Lent 2025 Day 5

Henri Nouwen, Writer and Theologian
Matthew 25:34-40 | Romans 10:8-13

Henri Nouwen, a Catholic priest, writer, and theologian, devoted his life to exploring the depths of God’s love and the call to radical compassion. Born in the Netherlands in 1932, he was ordained as a priest in 1957 and went on to teach at prestigious institutions like Yale, Harvard, and Notre Dame. Despite his academic success, Nouwen wrestled with deep insecurities, a longing for belonging, and struggles with his own identity. His personal wounds made him especially attuned to the suffering of others, and he developed a theology centered on vulnerability, love, and community.

In the later years of his life, Nouwen left academia to live and serve at L’Arche Daybreak, a community for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Canada. There, he found what he described as his true vocation—not in scholarly pursuits, but in relationships of mutual care. His experience at L’Arche transformed his understanding of faith, teaching him that Christ is most fully revealed in weakness and tenderness.

Nouwen’s life embodied the teaching of Matthew 25:34-40, where Jesus identifies himself with the hungry, the sick, the imprisoned, and the stranger. This passage reminds us that our faith is not just a private matter; it is revealed in how we care for others. To serve the marginalized is to meet Christ face to face. For Nouwen, this truth became real in the daily, small acts of care—feeding, washing, listening—offered to those the world often overlooks.

Romans 10:8-13 proclaims that salvation is near, that anyone who calls on the Lord will be saved. Nouwen understood salvation not as a distant promise but as something lived out in love and relationship. He often spoke of the “wounded healer”—the idea that our own struggles, doubts, and brokenness do not disqualify us from ministry but actually make us more compassionate, more able to walk with others in their suffering. Just as Jesus meets us in our weakness, we are called to meet others in theirs.

Lent is a time to ask: How do we live out the Gospel? Are we willing to serve Christ in the most unexpected places, in the most ordinary moments? Nouwen’s life reminds us that the way of Jesus is found not in power or perfection, but in humility, tenderness, and the courage to love.

Reflection:

• Who are the “least of these” in your own community? How might Jesus be calling you to serve them? 
• How can your own wounds and struggles be a source of healing for others? 
• What would it mean to embrace salvation not just as a belief, but as a way of life? 

Breath Prayer: Inhale: Christ, You are near… Exhale: …Make me a servant of Your love.

May this Lent be a journey into deeper compassion, as we learn to meet Christ in those we least expect.

Amen.