May Jesus Christ be
praised and may his holy Mother pray for us.
Every Lent I seem to do
the same things. I think about the great
season of Lent and the joy of preparing for the great feast of Easter, and I
start to plan. I will make this
sacrifice. I will not eat this
particular food. I will say these
additional prayers. I will take more
time to be alone with God alone. I will
be nicer. I will be more patient.
And then, in the midst
of all of those plans, I am surprised when Lent begins. It happens so quickly. One evening it is Ordinary Time and the next
morning is Ash Wednesday. I have to make
my list of prayers. I have to remember
which foods I promised not to eat. I
need to choose another sacrifice for Lent.
I need to make another promise to God.
I need to slow down, but quickly.
There is so much to do. There are
so many promises to make and promises to keep.
Every Lent I seem to do
the same things. But maybe this Lent,
things could be different. Maybe this
Lent, I will not worry so much about the sacrifices that I should make. Maybe this Lent, I will not worry so much
about eating this food or that one.
Maybe this Lent, I will not try to add any more prayers to my day. Maybe this Lent I will choose only one thing,
because only one thing is truly important.
Only one thing really matters: following Jesus Christ.
We will follow Jesus Christ,
from the baptism to the desert, and from the desert to his preaching. We will follow him with the sick and we will
follow him with the sinners. We will
follow him up the mountain. We will
follow him to the Upper Room. We will
follow him to a court room, and to a lonely cross. We will follow Jesus Christ this Lent.
This Lent, things will
be different. We will not focus on our
sacrifices, but on His Sacrifice. We
will not focus on eating this food or that one, but on being fed by every word
that comes forth from the mouth of God.
This Lent, we will say our prayers, but we will focus not on the number
of prayers, but on the God to whom we pray.
This Lent, things will be different.
The Lord Jesus began
his preaching with a simple message: “The Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and
believe in the Gospel.” We begin this season of Lent with a simple goal: to
follow Jesus Christ. He will lead and we
will follow. He will speak and we will
hear. He will feed us and we will be
filled. He will promise, and we will be
changed.
Preached
at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC
