As we approach the challenging time of Lent, (Ash Wednesday, Feb. 18) we who are serious about the spiritual life, enter this period of the Church year with a determination to make these weeks spiritually productive. If we take the liturgical seasons of the Church year as a personal challenge, we will profit in some way through our determination to use the time well. Most of us want to use the time productively, and will often line up a number of programs to begin, such as more prayer, Mass attendance, “giving something up” etc. This is all well and good, but the end result of Lent is not primarily self- mastery, as productive as this may be. The goal of Lent is in some way to experience the death and resurrection of Jesus in my own life. This goal is closely connected with the renewal of our Baptism which is sacramental dying and rising with Jesus.
One of the problems of accomplishing something during Lent could be a sense that I have done something for God. Then instead of growth we have only deepened our pride. Instead of decreasing as John the Baptist did, we have only increased in our own estimation. Then our Lenten resolutions result in the exact opposite of what should be happening in us.
It would be better to fail, in the sense of recognizing our inabilities rather than succeed in the sense of inflating our egos. This powerlessness reveals our basic need for God. We are absolutely dependent upon Him for everything, the planning as well as the execution of our good intentions. I would like to quote from Fr. Thomas Keating in Reflections on the Unknowable: “When we feel that we are suspended on top of nothing and not grounded anywhere, when we’re confused, have no place to go, and feel that God is far away, that we are separated from God, or even that we are alienated from God, we have been given the dispositions that arise in the dark nights through God’s immense love.” Powerlessness is the greatest power there is because it enables one to simply be more and more a channel of God’s power and love.
If the season of Lent and the programs we line up result in a humbler submission to the action of God’s grace, if we recognize better only God’s strength to accomplish even our smallest good intentions, then we may have come ever so slightly into a deeper relationship with the all-powerful God. With St. Paul we can say “ when I am weak, then I am strong” (2Cor 12:10b).
It would be better to fail, in the sense of recognizing our inabilities rather than succeed in the sense of inflating our egos. This powerlessness reveals our basic need for God. We are absolutely dependent upon Him for everything, the planning as well as the execution of our good intentions. I would like to quote from Fr. Thomas Keating in Reflections on the Unknowable: “When we feel that we are suspended on top of nothing and not grounded anywhere, when we’re confused, have no place to go, and feel that God is far away, that we are separated from God, or even that we are alienated from God, we have been given the dispositions that arise in the dark nights through God’s immense love.” Powerlessness is the greatest power there is because it enables one to simply be more and more a channel of God’s power and love.
If the season of Lent and the programs we line up result in a humbler submission to the action of God’s grace, if we recognize better only God’s strength to accomplish even our smallest good intentions, then we may have come ever so slightly into a deeper relationship with the all-powerful God. With St. Paul we can say “ when I am weak, then I am strong” (2Cor 12:10b).