February 2, 2006
IT`S UP TO YOU---A Lenten Retreat
The Great Lent is fast approaching. Once again, our Church will invite us to embark upon a journey which will lead us to the Holy Cross where our Lord and Savior’s arms are extended to embrace us with His love. Reconciliation, forgiveness and salvation are ours to experience if we have the desire to achieve them.

Throughout the Great Lent and the preparatory Sundays preceding, we are introduced to figures in the Gospel texts who changed their lives because they desired to meet Jesus, to encounter Him, to engage in dialogue with Him, to be saved.

The first is Zaccheos, the sinful tax collector who awakened one day to realize that all his riches and his worldly importance were not enough to fill the void in his heart. He had heard about Jesus of Nazareth and desired to meet Him. His desire was so great that he was willing to make a fool of himself by climbing a sycamore tree to wait until He passed by. When Jesus approached, he looked up and saw this man who was likely being ridiculed by the by-standers. He addressed him by his first name, “Zaccheos.” How did Jesus know this man? The same way He knows each of us. After all, we are each his creation. Jesus tells Zaccheos to hurry up and come down from the tree because that very day He had to stay at his home. Why the imperative? Because Jesus came ‘to seek and save the lost sheep of the House of Israel.’ And that particular day, in that particular city of Jericho, the lost sheep was Zaccheos. He and his family were saved as a result of that encounter. It was Zaccheos’ desire which led to his eventual salvation.

The Canaanite woman’s desire to approach Christ --- her insistence that Christ heal her daughter --- brought about the result she sought. When Jesus saw her desire, her courage, her insistence, her humility, her love, her faith, He rewarded her by restoring the health of her daughter.

The Publican’s desire to be saved led him to the corner of the Temple to humbly bow his head in repentance and utter, ‘God have mercy upon me a sinner.’ Our Benevolent Lord recognized the desire of the Publican and heard his humble prayer of repentance.

The Prodigal’s desire to return to his father’s house led him to his courageous decision to look deep within his heart and repent.

The desire of the four friends of the Paralytic to bring their friend to the feet of Jesus to be healed enabled them to overcome every obstacle—even opening a hole in the ceiling to lower their friend to the feet of Jesus!

Desire, then, is the key prerequisite in the journey to salvation. We were all created with the gift of free will to choose our destiny. During the Great Lent, our Church issues an invitation to salvation. To accept it, we must desire to change our lives, to encounter Christ, to enter into dialogue with Him.