Reflection for March 1, 2009

The First Sunday of Lent

“Repent and believe the Good News”

A rainbow! Good news!! Is this really Lent? This springtime of renewal that we call Lent is all about the softening of the hard ground, the cold ground, the drizzle-soaked reality of our lives and hearts. It is a tilling of soil so that the glory hidden beneath can burst forth in vibrant colors.

It seems as if this year especially, we do not live in a bright colorful world. We live in a time where each day we hear some bad news either on the global, national, local or personal level. Illness is rampant. Loss of loved ones or jobs or homes or abilities are a part of our reality. A rainbow! Good News!! Lent is inviting us to dig underneath our sorrows and our fears to find the hope beneath it all. We are invited to believe the good news, to trust that our God will never abandon us.

Now is the time to accept the God of the “messy middle”. Our God neither ignores nor minimizes our distress, but stays with us, embraces us, “grows” us, when both we and our circumstances are less than desirable. Our God of good news and bows in the sky, is a God with dirty hands from digging in the dirt, from giving us air and nourishment as we believe ourselves into another Spring. Our God stays with us in the wind and rain, in the drought and cold, in the slippery ice of our lives.

God’s promise of salvation is always God’s will for us. Lent is not so much about what I can give up, or what noble action I can do, but how I can respond to the promise God has buried deep within me. What new sign of hope can I recognize in my reality? What new sign of hope can I be in my reality? Can I trust in my own potential and God’s goodness?

These contradictory realizations of the sorrows in the world and the goodness of God can be held together in one’s heart. Neither needs to be discarded to experience both fully. This is what springtime, what Lent is about. It is the annual preparation to accept the wild assertions of Easter again. Life does triumph over death; goodness is more powerful than evil; the rich and powerful don’t always win; it is possible to stand at the foot of the cross and not look away; someone can roll away the stones that keep us entombed. To believe again in these glories of Easter, we must begin by digging deep to find the good news, the God-presence in the everyday lives we lead. In asking the question, “Where are you, O God, in the mess of this time, this life?” we expect to begin to recognize the answer in the experience we have. In asking the question “Do I get a rainbow too?”, we expect to recognize signs of God’s fidelity around us. In facing boldly the winter of our lives, we begin to catch glimpses of Spring. Happy Lent!

Reflection by Sister Mary Ann Daly, SC