Lent is a season of return, returning to the source of one’s very existence, and in so doing, to one’s authentic self.

In this profound homily, Father Jegar Fickel invites us to enter the Lenten season with a spirit of introspection and renewal. He emphasizes the importance of recognizing our own faults and the necessity of experiencing personal salvation before we can truly help others.

Father Jegar discusses the common human tendency to judge others while being blind to our own greater faults, using the metaphor of noticing a splinter in a brother's eye while ignoring the wooden beam in our own. He explains that Jesus’ teachings about judgment are not an injunction against discernment but a call to first undergo a deep personal transformation. This transformation involves recognizing and embracing our own brokenness, which ...