LENT 3rd Week Friday – “Are We There Yet…?”

  So, here we are on the 24th day of Lent.  How long, O Lord!!!

How goes your Lenten resolutions?  By now, they should be dead in the water.  Praying every day.  Fasting.  Almsgiving.  Yep.  Down the tubes.  It’s time to feel defeated and remorseful.  “I should have done better.”  Minimize the failure, yet feel bad enough to keep the drama going.  Ah, forget about it.

Great!!!

This is the perfect time for reflection.  Is it only about winning?

What if Lent is NOT about self-ennobling by winning over our faults, sins, bad habits, character defects, unskillful behaviors, etc.?  What if it’s NOT about cleaning up our acts, purging our faults, tightening the lid, ratcheting up our practice simply to appear good before God?

What if Lent is about the glad acceptance of our creatureliness?  The blessed humiliation that we are not in control?  The joy of being wrong about gaining God’s favor.  (Thank you, James Alison)  All this in order to be loved within the mystery of our ongoing pretense that we “Got it together.”

Just a thought.  Happy Lent! –roc,sj