Fr Peter Ireorji, MSP - Homily Thursday, March 7, 2019

Jesus says that if we want to be his followers we have to be ready to renounce ourselves. Lent is traditionally a time for self-denial. We ask ourselves what it is we need to let go, to give up, in order to follow the Lord more closely. We all have something we need to let go off; it might be some excessive attachment that is holding us back, or some habit that is not serving us well. Self renunciation is more difficult today than in the past because we live in a culture which encourages us to indulge ourselves. We can easily think of self-renunciation as something negative. Yet, the giving up, the letting go, is always with a view to life, to living life to the full. The book of Deuteronomy puts it very positively, “Choose life, that you and your descendants may live”Duet 30:19, and Jesus says in the in Matt 9:24, that whoever loses his life for his sake will save it. We pray this Lent that the Lord would give us the grace to keep on choosing life. Shalom!