January 25, 2026 ~ 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ Year A

Spiritual Reflection

January 25, 2026 ~ 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ Year A (PDF)

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Mt 4:17

In order to cling to Mary’s back, to snuggle your head between her shoulders, your heart must be contrite – as St. Juan Diego’s heart was certainly contrite – for Mary carries only someone who is very small and very contrite. Only such a person allows himself to be carried on her back. Nothing substitutes for contrition. Contrition is a pillar of interior life that demolishes the barriers of the heart and opens us to Love. 

The Church says that contrition is “sorrow of the soul and detestation for the sin committed, together with the resolution not to sin again” The prodigal son decided to return to his father only when he deeply experienced his misery and suffered the consequences of his own evil. A cry of true sorrow and the decision to “get up and go to my father” (Lk 1518) can only come forth from the depths of the misery that we clearly see. 

God calls and beckons us to communion of life – to union with Him. This call, however, is directed to those who are marked by both original sin and by personal sin. Therefore, the answer to God’s call demands that we unceasingly discover the truth about our evil, turn away from it through contrition and submit to grace. These three elements form a cycle of feedback – the process of which is endless. We will never be completely converted and submissive to grace because this same grace exposes new dimensions of the evil in us, demands deeper contrition in the face of our evil and, in relation to this, calls for even deeper openness to God’s action and to His purifying grace in our life. 

At this point we are touching upon one of the main difficulties that an individual encounters on the way to God. The cause of this difficulty is the scheme of advancement that is encoded in us, otherwise known as the progression from basic to more advanced stages. In reality, there is no place either for stages or even for any kind of concrete achievement in the trial of discovering one’s evil, turning away from it through contrition, and submitting to the reign of grace. In practice, this means that an individual who, to a certain extent, continually submits himself to the action of grace, becomes lost now and then in the illusion that he is righteous. He converts and seizes graces in order to rise to the surface or. biblically speaking, become righteous. The problem, however, is that no one is, or ever will be, righteous. Each person is a sinner and will always remain a sinner (see 1 Jn 1:8, 10). Even during the final phase on the path to God, someone who has become a saint does not cease being a sinner. Rather, he is preserved from committing sin only because he is so strongly engulfed by the flame of God’s love that he no longer can, nor does he want to, extract himself from it. The saint knows that to find oneself outside of the flame of God’s love means annihilation and death.

S.C. Biela, The Two Pillars, p.41-43

References from the Catechism of the Catholic Church

 1430 Jesus' call to conversion and penance, like that of the prophets before him, does not aim first at outward works, "sackcloth and ashes," fasting and mortification, but at the conversion of the heart, interior conversion. Without this, such penances remain sterile and false; however, interior conversion urges expression in visible signs, gestures and works of penance.23

1431 Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return, a conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, a turning away from evil, with repugnance toward the evil actions we have committed. At the same time it entails the desire and resolution to change one's life, with hope in God's mercy and trust in the help of his grace. This conversion of heart is accompanied by a salutary pain and sadness which the Fathers called animi cruciatus (affliction of spirit) and compunctio cordis (repentance of heart).24

1432 The human heart is heavy and hardened. God must give man a new heart.25 Conversion is first of all a work of the grace of God who makes our hearts return to him: "Restore us to thyself, O LORD, that we may be restored!"26 God gives us the strength to begin anew. It is in discovering the greatness of God's love that our heart is shaken by the horror and weight of sin and begins to fear offending God by sin and being separated from him. The human heart is converted by looking upon him whom our sins have pierced:27

Questions for Reflection

1.           In my everyday life, how do I wound the only Love through my attachments to creatures and things, and how do I recognize my self- pedestal and my lack of repentance and resolve?
2.           In my daily experiences, where do I discover God’s magnificent Love and how do I desire to respond?
3.           How can entrusting myself to Mary be a path to repentance and interior conversion?

Prayer after Sharing

Thank you, God, for allowing me to see the truth about my weaknesses and how it calls upon the abyss of your merciful Love.