On Ash Wednesday Feb 26, we all began another Lenten
journey. As I was preparing for this talk,
I realized that I have gone through Lents 52 times since my baptism in 1967. I suspect many of you here have exceeded that
number since I got off to a slow start.
The question that comes to my mind, and I throw it out to you is: When
considering the number of Lents we have all experienced over many years, how
can this Lent of 2020 be a special time of renewal for us?
A couple of weeks ago, Mary Anne and I did a five day
retreat at Mepkin Abbey in Charleston.
The focus of my retreat was on a book written by a popular contemporary
author Fr. Ronald Rolheiser. In his book
called “Sacred Fire”, Rolheiser described Christian discipleship at three
different stages of life. The first stage
he calls “Essential Discipleship”. He describes it as the time of life when we
struggle to make our own way in life, to find our own identity; that time we
need, so to speak, to get our life together.
He says that before that time, we are at home with parents, family
members and friends in a circle provided for us. We are in a place that is ours, a place we can
call our own; and assuming the right circumstances, a place where we feel safe
and secure.
But then we enter a time, usually in our adolescent years
where we begin to over-throw our childhood home and identity, and strike out on
our own.
So we enter a time of restlessness, searching to discover
our own place in life. This becomes the
time when we begin to develop our own circle of friends, explore opportunities
for a career or vocation, and search for our own new home and family. Eventually, we find ourselves to be at home
again, with a new place to live, a career or life’s work, perhaps a wife and children,
a mortgage, and all the responsibilities that go with. At this time, Rolheiser says, the question we
ask ourselves is no longer: “How can I get my life together”? But rather the question becomes: “How can I
give my life away? How can I live more
deeply, more generously, and more meaningfully?” This becomes the time when we are entering
the second stage called “Mature Christian discipleship”. And I suspect it is the stage where most of
here find ourselves today. How can I
live more generously, more meaningfully?
As Rolheiser explained in his book and I believe it to be true, mature
discipleship begins when we begin to “give our lives away”; when we begin to
live for others more than for ourselves. Although this is simple to say, and maybe even
to believe, but, I think you will agree, it is not always easy to live.
You may recall that the readings for last weekend’s mass,
the first Sunday of Lent. The first was
from Genesis, the story of Adam and Eve and how they succumbed to the
temptation of eating from the tree in the Centre of the Garden. The Gospel was
about Jesus and the temptations He experienced during His 40 days in the
desert. If you examine these readings
closely, you will find that their aim is to lead us to that level of Mature
Discipleship, a giving of our lives away and moving towards a healthy concern
for others. But the focus of these particular readings is principally on the
challenges that we face in getting there. There are forces around us that
create a resistance to this path we long to follow as a response to Grace. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why we
need many Lents in our lives. It often takes a long time for us, not only to
see, but to resist these forces that work against the movement of Grace in our
lives.
The Gospel of Jesus’ temptations in the desert describes
those forces as the world, the flesh and the Devil. These are terms we are all familiar
with. In the many homilies that I’ve
heard and read over the years, others have described these resistances as the
three A’s: Appetite, Ambition, and
Arrogance. Or some described it as three
P’s: Pleasures, Power and Pride. But
they all mean the same thing. In our
allegorical story of Adam and Eve, we have a vivid example of a failure to
resist those forces.
The tree in the centre of the garden, which is
appropriately off limits, became so enticing to the appetites of Adam and Eve
and probably their pride as well, that they decide to partake of it. And, as a
result they lost the home given to them; they lost their place of security;
they lost that special connection they had with God. In our Gospel story, Jesus, although tempted
to compromise His own sacred calling, refuses to yield to these voices of
resistance. And, as a result, He not
only discovers a home that God has prepared for Him, but He gives His very life
so that others like us, may share in this home with Him as well. This home He calls “the Kingdom of God”. I guess the question we are forced to ask
ourselves, particularly during this period of Lent, is: When it comes to these
forces, how am I doing in cooperating with God’s plan for me. Have I let the
appetite of pleasure, have I let the power of status, position and things; have
I let the arrogance of pride, entice me away from that path of “giving my life
away”. If I am honest with my own
personal reflections, the words of psalm 51 found, also in last Sunday’s
readings, perhaps speak most clearly to me about this.
Have
mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;
according
to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
Wash
me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
Against you alone have I sinned. And done what is evil in you sight.
Create in me a clean heart and put a new and right spirit within me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and sustain in me a willing Spirit.
The last stage of Spiritual Discipleship that Rolheiser mentions in his book is called “Radical Discipleship”. And it centers on the question of how we are meant to live out the final months, weeks, days of life so that our death is part of that gift we give to others. The question we ask ourselves at this time changes from “how can I give my life away” to “how can I give my death away. To understand this, we must again turn to Jesus as a model for us. We speak of Jesus as both living for us and dying for us. He gave us a double gift of both His life and His death. Often we don’t distinguish between them. He gave his life away for us through the activities of His ministry; through his teachings, through his healings, through calling His followers and giving them guidance. But he also gives His death away through His passion. And are we not healed in a special way as we reflect upon His passion and death that He embraced with acceptance, with forgiveness, with a healing at its heart? We read in Isaiah:
For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
Against you alone have I sinned. And done what is evil in you sight.
Create in me a clean heart and put a new and right spirit within me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and sustain in me a willing Spirit.
The last stage of Spiritual Discipleship that Rolheiser mentions in his book is called “Radical Discipleship”. And it centers on the question of how we are meant to live out the final months, weeks, days of life so that our death is part of that gift we give to others. The question we ask ourselves at this time changes from “how can I give my life away” to “how can I give my death away. To understand this, we must again turn to Jesus as a model for us. We speak of Jesus as both living for us and dying for us. He gave us a double gift of both His life and His death. Often we don’t distinguish between them. He gave his life away for us through the activities of His ministry; through his teachings, through his healings, through calling His followers and giving them guidance. But he also gives His death away through His passion. And are we not healed in a special way as we reflect upon His passion and death that He embraced with acceptance, with forgiveness, with a healing at its heart? We read in Isaiah:
“He was wounded for our transgressions;
crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the punishment that made us whole, and
by His wounds we are healed.”
Our acceptance of "dying well" can potentially be our last and greatest gift that we have to offer, particularly to those we love. As you know, many life-long resentments and animosities are healed between children and a dying parent during this most vulnerable time because dying moves us to a whole new place in our relationships. Those of us who have experienced being with a dying person knows the deep truth in this. Unfortunately, we stand in danger of losing it because of our current laws on medical assistant dying and the belief that ones value is only found in what we can produce. But those who are dying can give life to those they love when they allow them to attend to their needs during this time of diminishment. So we give our deaths away by dying with grateful acceptance instead of bitterness, by surrendering to Grace instead of clinging to life. And we can do this when we see that our dying is not an end but a means to that next step in our journey to our new home prepared for us by Christ.
Our acceptance of "dying well" can potentially be our last and greatest gift that we have to offer, particularly to those we love. As you know, many life-long resentments and animosities are healed between children and a dying parent during this most vulnerable time because dying moves us to a whole new place in our relationships. Those of us who have experienced being with a dying person knows the deep truth in this. Unfortunately, we stand in danger of losing it because of our current laws on medical assistant dying and the belief that ones value is only found in what we can produce. But those who are dying can give life to those they love when they allow them to attend to their needs during this time of diminishment. So we give our deaths away by dying with grateful acceptance instead of bitterness, by surrendering to Grace instead of clinging to life. And we can do this when we see that our dying is not an end but a means to that next step in our journey to our new home prepared for us by Christ.
Our journey of Lent of 2020 is that opportunity given to
us by the church to ponder where we are in respect of our own journey in
faith. It is a time given for us to
reflect upon what we may still be clinging to in our attempts to satisfy the
restlessness we find in our own hearts.
Over the years, I know that I have been able to let go of
many things that were a hindrance to my spiritual growth. For many of them, the advancing years of life
left me with little choice. But there
are still things in my life, areas that I still cling too, and resist letting
go of. That is why I need Lent this 2020.
As a good spiritual
discipline, the ancient practice of fasting, praying and alms giving are as
relevant today as they were 2000 years ago to help us in this task. And if you look at them closely, they tie
closely with the temptations that Jesus rejected during His 40 day journey in
the dessert. And when approached with
the right intention, they are healing.
We fast in order to break the habits of the flesh and senses and their
insistent need to be satisfied. So we
fast from those things that we have trouble giving up. We give alms, not to pat
ourselves on the back for being generous, but to help break the addictive hold
that money and other such things have on us. And of course, we pray. We pray
for the strength to let go of our inordinate needs. We pray, as in the psalm, to move away from a
lifestyle that is self-serving and to discern God’s will for us in our outreach
to others. As Rolhieser explains in his book, mature discipleship begins when we begin to give out lives away, when we begin to live for others and less for ourselves. Each Lent, number 53 for me, and whatever number it is for you, is there to help us together find our way to the home Jesus has prepared for us; a home He calls “The Kingdom of God”.
