Dear Parishioners,

This week, February 22nd, is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. For 46 days, we will be immersed in a season that was originally designed to prepare people for Baptism at Easter, a season which, over time, became a penitential period for all the baptized so that they might celebrate Easter with a renewed heart. Today, Lent can have a variety of meaning and purposes, depending upon individuals. What seems to be a consistent characteristic of the Lenten season is that during these weeks, Christians adopt various prayers, practices and ritual customs that are unique to this time of year hoping to change something in their lives.

Change, therefore, is the desired outcome, whether it be for: weight reduction, an increase in prayer time, a kinder disposition, the abandonment of certain destructive behaviors, or a deeper friendship with God. Something about Lent reminds us all that we all need to make some improvements in our lives – that we have not yet reached perfection.

And so on Ash Wednesday, a minister will disfigure our faces with black ash and remind us that we are going to die. Remember you are dust and unto dust you will return. It would be difficult to find a greater catalyst for changing our lives and getting our acts together than the inevitability of death. While fear tends to be a short-lived incentive for personal renewal, it does seem to be a good place to start.

Our individual journeys of renewal may take us down any number of paths. Addicts or relapsed addicts may find this the opportunity to recognize or reclaim their powerlessness over a certain reality, so that a “Higher Power”, i.e., God, can restore them to sanity, wholeness and peace.

People who are estranged from family members or friends may find Lent the ideal time to start mending fences and healing wounds.

Those who have been neglecting Sunday Mass or who have come to believe (no thanks to our bishops) that worship on the Lord’s Day is now optional, can be invited to dislodge themselves from these detrimental mentalities and re-join their church communities.

And people who find themselves in good places with an abundance of blessings at this present time, can be challenged to seek out those who are struggling and assure them that they have not been forgotten.

The only danger in any of the above realizations and/or resolutions is that we associate them only with the 46 day period of Lent. Come Easter, we might be tempted to go back to where we were and forget how far we have come. Perhaps this is why St. Benedict insisted that the life of a monk must be a perpetual Lent. I would claim this is true for all Christians. Our lives are perpetual wrestling matches with the devil and his insidious temptations to indulge our egos, maximize our opportunities for self-gratification, and turn a blind eye to the needs of our neighbors.

Perhaps then, the most important Lenten resolution we can make is to acknowledge the unfinished quality of our lives that is constant. We are always in need of change and conversion. One season out of the year can never satisfy that perpetual gnawing within each of us that says, “You’re not there yet. There is still more that God wants to do in you.” And so may whatever Lenten disciplines we choose to undertake this year keep us joyfully and humbly aware of our imperfect nature, so that God can find a home within us to exercise his power and to manifest his mercy.

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