THERE IS A TIME FOR EVERYTHING
I have heard and read a lot about Lent over my lifetime. What I am experiencing today brings joy and a sense of kinship with Jesus. It wasn’t always that way. When I was growing up, Lent focused on forty days of personal sacrifice and observing rules about fasting and abstaining. I do not remember much talk about the life of Jesus. His death was important but not so much his life. It was the pre-Vatican II era and the notion of giving up food or drink was front and center. We pretty much believed that breaking a fast or eating meat on Friday was a sin. Things have changed. The rules are loosened or perhaps it is better to say they have evolved. Faith, however, remains steadfast and expands to new levels of understanding.
Today, the Lenten practices of prayer, almsgiving and fasting are interpreted in ways that are more relational – they speak to loving your neighbor, feeding the hungry and sheltering the homeless. Instead of fasting from a certain food, it is suggested we fast from gossip, social media and the 24-hour news cycle. I smile hearing this in a homily or in print from Pope Francis. It feels right. It follows the gospel.
As I listen to my grown children talk about Lent and explain things to their children, I heave a sigh of relief. The ways of today are kinder and gentler than my youthful days of Lent. The God of Lent today is a God of love not a God of judgment and for that I am grateful. It took years upon years to move from the judgmental God to the one I know today and it was sometimes a rocky journey.
One of my favorite scripture passages is Ecclesiastics 3:1-8. It beautifully spells out how there is a time and a place for everything. There is a time when rules are important. They offer stability and instill a sense of discipline in us. There is a time for quiet personal prayer and reflection and a time to pray with our feet and get out on the street and make a difference. In today’s Gospel, Jesus seems to be saying in another way that there is a time for everything.
“There is an appointed time for everything and a time for every affair under the heavens…”
This Lent, I pray for the grace to recognize what time God is calling me to and for the grace to answer that call.
Anne Hansen