Posted: 03 Mar 2009 11:00 PM PST(Catholic Exchanged)
Jon 3:1-10 / Lk 11:29-32
It’s fascinating to look at how we actually spend our days. For the most part the patterns, whatever they are, are remarkably stable and unvarying. We rise at a certain time, and wander through our morning rituals with barely a thought about them. And so goes the day.
In many ways our rituals and habits are a good thing: they let us accomplish all sorts of routine but necessary tasks without demanding anything of our brains, which thus can be free for far more interesting things. But the key phrase there is ‘can be free,’ for all too often nothing is going on in our brains and all we have are our routines — mind-numbing ruts of repetition.
Complacency and stagnation are perpetual hazards for every human being. They can deprive us of life’s richness, and they can leave us blind victims of the unhealthy and destructive patterns that may be emerging in our daily living.
In today’s Old Testament reading, Jonah threatens the Ninevites with destruction from the heavens if they don’t repent and change their ways. In fact, we don’t have to wait for fire and brimstone from the heavens, for the destruction comes from within when we have chosen wrong paths and have sinned. What we ought to fear is being so brain dead that we don’t even notice what’s happening as we proceed in our self-destruction.
Now is the time to open our eyes, turn on our brains, and look closely at the patterns in our lives. Re-pent means re-think, and there’s no better time for that than Lent.
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1 comment:
Repent means to
1.Turn away from sin or do penitence
2.Feel remorse for; feel sorry for; be contrite about
I don't think 're-pent' means to 're-think'. To just 're-think' is USELESS if we don't turn away from sin or do penitence, or we don't feel remorse/sorry for the sins we committed.
It can't be easier than this.
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