March 10, 2010
Thursday After Ash Wednesday
Here, then, I have today set before you life and prosperity, death and doom. If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I enjoin on you today, loving him, and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees, you will live and grow numerous, and the LORD, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy…Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the LORD, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him. Deuteronomy 30:15-16, 19b-20
Then he said to all, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” Luke 9:23-24
Piety
To keep Lent is to follow Jesus in the prayer of wilderness and garden.
To keep Lent is to confront the principalities and powers first of all in prayer. With Jesus we face the dark side of ourselves this is so susceptible to capture and control by the powers. If it happens that we keep vigil publicly at the gates of economic, military, political or religious authority, we do so confessionally, acknowledging the solidarity of sin.
To keep Lent is to discover and remember who in heaven's name we are, as person and community. We pray against all confusers and confusions for our true identity and vocation. We know that means standing before the cross and making some choices.
The grace of this season is that Jesus suffers the choice with us. He's been over the turf and is our brother exactly on that score, with us in the struggle of our hearts. Let the further grace be that we make our choice as disciples, in the mind and heart of Christ.
(From Bill Wylie Kellermann, Seasons of Faith and Conscience and featured at a vigil at the White House on Ash Wednesday.)
Study
In our faith life, sometimes, the most direct way to achieve something is to move in the opposite direction. All too often, we are looking for the most direct way to get from point A to point B.
In life, we have many paths to choose. Our first reading from the Hebrew Bible, exhorts us to “Choose Life.” That is a choice more easily said than accomplished. The question in our daily life is how to we choose life? What happens when we have to choose between two apparent good options?
Jesus, through St. Luke, explains that there is no easy way to follow His Way. “…[W]hoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”
Action
Lent Day Two: How will you deny yourself and choose life in Jesus this holy season? What ways might you be able to get closer to Jesus and those around you? How can you go beyond giving up chocolate or wine or hamburgers?
What if you denied yourself around the clock access to Facebook, smart phones, and other technology in order to open up more space in your life and calendar for the Lord? Maybe you can not go cold turkey like you might if giving up your favorite food, wine or other consumable. But you could delete some of these applications (Facebook, NY Times, Twitter, etc.) from your phone and then limit or schedule your use of the phone for the next five weeks.
What if you took this season to see how to limit your carbon footprint by adjusting the thermostat, putting away the space heater, biking to work or taking public transportation every Friday in Lent? As gas prices climb past $3.50 per gallon, there are many ways you can start preserving the natural resources. Check out some ideas here: http://www.whatsmycarbonfootprint.com/reduce.htm
With all this extra time on your hands, just think how you can then take up His cross and your personal cross daily.
