Thursday in the Fourth Week of Lent, 2010

This is a blog to let me reflect on my spiritual life during the season of Lent, and to continue after that. I look at Lent as a time of cleansing, cleansing of the sin that infects everything that I do. Ash Wednesday was a day of forgiveness, when God touched me and wiped away the sin that is so much a part of life. I don't think of sin constantly, I am simply aware that this is a constant part of everything that we do. I know that God's intention for me is to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, his son and to do the best I can to emulate him and his life. I believe that Jesus' life is what we need to look at, not his death and resurrection, although those are significant events. His life was a life lived in the middle of people who were poor and downhearted. He asked his disciples to spend their time with them also. The stories in the Gospels are about the way that he shared his life with the poor. The 25th chapter of Matthew's Gospel talks about how we are to feed, clothe and visit those who are in poverty, in prison and who are sick. When we do that, says our Lord, we do it for him. I think that is what Jesus has in mind for all of us. Unfortunately, our selfishness and pride get in the way of this. That is what I mean by sin, and my sin in particular.