Our readings today call us to fidelity and love in the same measure of our Lord’s fidelity and love for mankind. God Himself compares His love to that of a mother, saying: “Can a woman forget her baby at the breast, or show no compassion for the child of her womb?
Even though these may forget, yet I will not forget you”.

In the same vein, the old adage has it: “Nangombe pa bana taya.” The adage literally means – a mother will not walkout on her children, no matter what. A mother will endure anything for the sake of her children. She would walk through thick and thin.
She would endure fire. She will withstand any excruciating pain – all for the sake and love of her children.

However, the love of God surpasses all human love – because God is all faithful. God is daring and enduring. God is unconditional. He knows no partiality – “Ni Nankoko cifukatila bonse – abasuma na babi”.

On the contrary, human love is mostly conditional. It is full of “If”. I will love you if you are good looking, intelligent, and wealthy. I will love you if you are educated and civilized, employed and well connected. There is an endless alley of “If” hidden in human love. Yet, God’s love is unconditional, faithful and enduring. That is His nature and His temperament.

God invites us into a new relationship with Himself in Jesus Christ – where the judge becomes mother and father; where coldness becomes warmth; alienation becomes intimacy and fear becomes love. God invites us into a genuine new relationship with other people: where hatred gives way to love. Selfishness becomes service and bitterness becomes forgiveness.

In this Lenten season, God invites us to enter into a new relationship with ourselves.
He calls us to bring out our brokenness and worries, our sickness and burdens, our joy and happiness to Himself. He will turn our weaknesses into strengths; our disappointments into achievements and our tension into peace. To accept the offer of our Lord is to find peace. The Lord is faithful in all His words and holy in all His works.
He has seen us this far. He will never let us down.