True confessions about Lent

It’s humbling, but permit me to make a true confession about Lent: it’s not exactly my favorite time of the year. In fact something inside of me actually resists it.

Perhaps you may be speculating about my reasons for this resistance. Is it because of certain penitential practices?… or the persistent coldness of winter?… or the protracted length of the season? My answers are “yes,” “affirmative,” and “definitely.” It’s all three!

Admitting this weakness upfront has been a helpful first step toward Lenten spiritual growth. But a second step likewise is needed: actively subordinating my ‘true confession’ to other more-important and lasting truths. For example:

• “Remember that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return” (Ash Wed. Mass).
• “Apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5), yet “with God all things are possible” (Mk 10:27).
• “God is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Pet 3:9).
• “You have made us for Thyself O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee” (St. Augustine).
• “Entire conformity and resignation to the divine will is truly the only road that leads us to taste and enjoy that peace which sensual and earthly men know nothing of” (St. Philip Neri).

The more I’ve meditated on such truths, the more God has enabled me willingly to embrace His summons to deeper Lenten purification and Christification. That’s grace! And by God’s grace all of us can experience this spiritual fruit - even though, as children of Adam, we all have innate resistances to Lent and ultimately to God.

So let us pray for each other during this 40 day ‘yearly retreat,’ that God’s grace may fortify us in overcoming our resistances. If we sincerely seek the Lord, He will ennoble us with deeper conversion and freedom of heart. We can be confident of this, for “He is able to do more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power at work within us” (Eph. 3:20).

This article originally appeared in our Spring 2011 newsletter.