Each day, it's important to take your bearings. Where are you today? In this Lenten exercise, in the scriptures, in your daily life, and in your very self? Spend just a minute or two getting your bearings for the day.
Let's briefly examine where we are in this Lenten exercise and then begin each day with a prayer for transformation--for ourselves, our fraternity brothers, and all Exodus Men.
You are in Jerusalem. This week, we will focus on the greatest transformation: to love with Christ’s love. Let us be transformed!
Pray the Lord blesses you and your fraternity with a foundation for real personal change during this season of Lent.
Pray for the grace of perseverance for all Exodus Men, just as they are praying for you.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
It was now two days before the Passover and the feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth, and kill him; for they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be a tumult of the people.” And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the jar and poured it over his head. But there were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment thus wasted? For this ointment might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and given to the poor.” And they reproached her. But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you will, you can do good to them; but you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burying. And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”
On this Wednesday of Holy Week, what we also call Spy Wednesday, we are reminded of the order of love: God, and God alone, is our first love. He has loved us completely and extravagantly, and we are to respond to him in like manner. The ointment of the woman was worth 300 denarii, almost a year’s worth of day wages. St. John’s Gospel tells us that it was Judas Iscariot who objected to this “waste” of the ointment when the money could have been given to the poor, “not that he cared for the poor but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box he used to take what was put into it” (John 12:6). Although comparing ancient currencies is difficult, when Judas agrees to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, he is probably accepting no more than half the value of the perfume.
We cannot allow our love for God to be moderated under the pretext of love for our neighbor; when we do this, it will also undermine the love of our neighbor which we profess to be concerned with. As Benedict XVI writes: "Practical activity will always be insufficient, unless it visibly expresses a love for man, a love nourished by an encounter with Christ” (Deus Caritas Est, #34).
Our love for Christ is what enlivens our love for our neighbor. As Benedict XVI continues:
Faith, hope, and charity go together. Hope is practiced through the virtue of patience, which continues to do good even in the face of apparent failure, and through the virtue of humility, which accepts God's mystery and trusts him even at times of darkness. Faith tells us that God has given his Son for our sakes and gives us the victorious certainty that it is really true: God is love! It thus transforms our impatience and our doubts into the sure hope that God holds the world in his hands and that in spite of all darkness he ultimately triumphs in glory. Faith, which sees the love of God revealed in the pierced heart of Jesus on the Cross, gives rise to love. Love is the light—and in the end, the only light—that can always illuminate a world grown dim and give us the courage needed to keep living and working. Love is possible, and we are able to practice it because we are created in the image of God. To experience love and in this way to cause the light of God to enter into the world." (Deus Caritas Est, #39)
Today, renew the right ordering of love within yourself. We must love others because Christ loves us, and we love him. Do not be like the Pharisee who remains impassive even when Christ is present in his home; be transformed by charity! Do not be like Judas and let selfish greed masquerade as concern for others. Be overwhelmed by love for Jesus! Anoint him with your love, and allow him to anoint you with his love. Unite all of your work, all of your successes and failures to his loving sacrifice of his life. Let your love be joined to his, and let that love illuminate even the darkness of the tomb. Be transformed.
Now place yourself before God, and converse with him. If making a holy hour is a new practice for you, consider using the Holy Hour Guide.
1. Enter into Holy Week fully. Don’t let this be just another week. Our prayer discipline calls for a daily holy hour. In these final days, set your alarm, get up early, go to the chapel or light a candle beside a crucifix at home, and let the Lord change your life as you sit before him in your holy hour.
2. Consider increasing your fasting. Sprint to the finish line! Push yourself in fasting. Decrease your food intake or your sleep. Now is the time to put it all on the line.
3. Don't give in to distractions this week. Silence your phone, turn off notifications, deactivate badge icons. Do whatever it takes to stay close to Christ, to finish this exercise strongly, to be present to your family, and to live as a free man.
4. Keep moving forward this Easter. If you go back to the way you lived before Lent, you’re likely to slide back and return to the vices you struggled with then. We need to learn to celebrate well, in a way that expresses our joy in God without losing the discipline that we have achieved. If you make a plan to celebrate Easter in a disciplined way, you’re more likely to avoid falling back and instead will keep moving forward. Exodus’s Easter exercise will focus on building a sustainable rule of life, balancing celebration and discipline.
5. Stick with your brothers. You may not know how important your brothers have been to you along this journey. Keep investing in one another and building your friendship. Talk with your fraternity about keeping things going during Easter. Talk about how you plan to feast, reflect, and keep moving forward.