- Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator

If we were playing the game of word association (where the respondent says the first thing that comes to mind upon hearing any word), what would you answer to the word “sin.”  Perhaps the title of this blog entry has given away the answer for which I am looking.

However, if you hadn’t been prompted by the title, would you honestly think of idolatry or of forgetting the care of widows and orphans as the Scriptural response to the word “sin”?  Yet if we read the prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures carefully, we find that the worship of idols and the neglect of the most vulnerable people in our society are the two sins of which all the prophets accuse the people of Israel. 

Perhaps it is our Puritan ancestors in our country.  As a confessor, I can honestly say that the subject matter of most confessions has little to do with idols or of neglect of the widow and orphan.  Think back to your last confession.  What did you confess?  Did you tell the confessor that you had placed material things ahead of your relationship with God?  Did you admit that you had not been as generous to the needy as you might have been? 

Both the prophet Hosea and the passage from the Gospel of St. Mark today speak of these offenses.  We shall say no more, ‘Our god,’ to the work of our hands; for in you the orphan finds compassion. (Hosea 14:4b)  The scribe said to him, “Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, ‘He is One and there is no other than he.’  And ‘to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself’ is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”  (Mark 12:32-33)

Inasmuch as Lent is a time to “set things right,” it might not be a bad idea to give some thought as to whether our Lenten penances are leading us back to the two most important commandments.  Love God.  Love your neighbor.