The Letter of Titus Prepares Us for Lent
It's Shrove Tuesday. Lent begins tomorrow. We're just finalizing thoughts for a special Lenten series starting with our next post, which should be the day after Ash Wednesday.
For now, it's one last day before the most penitential season of the year begins. Yep, it's time to face the music and get on with our Lenten devotions which will include some form of fasting and abstinence. While the Church has stepped back from the rigors of the past, penance still matters, along with prayer and almsgiving, in our Lenten spiritual discipline. And fasting and abstinence can - really should - take its place in whatever form of penance you commit to.
If you're not sold on the importance of penance, especially during the Holy Season of Lent, this passage from St. Pauls' Letter to Titus might help convince you of its fundamental importance in our lives, and its central place in our pious practices during Lent.
While I've read Titus many times over the years, somehow this passage never had the impact it has during this go-round. Why? Because we find St. Paul admitting to a rather lengthy list of faults and sins. When you read it, maybe it will speak to you as it did to me.
"Admonish them to be subject to princes and powers, to obey at a word, to be ready to every good work. To speak evil of no man, not to be litigious, but gentle: shewing all mildness towards all men. For we ourselves also were some time unwise, incredulous, erring, slaves to divers desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But when the goodness and kindness of God our Saviour appeared: Not by the works of justice, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us, by the laver of regenration, and renovation of the Holy Ghost."
When I recently read this during my morning reading and study of Scripture, the admonishments could easily be applied to the coming work day. We're all subject to some authority when it comes to work. As such, even those of us who run our own businesses should incorporate some form of "obedience" at work, We may not have a master or boss telling us what to do. But we do serve clients and customers. We owe them our best efforts. And we should put forth those efforts in a timely fashion. So we're obedient in our timely and diligent performance of our service.
But doing our "good work" well in the required time frame doesn't exhaust our duty to serve. Besides our best work, the way we deal with the people should call forth our best behvior: "To speak evil of no man, not to be litigious, but gentle: shewing all mildness towards all men."
So far, so good. But it's the next passage that really grabbed me. That's where St. Paul "confesses" his personal faults. While I always knew he was once the enemy of those who followed Christ, I had a sense that his persecution of Christians was driven by what he thought was zeal for being a good Jew. I hadn't considered that he might also be, well, less that saintly as a person. But here we find him admitting to the sort of unsavory thoughts and behaviors that plague us ordinary guys as we go about our business every day, including being "unwise, incredulous, erring, slaves to divers desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another."
That's St. Paul talking. He wasn't just a zealous Jew before his dramatic conversion. He was, like us, subject to the sort of imperfections and sins that mark fallen human nature. I'm not sure why, but I found his admission, well, shocking.
And if you, like me, carry around the burden of faults and sins every day, perhaps serious penance during Lent will make more sense. Maybe, like me, you've got a lot to be sorry for. And so Lent can serve as a special, dedicated time to face our faults, confess our sins, and do penance.
Make sense?
Whatever commitment you make this Lent to penance, do so in a joyful spirit. Yeah, penance itself may not be a day at the beach. But what it can - and will - do to and for us can be something wonderful.
Even if our conversion from sin isn't as dramatic as St. Paul's, we can all revel in these final words of this passage from the Letter to Titus: "But when the goodness and kindness of God our Saviour appeared: Not by the works of justice, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us, by the laver of regenration, and renovation of the Holy Ghost."
St. Paul offers words of great consolation and hope. God is good and kind. His mercy flows from that goodness and kindness. It's not dependent on our works and not deflected by what we've done in the past. In our acts of penance, He sees our sorrow for our sins. That's all He requires to save us, "by the laver of regeneration, and renovation of the Holy Ghost."
We pray that such hope helps sustain us in our commitment to some serious penance during Lent.
For now, it's one last day before the most penitential season of the year begins. Yep, it's time to face the music and get on with our Lenten devotions which will include some form of fasting and abstinence. While the Church has stepped back from the rigors of the past, penance still matters, along with prayer and almsgiving, in our Lenten spiritual discipline. And fasting and abstinence can - really should - take its place in whatever form of penance you commit to.
If you're not sold on the importance of penance, especially during the Holy Season of Lent, this passage from St. Pauls' Letter to Titus might help convince you of its fundamental importance in our lives, and its central place in our pious practices during Lent.
While I've read Titus many times over the years, somehow this passage never had the impact it has during this go-round. Why? Because we find St. Paul admitting to a rather lengthy list of faults and sins. When you read it, maybe it will speak to you as it did to me.
"Admonish them to be subject to princes and powers, to obey at a word, to be ready to every good work. To speak evil of no man, not to be litigious, but gentle: shewing all mildness towards all men. For we ourselves also were some time unwise, incredulous, erring, slaves to divers desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But when the goodness and kindness of God our Saviour appeared: Not by the works of justice, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us, by the laver of regenration, and renovation of the Holy Ghost."
When I recently read this during my morning reading and study of Scripture, the admonishments could easily be applied to the coming work day. We're all subject to some authority when it comes to work. As such, even those of us who run our own businesses should incorporate some form of "obedience" at work, We may not have a master or boss telling us what to do. But we do serve clients and customers. We owe them our best efforts. And we should put forth those efforts in a timely fashion. So we're obedient in our timely and diligent performance of our service.
But doing our "good work" well in the required time frame doesn't exhaust our duty to serve. Besides our best work, the way we deal with the people should call forth our best behvior: "To speak evil of no man, not to be litigious, but gentle: shewing all mildness towards all men."
So far, so good. But it's the next passage that really grabbed me. That's where St. Paul "confesses" his personal faults. While I always knew he was once the enemy of those who followed Christ, I had a sense that his persecution of Christians was driven by what he thought was zeal for being a good Jew. I hadn't considered that he might also be, well, less that saintly as a person. But here we find him admitting to the sort of unsavory thoughts and behaviors that plague us ordinary guys as we go about our business every day, including being "unwise, incredulous, erring, slaves to divers desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another."
That's St. Paul talking. He wasn't just a zealous Jew before his dramatic conversion. He was, like us, subject to the sort of imperfections and sins that mark fallen human nature. I'm not sure why, but I found his admission, well, shocking.
And if you, like me, carry around the burden of faults and sins every day, perhaps serious penance during Lent will make more sense. Maybe, like me, you've got a lot to be sorry for. And so Lent can serve as a special, dedicated time to face our faults, confess our sins, and do penance.
Make sense?
Whatever commitment you make this Lent to penance, do so in a joyful spirit. Yeah, penance itself may not be a day at the beach. But what it can - and will - do to and for us can be something wonderful.
Even if our conversion from sin isn't as dramatic as St. Paul's, we can all revel in these final words of this passage from the Letter to Titus: "But when the goodness and kindness of God our Saviour appeared: Not by the works of justice, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us, by the laver of regenration, and renovation of the Holy Ghost."
St. Paul offers words of great consolation and hope. God is good and kind. His mercy flows from that goodness and kindness. It's not dependent on our works and not deflected by what we've done in the past. In our acts of penance, He sees our sorrow for our sins. That's all He requires to save us, "by the laver of regeneration, and renovation of the Holy Ghost."
We pray that such hope helps sustain us in our commitment to some serious penance during Lent.
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