Today is Ash Wednesday and marks the beginning of the 40 days Lenten Season for Roman Catholics like me. To start off this day, Aphilo and I heard mass this morning as part of the tradition and I guess things would change a lot for me from now on due to this mass.
The priest’s homily touched me and made me re-think about some of the things in my life. It was a story about a very rich and successful man who went to confession due to a quite serious sin he committed. Due to this kind of sin, the priest asked the man to hear mass everyday as penance. The man protested and said, that he’s to busy with a lot of things to hear mass everyday and asked for his penance to be changed. The priest agreed, and asked him to fast twice a week for 1 month. Again, he protested and said that he can’t really fast since he needs all the energy he can get to attend to the things he needs to work on everyday, so he asked the priest for another penance. So again the priest changed the penance, and asked the man to just read the Bible everyday, one chapter at time, but still the man didn’t like this since he was too tired from work when he gets home and just can’t spend anymore time to read the Bible. The priest was very patient with the man, and finally thought of a very light penance that for sure the man would agree with. The priest asked the man to just write the words from Sirach 7:36 on a piece of paper and then read it 3 times everyday for 1 month. Sure enough the man agreed and left the church.
After doing the penance, for just a week, the man started to hear mass everyday, fasted twice a week, and then became a regular reader of the Bible. The reason why? This was what Sirach 7:39 says. 
“Whatever you do, remeber that some day you must die. As long as you keep this in mind, you will never sin. – Sirach 7:36″
This verse in the Bible, made me think about how I had lived my life. Can I say that if I die today, my life was lived well that I can face the Lord heads up? Was I able to give full attention to those things that really matter in life, and not just the material things that money can bring? Well, I don’t know. I really can’t judge myself, but rather these judgement would come from Him and the people around me when my time comes. For now, I guess it’s just fair to start giving the Lord the time He deserves everyday, either through prayers, hearing mass, doing good deeds, or simply doing things that are good for the soul. I don’t really care now if I would be rich someday, or be the most successful professional that I can be. I guess I’ll just let Him lead the way, and let His will be done on me. For sure I know, I would be in good hands.
Amen. 
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