There are many events that I love about Church life and the Church calendar. What I love the most are the season of the Church from Advent to Lent to Easter to Pentecost. I love how each season culminates with something great. Advent ends with Christmas. Lent ends with the entry into Jerusalem. I love that each season requires a period of waiting. A period of rest. A period of anticipation. A period of enjoyment. A period of seriousness.
This Wednesday begins the season of Lent. It is a season (another one) of waiting. We're moving to Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem, to the last supper, to the cross, and the resurrection. Lent is an interesting season because it is a season of fasting. The purpose of which, if I remember my studies correctly, is to help us see clearer what is all about take place. This season of fasting requires each of us to give up something. If you are a liturgical nerd, you have probably given up something every year. If you are new to the seasons of the Church, you may not. If you are from Texas, you probably think this is too Catholic.
Lent, for me, is another season in which we are asked to give up something. Giving something up that perhaps holds us back or blinds us to what God is doing. Most of the time people give up little things such as beer, soda, certain foods, etc. They are to give up something that is a sacrifice to them. Something that costs them in the end. Something that is a struggle.
After a few months I have decided what my Lenten journey will be. Well, parts of it. I have decided to give up eating out. I have decided to give up sodas. I have decided to go to the gym four days a week. I have decided to limit my time on the computer at home to 30 minutes. I have decided to journal each day for forty days.
But are any of those really sacrificial? Am I willing to give up something that is going to cost me? Am I willing to give up something that I hold very dear. Something that holds me back or binds me in a way that blinds my eyes and deafens my ears.
The answer is no.
None of what I have listed will cost me anything. In fact, all will benefit me in some form. None costs me in a way that will open my eyes and melt the wax in my ear. There has to be something that I can give up that will be sacrificial.
Something.
Perhaps that something is what I will find during this season of Lent. Perhaps by the time we celebrate Passion Sunday, I will know what it was that cost me something.
Perhaps.
That is my prayer.
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