This time of year wears on you. Well, I guess for those of us in the middle to upper latitudes of the northern hemisphere anyway. We’ve been slogging our way through sub-zero temperatures, the latest Polar Vortex, or whatever the newest meteorological fad is, and a significant number of us have been buried with snow – I’m talking to you Boston, USA! I think your penance has been served! And since we’re cooped up inside so much this time of year, we tend to get sick more often. Flu, strep throat, the common cold – all kinds of illness we have to fight through. And then there are the grey skies and short days and early nights, where we are simply starved for sunshine and the warmth and brightness it provides.
This time of year, we can also get swallowed into the winter blues, a sort of depression because of all the cold, snow and sickness. We just want some warmth. We just want some light. We want to feel good again. Enter Lent – and the renewal with which it provides. Lent is such a transformational season. Not only spiritually, but the weather at the beginning if Lent is often very different from the budding flowers, green grass, warmer days and light of Easter and Spring. It is truly amazing when you think about it. Here in Indiana in the U.S., we went to Ash Wednesday Mass and it was 6 degrees, but come Easter Sunday it will be much warmer and brighter – well, hopefully. I’ll revisit this on my Holy Saturday reflection!
But Lent is such a period of transformation in so many ways. If you have a good Lent – and I mean really turning up how much time you spend in prayer, increasing your charity to others, and fasting with the intent to heal yourself through Christ, it can be life changing. You can be transformed into a new person, at least newer than the one you were before. Because we’re always growing. We’re always seeking to get better, and after a long hard year, and a long hard winter, this is our time to get back in shape and renew ourselves. This is our time for a clean start, our time to make amends, and our time for healing.
Jesus said in the Gospel today, when asked why He eats and drinks with tax collectors:
“Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.”
Just like when we get the flu or a bad sinus infection, we go to the doctor for help. We go to get medication and follow the doctor’s treatment plan. Well, the same holds true for our spiritual life and our soul. We’re all sinners. Our souls are all sick to death, meaning we’re all destined to die due to our original sin. It’s a fact of life, and our human condition. So why not seek treatment?
Sure, if I have strep throat, the doctor gives me antibiotics, and while the pain and discomfort is horrible, isn’t it amazing how after being diagnosed and taking the first dose of antibiotics how “better” you feel? The antibiotics have not yet taken affect, but you just feel better. Your mental state is better. Or when after a long winter you get that first warm, sunny day, it simply erases all of those winter blues and bad moods away. Jesus is our treatment, and our ray of sun. Lent is a time when we go to Christ to fix our spiritual ailments and provide healing for our soul, so that we can be better for the upcoming year. But we have a role to play. It’s not enough to come to Him; we have to follow through in the treatment plan.
Just as doctors prescribe medication and to drink liquids and get Vitamin C and all those nutrients, we have to follow Christ’s treatment plan if we hope to heal our soul this Lent. This is where we make Lent not about ourselves, but about others. We increase our prayer, and we pray for thanks and praise to God for everything we have. But we also pray for others, those who may have it a little worse off than us. We fast for our Lord, and offer up our suffering in our fasting for our spiritual healing, and the healing of others. We give to others who need it. And maybe some of that money we save from not eating out as much, or forgoing the daily Starbucks or the money spent on beer and wine across these 40 some days can be given to those who could greatly benefit from it.
Isaiah says today in the first reading:
If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech; If you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; Then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday;
Lent is not about us, it’s about our love for others, and Isaiah goes on to say:
If you hold back your foot on the Sabbath from following your own pursuits on my holy day; If you call the sabbath a delight, and the LORD’s holy day honorable; If you honor it by not following your ways, seeking your own interests, or speaking with malice— Then you shall delight in the LORD
Lent is about our love for God. It’s not about our own goals or glory for giving up chocolate for 40 days. It’s about offering up that sacrifice for the love of God and asking Him to take our sacrifice and use that for healing. It’s about not letting our worldly desires and pursuits get in the way of our spiritual life and our love for God. God should take precedence not only on the Sabbath, but every day. Lent is a time to remind us of that. Isaiah reminds us of that.
Lent is a time for healing. It is a time for renewal, and yes, it is a time for joy! Joy that better, warmer, healthier and brighter times are ahead, and joy in that Christ is the perfect treatment plan we need after a long, hard year. So often we look at Lent as a time of suffering or gloom, but it’s a time to bring us out of the gloom and it’s a cure for our soul.
