Fifth Sunday in Lent 2025

It is not a good sign when there is no spiritual striving, struggling, and discipline in our lives. And we can’t just pass it off by thinking that the lack of such straining is because we are relying on God’s grace, His works, and not our own. There most certainly can be peace in our souls because our salvation depends on God’s grace, but the Christian life and pilgrimage is anything but a walk in the park. As Jesus said in His Sermon on the Mount, “The way is hard that leads to life.” And the Apostle Paul is making that abundantly clear in our Second Reading this morning…