Dear Friend, 

Saturday, February 24, 2024

Reflection by Rev. Msgr. Joseph Reilly, S.T.L., Ph.D.

Though my mom did not watch much television, she did have a favorite show that my brothers and I would often watch together with her.  It was the 1970’s show called M*A*S*H, about a mobile army hospital set during the Korean War.  All the characters were both interesting and funny in their own unique ways, including Major Frank Burns, who  was an ambitious, awkward, and not a very able surgeon or  much of an affable individual.  In one  episode, Major Burns was uncomfortably introducing himself to a guest who was described as a nice person.  Frank responded inanely: “It’s nice to be nice to the nice.”  The conversation went stale fairly quickly after his silly, superficial remark.

The Season of Lent is about far more than being nice.  Lent is about loving actively, deeply, passionately, wholeheartedly.  Today’s gospel concludes with these words: “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (MT 5:48) Like this Holy Season, Jesus’ exhortation is teaching us about our destiny and the path that leads us there.  Life in Christ is not about being a nice person or even a basically good person.   You and I are called to the perfection of love, to participate in God’s own life and love. 

At first glance many of us can find the Lord’s exhortation to be frustrating, especially as we come up against our own inability or sinful inclinations.  Being perfect can appear as an impossible standard that we are incapable of achieving.  But God’s grace has the power to transform us, empower us, and to uplift us even amidst our own weakness. 

So, at the end of this first week of Lent, we might simply be grateful to have survived up to this point, wiping our brows after the 10-day white knuckled ride that Lent has already become.  We may be inclined to settle for nice.  Yet Jesus calls us to more.  He calls us to perfection.  May we open the eyes of our hearts and look to him and find the strength to persevere, to make the gift of ourselves in love.

“Never fear God. He is the all-loving Father. He knows only how to love, and He wishes to be loved in return. He thirsts for our poor little hearts which come from His creative hands, and where He has placed a spark of love which comes from the very hearth of His Love. His only wish is to gather these sparks of love and unite them to His infinite love, so that our love lives on forever in His. Finally, it is still the force of the attraction of Love which will draw us into the eternal fatherland of Love. Offer all of your little heart to God. Be sincere with Him in all circumstances and in all your points of view.” (St. Thérèse of Lisieux)

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Rev. Msgr. Joseph Reilly, S.T.L., Ph.D., Vice Provost for Academics and Catholic Identity Seton Hall University and Rector/Dean Emeritus, Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology. He holds a Bachelor of Sacred Theology from Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, a licentiate in Sacred Theology (STL) from Pontificio Istituto Teresianum, Rome, and a Ph.D. in Educational Administration from Fordham University. He has served as a member of the Archdiocesan Priest Personnel Board, the Advisory Committee on Continuing Education and Ongoing Formation of Priests, the Archdiocesan Vocations Board, and the Board of Trustees of Seton Hall University. Pope John Paul II named him a Chaplain to His Holiness in 2005, with the title of Reverend Monsignor. In 2016 during the Holy Year of Mercy, the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization sought priests who were living signs "of the Father's welcome to all those in search of His forgiveness." He was the only priest from the Archdiocese of Newark formally commissioned as a Missionary of Mercy by Pope Francis.