Catholic Commission for Social Justice
by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, Catholic Commission for Social Justice
COMPASSION:
Throughout the Scriptures we read of God’s compassion.
Psalm 103:8 states: “God is tender and compassionate, slow to anger, most loving…”
Luke 6:36 tells us to “Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate.”
During this Lenten season, let us find time to reflect on whether, as followers of Christ, we are living as people of the Beatitudes. The corporal and spiritual works of mercy should be uppermost in our minds as we seek to live the Gospel. Reflect also on the words of our Holy Father in his Lenten Message for 2014.
Luke 4:1-13
Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit through the wilderness, being tempted there by the devil for forty days. During that time he ate nothing and at the end he was hungry. Then the devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to turn into a loaf. But Jesus replied, “Scripture says, ‘Man does not live on bread alone.'”
“Christians are people who have been conquered by Christ’s love and accordingly, under the influence of that love…they are profoundly open to loving their neighbour in concrete ways… faith precedes charity, but faith is genuine only if crowned by charity.” (Pope Benedict XVI, 2013 Lenten Message).
These words from The Holy Father’s 2013 Lenten message should spur us on to demonstrate our love for God and neighbour by reaching out to assist children and their parents. The Holy Father focuses on “the indissoluble interrelation” between faith and charity. His message is entitled “Believing in charity calls forth charity”.
“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. . . Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did it to me.” (Matthew 25:35-36, 40)
On Friday, March 9, I shared with parishioners at Holy Cross Church, Princes Town, a Catholic perspective about “Doing good works”. Throughout our scriptures there are references that inspire us to “do good”.