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On Ash Wednesday we
received ashes which reminded us that this world is limited and
ending. The ashes symbolize the relative value of the things we tend
to cling to that are limited to this world. We go through this
ceremony almost hoping we don’t have to prove our words anytime
soon.
But sometimes we do. On the evening of Ash Wednesday I received a
call to go to the hospital. A man in his 30’s had died suddenly. His
wife was devastated. Many worried about his two young children 4 and
7 years old. His parents couldn’t believe they would have to bury
their son. This isn’t supposed to happen!
This is certainly a shocking tragedy for his family. But it also
speaks to the larger community. It challenges us to think about how
we live our lives. If our lives suddenly came to an end, would we be
happy with how we’ve been living our lives?
In the first reading Moses invites the people to offer sacrifices to
God as the recognize all that he has done for his people. We too
need to look back. We not only call to mind all that God has done
for us through the life of Jesus but also in our personal life.
Looking back is sometimes called “twenty-twenty” vision as from that
perspective we can see things more clearly. In looking back we can
see how we have been led through some of the toughest times. In
looking back we can see the times that as we went through them we
wondered where God was. There were times we weren’t sure we would
make it. Yet, oddly, it’s those difficult times that have serious
influence on making us who we are today. In looking back, we often
see God’s presence in our lives more clearly than we do at the given
moment.
However, we need to stop long enough to look back and see where
we’ve been. That’s often the sticking point. We allow ourselves to
feel so busy and to have so much we have to get accomplished; we
don’t have time to look back. But without looking back, we can’t see
what really is important in our lives. We need to take time to ask,
“What brings out the best in me?” “What has shaped my life most
positively?” “Where do I find the goodness, beauty and life I
recognize as God?”
In today’s gospel Jesus is led by the Spirit to go into the desert
for forty days. Why would the Spirit lead Jesus to a place of
temptation? The Spirit knows that Jesus like all of us needs to face
our temptations. Those forty days represent the time needed to make
good choices with our lives by looking at where we have been and so
where we want to go. Temptations are a part of everyone’s life,
including Jesus’. If we don’t take the time to face them, they have
a way of affecting our choices without our even noticing them.
Lent is our time to take time; time to look back at what really
matters in life and time to face the temptations that can lead us
away from what we really want. We may protest that we don’t have
enough time. But think of the time we will waste pursuing things we
don’t truly value simply because we haven’t discerned what we want.
How many temptations will give into without realizing it because we
haven’t taken time to face them?
Lent is our invitation to take the time. If Jesus needed to take
this time, how much more do we? |
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