Oblates of St. Francis de Sales

New DeSales World Newsletter - Summer Edition

4th Sunday of Lent (March 21, 2004)

Suggested Emphasis

"I shall get up and go to my Father."

Salesian Perspective

Each year as we pass through this blessed time of Lent, we are called to rise up and go to the Father. When Jesus tells the story of the wayward son and his loving Father, he never says that the son experienced a complete and final conversion. He simply decided to get up out of his state of sin and go toward the Father. That was enough for now. Getting up and moving toward the Father was all that the Father required; he would take over from there.

St. Francis de Sales wrote: "When it is said that we have power to reject the divine inspirations and motions, it is of course not meant that we can hinder God from inspiring us or touching our hearts, for as I have already said, that is done in us and yet without us. These are favors that God bestows on us before we have thought of them. He awakens us when we sleep, and consequently we find ourselves awake before we have thought of it. But it is in our power to rise or not to rise, and though he has awakened us without us, he will not raise us without us… After we have felt [inspirations] it is ours to either consent to them so as to second and follow their attractions, or else to disquiet and repulse them." (Treatise, Book II, Chapter 12)

About the middle of Lent, we can become discouraged and decide that we will never really be any better than we are now. We can forget that our conversion is really God's work, not ours. Just like God had to remind Joshua that he removed the reproach of Egypt from the Israelites, we can believe that we are in charge of our own souls and that the work is properly ours. Today's readings remind us that God is already doing this work in us. All he is asking is our cooperation. We have to rise up out of our sin, our complacency, our comfort zone, to allow the Father to embrace us and overwhelm us with his love and forgiveness.

St. Paul tells us that we are already 'a new creation' if we are in Christ. The old things have passed away. The new things have come from God who has reconciled us and handed this ministry on to us as his ambassadors. Will we awaken and accept this challenge to rise up?

God is a loving Father. He is calling us to repentance. He is inspiring us and touching our hearts. Will we accept this love as the younger son did or will we live like the older son thinking that we deserve special favors and God's gratitude?

Lent offers us the time to open our hearts and to become this new creation in Christ. If we have not already done so, today is our day to 'get up and go to the Father'. We may be comfortable where we are, but we will be a lot happier in the arms of our loving Father.

Don't forget, he has a ring and a fine robe all ready just for you!

Sr. Susan Louise, OSFS, is an Oblate Sister of St. Francis de Sales. She is principal of
Holy Cross academy in Fredericksburg, Virginia.