Saturday, February 17, 2024

First Sunday of Lent, B - Tough Nut to Crack_021824


Image Credit: doodlescribble/1306@deviant.com

Deacon Tom Writes,
“Tough Nuts to Crack”


First Sunday of Lent, Year B

 

What a mess! The story of Noah that we read on this First Sunday of Lent begs the question of what evils could those people been up to that would have caused God to destroy the world... lock, stock and barrel and start all over again? One wonders. We might question next, are we pushing the upper limit to God’s tolerance with all the injustice, violence and indifference to the suffering of others we see around us? Something to think about on our Lenten journey perhaps.

A good place for us to begin this new season of Lent is with the word “Contrition” which comes from the Latin word contritio, a breaking of something hardened. Contrition is the action we take to break away from our patterns of behavior that cause us pain, our self-inflected wounds if you will. In spiritual language we call this behavior, “sin,” and the desire to break our attraction to what harms, no longer to be “crushed by guilt” is called, “contrition.”

The many evils we witness daily can take their toll on us and drive us into isolation but that is not a wise choice. Rather, the injustice that we see or experience can encourage us to look at the sin in our lives and our need for contrition, “for what we have done and for what we have failed to do” as our Catholic faith reminds us of our active and passive participation with sin.

It is interesting that the word “contritio” connotes a breaking something hardened. Scriptures warns us about “hardness of heart” in Psalm 95... "If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts." Pharaoh’s heart was hardened as were the hearts of the people of Israel as they crossed the desert to the Promised Land. Scripture reveals that nothing good results from a spiritual hardness of heart. All we have to do is look at recent history to see how this disease, like Covid-19, is also a pandemic of huge magnitude.

This Season of Lent is all about undoing that hardness of heart that has enslaved us. It’s time to make some changes in our attitudes and, as Philippians 2:5 says, “Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus.” And our attitudes can only change when we take steps to change the focus of our life from ourselves to put Christ as the epicenter.

I don’t think many of us enter Lent looking to do a complete makeover of our lives. Most of us know that even small changes in our behavior are very difficult to make. Just try to stop smoking or go on a low cholesterol diet! We find out then how making small changes really impacts many other facets of our lives

Maybe that’s why we approach Lent so cautiously. We are afraid to go messing around with some of those attitudes that need to be adjusted Let’s face it; it is easier to give up a meal here and there than to try reaching out to a coworker who is always making our lives miserable. It is much easier to say a Rosary than to say, “I forgive you” to someone who has hurt us in the past. It is much easier to do nothing because the problems we face are too big than to look at our own complicity with sin with a contrite heart and make the changes we need to make on the inside.

During this Lenten season, let’s ask God for His grace that calls us to a spirit of “Contrition” so He may help us in our efforts to breakdown any and all of those attitudes that keep us separated from His love, mercy, and compassion.

Enjoy the day and remember to say “I Love You” to those special people in your life.

Deacon Tom


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