Homilies & Thoughts

Self-Reflection

The call to be merciful as the Father is merciful is a profound and challenging one. The early Church Fathers identify three steps that help cultivate this virtue within ourselves. The first step, self-reflection, is essential. Our natural tendency often leads us to focus on others—what they are doing, their faults, their shortcomings. This tendency frequently results in judgment and condemnation rather than mercy.

The Church Fathers urge us to turn inward instead. By examining our own hearts and acknowledging our own failings, we come to recognize our deep need for mercy. The more time we spend reflecting on our own lives, the more readily we can extend forgiveness and understanding to others. This practice of self-examination helps us grow in humility and prepares us to offer the same mercy we ourselves seek.

We find ourselves on a mountaintop, standing in the presence of something extraordinary. In that moment, the veil between heaven and earth is pulled back just enough for us to see the world as God intended—a world radiant with divine light, untouched by sin and sorrow.

At first, this revelation might seem disconnected from the journey of Lent. Why, in the midst of a season focused on penance and fasting, do we pause to gaze upon Christ in glory? Why, as we walk through this time of spiritual struggle, does the Church set before us this dazzling, almost otherworldly scene? It can feel like a cruel reminder of what we are not yet able to reach.

Jesus speaks often about fasting, almsgiving, and works of penance. This might surprise us. We live in a culture that has long shifted its focus. While fasting and charity still exist, they are often treated as secondary, even optional. This makes it difficult to understand what Jesus is saying. That is why we must rediscover the meaning of penance, and there is no better time for this than Lent.

Too often, when we hear the word penance, we think of extremes—medieval flagellants parading through the streets, people sleeping on broken glass, or fasting to the point of exhaustion. But these are distortions, misunderstandings that the Church has consistently opposed. True penance is something entirely different.