The Catholic Calendar for Saturday, March 18, 2006
Saturday of the Second Week of Lent
St. Cyril of Jerusalem, bishop and doctor of the Church

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Micah 7:14-15. 18-20
Psalm 103:1-4, 9-12
Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

"This Man Welcomes Sinners and Eats With Them. . ."

And all we can say to that is, "Praise the Lord!" Praise the God who sent a man who did not judge us unworthy, but finding us unworthy, reached out to us anyway. Praise the God who sent Love to the loveless, and Hope to the hopeless, and Faith to the faithless, all in the person of His Son, the incarnation of Love and the theological virtues.

This man welcomes sinners, and so, if we are to imitate Him, must we. We must welcome sinners, we must make sinners feel loved. We must introduce sinners to the divine physician, without judgment, without limits.

". . . and eats with them." The hard part of this commandment of love is not only must we welcome sinners, but we must spend time with them. We must show genuine love, not merely an effort at showing them the gospel truth. We must dine with people we might not choose to dine with, and we must share with people we would rather not.

The Father is prodigal in His love for us. We are called to show that same prodigality to all of His children.

- JuandelaCruz
(sriddle415 at yahoo dot com)

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