Dear Friends,
How are you doing on your Lenten journey? Did you make it through the first full week of Lent without surrendering to temptation? Are you continuing to fast and pray? Did you accomplish some of the good things you had planned to do this week?
I know, you might be saying that Lent is too hard; that giving things up is causing you to be sad. But, let me remind you – repentance in scripture is presented to us as a liberation, as a coming to ourselves, as a release from captivity. Repentance is the true key to joy and blessedness.
How can that be? If you remember the story from Genesis we heard on Ash Wednesday: When Adam fell, he fell under subjection to things he was supposed to rule: “Because you ate from the tree about which I commanded you, you shall not eat from it, cursed is the ground because of you! In toil you shall eat its yield all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bear for you and you shall eat the grass of the field. By the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread, until you return to the ground, from which you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
It was food that cost Adam his glory. He had been asked to fast from one thing and to eat everything else to his heart’s content. But Adam and Eve didn’t fast. They ate the one thing that could rob them of all their joy. They fell into subjection to their appetite. From there everything unraveled. The only way to get things right side up again is to repent, which means to turn around. When we repent, we do not enter into a time of misery and sorrow. We restore the dominion we ought to have over our appetites and passions.
This is the point of Lent: to take back the rightful dominion for which we were created. During this season, we focus particularly on a few things – perhaps meat or TV or candy or games or alcohol. If we fast correctly, we bring that thing into submission, and when Easter comes, we can resume that thing denied, no longer as slave to it, but now as rightful master.
Maybe you have not started your Lenten journey of repentance. Then, I encourage you to choose something and take dominion over it from now until Easter. Make it something easy, a victory you feel confident you can win with the grace of God. Do not try to conquer every sin. Start small; if you recognize the weakness in yourself, then the Lord can reveal his strength in and through you. Please enter the fast with joy, for it is joy that we are called to by our crucified and risen Lord.
This Sunday, the Lenten readings give us the story of the Transfiguration of Christ. The disciples get a glimpse of Jesus as he truly is – having a conversation with Moses and Elijah in the presence of God, the Father. In a similar way, the practice of our Lenten discipline will reveal the presence of Christ in us as we return to being the person the Creator intended us to be. Some of our friends may get to see Jesus through our service and our fasting. They may get to see a glimpse of the glory we are all called to share.
Peace,
Fr. Damian