Meditation for the Third Sunday of Lent, Walk in Love

The Epistle of the Third Sunday of Lent is a fragment of the Letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians. "Walk in love," he says to a little group of early Christians which he had formed. Whom are you to take as the model of your love? Jesus who has made Him­self a victim for your salvation. Walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath delivered Himself for us, an oblation and a sac­rifice to God for an odor of sweetness. (Ephesians 5:1-9.) I am afraid of sacrifice. Do I regard it sufficiently as a question of love?

Evidently it costs much to immolate oneself; but to love does not cost. "Ubi amatur non laboratur," as St. Augustine notes, "Where there is love there is no pain, or if there is pain, it is suffered willingly as a proof of love."

As Lent progresses I must seek to advance more and more in love. The Introit begins: Oculi mei semper ad Dominum, "My eyes are ever toward the Lord." I will look more and more toward Jesus suffering. The sight of Him will give me courage and stimu­late my zeal.

"O Jesus; You have so loved me, teach me to love You. May medita­tion on Your cruel sufferings animate me! I wish to follow You, my crucified Master, by accepting my daily little crosses, the cross of my Rule, the cross of my office, the cross of aridity, the cross of illness, or old age, anticipated crosses and those that take me unaware. But O Jesus, increase my love that I may be enabled to do all that I resolve."

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Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)