Do you feel like your life is a train wreck? Are you bogged down with things to do and not enough time to do them? Are you ready to scream?
STOP, LOOK and LISTEN is the message of Lent! We live in a society that encourages us constantly to do more things, want more things, and make NOISE, NOISE, NOISE!!!
The Gospels tell us that Jesus walked into the desert alone and left his family, friends, and society for 40 days. This Lent why not follow the example of Christ and walk away and let go. No, most of us can’t walk away from our jobs and there are true responsibilities that we must fulfill. However, Lent is an opportunity for each of us to look at our life and sift out the unnecessary. We are called to focus on the necessary, the core of our existence. The only way we can do that is to give ourselves time and space for reflection – enter our own desert; we need to follow the advice of the signs at railroad crossings – Stop, Look, and Listen.
The traditional practices of Lent are Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving. Each of these is aimed at helping us to let go. Prayer is the time and space we give to ourselves and God. It is following the railroad directions: Stop, Look, and Listen. It is also the opportunity to look at what might be unnecessarily bogging us down – keeping us from being truly free to love. Fasting is the practice by which we remind ourselves that only a few things are truly necessary. We don’t really need meat, candy, soda, liquor, or whatever we can “give up for Lent.” These things aren’t necessarily bad, but they aren’t necessary either. Do they keep us from doing the right thing or do they keep us from being the best person we can be? Do they keep us from giving of ourselves to others? Almsgiving is our practical reminder that love means giving of ourselves and of our treasures to others. Christian love is measured by how much we give and how gracefully we give it! We know that we are loved because God gave us Christ Jesus. God gave and continues to give to us.
We are given Lent to stop, look, and listen to the gifts God has given us, so that we can follow the example of giving. As we follow Christ into the desert, let us also follow Christ in giving ourselves in love to those around us. We are meant to be the light in the darkness, proclaimers of the Good News of Salvation. We are meant to be miracle workers in a world where there are too many train wrecks!
