A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good…
You are a good person. Of course you are, you’re at the Cathedral! And in just a few days, you will begin t he season of Lent, that privileged season ‘marked by prayer, fasting, almsgiving and devotions…in preparation for Easter.’ (Cf. General Norms for the Liturgical Year and Calendar, no. 27.)
These forty days of penance are a gift to each one of us: a second chance, to get right all the things we’ve screwed up in the last year: a time of letting go of everything that is in ashes.
It’s like the old saying, “the best laid plans of mice and men go oft’ awry.” The search for holiness in life is a seemingly endless string of tries and failures, ups and downs.
Perhaps last Fall you told yourself that 2018 was going to be the year when you finally got your prayer life in shape. And those first few days you were off to the races, praying morning, noon and night! You prayed for those who were sick and all your needy friends and even the kid who delivered the paper in the morning. You prayed more and with greater fervor than the monks in Spencer! But then the next week came, and you skipped the early morning stuff, but you still stopped to pray in the middle of the day, and just before supper you did fifteen minutes trying to make sense of the day in silence in front of the crucifix. And then the Fall turned cold and then Thanksgiving and Christmas and all that snow, and now those best laid plans have turned to ash, and you’re lucky if you remember to say an Our Father or sneak in a Glory Be.
Or maybe 2018 was going to be the year of going back to Confession. “Bless me Father for I have sinned, it had been (mumbles) since my last confession.” And you made a great confession on September 13th and you felt like a freshly baptized child and you pledged that every time you got a haircut, you’d also go to confession.
But then, as your hair began to grow and your sins began to pile up, you gave in and went to the barber, but not to the Priest. And soon you remembered how much easier it was to rationalize the third month than it had been the first. Until best laid plans had turned to ash and you were afraid to say it had been six months. It’s hard to say that out loud.
Or maybe 2018 was going to be the year you breathed new life into your marriage, ‘cause after all these years, to be honest, it ain’t what it used to be. But you knew it could be again. So that first week in the Fall you brought flowers home, and on the weekend you cooked what you knew she loved. You would shares in the worst of the household chores and listened late at night, even when you were tired and didn’t feel so good. You were the first to volunteer to mediate that fight between the kids and you would happily drive them to that out of town game. And you prayed each night and every morning in thanksgiving to God, begging him for the grace to be a better spouse.
But as summer turned into Fall, and the bright leaves of Autumn began to wither and fade, and the snows covered over your best laid plans as they turned to ash, and on most nights you’ve once again come to treat the one to whom you pledged fidelity and love more like a room mate than a spouse.
So, that’s why God made Lent and that’s why we get ashes next Wednesday, so that God can raise up from the dust all that his fallen apart, and we might rise with him once again.
So go to Confession, no matter how long it has been and. no matter how scared you are to say that out loud! Fast and pray, early and Often! Sit in silence and listen to his voice. Seek out the poor and feed them, go look for the lonely and listen to them and finally forgive the who has hurt you.
Pray for our three Catechumens who prepare to begin this journey in Baptism on the Easter night, go to the Stations of the Cross or any of the other Lenten exercises included in this week’s bulletin. Put the calendar up of your refrigerator and use it as a reminder that we are all in this together, that “through…this holy Lent, we may grow in understanding of the riches hidden in Christ and by worthy conduct pursue their effects.” (Roman Missal, Collect for the First Sunday in Lent.)
