"I have not come to call the virtuous, but sinners to repentance" (Lk 5:27). As sinners, don't we feel encouraged - that Jesus has come for us? To hear these words from Jesus' lips, especially during this Lent season, is to feel the call from within our hearts - to repent and to live holier lives for Jesus.

What is this 'holier life' going to be like? Isaiah gives us some clues. He says, "do away with the yoke, the clenched fist, the wicked word ... give your bread to the hungry and relief to the oppressed ... refrain from trampling the Sabbath and honour it (Sabbath) ... by abstaining ... from doing business and from gossip" (vv 9-10, 13). In other words, God is calling us to live justly ... generously ... virtuously.

Why does Jesus want sinners to repent? Again Isaiah gives us some clues. He says, if we repent - then our "light will rise in the darkness", our "shadows become like noon ... the Lord will always guide" us, giving us "relief in desert places"; God "will give strength to (our) bones:" and we "shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters never run dry; and we "shall find happiness in the Lord" (vv 10-11, 14). These are some of the blessings that Isaiah says will come to us - if we repent.

Let us during these 40 days of Lent reflect on our lives so as to repent of our unjust ways, our selfishness, and our sins.