| Our annual Lenten journey begins in an ash heap that offers us numerous experiences and encounters. Marked with a sign of mortality, ashes in the form of a cross on our forehead, we embark on a pilgrimage of encounter. It starts by recalling that we are of the earth—ashes to ashes and dust to dust—and, therefore, should be grounded in this existence. Yet, as people of faith we believe that there is a time before our birthdate and continuance beyond our death date. So, we embrace not only the physical but the spiritual reality that is us. |
| We pledge to strengthen our relationship with God through deeper prayer and accompaniment, with others through enhanced outreach and almsgiving, and with ourselves through greater discipline and self-denial. From Ash Wednesday, churchgoers move to the first Sunday of Lent walking with Jesus into the desert where He encounters Satan, and the church encourages us to face our own challenges, obstacles, deceptions, and demons. Though our human tendency is to run or hide from them, Christianity wants us to name them, claim them, and tame them with, and in imitation of, our enfleshed Lord. |
| The season’s second Sunday invites us to advance with Jesus from the desert to the mountaintop where we can catch a glimpse of divine glory that exists on a higher realm than the one where we dwell. This part of the journey that moves upward reflects life as a path that has ups and downs, peaks and valleys, twists and turns, curves and straightaways, potholes to avoid and hills to climb. Reaching various summits, we can feel exhilaration in our exhaustion, and we can sense that the transfiguration of our own bodies in glorified forms in an existence beyond this world awaits us. |
| On the third Sunday, Lenten pilgrims continue the odyssey with Christ who goes to Jacob’s Well where He meets a person who is disparaged—like a baseball player who comes to bat with three strikes. She is a woman in an age of men, a Samaritan in a culture of Jews, and a person with a reputation that makes her an outcast even among other women. The well symbolizes depth and water symbolizes reflection. Much as Jesus instructed His fishermen-disciples to go deeper, so does He instruct us; He wants the woman to reflect upon her worth and wants us to better understand our vocation and mission as also being purposeful. |
| When we pass the halfway point of Lent, we arrive at the fourth Sunday when Jesus comes across a blind man who, through their interaction, gains deeper insight than most people who can see. Through Jesus’ healing touch the man advances from seeing nothing to seeing outlined figures to seeing a man; then he recognizes Him as a prophet and eventually realizing that He is the Messiah. This unfolding sways us to use not only our eyesight to see but our hindsight to analyze, our foresight to proceed wisely, and our insight to grasp what exists beyond material substance. When we begin to see as God sees, we reach an important juncture along our spiritual expedition, and we realize that we’re getting where we’re called to be. |
| Let’s pray for one another as we continue on the Lenten roadway. Some of us are battling demons, others have caught a glimpse of a better existential state, still others are discovering depth and reflecting upon how it changes their value, while others are gaining insight into themselves and their relationship with the world. As we keep progressing along the path, it is important to know that we do not travel alone. God is with us and often we recognize angels who accompany us. Let us proceed toward journey’s end, toward heaven’s gate, with one another in mind and heart. Together, we’ll get there. |
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