“Take courage friends. Let us go on together. Jesus will be with us. For Him we have picked up the cross, for His sake let us continue on.” (Imitation of Christ”)
Our life is a journey with paths, some of our choosing and some not. For Catholics, Lent is a time to draw nearer to Jesus. We are invited to walk through the desert, alongside him for 40 days. Although, the length and breadth of his love and sacrifice is beyond our understanding and grasp, we strive to grow in his love. It can be a journey of growth, charity and prayer. Many have asked me over the years, ‘What is Lent’? To which I’d like to say, Are you ready to grow in love with Jesus?
It may seem easy, but the narrow road can come with a kaleidoscope of moments. Saint Faustina, in her vision of the Two Roads gives us a way to see sin and hope. She puts forth, one path that is filled with joy, dancing and celebration but at the end of the path there was a “horrible precipice”. The other path was strewn with thorns and rocks, suffering and tears but at the end there was a “magnificent garden filled with all sorts of happiness”. Sin seeks to separate us from God. In the desert, we can detach from sin and can come to find a dream revealed that God has for us. Jesus was thirsty, hungry, tired and tempted by the devil, as we are in many ways. Lent is a time of fasting, almsgiving and prayer. Pope Benedict described this in his message for Lent as, “specific tasks that accompany the faithful concretely in this process of interior renewal.”. Let this stir in you, “interior renewal”.
I believe, that Jesus meets us where we are. We can feel otherwise and think Jesus meets us where we should be or ought to have been and other thoughts of imperfection that may whirl in our mind, but he meets us where we can see and know him. He wants us to recognize him from our birth. He offers the gift of His loving presence in all the moments of our life. He wants to guide us in all things. He calls us to ‘interior renewal’. One can easily find beautiful notes on Catholic fasting, almsgiving and prayer, but if I could humbly add to what I have come to learn on my journey, I feel we are called to grow in love of Jesus, ourselves and others, so that we live to the full and share in eternity. This is our journey. Much that the world has to offer, defies this in some ways as it is difficult to see when our lenses are fogged. If instead we choose to see and live beyond the superficial, we can give ourselves a gift of unconditional love.
My philosophical father used to say, “When we stop learning, we are dead.”. The power of those words remained with me all my life. I am not a great theologian or a debater, but I try to choose to grow in God’s purpose for me. In an excerpt from “The Imitation of Christ” Thomas Kempis says, “As long as you live, you will be subject to change, whether you will it or not-now glad, now sorrowful; now pleased, now displeased; now devout, now undevout; now vigorous, now slothful; now gloomy, now merry. But a wise man who is well taught in spiritual labour stands unshaken in all such things, and heeds little what he feels, or from what side the wind of instability blows.” This is our journey. This is where Jesus leads us. Our life can become a labour of love.
I pray that the we not fear the desert, for in the solitude we can dare to hope to see and live the dream that God has for us. May we live to the full and be fully alive.
Perfect Peace,
Claudia
OurNourishedSoul