Did you ever catch yourself working at some repetitive task,
and realize that you are paying absolutely no attention to what
you are doing? The work might be getting done, but your
thoughts are definitely not with the work. Rather, they are
elsewhere, far, far away. Maybe it is something as simple as
daydreaming during a lecture, or dare I say, homily. Or it could
be zoning out on someone who is standing right in front of us
when our mind wanders toward something else within its memory
banks. Repetition can bring us a wonderful sense of comfort in
the fact that the familiar is safe, but repetition can also fail to
bring us anything new in life. Sometimes we can just fall into a
mode of complacency, and no real good is accomplished.
Lent, for me, can be just like that. The good intention at the
start of the season has been kept up, but here, four weeks into it,
the work has become ho-hum. Intentions to break old habits
have become new habits, without thought and without real
meaning.
The Church also recognizes this "phenomenon" and
acknowledges that our human nature needs a jolt once and a
while to bring a certain freshness to our intention and work. This
Fourth Sunday in Lent was always referred to as “Laetare
Sunday”, a phrase taken from the Introductory Rites for the day
which calls us to “Rejoice, 0 Jerusalem!” Like the disciples at
the transfiguration who need just a glimpse of the glory to be
revealed in Jesus in order to keep going as the road ahead got
tougher, we too need a glimpse of why we are disciplining
ourselves through our Lenten sacrifice. This Sunday is the half-
way point in the season and encourages us all to pause and see
how well, or poorly, we are doing in the work of sacrifice, and
more importantly, why we are sacrificing to begin with. Lent is
not just to make us want, or to focus all our attention on how bad
we are, how much we need to repent. Lent is a time of rejoicing,
that the salvation accomplished by God, already, can be ours
when we re-form our lives to be more in keeping with what He
has always wanted for us. This time is given each year to remind
us that we always have a ways to go in transforming our lives
toward the Holy, and this Sunday reminds us that everything we
do, as difficult as it may be, is more than worth it. God waits for
us to turn to Him, and as He waits, He already holds a crown of
victory, with each of our names on it!
As we begin our Parish Mission this weekend, we welcome
back Father John Codega, former chaplain extraordinaire at
Salve Regina University, and now newly appointed Pastor of
Christ the King Parish in West Warwick. We look forward to his
presentation of Jesus as the eternal healer, and look forward to
our each being renewed in hope. Jesus has always been there
in our lives, extending a hand of welcome and help, even when
we were too blind or distracted to know it. He promises to be
with us today, to take us from where we each are at present, and
lead us toward a life at once vibrant and fulfilling. His healing is
what we need in body, soul and spirit, and it is ready for the
asking. May we find in this mission a time of refreshment and
perhaps the “jolt” we may need to pay attention once more, and
be ever more prepared for the difficult road ahead.
