The
Prayer of Lent
Give
me your heart and I will give you my eyes.
Give me your heart and I will give you my
lips.
Give me your heart and I will give you my
hands.
These
are sayings that express the spiritual truths that what we see and
say and do comes from our hearts. They express the psychological truth
that what we see and say and do are projections of our inner selves.
We see things not as they are but as we are.
The
church's year is a cycle of prayer. It is a succession of celebrations
in which we recall the stories of our faith and through this process
are brought more deeply into the knowledge and presence of God himself.
Ash Wednesday, we begin the season of lent. It is a season in which
we ask the Father "to help us to understand the mystery of your
Son's death and resurrection, and teach us to reflect it in our lives."
From understanding in the mind and heart we move to relevant living.
The
season of Lent is modeled on the example set by Jesus himself. Just
as athletes practice diligently, good teachers prepare meticulously
and politicians strategize their campaigns, Jesus went to the desert
to prepare for his mission. He was called to bring the Good News of
Salvation, but he goes into the desert first to listen to his heart.
He needed to reflect on the nature of his mission and to prepare himself
to carry it out. The American writer, Thoreau, cut himself off from
other people for two years. "I went into the woods to confront
the essential facts of life," he said, "lest when I come
to die I should discover that I had not lived." Without some
reflection we cannot hope to live worthwhile lives even on a human
level, much less on a Christian one.
Traditionally the desert is seen as a place not blessed by God; it
is a barren place without comfort or shelter. It is too hot by day
and too cold by night. It is a place where one is totally exposed.
But in this aloneness, and barrenness and exposure, one can see oneself
with a new clarity. One comes face to face with oneself and face to
face with God. When Jesus went into the desert he came face to face
with his enemy, the devil. He came face to face with his inner self.
As
we pray our way around the Church's year we are invited during lent
to go into the desert. Each one will have to find the place, the desert,
where they can be present to their true selves. This may be a physical
place that is away from others. It may be an inner space that one
sets aside even in the midst of a noisy city and a busy schedule.
Harder than finding the place is finding the courage to enter into
it. Inside it we become still and listen to our hearts, our fears
and our failures, our hopes and aspirations.
In
the silence we will have to read our own hearts, and this takes courage
because if we do not like what we hear we are challenged to change
what is written. Three things will be questioned.
The
first is our GOALS. Our goals are our god. They are the priority objectives
towards which all our efforts are ultimately directed. Are our goals
purely materialistic or do they embrace something that is beyond the
material? Next are our MOTIVES. We may sanctimoniously proclaim a
noble goal, but our motives may be far from worthy. I knew somebody
who was dedicated to serving the poor, but her real motive was to
have power over people who, unlike her peers, would not talk back
and criticize her. The final area is the MEANS that we use. We may
be highly motivated to a worthy cause but this does not justify unworthy
means. This can be the pitfall of many, especially in politics. They
may enter with noble motives and a desire to correct the evils of
the situation but soon they find themselves sucked into using evil
means. Parents often destroy everything by succumbing to physical
or psychological violence within the family to attain a worthy, well
motivated goal.
The
prayer of lent is the prayer of self viewing and self acceptance.
If this is done with faith, faith in a God who is loving and who has
such a personal love for each of us that he sent his Son who died
for us, an inner joy and energy will be released. This personal journey
will bring us, together with the Church's lenten journey, through
passion to resurrection.
