“The scribe said to him, ‘Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, He is One and here is no other than he. And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, ith all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself isworth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.’ And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding, he said to him, ‘You are not far from the Kingdom of God.’"

(From Psalm 95)

 When you walk away from Mass, what do you take with you?  When you walk away from any moment of prayer, reflection, or reading of scripture, what do you take with you?  How about when you walk away from a retreat or the Sacrament of Reconciliation, what do you take with you?  That’s the way in which I feel I need to be challenged.  We experience a lot of feel-good moments, even what you could call holy moments.  These are those moments during which we really feel God, we feel like were in the zone, so to speak.  But what comes next? 

It is obvious in today’s Gospel, quoted above, that Jesus sensed something good in the scribe who approached him.  In that moment, the scribe really seemed to get it. And Jesus acknowledged his testimony by saying, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.”  But what came next for him, for the scribe?  It is very easy for any of us to state what we believe. It is very easy for many of us to state what we’ve been taught.  But how do we grade ourselves on living it?  I am not assuming that, for the scribe, it was no more than lip-service.  It just leads me to ask myself the question, “what comes next for me after those moments in which I have a genuine encounter with God and God’s love?”  Am I changed at all?  Or do I simply slip back into my old ways.  The season of Lent places those terms before us more than once; namely, “our old ways…our new ways.”  

I am privileged to encounter a lot of people, both young and old, in conversations, during which they have, at least for a moment, a crystal-clear understanding of where they are and what they need to do.  To quote the scribe in part, “Yes, Lord. You are right in saying…this…in saying that…”  You and I “say” a lot. Where might we need to be stronger in truly changing and growing.  As I will ask this weekend, against the backdrop of this Sunday’s Gospel, “where do I need to see things differently?”  And where, then, do I need to go from there?