Rise Up, Dry Bones... (preparing for Lent)

This week's reading reveal a weariness in our Lord. When the pharisees argued with Jesus, "He sighed from the depth of his spirit and said, ' Why does this generation seek a sign?'" (Mk 8)

And then today...

”Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember?" (Mk 8)

My word of the year is TIRELESSNESS and so this exasperation expressed by Christ touches me, especially as a mother. How many times have a sighed after my children? And how many times as a daughter have I drawn that sigh from my Lord?

He gives me breath for that sigh of relentless love... and it is His Divine aspiration which changes everything. It is Lent. He is sighing. It is time to be moved.

I am weary.
I am grieving.
I am broken.
I am out of time, energy, desire, and resources.

And it occurs to me again that Lent is not about making idols of our own offerings... but about smashing the chains which bind us and entering into our liberation.

Fr. Benedict Groeschel used to talk about the tendency of Christians to feed ourselves on the drama of suffering; to become attached to it and fancy ourselves holy because we sit in darkness clutching our rosaries.

One hope of Lent is to smash the idols so that we can replace them with God alone. Giving up stuff is a small nod to what should be happening in the movement of soul. Breaking chains which prevents us from making our lives a gift of praise.

Lent is about dying. Dying to all the unholy passions and idols which obscure holy vision... and learning to live again.

Christ was weary with the Pharisees and disciples. Caught up in concerns about signs and provision, they were missing the point. He is weary with us, no doubt, even as we are weary with our own dullness. And yet...

Lent is here. We are hungering. And it is time to come alive.

"And as I looked... flesh had come upon them....; but there was no breath in them.... 'Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.'” (Ez 37)