EMPTY COOKIE CANS

Monday of the Second Week of Lent

Scripture Readings: Daniel 9:4b-10; Psalms 79:8, 9, 11+13; Luke 6:36-38

My dear encountered couples:

Do you have any cookie cans lying around your house? You know the ones I mean – the colorful ones with flowers or a picture on the lid. Some have snow scenes, maybe country scenes. About everyone gets a can of cookies from someone sooner or later. What happens to those cans when the cookies are all gone? I guess some are refilled and again become gifts. But I’ll bet most get shoved out of sight until they rust, then someday get thrown out. That’s a shame; it’s certainly a waste of an attractive container.

Jesus doesn’t want us to go to waste. He talks about pouring a good measure of valuables into our garments. Into us is what he really means. He doesn’t want us to be empty of God’s goodness, the emptiness caused by sin. See, what happened when Adam sinned is that God was driven not only out of the world but out of Adam. He rejected God and his goodness. That made him empty, like a can without cookies.

When you were born, you were like an empty can. God and his divine life were not in you. That’s the effect of original sin. II’ left that way, you would sort of rust and be worthless for all eternity. So, Jesus is warning us and telling us to open up, get our lids off and get filled up – with God Himself.

How do we open up? By becoming compassionate with others as God our Father is; by not judging and condemning, but pardoning; and by giving – giving of our things and ourselves. Then we’ll be open to the goodness that God wishes to pour into us until it runs over. Don’t let yourself rust away like an empty cookie can. Open up and be filled with God’s goodness. Then you’ll be ready as a gift for anyone at any time, a gift fit for God Himself — forever.