Ready for Lent?

It’s that time of year again. Around the water cooler, the normal chats about movies in theaters and front page news are being peppered with something a little different. Lent is fast approaching and everybody is planning their Lenten sacrifices. This is the season that hates chocolate, scoffs at soda, and turns up a nose at shopping. No vice is safe. The practice reaches all ends of the Catholic spectrum and even manages to attract people outside of the Church. The reasons for sacrifice are varied. Sometimes the season is shouldered for the sake of weight loss, or for restarting New Years resolutions. Some people give things up out of habit or guilt. The readings for the last Sunday before Ash Wednesday remind us why it is we sacrifice.

There is a particular thread that runs throughout the Old and New Testament readings and the Gospel this week. Bold figures known for their strength, for their faith, and for their love of God are humbled. The great prophet Isaiah cries out for his sins and the sins of his people. With his booming voice that crossed miles and spread Jesus’ name, Paul declares himself unfit for his calling. Simon Peter, the father of our Church, cannot stand to be seen by Jesus himself. Three men who stand at the foundation of the Catholic faith are made to be so small. Has that feeling ever come up in you? Tasked with something large, told that you are something great, shown a great amount of love, you realize your own unworthiness and cower. Being faced with greatness causes us to evaluate our own greatness. That’s precisely what happened with these fathers of our faith in the reading. Standing before true grace and unending love shed light on how weak they were. Luckily the stories do not end there. In the face of humility, God responds. A hand is extended and grace is given. The floor is no place to spend the rest of your life and God in His mercy does not make us stay there. Each of the men receives love and a call; the love provides strength to answer the call.

The same thing happens in every story. God shows His glory to man. He responds with humility. God extends His hand and together they continue on the journey. It is a simple story, and it is one that comes up often in our life like, for example, here in Lent.

There is a true showing of love to us from God. The faithful are brought to the table and ashes are place on their foreheads to begin the season. We remember the staggeringly great act of sacrifice on the cross and we see a glimpse of the love that is being offered to us. It is here, when faced with the cross, that we are invited to humility. We are invited to look at ourselves and evaluate what it is we are doing with the life that Jesus died to save. We can cling to our pride and shrug off the question or bury ourselves in justifications or we can have humble minds and hearts, looking with critical eye at our choices. Standing here can be frustrating or it can be completely devastating but it is the only place from where the next step can come. From there, God acknowledges our sin but reminds us that He is greater. His love covers all things and all that is requires is an invitation. He calls us forward, upward, and gives the grace to move.

It is from this place that we should be making our Lenten sacrifices. They are not a habit we blindly follow, nor are they a diet plan. They are a response to the sight of God’s overwhelming love. They are signs of our humility, recognition of our smallness and His greatness. They are an access to self-awareness and to grace. God extends a hand to us in the absence of candy and television and Facebook, much like He extended a hand to Isaiah, Paul, and Simon Peter. Grasp that hand tightly and take the gifts given to you. God’s generous outpouring of grace is more than worth giving up your morning coffee, is it not?

While this anticipates the movements of the next week, there is still merit in planning early. These readings call us to prepare our hearts and fix our eyes on Christ for the start of the next forty days. The season of Lent is one filled with grace and opportunities to grow. I pray this week that God blesses you with a humble heart and with an understanding of His extravagant love. Mediate with care on your Lenten sacrifices and do not be afraid to follow where God is leading you.