Journeying To Pascha — Jesus continues today His work of healing and exorcism, and that is appropriate for this time of Lent, because Lent is a time for healing and exorcism.
It is a time for us to heal the wounds of our souls; self-inflicted wounds due to our complacency and laziness and self-indulgence.
It is a time to get rid of those demons of our own sinful habits and anything that keeps us away from God and from living that abundant life that Christ came to give us.
We start to make our way toward Jerusalem. At the end of today’s Gospel already there is the prediction of the passion, the death and the resurrection of Christ, giving a little hint in the Gospel that the course of Lent is moving now towards Jerusalem.
We have gone through several weeks now of spiritual preparations, Scripture texts, prayers and activities. Now our focus is starting to turn towards Jerusalem. That will be made more explicit but we are already getting a hint.
There are only three weeks now until Easter, two weeks until Palm Sunday when we are really liturgically accompanying Christ into the mystery of His Passion.
So it is coming soon, and we have to start turning towards Jerusalem. We have to get focused. We have to get recollected. We have to really revive our Lenten prayer and fasting so that we can make the rest of this journey and be fruitful and overcome the demons and find healing for the wounds of our souls.
And go with Christ to His Passion and, through the mystery of His Cross, come to that great transfiguring, glorious celebration of His Resurrection.
Journeying To Pascha