Am I ready for Lent? It sure doesn’t feel like I am! But I might also ask myself, am I fully ready for most things in my life? The answer for me, if I’m honest with myself, is that I’m partially ready … I’m still working on whatever it is that is a part of my life.
The Scripture today offers a wonderful reflection upon Isaiah, when he is still a young prophet … and prophet primarily means not one who foretells the future, but rather one who calls himself and others back to their calling of following the Lord.
Then there is Paul who could reflect upon his being one who persecuted those who believed in Jesus, whom they called the Lord, the Anointed One, the Son of God. “I am the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle.”
And finally there is Peter, who usually is pretty blunt, and who after they had been fishing all night, hears the request, or command, “Throw your nets out once again, but on the other side.” And he answers, “ … at Your command I will lower the nets,” and is astonished at the catch … so much more than he could have imagined. “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
God used imperfect people … you might say, people like me and people like yourselves. God chose people, and then gave them the grace, His help, that they might live as His followers in the midst of this world. God chose imperfect people … people like us who NEVER will be perfect here upon the earth, and he whispered in their hearts … “Come, believe in me; live as my followers; and be a blessing upon this earth.”
I don’t know about you, but I hear a lot of conversation about the evil in this world … as you might say, “hell in a basket.” Many times people have told me, “… the end of the world must be coming very soon … think of the violence that people do to one another … wars, starvation, killing of innocents … . “All the tragedies foretold by the Scripture are happening … this world is going to end soon!”
I believe that none of us knows when this world will end; nor do can we predict when that will happen. This world as we know it will only end when God wishes it to end. All that we can do in the meantime is to be disciples who stumble, who sin, many times but who are called to get up again, as we see Jesus doing in the Stations of the Cross, and to return to the calling of being disciples … of being followers of the Lord.
I believe that our faith calls us to live in this world as pilgrims … “as people who are on a journey seeking God … understanding their own sinfulness, or capacity to sin … that is, to deliberately choose to hurt another in a way that we know will hurt … we know the words, or actions that will hurt.
Our faith, I believe, calls us to live in this world as pilgrims, as people who desire some day to live in God’s Presence forever … but we don’t know when that day will be that God will call us to accept His call in death. In between, we are called to the greatest work that anyone could ever be a part of: we are called to allow God’s hand to touch our world in a very visible way by bringing His love to touch those around us in a very tangible way. Like Isaiah, we are invited to say, “Here I am Lord! Send me!”
In the Catholic Messenger of Feb. 7th there are many good articles that are faith provoking. There’s a wonderful article on the Sacrament of Reconciliation: “Tips for catholics long absent from the confessional.” There’s a very challenging article on the use of drones, unmanned airplanes, that have been used to kill our enemies.
If you are looking for other Lenten suggestions, here are a few:
For everyone –
- Where do you experience forgiveness in your life (eg., someone has forgiven you or you have forgiven another person)?
- Where do you see a change of heart in your life (eg., about some person or some event)?
- What is funny, humorous in my life? (God uses humor to touch us when we are too “serious” about life.)
- Where is there beauty around me (eg., the deer I saw in the fields; the eagles that were feasting in the field)? How is that beauty connected to this God that I believe in?
For youth –
- Who around me is hurting? Share a kind word with them.
- Thank Mom or Dad for preparing the food. Thank them for the activities they can be at.
For older members –
- How has God blessed you? Use that list as a litany (eg., For my spouse … thank you Lord).
For parents –
- How are my children changing (eg., height, likes and dislikes, maturity)? How have they changed you?
- Read a Bible story to your younger children before bedtime (children’s Bible).
May this be a “Blessed Lent” for you!
An aside: Ash Wednesday and all the Fridays of Lent are days of abstaining (not eating) meat. Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of fasting (ie., eating a major meal and then two meals that are smaller than normal). Health wise, if you are able, let all of this apply. If illness or work demands, make a wise decision and do what you can. (If you are like me and ate meat last Friday, only later in the afternoon did I realize what I had done, then pick another day to abstain.