This Lent, into what desert are we being led by the Spirit?

FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT  C  2019

There is the story of the famous scientist Einstein who was on a train in Europe.  The conductor asked him for his ticket.  He checked his pockets and then his wallet and he wasn’t able to come with it.  Then the conductor, seeing Einstein’s frustration in not being able to find his ticket, said:  “Don’t worry Mr.  Einstein, we trust you.”  Sometime later, the conductor returned to the train car and saw Einstein now on his knees looking for the ticket under his seat.  The conductor again told Einstein not to worry about it.

Einstein responded:  “Thank you, but I need the ticket to remind me where I’m supposed to be going.”

In a similar way, we need the Lenten season to focus us on the meaning and direction of our lives as well.  Lent is a time when we, like Jesus, are led by the Spirit into the desert -- into the depths of ourselves, into our inner wilderness, so to speak, away from the world of achievements.

God led the people of Israel into the desert, to forge them into a new people.  The Spirit led Jesus into the desert to clarify the meaning of his Messiahship.  The Spirit leads us into the desert of Lent to reflect on how we have not always resisted temptation and have failed to love.  In the desert we seek mercy and forgiveness.  Lent is God’s gift to us to become more aware that we are God’s redeemed and forgiven people.

May our mantra for the Lenten season be the words spoken to us as ashes were placed on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday:  “Repent and believe in the Gospel.”

In the Lenten season, we seek to enter the same space as Jesus.  We are led by the Holy Spirit into the desert to experience fasting and self-denial and to be tempted and to be tested by the devil.  As disciples of the Lord Jesus, we are tested; we are tried during the Lenten season to gauge our commitment of turning away from sin and being faithful to the Gospel.  How do we deal with the Lenten call to embrace spiritual disciplines?  What fasting are we willing to embrace in the Lenten season?  What spiritual discipline of prayer can we make a commitment to?  What almsgiving, what are willing to tithe in the service of others?

The story of Jesus’ temptations reveals to us the deepest thing about him:  he had total trust in his heavenly Father.  Jesus turned to the Word of God in the face of temptation and expressed his trust, his obedience to God’s plan for him.

This Lent, into which desert are you being led into by the Spirit?

My hope for myself and for you is that you will encounter the Lord in prayer this Lenten season.  May this encounter fill you with joy and inner peace.  Make a decision, for example, to pray the Stations of the Cross on the Friday Evenings of Lent with other parishioners, experience the merciful love of Jesus in the Sacrament of Reconciliation this Wednesday on the diocesan day of penance from 12:30 till 7:00pm, and celebrate the Eucharist more frequently during Lent.

May our Lenten prayer further motivate ourselves to share the merciful love of Jesus with others.  Participate in one of the corporal works of mercy:  Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless.  Make a difference in the lives of people in need.

For example, the rationale behind your generosity to operation rice bowl is that our Lenten sacrifices become the source of hope and change for some of our poorest brothers and sisters around the world.  May our Lenten spiritual disciplines lead us to share what we have with those who are hungry and in need of our generosity.

Yes, we are called to make a difference as the disciples of Jesus.  What commitment will I make that will enhance the world, aid the poor, and provide resources for building up the kingdom of justice, love, and peace?

What about ourselves?  What tempts us?  What do the temptations of our lives reveal about us?  What are the areas of our lives in which Jesus is not Lord?  Hopefully our temptations, our sinfulness reveal our need for God’s forgiveness and mercy, and, indeed, we are the gracious recipients of the merciful love of Jesus.

In today’s psalm response, we pray:  “Be with me Lord when I am in trouble.”

This psalm prayer is so appropriate for us in the Church today as we are living under the dark cloud of clergy sexual abuse.  I pray and we all pray:  “Lord can we possibly remain in a Church when our precious children have been placed in harm’s way?”  This experience of the cross is our undoing as a credible Catholic Church.  Who can we trust to provide leadership for our Church?  The sexual abuse scandal and the cover-up of this sandal seems to be the news every day.  How can we as a Church be more pro-active in rooting out once and all the causes and the people involved in this grave sin?

We as a Church need an action plan and we need to turn to the Lord with the prayer of the psalmist:  “Be with me Lord when I am in trouble.”

This experience of the cross in the life of the Church is most serious and deserves our best response as trust in the leaders of the Church is on the line. 

May we ponder in these days of Lent on how we are to encounter the Lord in this experience of the cross of clergy sexual abuse in the life of the Church?  How is God present to us and to the Church in this time of trouble?  We deeply believe the Lord has not abandoned the Church in this time of trouble, nor are we called to abandon the Church in this time of trouble.  In a deep-rooted manner, we the Church must die to this sinfulness and this grave violation of leadership among our priests so that we will rise as a Church through the transforming power of grace to be the Church we are called to be.

Some of the crosses of Lent are or our choosing, for example, our commitment to fast during Lent; other experiences of the cross are not of our choosing, as is the sexual abuse crisis.  But in all experiences of the cross, we are called to encounter the Lord – the crucified as well as the risen Lord.  I pray in the words of the psalmist:  Be with me Lord when I am in trouble.

Have a blessed day.