isaiah blasts his congregation with the centuries-old tale from the Torah of God, Abraham, and the horribly misguided people of Sodom and Gomorrah. These Israelites have renounced their sacred covenant with God and descended into sins of selfish perversion, looking only to their own wicked pleasure and self-satisfaction. The prophet lists many simple, straightforward ways they could have turned from sin, but they persisted in evil and were destroyed. Only Abraham’s nephew Lot and his family were saved, but for one who looked back.
The Sodomites and Pharisees focused only on the mirror; the former fixated on selfish pleasure, the latter on prestige, dress, and “purity”. Our Christian mantra is totally opposite: ‘Look to the Lord, for he is good!’
We celebrate the memory of an American saint, Saint Katharine Drexel, who founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament to minister primarily to Native Americans and African Americans in the United States. She was from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Let Us Pray:
Dear God, guide our eyes and our steps unwaveringly to you. Illuminate our path with the pure light of your Divine presence, given to us in the Holy Eucharist. Amen.
