Lent, Week 2 – Tuesday: Is 1:10,16-20; Ps 49:8-9,16-17,21,23; Matthew 23:1-12

Isaiah calls them to conversion in the name of God, he calls his countrymen, the rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah. This call to abandon sin is not directed to unspecified righteous people. No, the Lenten call that we hear in our churches today includes specific people, fellow Christians, brothers and sisters who preach, and ourselves, who have taken and misused God’s law.

Their broadened phylacteries and lengthened tassels on their cloaks will soft-soap no one. We see each other daily; we know each other well. The difficulty of conversion also takes place before the eyes of everyone.

We have one Master, one teacher, we are brothers and sisters. All in the same boat. We all struggle with wanting what is contrary to our happiness and peace in the heart.

The price tag on human life uses the currency of greatness. However, true greatness in the eyes of God is gained through service and humility. Thomas a Kempis in The Imitation of Christ writes that the poor and humble villager is more valued before God than the cocksure philosopher. Jesus calls us to be humble. Humility gives birth to peace in the heart, causes a person small in the eyes of the world to become great in the eyes of God, and will be exalted by God. Humility and peace in the heart are two pillars of our Christian spirituality.

Lord, You look with love on the humble. I ask You for a humble heart, because I want to be great, but only in Your eyes.