Paul Haring | CNS
HARVESTING HOPE
Ash Wednesday
In the beginning of this season of Lent we are invited to choose life. This theme is presented to us by the Church in the first reading the day after Ash Wednesday. It comes from the Book of Deuteronomy and provides a good guide as we decide how to live this season of repentance and preparation. First of all Lent is a season of repentance. We are invited to turn away from sin and believe in the Gospel.
Why should we turn away from sin? So that we might both purify and unclutter our hearts to receive Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead. In order to accomplish this we must make choices. “Today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and doom … Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the Lord, your God, and holding fast to him” (Deuteronomy 30: 15, 20a). One choice we might make as Lent begins is to turn away from sin. This requires an honest look at our lives to see where we need to change. It may not be a drastic change but it is probably true that there is something each of us could change in our lives in order to get closer to God. This change may first involve a change in attitude or perspective. If we can see ourselves and life with a better attitude or a new perspective, we can then change our behavior.
We are distracted from this work of repentance by several present day tendencies. The first is a psychological issue. Psychology has offered us many valuable insights into human behavior and human freedom. While recognizing that our freedom is sometimes limited and while avoiding the burden of scrupulosity, we need to take responsibility for our lives and our actions. We can too easily blame some factor in our background or blame other people for our misdeeds. It is good to recognize sin as sin and confess it as such.
Another tendency today is to try to hold on to our fragile egos by denying that we do anything wrong. A healthy sense of self includes admitting that we are not perfect and that we are capable of sin. In the spiritual life it is as important to know our capacity for evil as it is to know our capacity for good. If we only know our capacity for good, such naiveté can leave us vulnerable in the face of temptation. Evil can have its day when we do not recognize its presence in our lives. It is a false innocence not to recognize that we are capable of sin.
On the other hand, if we only recognize our capacity for evil, we will tend to justify ourselves by the evil we avoid and miss the good we are capable of doing. In this case we go to confession and feel good about ourselves because we did not break eight of the commandments. What about the two we did break and what about the good we failed to do? Humility means the earth, the substance of things. In humility we recognize the truth about ourselves: both our capacity for good and our capacity for evil.
The other opportunity in Lent is preparation. During Lent we prepare to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and to receive the gift of His self-giving love once again. This is very important because this is the reason for repentance. Why should we change, why should we repent of our sins? We turn away from sin so we can accept the gift of Jesus Christ. Sin leaves us in darkness and discouragement. Sin blocks the flow of grace. If we would stop blaming others or God for our problems or our unhappiness, we could take a huge step out of darkness into the light of Christ. As a season of preparation, Lent is an appropriate time to look forward to Easter.
In the new translation of the Apostles’ Creed that we profess on Sundays we say: “I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.” Are you stuck in this life only? Do you expect too much from this life and end up disappointed? If Lent is a preparation for Easter, our entire lives on earth are a preparation for eternal life. This life is good and God wants us to enjoy it. But this life prepares us for life with God on high in the Kingdom of Heaven. The loss of this perspective is one of the major losses in the spiritual life of Christians today.
“I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live.”
May the Lord give you peace.
Most Commented