Lenten Adjustments

Dear Friend,

As I write this, I realize that I still haven’t adjusted to the time change. The great “spring forward” just makes me want to “fall back” several times a day. Not as easy to adjust as it once was… and somehow appropriate that all this stumbling is triggered during Lent.

And another adjustment of sorts this week: St. Patrick’s Day gives way to the Day of the Lord, as it falls on the 5th Sunday of Lent. Put this one down not to legislative decree but to another source of (sometimes) mysterious guidance: our liturgical calendar. 

So, from several directions this week I am reminded that I (and even the Irish – around and within me…) are not always in charge. Adjust and move on, sayeth the Lord.  

Speaking of which, last week I heard a suggestion for a change for Ash Wednesday next year. Not the date, but the wording for the distribution of ashes. How about instead of “Remember that you are dust…” or “Repent and believe…” a simple: Get over yourself. Would that be an exciting way to begin our Lenten journey? It’s certainly a refreshing take on what it means to “follow,” which happens to be this week’s guidepost word for our Lenten journey. Get over yourself and follow, sayeth the Lord?

Turns out that what we will hear in this week’s Gospel is very much along these lines. It’s a speech by Jesus worded by John the Evangelist, though, and he tends to be, in this case anyway, if not more subtle, at least more parabolic: “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a single grain of wheat, but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” That’s the love we follow…yes, gulp, I’ll adjust and move on!

Gratefully,

Father Dan ofm, Pastor