Dear Friends,
This Sunday, the Fourth Sunday of Lent, is called Laetare Sunday, when the Church takes a breather from Lenten practice and bids you: “Rejoice, Jerusalem…Be joyful, all who were in mourning!” – taken from Isaiah chapter 66. Laetare Sunday, takes its name from the Latin word which begins that entrance antiphon: Laetare means rejoice. This Sunday is marked by the presider wearing a rose-colored vestment, flowers may be used to adorn the altar, and the organ may be played more fully. Laetare Sunday is meant to give us hope and encouragement as we slowly progress towards Easter. The use of rose vestments probably stems from an ancient tradition of the Pope carrying a rose as he processed out of this Mass and then sending roses to Catholic heads of state or pilgrimage churches. Church officials during the Middle Ages reasoned that the customs associated with Laetare Sunday offered a brief reprieve from the solemn mood of Lent. They hoped that this spot of refreshment would renew the weary and inspire them to persevere in their Lenten devotions.
After all, the Lenten projects we have undertaken are not to be done for the sake of punishing ourselves but to set us free, make us holy and help us grow closer to God. Perhaps a good Lenten penance after the long, long winter would be to take a walk with God in the beauty of the sunshine.
In Letters to Malcolm, C.S. Lewis devotes a delightful letter to the subject of pleasure. His advice: begin where you are. He writes that he once thought he had to start “by summoning up what we believe about the goodness and greatness of God, by thinking about creation and redemption and ‘all the blessings of this life.’” Instead he says, we ought to begin with the pleasures at hand – for Lewis, a walk beside a babbling brook. For you it might be the smell of freshly baked bread, a nap in the middle of the day, a chance to sit on your porch with the sun shining on your face, or whatever thousand other simple pleasures may bring you calmness and peace.
Most of us love these kind of moments. We know from somewhere that goodness and beauty are connected with God. We are not natural ascetics who are trying to stamp out any form of pleasure in ourselves and others. We naturally enjoy beauty and our minds are drawn in some way to the one who is the giver of all good gifts. Seeing a beautiful sunset, our hearts give praise to the one who created it.
Yet in the busy lives we lead, so much is working against us experiencing any kind of joy in these simple God moments. We have become busy, practical, hurried and distracted people. We are so consumed by the social media in the palm of our hand that we miss the wonder of the person standing right in front of us. But if we were truly fully alive as Lewis was trying to teach, no pleasure would be too ordinary or commonplace to stir up adoration.
Talking to a woman recently about the struggles of life, she said that her spiritual director had told her that he was not recommending that she give up anything for Lent because he told her that “her whole life was a Lent right now.” He recommended that she intentionally do one enjoyable thing each day during Lent. So she has been going to a neighborhood coffee shop each day to have a vanilla latte and read a novel. She said she was finding it hard to do and even feeling guilty for doing it but she knew it was an important thing to do if she was going to get her life focused on the things of God.
On this Laetare Sunday, in the middle of Lent, perhaps you could take up the practice of noticing, savoring, and reveling in the wonder of creation all around you. Stop feeling guilty for not working twenty-four hours a day. Let God love you! Rejoice!
Peace,
Fr. Damian