FIRST WEEK OF LENT, MONDAY 10.03.2025

Turn to the Lord and forsake your sins. Return to the Most High and turn away from iniquity. To those who repent, God grants a return. He encourages those whose endurance is failing. Pray in his presence and lessen your offences, stop being in the waywardness of the ungodly. Do not delay to turn to the Lord or postpone it from day to day. That is the rallying call of the Lenten Season to every follower and believer of Christ!

One of the most vivid parables Jesus ever spoke, and the lesson is crystal clear is Mt. 25:31-36. That God will judge us by our reaction to human needs. His judgement does not depend on the knowledge we have amassed, the fame that we have acquired, or the fortune that we have gained, but on the help that we have given. The help given in simple things: – giving a hungry man a meal, or a thirsty man a drink, welcoming a stranger, cheering the sick, visiting the prisoner- are things which anyone can do. It is a case of giving simple help to the people we meet every day.

It must be help which is uncalculating – those who helped did not think that they were helping Christ and thus piling up eternal merit; they helped because they could not stop themselves. It was the natural, instinctive, uncalculating action of the loving heart. Whereas, on the other hand, the attitude of those who failed to help was “If we had known it was you, we would gladly have help, but we thought it was only some common man who was not worth helping.” It is still true that some will help if given praise and thanks and publicity; but to help like that is not to help, it is to pander/gratify/indulge/give into, self-esteem. Such help is not generosity; it is disguised selfishness.

The help that wins God’s approval is that which is given for nothing but the sake of helping. The three pillars of the Lenten period are Penance- fasting, Prayer and Almsgiving. “When you give alms, sound not trumpet before you to be praised by men. When you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. So that your alms may be in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you” Ash Wednesday Gospel – Mathew 6:1-16, 16-18.

Reflection by

Rev. Fr. Fredrick Kiwanuka

@Christ the King Parish, Kampala