Reflection for the 3rd Sunday in Lent

 

        We would never consider ourselves to be enslaved.  Slavery, we tell ourselves, belongs to the dark and shameful past.  But while we may not be shackled by cruel taskmasters, we are not necessarily free in the deepest sense.  In fact, spiritual freedom is only attainable when, recognizing the power sin wields over us, we surrender to the liberating hands of God.

 

        Lent is a time for acknowledging the ways we are enslaved — for naming the forces which drive us,  the attachments which bind us, and the fears which hold us back.  It is an opportunity to see that servitude comes in many forms — in obsessions, in addictions, in grudges, in superstitions, in ignorance, in prejudices, in self-righteousness and in  hatred. 

 

        During this time, like Moses, let us remember that the ground we stand on is holy ground.  And while each of us is a work in progress, God continues to offer us hope.  For the ground of life upon which we stand — soiled though it may be because of our sinfulness — is the land of milk and honey that God has promised to each of us.