Lenten Reflection

Christians are entering the Lenten season. We have much in our world to reflect on this year: The continuation of war in Iraq and the tenuous peace in other places, the global poverty and all that perpetuates this oppression, the move away from a real understanding of basic human life and the process that guarantees it, and the question concerning the basic fabric of traditional marriage in society.

These are all major issues that challenge us in the west today. But these big social issues are also encountered in our own life within the matrix of the human heart and the deepest place of our human being in the spirit and soul. Lent is a time to reflect on our personal participation in such major things through the more subtle inner attitudes and daily practices that often go unnoticed by others and us. Are we upset by violence? Then we must recognize the anger in our own soul, and bring it to the cross of Christ so that inner peace might be reborn within. Are we upset by abortion and the manipulation of human life? Then we must recognize the manipulation and need to control others within our own soul. Are we upset by the breakdown of traditional marriage? Then we must look to our own relationship with Jesus as the bridegroom of our soul, and our relationships with others flowing out from this fundamental love relationship in Christ. Only when these things are in order in our personal life can we expect to have any positive effect on the greater social issues of our time. As Jesus says, "If you are faithful in the little things, you will be given the great." Lent is a time to take an account of such things.

Most religions have some version of a season for more intense reflection on such things. The Moslems celebrate Ramadan, during which prayers and fasting are practiced in a more intense way. The Zen Buddhists observe "Sesshin," or "collecting the heart mind," where a most intense and grueling meditation schedule is maintained without much food or sleep for a week. We Catholic Christians celebrate Lent every year.

On Ash Wednesday Catholic Christians and other liturgical churches receive ashes as a sign of the beginning of Lent, a time of fasting and more intense prayer before the celebration of Holy Week and Easter. These ashes have great significance, as does the whole season of Lent.

What do these ashes signify? Certainly they signify biblical repentance, or turning back to God with

"sackcloth and ashes." Fasting is also a biblical sign of the willingness to change one's heart and one's behavior. These things cut right to the core of our self-image and comfort zones. Food and appearance take up a lot of our energy in modern society, and have done so in most civilizations of the past. These ascetical practices cut through these more superficial self-images, and challenge us to go deeper into the spiritual core of our being. There we discover who we really are, and that appearance means very little, or nothing at all, relative to the more important things of spiritual life. There we discover the Reality of God, and the reality of our very being.

The ashes are made from the palms used on Passion Sunday from the previous year. These hearken back to the crowds welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem amid cries of "Hosanna," or "Save us now." These same crowds would soon cry "Crucify Him," when Pontius Pilate tries to release Jesus from the capital punishment for which he sees no basis in His conduct under Roman law. Yet, in the end he succumbs to the cry of the crowd and has Jesus crucified. In this all humanity is signified as guilty of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

The making of the ashes from last year's palms has a deep symbolic meaning along these same lines: The cries of the palm waving crowd are fickle. One week they are crying out Hosanna, and want Jesus as their messianic king. Another week and they are crying out to crucify Him, because He has not met their expectations of that Messiah. Likewise, the religious leaders of their day have not supported Jesus' ministry, but see Him as a threat to their whole religious system, and their rather tenuous peace with the Roman Empire . For all, Jesus is a Savior, but at the price of seeing through all that is merely external and superficial in our very existence, as we have allowed it to degenerate and stray form the deeper things of God.

So the palm branches signify the more superficial and fickle meanings, joys and sorrows, of life. These must be burned, and brought down to ashes. Then the forehead of every believer is signed with those ashes in the form of the Cross of Jesus Christ, through which the old dies and passes away, and the we are reborn like a newborn babe into the original beauty of our being as God originally intended, or at least as close as we may come in this age of creation. All of those false and superficial self identities, likes and dislikes, that we let accumulate in the subtle, or not so subtle areas of our life through the "ordinary" things of life must be burned up, and brought back down to the ground of reality. For the Christian this all happens through the cross of Jesus.

The eastern religions sometimes call this rediscovering the "ground of being." The "Zen," or "meditation" Buddhists call this rediscovering the "face we were born with." Taoists say that we must become a newborn baby once again. Christians say that the old person must die, and we must be "born again" in Christ.

We are also taught that the word, "humility," actually means to be brought down to the earth. We remember King David covering his head with dirt and ashes after the death of his wayward son, Absalom. Humility is nothing more or less than bringing all that we are down to the dirt, to the ground of our being. The superficial and false must be brought down so that we might rediscover our real being in God though Jesus Christ.

We also remember that the first human being is called Adam. God is portrayed as a potter molding man's body out of clay. This involves a word play in Hebrew between Adam ("man") and adama ("ground"). So humility, or being brought to the earth, is not only a letting go of the old and natural of the fallen world, but also a returning to that which is the oldest, the most original, and the most natural and pure, as a creation of God.

This is a twofold movement. One is away from the "natural," "carnal," or worldly self that we have allowed ourselves to become. This is seen as redemption to something new. But it is also a rediscovery of

the original call of God for all humanity and creation. This is from original creation. The eastern Christian mystics and theologians say that we have strayed from the natural, and now call what is unnatural natural. The work of Redemption is harmonized with restoring a much as possible the original purity of Creation through letting the old self fall away, and allowing ourselves to be reborn in Christ.

We are also aware of the movement of the contemplative life through the cataphatic, or positive and discernable things of religion, to the apophatic, or unknowable things that can only be known through pure spiritual intuition. In the active life of the cataphatic way we learn to replace the bad with the good things of God. We do this through meditation on the word of God and the life of Jesus and the saints, and various disciplines of fasting, vigils, almsgiving and such. Basically this is displacing the bad of the old self with the good of Christ. As they say, if you want to stop doing the don'ts, get busy doing the dos! In the contemplative life of the apophatic way we pass over to the things of God that are beyond our comprehension through any human faculty life senses, emotions, or intellect. Here we perceive by pure spiritual intuition beyond, but not in conflict with, the things of human senses, emotion, or intellectual understanding. This is what Christian mystics have paradoxically called," knowing through unknowing." This is where we return to the "ground of being." This is where ultimate humility brings us who persevere in the journey through the active life of asceticism, and deeper meditation on Jesus and the things of God.

This Lent let us allow the Spirit of God to strip us of all that we have allowed to subtly invade our life from the superficial, and really allow God to return us to His original plan for our life. We must let the Lord burn up all that is not primary to our spiritual life. In this we die with Christ, and it will seem uncomfortable at first. But ultimately it will result in being reborn to that original person God created us to be. This will burst forth into the joy of resurrection as a newborn babe, and Easter joy!

John Michael Talbot, one of the most prominent names in Christian music has a ministry that has spanned over twenty-five years. He is well known as one who gave up the riches that come with fame. Living as a hermit in the integrated monastic community he founded in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas , many of the songs come from his forty original albums are well known by millions over the world.

  Among his numerous awards are a Dove Award, the President = s Merit Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences and Humanitarian of the Year award from Mercy Corps International. He has been honored to perform for Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Pope John Paul II. He has produced 46 albums, authored 15 books and is an acclaimed lecturer, teacher and retreat master. To learn more about John visit www.johnmichaeltalbot.com .

Contact

Catholic Online
https://www.catholic.org/ CA, US
John Michael Talbot - Author, 661 869-1000

Email

colirf@catholic.org

Keywords

Lenten

More Catholic PRWire

Showing 1 - 50 of 4,716

• « Prev
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• 8
• 9
• Next »

A Recession Antidote
Randy Hain

Monaco & The Vatican: Monaco's Grace Kelly Exhibit to Rome--A Review of Monegasque-Holy See Diplomatic History
Dna. Maria St. Catherine Sharpe, t.o.s.m., T.O.SS.T.

The Why of Jesus' Death: A Pauline Perspective
Jerom Paul

A Royal Betrayal: Catholic Monaco Liberalizes Abortion
Dna. Maria St.Catherine De Grace Sharpe, t.o.s.m., T.O.SS.T.

Embrace every moment as sacred time
Mary Regina Morrell

My Dad
JoMarie Grinkiewicz

Letting go is simple wisdom with divine potential
Mary Regina Morrell

Father Lombardi's Address on Catholic Media
Catholic Online

Pope's Words to Pontifical Latin American College
Catholic Online

Prelate: Genetics Needs a Conscience
Catholic Online

State Aid for Catholic Schools: Help or Hindrance?
Catholic Online

Scorsese Planning Movie on Japanese Martyrs
Catholic Online

2 Nuns Kidnapped in Kenya Set Free
Catholic Online

Holy See-Israel Negotiation Moves Forward
Catholic Online

Franchising to Evangelize
Catholic Online

Catholics Decry Anti-Christianity in Israel
Catholic Online

Pope and Gordon Brown Meet About Development Aid
Catholic Online

Pontiff Backs Latin America's Continental Mission
Catholic Online

Cardinal Warns Against Anti-Catholic Education
Catholic Online

Full Circle
Robert Gieb

Three words to a deeper faith
Paul Sposite

Relections for Lent 2009
chris anthony

Wisdom lies beyond the surface of life
Mary Regina Morrell

World Food Program Director on Lent
Catholic Online

Moral Clarity
DAN SHEA

Pope's Lenten Message for 2009
Catholic Online

A Prayer for Monaco: Remembering the Faith Legacy of Prince Rainier III & Princess Grace and Contemplating the Moral Challenges of Prince Albert II
Dna. Maria St. Catherine Sharpe

Keeping a Lid on Permissiveness
Sally Connolly

Glimpse of Me
Sarah Reinhard

The 3 stages of life
Michele Szekely

Sex and the Married Woman
Cheryl Dickow

A Catholic Woman Returns to the Church
Cheryl Dickow

Modernity & Morality
Dan Shea

Just a Minute
Sarah Reinhard

Catholic identity ... triumphant reemergence!
Hugh McNichol

Edging God Out
Paul Sposite

Burying a St. Joseph Statue
Cheryl Dickow

George Bush Speaks on Papal Visit
Catholic Online

Sometimes moving forward means moving the canoe
Mary Regina Morrell

Action Changes Things: Teaching our Kids about Community Service
Lisa Hendey

Easter... A Way of Life
Paul Spoisite

Papal initiative...peace and harmony!
Hugh McNichol

Proclaim the mysteries of the Resurrection!
Hugh McNichol

Jerusalem Patriarch's Easter Message
Catholic Online

Good Friday Sermon of Father Cantalamessa
Catholic Online

Papal Address at the End of the Way of the Cross
Catholic Online

Cardinal Zen's Meditations for Via Crucis
Catholic Online

Interview With Vatican Aide on Jewish-Catholic Relations
Catholic Online

Pope Benedict XVI On the Easter Triduum
Catholic Online

Holy Saturday...anticipation!
Hugh McNichol

• « Prev
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• 8
• 9
• Next »