Lent 2010, Day 4

“But now the justice of God has been manifested apart from law … the justice of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction; since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith” Romans 3:21-25

"What then is the justice of Christ? Above all, it is the justice that comes from grace. . . . Before the justice of the Cross, man may rebel, for this reveals how man is not a self-sufficient being, but in need of Another in order to realize himself fully.

Conversion to Christ, believing in the Gospel, ultimately means this: to exit the illusion of self-sufficiency in order to discover and accept one’s own need – the need of others and God, the need of His forgiveness and His friendship. So we understand how faith is altogether different from a natural, good-feeling, obvious fact: humility is required to accept that I need Another to free me from “what is mine,” to give me gratuitously “what is His.” Pope Benedict XVI, excerpt from Message for Lent 2010

May God grant us the grace to let go of our illusions, to face reality, and to accept Divine inspiration instead of relying only on our own understanding.