Once upon a time in the rainiest part of the rainy season, an old monastic began her pilgrimage to the holiest shrine on the holiest mountain in the land. Forced back by fierce winds and driving rain, she stopped at the foot of the incline to check directions one last time.
“Old woman,” the inn master scoffed, “this mountain is deep in wet and running clay. You cannot possibly climb this mountain now.”
“Oh, sir,” the old monastic said, “the climb to this shrine will be no problem whatsoever. You see, my heart has been there all my life. Now it is simply a matter of taking my body there, as well.” (Sr Joan Chittister in keynote address to the Assembly of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, Atlanta, GA, August 18-22, 2006)
This season of lent is a season of self examination and a season of journeying with Jesus to the cross, the grave, and the resurrection. It is a season for examining our hearts as we see the heart of God revealed to the world and for all the world. Do we have hearts aligned with God’s heart?
Maybe not. Maybe, we find ourselves in a wilderness where the troubles and lures of this world have disfigured our hearts. God so loved the world, as it was, so that it could become what it was meant to be. If you have read the Bible, you know that the world in which the Word incarnated was a mess. It was a world of extreme inequality, brutality, oppression, and death. It was a world lacking compassion. A world of fear and tribalism. It was a world of bad shepherds who stirred up the masses to have Jesus murdered. Yet, it was a world and its people whom God loved with the greatest of all loves.
Jesus was not wearing rose-colored glasses when he directed his followers to love their enemies, to be merciful, to be gentle, to be peacemakers. The world we inhabit is not so much different because people are the same now as then, and the troubles and lures we face are much the same now as then. And in the same way, the call of Jesus to follow in his way is the same now as then. We do not get to pick our times and our circumstances, but we do get to choose whether or not we will follow in the Way.
Where is your heart in this season of lent? King David took another man’s wife and had that man killed in an attempt to cover up his transgression. Herod, a weak man wanting to save face in front of his important guest, had John the Baptist beheaded. Pilate, in his disregard for human life and especially that of those Galileans, murdered a group of Galilean worshipers. Wanting to save their power and privilege, the religious authorities crucify the Prince of Peace. Powerful people doing terrible things is not new. Do not be dismayed. Do not lose your hearts. Jesus says love is the answer.
During this season of lent, through prayer, fasting, and alms giving - practices that return us to God, our true selves, and outward to the needs of others - we return to the heart of the matter. Hearts aligned with the heart of God will lead us in the way we should go even as the world remains as it is. Where is your heart in this season of lent?
Fr. Bill+