A Sexegesima Sunday Thought to Start the Week Off Right
In the traditional Liturgical Calendar, today is Sexagesima Sunday. We continue to prepare our minds and hearts for Lent, something we began last Sunday, Septuagesima Sunday. It's time to consider and, ultimately, create a plan to incorporate almsgiving, fasting, and special prayer into our daily spiritual discipline for the coming Holy Season.
If you've followed our weekday posts recently, you've seen how exercise can help us at work. The strength, flexibility, and endurance gained from a solid exercise program will keep our body fit. Being in shape will help us do a better job over time. Most relevant to today's discussion: The discipline required to exercise effectively is similar to and will reinforce the discipline required to build your spiritual life.
As for our Lenten discipline, it can and should especially help whip our souls into shape. Just as a particularly intense regimen of exercise creates palpable changes in how we look and feel, so too Lenten discipline can serve as a special "workout" to improve the "look and feel" of the interior life of our soul. As with exercise, we may not notice changes right away. But over time, you will see improvement.
Keep in mind, though, that easy won't yield particularly impressive results: tough is the way to go. Recall the expression, "No pain, no gain" here. After you do that, just think about the world in which we live, the environment that surrounds us. You should be able to see why we need to create a demanding plan for Lent.
Let's face it: It's not a "Catholic" world to be sure. Not that this comes as news to any of us. While those who try to live good and holy lives have always struggled with the world, the flesh, and the devil, today's world can nevertheless look and feel particularly unfriendly. Being a Christian means opposing much of what that world holds out to be "good." Being a Christian can even put a target on your back in some parts of the world. Even at it's best, our society and culture is "secular," many times openly antagonistic to our Holy Faith. Some Catholics I know yearn for a past which they perceive was more friendly to the Faith; some work to change the world as it is to one that more enthusiastically shares our love of Christ and His Holy Church. Whether the former was ever the case, or the latter will ever be possible, I can't say.
Whatever your view, we should face the fact today that we live in what has been called a "post-Christian" society which, left to its own devices, would have us think, speak, and act like pagans. Living as a Catholic ain't easy. Then again, it's likely it never was easy to follow the Lord. Chapter 2 of the Book of Wisdom provides some perspective here. Make no mistake, it's talking not only about the world at that time, but our world. Read the whole chapter if you have some time this Sunday. Meanwhile, here are some excerpts. To begin, the author tells us how those who do not know or simply do not follow the Lord think:
"...The time of our life is short and tedious...we are born of nothing, and after this we shall be as if we had not been...our life shall pass away as the trace of a cloud, and shall be dispersed as a mist..."
Notice: No sense of an after-life, never mind Heaven. At least we Catholics know that this "valley of tears" has a purpose. The suffering and sacrifice we encounter helps to both soften us to be more receptive to God as well as toughen us to face whatever challenges come our way. But those who don't know God, or simply refuse to see Him don't really want to hear about suffering and sacrifice:
"Come therefore, and let us enjoy the good things that are present...Let us fill ourselves with costly wine...Let none of us go without his part in luxury..."
That's their answer to the difficulties of life: the endless (and ultimately never satisfying) search for pleasure.
"Let us oppress the poor just man, and not spare his widow, nor honor the ancient grey hairs of the aged..."
And their personal pleasure includes oppressing others. They seek control and dominance to fill the emptiness of a world without God. We, on the other hand, must never follow this path. As we all should know, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. If you don't see this all around you, you've been asleep (So wake up!) Instead of seeking power and the control over others it brings, we pursue justice.
"But let our strength be the law of justice: for that which is feeble, is found to be nothing worth..."
Just don't think your path will be easy if you eschew power and seek justice. Hence the need to toughen up. Indeed, here's what some may do to us when we try to live according to our Catholic Faith:
"Let us therefore lie in wait for the just, because his is not for our turn, and he is contrary to our doings, and upbraideth us with transgressions of the law, and divulgeth against us the sins of our way of life. He boasteth that he hath knowledge of God, and calleth himself the son of God. He is become a censurer of our thoughts. He is grevious unto us even to behold: for his life is not like other men's, and his ways are very different..."
Our very expression of our Catholic Faith is taken as a condemnation, one to be suppressed, even eliminated:
"We are esteemed by him as triflers, and he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness, and he prefereth the latter end of the just and glorieth that he hath God for his father. Let us see then if his words be true, and let us prove what shall happen to him, and we shall know what his end shall be. For if he be the true son of God, he will defend him, and will deliver him from the hands of his enemies. Let us examine him by outrages and tortures, that we may know his meekness and try his patience. Let us condemn him to a most shameful death: for there shall be respect had unto him by his words."
Strong words. Yes. Exaggerated? No. In some parts of the world, those who follow the Lord are condemned, tortured, and killed as a matter of course. You don't see much reportage of this in the media, but it's happening. Will those who have dominion over us here in our own country someday condemn us to death? I don't know - but I do want to be prepared.
So on to preparing for Lent. Let's not be afraid to be hard on ourselves for those coming 40 days. And by His grace, may our efforts serve to toughen us up.
Next week, Quinquigesima Sunday, we'll see what awaits us if we do persist in our spiritual discipline during Lent.
If you've followed our weekday posts recently, you've seen how exercise can help us at work. The strength, flexibility, and endurance gained from a solid exercise program will keep our body fit. Being in shape will help us do a better job over time. Most relevant to today's discussion: The discipline required to exercise effectively is similar to and will reinforce the discipline required to build your spiritual life.
As for our Lenten discipline, it can and should especially help whip our souls into shape. Just as a particularly intense regimen of exercise creates palpable changes in how we look and feel, so too Lenten discipline can serve as a special "workout" to improve the "look and feel" of the interior life of our soul. As with exercise, we may not notice changes right away. But over time, you will see improvement.
Keep in mind, though, that easy won't yield particularly impressive results: tough is the way to go. Recall the expression, "No pain, no gain" here. After you do that, just think about the world in which we live, the environment that surrounds us. You should be able to see why we need to create a demanding plan for Lent.
Let's face it: It's not a "Catholic" world to be sure. Not that this comes as news to any of us. While those who try to live good and holy lives have always struggled with the world, the flesh, and the devil, today's world can nevertheless look and feel particularly unfriendly. Being a Christian means opposing much of what that world holds out to be "good." Being a Christian can even put a target on your back in some parts of the world. Even at it's best, our society and culture is "secular," many times openly antagonistic to our Holy Faith. Some Catholics I know yearn for a past which they perceive was more friendly to the Faith; some work to change the world as it is to one that more enthusiastically shares our love of Christ and His Holy Church. Whether the former was ever the case, or the latter will ever be possible, I can't say.
Whatever your view, we should face the fact today that we live in what has been called a "post-Christian" society which, left to its own devices, would have us think, speak, and act like pagans. Living as a Catholic ain't easy. Then again, it's likely it never was easy to follow the Lord. Chapter 2 of the Book of Wisdom provides some perspective here. Make no mistake, it's talking not only about the world at that time, but our world. Read the whole chapter if you have some time this Sunday. Meanwhile, here are some excerpts. To begin, the author tells us how those who do not know or simply do not follow the Lord think:
"...The time of our life is short and tedious...we are born of nothing, and after this we shall be as if we had not been...our life shall pass away as the trace of a cloud, and shall be dispersed as a mist..."
Notice: No sense of an after-life, never mind Heaven. At least we Catholics know that this "valley of tears" has a purpose. The suffering and sacrifice we encounter helps to both soften us to be more receptive to God as well as toughen us to face whatever challenges come our way. But those who don't know God, or simply refuse to see Him don't really want to hear about suffering and sacrifice:
"Come therefore, and let us enjoy the good things that are present...Let us fill ourselves with costly wine...Let none of us go without his part in luxury..."
That's their answer to the difficulties of life: the endless (and ultimately never satisfying) search for pleasure.
"Let us oppress the poor just man, and not spare his widow, nor honor the ancient grey hairs of the aged..."
And their personal pleasure includes oppressing others. They seek control and dominance to fill the emptiness of a world without God. We, on the other hand, must never follow this path. As we all should know, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. If you don't see this all around you, you've been asleep (So wake up!) Instead of seeking power and the control over others it brings, we pursue justice.
"But let our strength be the law of justice: for that which is feeble, is found to be nothing worth..."
Just don't think your path will be easy if you eschew power and seek justice. Hence the need to toughen up. Indeed, here's what some may do to us when we try to live according to our Catholic Faith:
"Let us therefore lie in wait for the just, because his is not for our turn, and he is contrary to our doings, and upbraideth us with transgressions of the law, and divulgeth against us the sins of our way of life. He boasteth that he hath knowledge of God, and calleth himself the son of God. He is become a censurer of our thoughts. He is grevious unto us even to behold: for his life is not like other men's, and his ways are very different..."
Our very expression of our Catholic Faith is taken as a condemnation, one to be suppressed, even eliminated:
"We are esteemed by him as triflers, and he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness, and he prefereth the latter end of the just and glorieth that he hath God for his father. Let us see then if his words be true, and let us prove what shall happen to him, and we shall know what his end shall be. For if he be the true son of God, he will defend him, and will deliver him from the hands of his enemies. Let us examine him by outrages and tortures, that we may know his meekness and try his patience. Let us condemn him to a most shameful death: for there shall be respect had unto him by his words."
Strong words. Yes. Exaggerated? No. In some parts of the world, those who follow the Lord are condemned, tortured, and killed as a matter of course. You don't see much reportage of this in the media, but it's happening. Will those who have dominion over us here in our own country someday condemn us to death? I don't know - but I do want to be prepared.
So on to preparing for Lent. Let's not be afraid to be hard on ourselves for those coming 40 days. And by His grace, may our efforts serve to toughen us up.
Next week, Quinquigesima Sunday, we'll see what awaits us if we do persist in our spiritual discipline during Lent.
Comments