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After passing through the door of Ash Wednesday, today’s traditional liturgy presents us with a story from the prophet Isaiah. He was sent to deliver sad news to King Hezekiah, who was terminally ill:  “Thus says the LORD: Set your house in order; for you shall die, you shall not recover.” (Is 38:1b).

The king was deeply moved by this message, for he was clearly not yet ready to die. Perhaps he remembered the promise of a long and happy life for those who kept the covenant. His pain must have been even greater when he realized that he would die without leaving an heir to the throne. The story continues:

“Hezeki′ah turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the Lord, and said, “Remember now, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in thy sight.” And Hezeki′ah wept bitterly.” (vv. 2–3).

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Introductory Reflections

Lent occupies a very important place in the liturgical year. It begins today with Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday. For forty days and forty nights, the faithful embark on a journey of profound conversion to prepare for the celebration of Easter.

The flood lasted forty days and forty nights; it took Israel forty years to cross the desert before entering the Promised Land; forty days Moses fasted before receiving the Law for his people; forty days the prophet Elijah made his pilgrimage to Mount Horeb; and forty days and forty nights Our Lord Jesus Christ fasted in the desert before beginning His public ministry and revealing Himself as the Son of God.

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Today I would like to conclude this short series in which we have addressed certain aspects of the three evangelical counsels and their application by the Lord’s disciples who live in the world. As far as the third counsel is concerned, it is not so easy to apply it in the world, since voluntary poverty for the Lord’s sake can take on very radical forms, as we see both in the New Testament and in many examples throughout the history of the Church.

Just think of the community of goods in the early Church, as presented to us in the Acts of the Apostles (cf. Acts 2:44–45). We can also recall the hermits and the many monastic communities who made this ideal a reality, abandoning everything to follow Christ and giving their possessions to the poor. To this day, this remains an immensely valuable call. May God grant that many respond to it and that there continue to be communities that make it a reality.

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After having devoted two previous meditations to reflecting on the evangelical counsel of chastity, today I would like to address some general aspects of spiritual obedience, which is so important for all of us in imitating Christ. I hope that this reflection will help us appreciate spiritual obedience a little more.

The Latin word oboedire, from which “to obey” is derived, includes the verb audire, which means “to listen.” Therefore, obedience is related to attentive listening—that is, to hearing correctly and giving our full attention to the One who is speaking to us.

When God communicated His commandments to the People of Israel through Moses, He began by saying: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord” (Dt 6:4).

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Heb 10:32–38

 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to abuse and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on the prisoners, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that you may do the will of God and receive what is promised. “For yet a little while, and the coming one shall come and shall not tarry; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”

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We continue yesterday’s reflection on the virtue of chastity.

In an age marked by constant sensory overload, everyone must be extremely vigilant in order to protect the virtue of chastity—both externally and internally.

Scripture reminds us that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit:

“Shun immorality. Every other sin which a man commits is outside the body; but the immoral man sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” (1 Cor 6:20)

We glorify God in our bodies when we live in chastity and serve God in this way.

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How rich are the stories of the saints, which introduce us to people who lived their faith to the utmost and followed Our Lord with total conviction! Undoubtedly, many of them show us a radicalism that could frighten us. As Saint Francis de Sales said, some saints are more to be admired than imitated. However, there is something we must always keep in mind—and something each of them would attest to: it was the grace of our Heavenly Father that enabled them to do extraordinary things. Whether they were tireless missionaries who spared no effort to proclaim the Gospel to the ends of the earth, saints who practiced works of mercy to the point of total self‑denial, or monks who lived the monastic life with great discipline and asceticism and contributed to the building up of the Church.

But we cannot forget the many others who, in a more discreet but no less fruitful way, served God in the heroic fulfillment of their duties. It was always the holy presence of the Lord that shaped and sanctified them. In this sense, the life of each saint is also a message from Christ addressed to us, exhorting us to follow the path that God has laid out for us and encouraging us to respond to the universal call to holiness.

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Today we meet again a young saint, who, under terrible persecution, became a martyr for the love of Christ. In St. Agatha we discovere a loving soul, as well as in St. Agnes, whom we recently commemorated. They, having put into practice the words of today’s Gospel, are a model for us in following our Lord.

Since the saints are not only there for us to admire and invoke, but also to imitate, we can ask ourselves: What could a burning love like hers work in me? I do not mean that each of us should feel the longing to suffer martyrdom for Christ and to endure tortures like those of St. Agnes and St. Agatha. But each one of us must be filled with that same spirit in which God glorifies Himself and also grants us the strength for martyrdom. It is the virtue of bravery and, even more so, the spirit of fortitude.

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The life of today’s saint shows how many obstacles are sometimes placed in the way of those destined for a great mission by God. In the story we will hear today, it was not so much external enemies — although these also joined in later — but rather his own family who resisted. Such resistance can be even more challenging to confront, given that these are people with whom one has grown up and is bound by blood or friendship, yet who oppose God’s plans due to their lack of comprehension. This was the case with Saint Joseph of Leonisa in the 16th century.

His family had high expectations for the brilliant career the young man could achieve in the world. His marriage to a noble lady of extraordinary beauty and great fortune had already been arranged. However, Joseph fled his father’s house and requested admission to the Capuchins in Assisi, the birthplace of St Francis. But even in the convent, where the young man had begun his novitiate, his relatives did not give him any respite.

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In the traditional calendar, today is the feast of St Ignatius of Antioch. If anyone prefers a meditation based on the current calendar, it can be found at the link below.

According to Church tradition, St Ignatius of Antioch was a disciple of the Apostles Peter and John. He was later appointed Bishop of Antioch, the capital of Syria. He died a martyr’s death and was venerated as a saint in the Church from the earliest times. He always called himself Theophorus (θεοφόρος), which means “God-bearer”.

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