Thoughts at the Beginning of Lent
Feb
10
Written by:
Saturday, February 10, 2007
First Sunday of Lent 2008
This Sunday I wish to share with you some thoughts from one of the modern spiritual masters that has helped me prepare for Lent.
Father Gary
ASHES
Let us do a little thinking about what happens on Ash Wednesday. When the priest puts ashes on your head, he speaks the solemn, serious words: Remember man that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return.
Ashes tell us more loudly than words that death will reduce our bodies to a little handful of dust or ashes. Ashes remind us that this body, no matter how beautiful, no matter how brawny, no matter how healthy, will break down, will wither and die and turn to ashes.
WHY LENT?
Why Lent? Why do we fast and deny ourselves, why do we attend special services, say more prayers and better prayers for forty long days? We do it because Christ did it. The same Spirit that led Christ into the desert, leads us into the land of self-denial. Because our Savior spent those forty days in penance, we try to do the same.
Oh, yes, gladly we sit with Jesus at the marriage feast of Cana, gladly we stand with Him at the seaside, eagerly we crowd about Him as He as He heals our ills and forgives our sins. Why is it we can be brave and friendly with Him as He teaches and heals and blesses, and then desert Him when He starts out for the wilderness? No such fair-weather friends will we be! Rather, we will enter on these desert days, these days of Lent, walking in the footsteps of our Lord.
SPIRITUAL FASTING
There is another form of fasting: spiritual fasting. By spiritual fasting I mean fasting from sin. This fast we must keep all year, and all our lives, but particularly during this season of penance. Fast from sin, cries the Church, fast from sin.
EYES
We can fast with our eyes. Do sexy and suggestive scenes find their way through your eyes into your soul? Are your glances at the opposite sex occasions, serious occasions, of sin to you? An impure picture, be it in newspaper, magazine or book, be it in photograph or print or TV, that you take into your heart through your eyes is a breaking of this spiritual fast.
Here is a test: Would I read this passage or dwell on this picture if my mother or father, or my one and only were at my side? If you would not read it then, do not look at it now - or later. Even if no human being sees you, God does see you. Think of Christ in the desert giving up the sight of everything pleasant and lawful for you. It is in this spirit that many followers of Christ give up television during Lent, even good television. They do penance with their eyes.
TONGUE
There is also a fasting with the tongue. Not merely abstaining from food and drink or certain tasty things like candy, but abstaining from filthy language, from suggestive stories and speech, from cursing and swearing, and from uncharitable talk. When such words come to your tongue, swallow them. Tell our Lord, who was silent in the bitter silence of the desert forty days - tell Him that you will choke back the wrong word for His sake. Fast with your tongue.
EARS
Let your ears join in this fast. Close them to the kind of talk I just mentioned. Open them to the word of God.
ASK GOD'S HELP
Before you leave the presence of God today, tell Him just how you are going to fast this Lent. Then ask God to help you keep your resolve. Often repeat your resolution. Every morning and evening make your promise again. With the help of Christ who spent forty similar days in checking His ears, His eyes, and His tongue, you will be making a fast that is pleasing to Almighty God and profitable to yourself, here and in the happier life to come.
PRAYER
Christ went into the desert not only to do penance, but also to pray. As we follow our Savior into the wilderness we see that the greater part of those forty days Christ spent in prayer. Would you be Christ's follower? Then you too must pray, especially during Lent.
MASS
The best prayer is Holy Mass. It is the best prayer and the best sacrifice. It is the uniting in one service all the sufferings, all the teachings of our Lord. No one can measure the value of a single Mass. Mass reminds us of the desert; Mass is the Last Supper all over again; Mass is Gethsemane; Mass is the passion; Mass is Calvary; Mass is the crucifixion; and Mass is Easter Sunday - all made present to us again.
In that first Lent Christ not only did penance and prayed, He also thought and meditated. Meditation is simply prayer without words, prayer of the soul and mind and heart. It is talking to God with the tongue of the spirit, and hearing Him answer with the ears of the soul.
Get acquainted with yourself. That is thinking, that is prayer, that is what Jesus did in the desert, and that is what He wants us to do during part of these forty days.
_________________
Adapted from With Christ Through Lent
by Fr. Arthur Tonne, OFM