Lent

Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day in the season of Lent. This is a time when many Catholics turn inward to reflect on their lives with Christ, to examine their strengths and weaknesses, and to embrace the Gospel as their guide for living. It is a time of opportunity and growth, a time of rest and renewal. One basic idea for Lent is that life in the world can make a person weary, so go away with the Lord for awhile to a quiet place apart; give up the noise and distractions, listen for his voice and follow him.

That last part is the challenge, but with time and experience we begin to understand that he leads to the best places--but he follows his own values, not ours. So the journey is often a time of surprises. Francis had his Lent. He says "The Lord led me among lepers, and I showed them a heart full of mercy."
I think at least a little bit, Francis was surprised to find love in his heart because Lepers used to scare him. They were everything contagious, everything poor, everything that presented an indictment of his culture and his way of life. To find love in his heart meant a necessary abandonment of that life. He left everything behind, even his clothes. He put on the roughest cloth and went out barefoot into the world to embrace the poor. He became a beggar so that nothing of the world would occupy him, only the Gospel and its message of love. That was some Lent!

But in exchange he became a master at loving, more than an example, but a true path, a Christian path for people who feel the call in their hearts to love others as Jesus does. It's still a bright, happy, empowering way. And when I pray, it is the longing for Christ that strips me bare. 

It is my gift, my treasure, the heart I wish to give to the world. May your journey to Easter be filled with joy and love. Happy Lent! 

 

Here in Arizona, this is also the season for planting the summer garden. "Summer" means any time between March and June. June is the end of the garden for everything but jalapenos so during Lent I dig and compost and weed and plant, water and tend and fuss and worry and do everything I can to keep the garden alive long enough to actually get something to eat.

A few days ago as I was taking in laundry from the clothesline I found a bug sunning itself on the leg of my blue jeans. I know this bug. It is "The Destroyer". It grows to about three quarters of an inch and moves through the garden like an army of tanks, destroying everything in its path. Zuchinni is its favorite. To find them now before I plant the very first seed is a bad omen indeed.

I find in gardening many metaphor for the spiritual life. To start out easy in the softest days of the year, to gain strength from physical labor, to grow along with the garden in order to be strong enough for the challenges to come--the spiritual life is not easy. Fruits come "by the sweat of our brow" until finally, harvestime! In Arizona we go opposite to the Bible. We go forth rejoicing, carrying the seed to be sown, and we come back weeping, with a couple of sorry squash after all that work. Do you think my garden offers me an opportunity for conversion?