In the book of Revelation, God raises a complaint against us, a complaint by which God invites us to repent and come back to him. God says: “But I have this against you that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember then, from what you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first” (Rev 2: 4-5).

With deep sentiments of repentance, we are entering the season of lent. Ultimately, lent is an occasion to turn back to ourselves and to return to the love of God that we had at first. It is an occasion to repent of the ways and means through which we went away from the love of God and to comment ourselves to the unfathomable mercy of the Lord. “Even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning” (Joel 2: 12). God does not say that we have never loved him. Surely we all love God. But if we don’t love him in the way we had been loving him before, in this season of lent, the Lord invites us to repent and come back to the love we had at first.

Seeing the drawbacks and shortcomings of others, very often we become restless and we start accusing them. But in this season of lent, than accusing others, we should be able to accuse and criticize ourselves. Looking at our attitude of getting restless by seeing the speck in the other’s eye, neglecting or hiding the log in our eyes, God demands us to be aware of the log in our eyes and remove it by the means of prayer and penance so that we will be able to see everything clearly and lead others in the right path (Matthew 7: 3-5).

In this season of lent let us earnestly try to remove the log of sin from our eyes which hinders us from seeing and accepting the goodness of others. May this season of lent help us to realize that the starting point of the wellbeing of my family and society in which l live depends upon the goodness of my heart.

Fr Prince Chakkalayil CST