I am going away and you will look for me, but you will die in your sin...I have much to say about you in condemnation.
Ouch.
Lent is a time when we are presented with the reality of sin, and and at what cost we were liberated from it. We can't speak about sin without dealing with reward for unrepented sin: Hell. Now, Lent is not a time to cower in fear of Hell per se, but rather a time to really examine our conscience and see where we see ourselves fitting in the Gospel. We don't want to be these Pharisees. It's not that there is anything wrong with Pharisees in and of themselves, but rather that this group that keeps on attacking Jesus refuses to examine themselves in the light of his teaching. Confronted with the Truth, they dig in their heels rather than repent. They are unrepentant sinners. Maybe out of embarrassment, maybe out of a desire to please others, maybe just to fit in...regardless, the result is the same. They choose their will over God's.
It's the 5th week of Lent. In many parishes the crosses and statues have been covered. In the Extraordinary Form and Divine Worship Missal it is now Passiontide, when the liturgies become even more penitential and the all the Gospel readings speak of Jesus' coming passion. If we haven't yet, we need to prepare ourselves and make our Easter Confession. We need to really examine ourselves. Do we fit in with these Pharisees? Have we begun to sin in a way that it has become so habitual that we refuse to even see it as wrong anymore? Jesus reminds us the cost of such an action.
Yet, as always in Christianity, there is good news! You can be free from this! The famous Jesus Prayer is a good starting point if you think you may be like one of these Pharisees: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me, a sinner." Once we admit this, we can move past where these Pharisees are. When you make it into the confessional and admit that you are a sinner and that you detest your sins, or at least want to detest your sins, you'll hear those sweet words of mercy "I absolve you..." Do not let today's Gospel freeze in you fear of Hell, rather, pray for the grace that it moves you to repentance and contrition.
