Saturday After Ash Wednesday
Let the Father Forgive
“I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.” Luke 5:32
The real challenge is to allow yourself to be forgiven, to be healed, to be given something. To truly believe God yearns to wipe away all your guilt and shame and give you a new heart and new spirit it a test of love. Why? Because it changes how you perceive yourself as “the strong one.” Living within families and communities you discover that you have some talents, and others have talents, and you need each other. In a way, what happens within the family, the receiving of gifts from each other, becomes a reflection of the great giving and receiving of God’s faithful love.
It’s hard to live in close relationships and to discover that our greatest gift is often to receive. It means giving up control and admitting, “Yes, I needed your help.” When we make that conversation from being the strong one to being the one who receives, then true mutuality grows and makes love real and visible.
- Open me, Loving Savior to the precious gifts of family members. Open me to receive with gratitude.
Lenten Reflections on the Parable of the Prodigal Son by Henri J. M. Nouwen