A SPIRITUALITY OF LENT
Jack Finnegan SDB
Lent is a time of awakening that invites us to embrace more consciously and responsibly the cycle of real life, life to the full (John 10:10). In a sense, Lent is a radical call to ever-deepening awareness of the quality of our inner and outer lives. It poses some very simply questions: How is the quality of your life and presence in the world? What needs to be let go? What needs to change? Is there dead wood cluttering your heart and soul?
Lent also prepares us to meditate deeply on the events marked by Holy Week and then to plumb the depths of the mystery of Easter. That link becomes visible when we reflect on the traditional gospel for the second Sunday of Lent, the Transfiguration. A deep understanding of this story is pivotal to the spiritual maturity of every genuine follower of Christ. More to the point, are you open to “the hand from a different country… the big medicine” that C.S. Lewis found affecting him body and soul in the Eucharist?[1] Does Eucharist touch you mind and body?
Lent is also a time to reflect on how Peter and his companions wanted to stay at the peak of a glorious experience. They had to learn that such experiences come to an end, and then it is back to the challenging ordinariness of everyday life. Lent is a time of return. It is a time of descent from the highs that all too easily distract us from ordinary routine and daily responsibility. Lent is a time for facing the realities of life as they are in the moment. It teaches us to face the dark, to acknowledge wilderness times and their many contrasts. It is also a time for reflecting deeply on our personal relationship with Jesus who fully understands dark and wilderness times, having lived them intensely himself.
Today we experience the dark and the wilderness in a wide variety of ways, inner and outer. There is the darkness we encounter in ourselves as well as the darkness and the wilderness in the world around us. Consider where the roots of your habitual negative reactions to people and situations are to be found. Can you recognise when you live defensively in fear or anger, jealousy or vindictiveness? What sort of energy characterises your presence, especially when your buttons are pressed? Are you alert to the tone of your voice? What about the look on your face or your pointing finger? Are you easily thrown by feelings of rejection or abandonment? What blocks you from the liberation that love brings, especially divine love? What about the buttons that others so easily press? Are you closed to the truth that will set you free (John 8:32)?
The same questions can be asked about the other negative energies that often dominate our relationships. Can we notice them, name them, touch them with compassion, and then let them pass? Can we take responsibility for them? Here is the spiritual practice: spot, acknowledge, let go. Easier said than done, but practice makes it easier. Reflect for a moment on what happens to Jesus after his baptism by John. St Mark tells us that he was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness where he was tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and angels ministered to him (Mark 1:12). Lent is about joining Jesus in the wilderness. It is about the reality of temptation, about wildness within us, and about the qualities of angels bearing divine love.
Practices of self-reflection also help us to embrace the inner meaning of Mark 8:34, If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. What self are we to deny space to? A good beginning lies with identifying the reactive self. Reactive habits are symptoms of what St Bernard called the false self. This is what we call today the conditioned self, the defensive self we created as very young children to make us feel safe in a dangerous world. It is not the original self, the deep self, the true self, the wise self grounded in love. It is an imposter. Taking responsibility for my own false self, becoming aware of its ways, is a cross indeed, but it needs to be done if I am to grow into emotional and spiritual maturity. The true self develops serene spaces where God will find me waiting with an open, receptive heart. The false self avoids such spaces and in so doing creates deserts.
During these days of Lent open your heart to the Spirit. Invite your true self, your original self rooted and grounded in love, to emerge and follow Jesus to Jerusalem. Take some time to reflect on the prayer St Paul prayed for the Christians at Ephesus. Make it your own. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:16-19). Can you see the outline of the true self in this prayer?
Lent is a time for renewing your spirit and nourishing your soul. It is a privileged time for strengthening your faith commitment and becoming more sensitive to the subtle movements of God in your life. Can you give more time to prayer and meditation? What about spiritual reading? Would you consider booking in for a retreat or a spiritual workshop? How about reminding yourself that the gift of life is for life lived in union with the rhythms of God? How about reminding yourself that contemplation is for the mission of divine love in the world, for a life of compassion, a life of helpful service to a world in need? Can you hear the cry for life from places torn by war, or drought, or impoverishment?
Traditionally, Lent has been a time for prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Can you identify creative ways of making such practices new for your life today? For example, what negative behaviours need attention? What services or volunteering can you offer? How about times of silence and solitude? Can you silently walk the Way of the Cross with repentance in your heart? Are there holy wells or other thin places to visit? Are there pilgrimages to make? How about your relations with nature and the whole question of ecological disaster? How can you love and respect nature in practical ways? How about emptying yourself in order to be filled? Can you engage with that form of purification and renewal that leads to wisdom of heart?
Inspired by Psalm 50(51) we pray for all whose minds and hearts are poisoned and weighed down by feelings of guilt and shame. Lord, may the doors of forgiveness and compassion open for them, doors of healing, doors of liberation. We pray that people everywhere may open their hearts to forgiveness. Lord, help us to forgive. Help us to accept forgiveness. With David we acknowledge our offenses and the evil that sometimes lurks in the dark corners of our minds and hearts. Lord, make us clean in the crystal waters of your love and mercy. May our hearts be pure, our spirits creative and steady, and may we have the courage to draw close to you in times of need and in times of plenty. Touch us with your healing finger. Smile on us and let your love fill us with the joy of life renewed. Be our rescuer. Be our helper. May we be singers of your praise, people alive in the awesome compassion of your Spirit, dancers in your joy.
Inspired by the Canticle of Jeremiah 14:17-21 we pray for an awareness of the pain caused by sin and the impact of disloyalty. Lord, gift us with tears when we see the suffering of so many people because of crime and the destructive actions of other people. With sadness we pray for the victims of wars and natural disasters. We pray for the victims of human trafficking and every form of abuse. Let them know peace. We pray for those who need help with illness and pain and do not receive it because of budgetary decisions or personal poverty. Open hearts and wallets. We pray for those who are victims of drought and famine. Inspire bearers of aid. Bless those who seek spiritual help to no avail. Let them meet wise souls. Lord, send bearers of goodness, bearers of peace, bearers of justice, bearers of compassionate support into the world. Lord, we acknowledge human complicity in so much evil and repent before you for forgiveness for all.
Inspired by Psalm 99(100) we pray for the gift of praise and a renewed capacity to sing new songs of joy to our God. Lord, touch us with your Spirit that we may serve you with glad hearts. May we praise you with spontaneous hearts, hearts alive with love of you. You are our God. You made us. We belong to you. We are your people, the sheep of your flock. With gratitude in our hearts we enter your gates. We bow before you with humble hearts, our lips murmuring soft and loving words of praise and adoration. We acclaim you. We bless you. We honour you. We glorify you. We applaud your beauty and the liberation of your truth. We acknowledge that you alone are holy. Holy God. Holy mighty one. Holy immortal one. How good you are. How lavish your vast and merciful love. Be with those who forget to pray. Be with those who ignore the harm they have done. You alone are faithful from age to age. May we exalt you above all forever. Amen.
[1] C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer (New York: Harcourt, 1964) 103.