WE make promises: a promise to be faithful to one’s spouse; a promise to take care of a family member; a promise to be with a friend in times of need; a promise to fulfill a parent’s wish; a promise to take care of one’s health. Promises are expressions of hope to loved ones for a happy and meaningful relationship or a successful life. Promises evoke joy of future fulfillments.
I’d say that Lent is a time of promises: to be holier, to pray more, to spend more time at church, to fast, to be more generous with one’s wealth, and to make sacrifices for others.
Like all promises, our Lenten promises need signs. This is why we put ashes on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday, abstain from eating meat on Fridays, and go to Confession to express contrition for our sins and our willingness to change.
But Lent is not just about our promises to God and to those we love. Above all, it is an expression of the God’s Great Promise to the whole world and humanity to redeem us from the destructions of sin.
It’s that rainbow of promise that God gave to Noah not to bring destruction to humanity again: “When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds, I will recall the covenant I have made between me and you and all living beings so that the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all mortal beings.” (Genesis 9:14-25).
God showed the final fulfillment of this promise to redeem the world and the whole humanity in His Son, Jesus Christ, who suffered and died for us and rose again to new life.
Our Lord Jesus Christ then and the Paschal Mystery of his life, death, and resurrection are the greatest signs of God’s promise and faithfulness to us. In Jesus Christ, we continue to hope that God would continue to redeem the world from sufferings and deaths, that is, if all people accept his message of love, mercy, compassion, and reconciliation.
Unfortunately, some people do not accept God’s promise in the person of Christ who is all about mercy and forgiveness. Instead, they believe in the twisted promise of a religion that personifies hatred and all forms of evil. How can a religion that massacres innocent people evoke promises of love, peace, and harmony in the world?
Our role as Christians is to continue fulfilling this promise of God in the person of Jesus Christ and his Gospel. It is not to be tempted by the devil to give up sowing seeds of kindness, gentleness, and mercy in a world beset by violence and terrorism. It is to defend the weak and the poor, the alienated and the discriminated among us. It is not to surrender to cynicism and hopelessness, but rather to believe in the Gospel that brings life and peace to the whole humanity.
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From a Filipino immigrant family, Reverend Rodel G. Balagtas was ordained to the priesthood from St. John’s Seminary in 1991. He served as Associate Pastor at St. Augustine, Culver City (1991-1993); St. Martha, Valinda (1993-1999); and St. Joseph the Worker, Canoga Park (1999-2001). In 2001, he served as Administrator Pro Tem of St. John Neumann in Santa Maria, CA, until his appointment as pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary, Los Angeles, in 2002, which lasted 12 years. His term as Associate Director of Pastoral Field Education at St. John’s Seminary began in July 2014.
