Today, the Fourth Sunday of Lent, our readings lead us to the word “compassion” for our reflection. The words love and light are also on our radar. These three words can shape our contemplative practice for today.
As we have suggested in the past in this chapel: To learn contemplative practice is to learn what we need… to live truthfully and honestly and lovingly. It is a deeply revolutionary matter… it is the only ultimate answer for our world. This is the contemplative revolution we have invited you to join—with us and the many souls around our world seeking a way out of the deserts of madness and darkness.
Alyssa M Perez puts this to us in her reflection from Catholic Women Preach: Raising Voices, Renewing the Church for this Fourth Sunday of Lent:
“That is the power of today’s gospel, the truth in today’s gospel. It…reminds us that God does love us, not because we deserve it, as the second reading reminds us, but because that love is gifted to us freely.
God comes into our lives and journeys with us during this dark season of Lent…That is at the heart of the readings today. We are graced through God’s love, unconditionally, and once we are freed from the things that hold us back, we are then energized to do the work that we have been called to do—to love. And love is the way to justice” [1].
Our Carmelite mystics and writers — St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross and St. Therese — assure us about this path, this journey. What today we are calling the revolution of contemplation. And Pope Francis is attempting, in his call for synodality, for listening and discernment among the people of God, to offer a way of helping to form and educate contemplative hearts.
So today, let us open our hearts to God’s love as we continue our journey toward the Easter light. How can we practice compassion in our own little section of the world? Who in our life is most in need of our compassion? We can think/pray about this in our moments of prayer after Communion today.
[1] As quoted in Perez, Alyssa M. “Fourth Sunday of Lent” Catholic Women Preach: Raising Voices, Renewing the Church Cycle B, edited by Elizabeth Donnelly and Russ Petrus, Orbis, 2023, p 60.
