Thursday, February 1, 2018

Two Weeks and It is Lent!

The calendar says that February has begun. This year we have an interesting juxtaposition of dates as Ash Wednesday falls on Valentine's Day and Easter Sunday is April Fool's Day.

April Fool's, a day of gags for delightful tricksters, has resonance with Resurrection Sunday. Some theologians describe redemption as God tricking Satan. Satan, unaware of Jesus' divine nature, destroys Jesus on the cross, only to learn that he was defeated by Jesus' righteous death breaks the curse and Jesus' power over death (which had been Satan's greatest weapon) is then revealed in the resurrection. (Personified) Death consumed Jesus and then discovered that the Man Jesus was God Incarnate--the Word in whom and through whom all things were made--and Jesus destroyed death from the inside because Death cannot contain Life. 

Simplistically overstated, Classical tragedies were generally about the fall of a great figure and comedy was about the rise of an insignificant one. Comedy often relies on things not being as they seem, while tragedy is the sad outcome where things are not as they should be. The crucifixion of Jesus, a shameful death, seems tragic which shifts dramatically Sunday morning into a "comedy," an unexpected and happy ending. The "nobody" is actually the Messiah King!

Valentine's Day, is associated with a third century martyr, who was later connected to courtly love. The Lenten journey, usually associated with prayer, fasting and sacrifice, seems at odds with the typical feasting, flowers and chocolate associated with the Romantic February 14 holiday. However, what an opportunity to re-envision Lent in terms of love! What if we were to see Ash Wednesday as a day to renew our commitment to our first love? What if we looked to our Creator-Redeemer as the one with whom we are beginning a special journey into a deeper relationship? What if we rediscover that the desire of our heart is union with God, and all other human love flows from the font of that Perfect Love who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit?

It is well to consider our Lenten choices prior to Ash Wednesday. I invite my readers to consider Lent as a time of intensifying one's journey into the heart of God. I would ask you to  see the beginning (Ash Wednesday/Valentines) as founded in the love covenant of marriage (as Christ is the groom and the church His bride) and ending with the grand joke (April 1) that all our suffering is in fact a prelude to all things being well, sin is forgiven, pain gives way to delight, sadness becomes joy, and all our human efforts are taken up into heaven to receive new meaning and eternal significance in the love embrace of the Holy Three God.

Lenten suggestions:
1. Fasting from food and other things which cover over your deepest longing for God. Make an empty place within to open your heart and soul to encounter God. Discipline of the appetites is an unavoidable starting place to become holy.
2. Pick something to read and reflect upon--slowly and deeply. Let it soak in and change you. Quality, not quantity. If it makes you know and love the Lord more, than it is a worthy choice.
3. Pick someone to benefit from your generosity--time, talent, treasure. Loving God is connected to loving others. God tells us to be kind to others with the same kindness He has bestowed upon us. God created the world, so in His Name, make the world a better place in a focused, ongoing way. Perhaps you could pray, volunteer, and donate money saved from skipping a meal or some other self-centered entertainment and provide for others to a person in need or some worthy ministry.

Lent need not be about drudgery. Lent is about new life. Sin, especially sins which involve pleasure, are deceitful. They are April Fools gone bad--the joke is on us and the joke is not funny. Sin is tragic in the classical sense. Lent is about love and divine romance, the unveiling of new life and salvation in the Messiah who appeared to be a nobody. A (classical) "comedy" Lent is one which appears bad but ends well. It seems to involve suffering but it actually nourishes life.

This Lent, make choices which will bring you closer to God, the Holy Three. Make sacrifices which will open you to be filled with Divine Light and Life. Engage in practices which will open your mind to truth and purify your thoughts and desires. This Lent, do things which are so beneficial that you will want to continue them on April 2 and beyond.

You have two weeks to figure out what that will be.... 

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