Living Lent All Year!

I experienced a grief moment this morning. That's not uncommon during my prayer and meditation time. When you're almost 79 you've had plenty of sorrows over the years: deaths, estrangements, betrayals, unkindness, accusations. They turn into the muck that makes up the slough of despond. Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for me.

There are plenty of joys as well: births, baptisms, weddings, daily Masses, ordinary times with family meals and outings. Being a melancholic, I tend to forget about the good times and be constantly reminded of the challenges and failures. They become a temptation to discouragement which needs to be answered with gratitude and remembering God's goodness and the fact that He brings good even out of what looks like failure and disaster. Nothing can happen to us that God fails to bring good from it.

Not a single one of our devastating events was a stranger to Jesus.  He was like us in all things but sin. He saw all the evils of all time. He carried the weight of a sinful world on that wooden cross to Calvary. Think of it: the attacks from the religious leaders, the rejections despite even raising people from the dead, the slander and calumny, the betrayal of His closest friends, the ingratitude, the realization of His mother's suffering...the list goes on and on. Not even raising Lazarus from the dead after four days in the tomb could touch the hearts of the Pharisees. In fact, it became the source of rabid hatred and the determination to kill both Him and Lazarus as well.

For these last weeks of Lent, I want to be mindful of putting all my griefs in the cup of consolation the angel brought to Jesus in the garden. I want every one of my sufferings to be a finger helping to lift the heavy cross from His shoulders. I want to pray especially for those who received the faith, but rejected it. 

One of my favorite Lenten gospels is the Transfiguration, a reminder that it isn't only about grief and suffering. We are invited to see the reward for following in Jesus's bloody footsteps to Calvary. Wouldn't it be great to spend our Lent on the mountaintop seeing Jesus in all His glory conversing with Moses and Elijah? But, let's face it, most of Lent is slogging through the Slough of Despond. And it seems this winter many of the people I know have been there literally - picking up one foot at a time out of the muck and moving forward oh-so-slowly. And sometimes the slough is so deep and sucks us down so much that lifting up that foot seems nearly impossible. Help me continue, Lord!

Is that your Lent? Is that your life right now: during Lent, before Lent, after Lent? If it is, I encourage you to smile a lot. Remember Jesus' advice to those fasting to wash your face and spruce up so only your heavenly Father will know you are fasting? We can do the same with our sufferings. By all means ask others to pray, but then smile and move forward no matter how slowly. Jesus doesn't use a stop watch to measure our progress and, you can be sure, He's your coach right there on the course with you, helping you up when you fall and cheering you on. 

My birthday is coming up the final year of a decade. I'm nearing the finish line. I can almost hear my guardian angel and patron saints calling. And beyond the ribbon marking the end of the course stands Jesus. I hope as I cross the finish line to hear those words, "Well done, good and faithful servant: because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

Come, Lord Jesus! [Revelation 22:20]