February 18, 2024

What makes for a good Lent? Is it keeping fast to each of your Lenten disciplines? Is it growing closer to God the Father through His Son? Is it simply being nicer to others? When we are offered the impossible task of “being holy as the Lord our God is holy” (Leviticus 19:2) and “perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), we may be uncertain if we have made any progress at all. That may be the point. That we, by our own efforts, cannot make this work and that we need God to get started on this journey, and we need God to bring it to a conclusion along with every step in-between.  

In considering the task of perfection, Saint John Henry Newman explains in his “simple rule of life”:

Do not lie in bed beyond the due time of rising; give your first thoughts to God; make a good visit to the Blessed Sacrament; say the Angelus devoutly; eat and drink to God’s glory; say the Rosary well; be recollected; keep out bad thoughts; make your evening meditation well; examine yourself daily; go to bed in good time, and you are already perfect.

Newman offers some sound advice, and yet the simplicity of his points can obscure the day-to-day difficulty of living out these goals. The issue with Lent seems to me that the effort is between placing ourselves in the mindset of taking ownership of our spiritual lives and immediately turning that ownership over to God. Lent is the tension between active and passive. Allow one mentality to dominate, and you’ll soon find your life falling off the edge of the well-worn path that the saints have traveled before us. While all that may seem complicated and daunting, returning to Newman’s advice offers a reasonably simple way forward – do what is before you and do it well. Sainthood, and thus perfection, isn’t always about mighty deeds and far-away missionary adventures. Your story of sanctification may, at times, include great experiences. It won’t even get off the ground, however, if you don’t do what is right there before you for the greater glory of God. Every saint that ever lived, and will ever live, had the opportunity of simple sanctification set before them with every meal for a saint has got to eat. Every saint will always be able to gauge their sleep and ask if they got enough or too much. Many saints who are alive today, and will be with God for eternity in the future, have dealt with bad drivers, lines at the store, and emails… so many emails. Who among us doesn’t have these opportunities for sanctification in our everyday lives? These are moments when we must do our part, yet we are also called upon to maintain ultimate trust in God that something good can come from our daily joys and headaches. Perhaps step one is inviting God into those ordinary headaches? 

I often say that the things we say ‘no’ to are almost more important than the things we say ‘yes’ to. We want to say yes to God, that is my hope; otherwise, why have you read to this point? We all struggle with realities in our daily lives that tend to take precedence over our time with God. Some of those realities, like caring for a sick child, can be occasions where we do that which is right before us and offer that time as an opportunity for God to enter our life. Other times, like when we stress out about what we cannot control, are perfect opportunities to give it all over to God. I’ll offer some practical steps that you can take with the time that remains in Lent and onward into your experience of Easter:  

• Don’t beat yourself up. You’re a child of God; confess your faults and move on.  
• Schedule time with God. Say no to something so you can say yes to God.
• Don’t limit yourself to the ideal. How many perfect pictures do you find in the Bible?
• Spend 10 minutes or take an hour in prayer. Offer what you have.
• Give friends permission to ask about your time with God. Bringing God into the rest of your life is the surest way to find more time for God.

Two Parishes, One Heart,

Fr. Adam