Today is April 1, Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent.
At today’s Mass, we hear: “He answered them, ‘The man who made me well told me,
‘Take up your mat and walk.” They asked him, ‘Who is the man who told you, ‘Take it up and walk?”” (Jn 5:11-12).
Something changes in us when we encounter Jesus Christ. As Pope Benedict XVI wrote in Deus Caritas Est, “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction” (§1). We did not make a choice one day to be different. Rather, encountering Jesus Christ necessarily changes us, whether we choose to follow him or not. No encounter with Jesus leaves one unchanged.
For us, as we continue these forty days of penance, our commitment to this Lenten season demonstrates that we have been changed by our encounter with Jesus. Wherever we were and in whatever way we were lying down waiting for someone to lift us up, Jesus found us, spoke to us and commanded us to get up and begin to walk. Such an invitation brings joy to the soul and hope for a better future.
Moving towards a new horizon
Pope Benedict XVI continues: “Faith by its specific nature is an encounter with the living God — an encounter opening up new horizons extending beyond the sphere of reason” (§28). People see the way we live differently because of the hope in our hearts. We have found someone in an encounter and a new way of life has opened up to us. But not everyone sees this. They are left to ask, “Who is the man whom you encountered?”
That man is Jesus Christ, who is truly God in the flesh and comes to give us new life. In Lent, we pick up our mats and move towards the new horizon he has opened up to us. Beyond that horizon is a new and eternal day of glory and resurrection, where sickness will be turned into health, weakness into strength and sorrow into everlasting happiness.
Let us pray,
May the venerable exercises of holy devotion shape the hearts of your faithful, O Lord, to welcome worthily the Paschal Mystery and proclaim the praises of your salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
