Even though this 8th Sunday in Ordinary Time just happens to fall a few days before Ash Wednesday this year, Jesus’ teaching in the Gospel today serves as an apt pep talk for the coming Lenten season.
He makes three key, practical points:
- 1) Have a guide – and a good one – on the spiritual journey. As we approach Lent, that could mean a good book or a good faith-filled friend, for example.
- 2) Look within at your own faults and failings before you start judging others. Lent, of course, is a penitential season, where we do exactly that.
- 3) Remember that we are called to fruitfulness in our discipleship with Christ, not just the observance of rules. We’re called to produce, to co-create with God, and we do so from the fullness — and presumably — the goodness of our hearts. In Lent, we have the opportunity to make the kind of changes that can prove fruitful for ourselves, others and God’s greater glory.