From Lent to Easter and Beyond

Each year, we enter Lent with firm resolve to eschew the excesses of the previous holiday season. Broken resolutions that lead to the frivolity of Mardi Gras get repurposed for our time in the Lenten desert. At the stroke of midnight, our carriage turns into a pumpkin as we spend forty days living on the “bread and water” of the season. As Easter draws near, we face the prospect of going from famine to feast on the turn of a dime. We stand the chance of getting something like the bends by resurfacing too quickly if we don’t have a strategic plan of transition.

In a perfect Lenten storm, splashdown and reentry would be smooth and integrated. Without careful calculation, however, returning to “normal” could be more like a crash landing. A needs assessment can help separate the wheat from the chaff in terms of wants and needs. Ideally, the behavior modification achieved during Lent would become incorporated into daily life throughout the year. An inventory of sorts, along with decluttering and downsizing can serve us in good stead as we deal with our possessions. A careful assessment of what serves us in this life for our betterment and what we serve for our self-gratification is explained by Jesus in the following:

Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion? Otherwise, after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work the onlookers should laugh at him and say, ‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.’Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down and decide whether with ten thousand troops he can successfully oppose another king advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops? But if not, while he is still far away, he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms. In the same way, everyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple (Luke 14:28-33).

God knows that trying to renounce all our possessions at once is not possible even under the best of circumstances. The liturgical seasons afford us a measured, varied way to gradually let go of our possessions as we journey toward eternal life with God. Jesus offers the following teaching about the things that we have accumulated in our lives that can impede growth in holiness:

Now someone approached him and said, “Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?” He answered him, “Why do you ask me about the good? There is only One who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” He asked him, “Which ones?” And Jesus replied, “ ‘You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; honor your father and your mother’; and ‘you shall love your neighbor as yourself. The young man said to him, “All of these I have observed. What do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to [the] poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad, for he had many possessions. Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For human beings this is impossible, but for God all things are possible” (Mt. 19:16-26).

Having “many possessions” is not exclusively the province of the wealthy in our society. Many modern conveniences like smart phones and streaming services are well within reach of the average consumer and can claim large amounts of time and attention. Now, more than ever, we need to break free of what can capture our interest and distract us in daily life. For all the times we let sacrifice and deprivation overwhelm us, Jesus offers the following as a means of consolation:

Then Peter said to him in reply, “We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, I say to you that you who have followed me, in the new age, when the Son of Man is seated on his throne of glory, will yourselves sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life (Mt. 27-29).

As we journey through the liturgical seasons, may God give us strength and peace in following the eternal plan of salvation as we trust in his divine providence.