Genesis 9:8-15
1st Peter 3:18-22
Mark 1:12-15
Come. Let’s take a walk in the desert together.
“From a spiritual
perspective, the wilderness is that place we enter to be reminded of the One
who is truly essential in our lives, where we stand before God with no false
veneer, makeup, cologne, designer labels, or pretense. It is that place where
we confront the challenges of daily life not as insurmountable problems but as
steppingstones to growth. It is that place where temptation seems to hover
ominously over our heads in mirages of fakes and forgeries – but where mirages
collapse in the light of God’s strength. It is that place where we confront
ourselves with no other support than God.”
I’m reminded of a popular
movie, “Groundhog Day.” Perhaps you’ve seen it. It’s the story about a
conceited, egotistical TV weatherman who’s stuck in the same day. No matter
what he does he cannot escape Groundhog Day. The day just keeps repeating over
and over again where he meets and talks to the same people over and over again
until he’s forced to look in the mirror and start to change who he is. In the
end, he escapes Groundhog Day by giving his life over to serving others, not
himself, loving others, not himself.
But a walk in the desert
will be no easy trek for we must prepare ourselves for the perils that lie
ahead. During our journey, we will need to strip ourselves bare of our
pretentions, our sinfulness, our old self.
Welcome to the first full
week of our Lenten journey.
Are you ready for the
challenges we’ll encounter over the next 40-days in the desert?
In the desert there are
wild beasts, unrelenting winds, a blazing sun, unbearable heat, sand in our
eyes clouding our view, no water, and mirages around every corner. And the devil will be there tempting us.
A walk in the desert is a
dangerous thing. But with spiritual preparation, hard work and understanding,
the hike will bear much fruit in our growing relationship with God between now
and Easter Sunday.
Archbishop Peter Sartain said
something quite profound about our journey into the desert. If you haven’t picked up a copy of this
Lenten booklet, they’re in the vestibule. Here’s what our Archbishop said:
“From a spiritual
perspective, the wilderness is that place we enter to be reminded of the One
who is truly essential in our lives, where we stand before God with no false
veneer, makeup, cologne, designer labels, or pretense. It is that place where
we confront the challenges of daily life not as insurmountable problems but as
steppingstones to growth. It is that place where temptation seems to hover
ominously over our heads in mirages of fakes and forgeries – but where mirages
collapse in the light of God’s strength. It is that place where we confront
ourselves with no other support than God.”
“That place where we
confront OURSELVES with no other support than God.”
In other words, it’s time
to take a look in the mirror and ask ourselves, where am I in my relationship
with God?
I’m reminded of a popular
movie, “Groundhog Day.” Perhaps you’ve seen it. It’s the story about a
conceited, egotistical TV weatherman who’s stuck in the same day. No matter
what he does he cannot escape Groundhog Day. The day just keeps repeating over
and over again where he meets and talks to the same people over and over again
until he’s forced to look in the mirror and start to change who he is. In the
end, he escapes Groundhog Day by giving his life over to serving others, not
himself, loving others, not himself.
I’ve always seen this
movie as a metaphor for our relationship with God. No matter what we do in our
lives, God calls us to self-improvement. God wants us to be better people than
we are. Lent is the best time to work on this.
I read a beautiful
reflection recently by a favorite faith writer Richard Rohr. He talks about the four stages of development
in our covenant relationship with God.
He applies these stages
to the development of the Israelites as the people of God in the Old Testament
and the early Christians in the New Testament, but it could easily be adapted
to us today.
He says God does not
change; only our comprehension of God changes as we go through life.
Here are the four stages
of development in our relationship with God as stated by Franciscan friar Fr.
Richard Rohr:
”In the first stage, people start to experience
the reality of God and God's love as more than abstract concepts. At the same
time, however, they tend to believe that God's love is limited to just
themselves, a select few such as a chosen people or the one true Church.
In the second stage, people begin to respond
to God's love, but they perceive God's love as rather totally dependent on
their ideal response. They believe that grace is a conditional gift, that God
will love them if they are good, that God will save or reward them if they keep
the commandments.
In the third stage, people begin to see
God's love as unlimited and unconditional, but they do not see further than
that. They acknowledge that God loves them whether they are good or bad, and
that God is gracious to the just and the unjust alike. But they still think
that God is doing that from afar, from up in heaven somewhere. They do not yet
see themselves as inherently participating in the process. Frankly, they have
not discovered their own soul yet.
Finally, in the
fourth stage, they make the breakthrough to seeing that God's grace and love is
present within them, through them, with them, and even as them! The mystery of the
incarnation has come full circle. They can now enjoy God's temple within their
own body, as Paul loves to teach, and can love themselves and others and God by
the same one flow. It is all one stream of Love! They now fully realize that it
is God who is doing the loving, and they surrender themselves to being channels
and instruments of that Divine Flow into the world.”
What stage are you at in
this present moment?
The journey this Lenten
season is to continue to as Archbishop Sartain said, work our way on the
“steppingstones to growth.” This will happen in how we respond to the events in
our lives using Christ as our model.
As Fr. Rohr tells
us, Christ is the model of the final and fourth stage of development. The other
three represent the people of God and their development from the time of Adam
and Eve until Christ came in their midst.
So how do we work our way
up this ladder to God?
It won’t be easy.
As Richard Rohr reminds
us, the people of God many times “come kicking and screaming and denying” the
need to make this journey or take these “steppingstones.”
Our Catholic tradition
encourages us to make this journey through prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
PRAYER: Take at least
10-minutes a day to quietly pray to God the Father as Jesus did. Find a quiet
place and just spend time in communion with our Lord, in peaceful
contemplation. It might be on a park bench, or behind a closed door in your
house, or at Church before the Blessed Sacrament.
FASTING: Deny yourself
some pleasurable thing by giving it up, by fasting from it for the next
40-days. It might be a type of food or
drink. Or an activity (some people give up Facebook). Maybe it’s a part of
ourselves we are not pleased with and want to change. Whatever it is, use it as
a focal point of your fasting.
ALMSGIVING: I’m a big believer in the CRS Rice Bowl
campaign as a way of giving because the money helps the poorest of the poor
around the world. The very people Pope Francis says our Church is built for. But there are many ways
to give alms. Find your own way and then give with your whole heart. It doesn’t just have to
be treasure, your time or your talents can be offered as alms to others in
need, too.
So,
are we ready for our walk in the desert?
Please
know I’ll be praying we all have a safe and transformative journey.
I’ll
be praying that we escape our Groundhog Day and bring our new selves before the
Lord come Easter. Then together we will all rejoice!
- Richard Rohr’s “four stages” are adapted from Great Themes of
Scripture: Old Testament; pp. 110-112 (published by
Franciscan Media)
