Daily Meditation for March 6, 2023

As we enter the second week of Lent and read the prophet Daniel, we are reminded that we are fallible humans, prone to sin on both an individual and a collective level. We are asked to recognize this and to acknowledge our guilt and repentance. As prophets do, Daniel tells the naked truth: that we often choose our ways over God’s and thus need to seek God’s compassion. Luke, centuries after Daniel, offers the antidote to sinfulness: God’s mercy and forgiveness. We read Luke’s quotations from Jesus: “Stop judging and you will not be judged. Forgive and you will be forgiven.” How comforting and encouraging. We fail repeatedly to rise to our best behavior, our due service to God and fellow humans. But we can rely on God’s mercy to help us pick ourselves up again and again as we learn to forgive and be forgiven.

By Carol Berg, OSB