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Daily Scripture

+ Ash Wednesday

Lent is not about losing weight but about loving more.

Readings: Joel 2:12-18 Psalm 51:3-6, 12-14, 17 Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your heart, rend your hearts, not your garments. [Joel 2:1-2]

Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them. When you give alms, don’t blow a bugle before you. When you pray, go to your room, close the door, and pray in secret. When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. [Matthew 6:1-2, 5-6]

I didn’t like Lent as a kid. The approach was too negative and down right gloomy. I don’t like the color purple either. The sermons were doom and gloom. It’s not that I didn’t think I had no need of penance and repentance. Even as a youngster, I realized that I was far from perfect—not quite “the feller mi mudder t’ought I wuz.” But even as a kid, I did better with positive affirmation.

Ash Wednesday is like New Years Day. People make lots of resolutions only to be broken by Saturday. Well, not quite but close.

The word Lent comes from the German word meaning “lengthen.” The liturgical season is allied with the season of the year. Yes, the days are getting longer and the frozen earth is getting soften. The birds are chirping earlier and the buds are getting ready to burst. The sun is getting warmer as it heads toward the equator.

So Lent is a time to till the soil of our souls. It’s a retreat that we might not choose on our own but a necessary retreat. In essence, it’s a drive or a campaign for holistic living, for healthy living.

Let begins not with resolutions but with an attitude adjustment. The three days between Ash Wednesday and the First Sunday in Lent are what I might call a respite from the routine in the midst of the routine, if you know what I mean. It’s a time to walk through the ‘field’ or the pasture and take a hard look at the soil to see if it’s ready for the seed. The seed is God’s Word and the soil is our soul.

You got it. It’s time for a little soul work with a hard look at what’s not working in our relationship with God, with our families and with our ‘neighbors.’

Turn the soil over (metanoia) and you’ll know what is necessary for a more fruitful way of life. Then the resolutions whatever they be—not too many—will work.

If Lent works well, then we will want to continue our Lenten ‘practices’ after Easter.

That’s what true conversion is all about.

I choose to be grateful...

Monday December 26, 2011

no matter what the feast.

It’s good to be back home. I’m sorry I have been out of reach for a ‘few days’ but know that I am working at life, one day at a time. I hope to reactivate my website in the days to come and I will catch up on email messages, I hope, before the New Year becomes old!

And what of gratitude?

It was a random survey
brief—no warning—in no sense scientific, informal.
Your preference, please,
Thanksgiving or Christmas?

A landslide victory for Thanksgiving!
Turkey and the trimmings?
No!
Freshly baked pies: apple and pumpkin?
Not at all!
Then why Thanksgiving over Christmas?

No countdown before the feast.
No trips to the mall.
No presents, only your presence!
A time to be together, no strings attached.
Come as you are.

But what of the birth of Jesus?
Did he not make a difference?
Does he not make a difference still?

Indeed, he did; indeed he does__
Jesus is the reason for the season and for the feast.
But except for a brief pageant in the parish church,
and a passing nod at the crèche
we are caught up in the heat of the night
rather than the Light that shattered the darkness of the night.

It occurred to me that giving thanks is all about tables,
the Jesus-table,
your table and mine
and the table of humanity.
It’s about keeping them all connected—Remember?

This brief reflection, the gift of a friend,
expresses it simply but so much more powerfully
than my feeble attempt at the same:

In the Eucharist, or Lord’s Supper,
Jesus gave us something that he did not say
We needed to ‘think about’ or ‘agree upon,’
‘understand,’ ‘look at,’ or even ‘worship.’
Instead, he just said, ‘East this’
And ‘give thanks’ (eucharisteo, Luke 22:17)
To theone who giveyou bread,
And who is the origin of your own life and goodness.
It is something we do at the cellular level
More than the cerebral level.

Every day we must make a deep choice
for gratitude, abundance (‘there is enough’)
and appreciation,
which always de-centers the self
and its cravings.
It is the core meaning of worship.
Your life is pure gift,
And it must be ased on an attitude of gratitude.

[Adapted from Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality, pp 215-216 Everything Belongs, Richard Rohr, OFM, 2008]

No ‘bah humbug’ here…
Just getting reacquainted
With the real meaning of Christmas.

Love,
Father Lasch