Day One Ash Wednesday Feb. 26, 2020,

Relent, v. i. To soften in feeling, temper, or determination; become more mild, compassionate, or forgiving.

Forty days to become less stern, less stubborn.

Forty days to soften.

This means that in the interim, since the last Lent, we have hardened. Hardened our view of others. Hardened our view of who we are. Hardened our view of who needs us, who doesn’t. Hardened our view of who we need, what we need, and what we don’t.

We are stubborn. We are stern. This has not been different from the time of Moses and his people, who wanted to go back to Egypt.

We are called, again, in this Pre-Spring time when the seeds just begin to rouse from Winter slumber, to soften, as the late Winter rains soften the snow, soften the earth. This will bring growth capable of breaking up the hardest rock. Our Lent must break up our hardened hearts.

Day Two Feb. 27, 2020

Silent adj. Making no sound; quiet; still.

It is incredibly hard for us to be silent. It isn’t just our own silence, but the reality that in our modern existence nothing is silent. Stop where you are, and remain silent. Hear that TV? That music? Hear the steady hum of engines in the distance? Planes? Cars? Your household heater? In some ways we can think that the Redeemer came when he did so that scripture would not be filled with Him saying: “Turn that off, will ya?”

Still, even He had to go out into the desert to pray. A desert is not without sound, but it is more quiet.

It is time on this second day, to turn off not only speakers and screens, but also internal noise. You know your own internal noise, there is no need to explain. Turn it off. Find your desert. Just you and God, and several billion stars. Hear that soft, still sound?

Day Three Feb. 28, 2020

Lento Music - adj. In a slow tempo. Used chiefly as a direction in music.

Lento – in a slow tempo. We need this direction. Quicker, faster, immediate – this is how we lead our lives now. We fret if the computer takes more than five seconds to do anything. We tap our foot if the popcorn takes too long in the microwave. We are spoiled. These forty days should change this. These forty days need to be lived at a slower, lower pace. Take time on this first Friday of Lent to participate in the Stations of the Cross, even if you are alone.

Linger over each station. Feel the drama, the pain, the separation. No one there and then knows how this will all end. Look into Pilate’s eyes…and Veronica’s, and Mary’s. Watch the slow trudge up the hill. Remember, it is all for us.

1

The Universe moves softly, stately, and mostly silently, along its path. As we try to speed up, it gives us perspective. So does the Cross. We must come to some understanding of both. Lento.

Day Four Feb. 29, 2020

Redolent adj. Having a pleasant odor; fragrant.

It is that smell which every Catholic church has embedded in its walls. Incense. Other traditions have it as well. It has so much to offer. Not only does it smell sweetly, but the smoke rises and curls, dancing on its own as it rises on unseen currents. It is almost like our prayer made visible.

Early burnt sacrifices were of meat or grain. These were sweet smelling in their own way, but it is hard to think of a temple smelling like a tailgate at a football game. Whoever discovered that resin and other sweet things when burnt smells so nice moved our minds a little further along.

Incense starts in fire, and gives itself up to praise God. We could be like that. We should be like that. We rise, we dance, we encourage the senses and spirits. Then we disperse, become one with God, but yet, we linger on.

Day 5, March 2, 2020

Corpulent adj. Large or bulky of body; stout; fat.

In the first few days of Lent, if we have “given up” something, we really miss it. It might be popcorn, or the internet, or movies. It is not just food. We are “fat” in our minds, not just our bodies. Animal bodies get “fat” because they take on more food than they can use. We do this with our minds and habits as well. We have more clothes than we can ever wear, more ball caps than there are days in the month, more horsepower in the driveway than is safe. This is especially true in the United States.

This is probably because we don’t feel safe with “enough”, we feel we must have “more than enough”. We are not so trusting of God, then. We missed that part about the lilies of the field.

But now, some days into Lent, this need for more seems lessened. How could we have bought so much popcorn? How can we miss such a sunset for the internet? LOL indeed. We are slimmer, in mind and body, even if the scales do not yet show it. We are slimmed down to a point where spirituality begins to shine through. We like it. Lent is not just about Easter preparation. It carries its own blessings. One of them is a growing lightness of being.

Day 6, March 3, 2020

Excellent adj. Possessing excellence or superior merit; remarkably good.

In the autumn, spiders spin up little “parachutes” made up of web material, and, catching the breeze, float across the landscape. Even small spiders can spin a long strand. The object is probably to spread their genes to new places, thus strengthening the entire population’s base.

To some, this is creepy or scary, but there is a light, literally, in which this can be seen as beautiful. Pick an October morning after a breezy night, and find an expanse of grass. Do this at sunrise. face East. As the sun brightens this day, look to the grass. You may see a sort of shimmering carpet. It is hundreds of little strands, strands of spider silk caught on the blades of grass, blowing slightly and reflecting God’s sunlight for you, all across the field.

2

It didn’t have to be this way. There isn’t anything inherent to evolutionary needs to cause this display to be beautiful. There is no measurable reason why the display pleases us so. There is no measurable reason why God dispenses gold, in the form of leaves, at our feet as we run down a path in Autumn, either. Nor is there one for how a crashing surf or trickling waterfall affects us.

God is excellent to us. For every setback, thousands of gifts are rained on us every day. Choose the warm dark night or the breath of dawn. Sunrise or sunset. From a child watching an ant hill, to the farthest part of the Cosmos, it is excellent. To be sure, there are events in nature that are not positive, from our perspective. However, we are really pretty small. Despite the answers we have to so many questions, often, “Why?” is still a mystery.

God is excellent to us, here, in time. We have that promise of going on even further. It is necessary to spread this news and bring as many along as want to come. Any excellence we have individually is contained in the universal excellence.

Day 7, March 4, 2020

Indolent adj. having or showing a disposition to avoid exertion; idle; lazy.

We can’t agree to call ourselves idle or lazy. After all, it’s a matter of degree, isn’t it? We look at the people who volunteer all the time as, well, needy for companionship. They are always there, organizing, working. Sometimes people even go to church more than once a week. It always seems that one sees the same faces at events in any community.

Each one of us believes we know what we are able to do communally. We have jobs that enable us and our families to live. We have entertainment so we can remain sane in today’s world. We have down-time to remember who we really are. Sometimes doing work for the community at large seems unduly stressful.

There is a secret, though, that is attainable by most of us. That is, doing things for others lightens our own burden. People working at a food pantry serving the poor smile a lot. People preparing a meal on Christmas Eve morning, for those in need, laugh, tell stories, and when they part say: “See you next Year!” People teaching or taking a class may be physically tired, but inside they are energized. They have a certain staying power in a tired world.

To be idle is to lack movement. To be lazy is to be self-centered. Neither is wrong per se, but over time it means we are not fulfilling the promise we have been given. We can be very active at meaningless pursuits, and remain idle in doing things of real significance. It is an individual task to see the significance of how we use our gifts, of whether we advance God’s wish for us, or just our own. It is something to be considered in these forty days.

Day 8, March 5, 2020

Plenteous adj. Plentiful; copious; abundant.

The American Pilgrims may have had turkey at Thanksgiving. However, the odds are that they had more Passenger Pigeons than the bigger bird. That pigeon was much more plenteous in that time and place, as references to skies being covered with that bird are easily found. Many other animals good for humans abounded then as well.

3

We do not use the exact words anymore, but in the Eucharistic Prayer, in English, we used to say: “…from Whom all good things come…” In other words, from Whom all plenty comes.

We tend to forget where plenty has its origins. When we say that the gifts we have are plenteous, we mean not only that there are a lot of birds, but many kinds of birds, and quadrupeds, and plants and trees and sunsets and sunrises and oceans and lakes. You get the idea.

We forget Who gives us this. We forget how freely it is given. We remember that we have been given charge over creation, but we forget there will be an accounting.

There are no more Passenger Pigeons. Skies which darkened with them no longer support one of them. We humans are responsible for their demise, along with a large number of other animals and plants and fish. We serve ourselves when we do this. We forget Who is behind the plenteous nature of the universe. We diminish that plenteous-ness. The fact that we do this as a group gives us room to hide, we think.

We will be held to account, as a people and as individuals. In this forty days, we should contemplate that.

Day 9 March 6, 2020

Insolent. Boldly rude or disrespectful, contemptuously impertinent; lacking respect.

Several people in the Gospels considered the Christ to be insolent. They considered his actions to be rude. They felt he rejected societal norms, and therefore lacked respect for good order and even religion.

Not all societal norms deserve our respect, then or now. Jesus’ interaction with the poor, sinners, adulterers, broke societal norms. They probably would today. Jesus would probably not be the guy to double check that his car doors were locked while driving through a poor neighborhood. While he clearly abided by religious requirements handed down by God, he knew that the first necessity for all requirements would be the welfare of God’s people. This would clearly be what God wants, and in general terms was the reason for the requirements.

Which of us would fail to heal the sick on the Sabbath, if we could? There are, to be sure, some rules in society today which masquerade as benefitting the people, such as the Death Penalty. It is considered insolent, by some, to call for the elimination of those rules. It is considered insolent to say that the “norm” which says that a certain per cent of us must remain poor for the economic system to work is nonsense.

These “norms” are forms of laziness, both in thought and deed. It does take more effort not to simply kill a murderer and be done with it. It does take more effort, as well as a little affluence out of our own lives to make sure poverty is adequately dealt with. God’s rules however, are not set down for a majority of people, money, or votes. These rules are set down for the whole people. It is very difficult to read Leviticus, Deuteronomy, or the Gospels, and come to any other conclusion.

Why is it considered insolent, then, to say out loud what God’s preferential option is? The answer is the same as when Jesus angered the powerful, the warm in their palaces, and those who bent even religion in order to maintain their own comfort. It is rude to point out when God’s Word is perverted by man. It lacks respect, respect for power. It is dangerous to do so. It can even get you killed.

4

Day 10 March 7, 2020

Flocculent adj. Of a wooly appearance.

In the Gospel for the Second Sunday of Lent, whether in Cycle A,B, or C, we read of the Transfiguration. We are told in each of the Gospels that Jesus face shown brighter than the sun. We are told that His clothing “…became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.”

A fuller was one who dyed or bleached wool. This was not an easy job. Dye was expensive, and only for richer people, hence the idea of “royal purple”. Very white clothing was also a rarity, as either cotton or the more general woolen clothing tended to hold onto a more grayish or brownish appearance. So, imagine Peter, James, and John’s astonishment at this peripatetic preacher’s shining face and clothing.

What is this all about? Why does this miracle happen at this particular time and place? People with a high Christology, (those who feel Jesus knew all along His God-nature), have no issue here. This is merely the God-man ratcheting up his God side, to get these three key figures to pay attention.

For those of us with a low Christology, (those who feel Christ discovered over time who He truly was and his mission), this is the moment all the pieces fit. Jesus wanted to show someone besides his mother that he accepted the grand bargain, and was committed to it. That it was all still new in its entirety to him may be inferred by His caution to the disciples in each Gospel to keep silence as to these events until later.

Did He still have doubts? Probably. His human side comes out from time to time, such as at Gethsemane, and perhaps even in His Psalmic outcry on the Cross. After the Transfiguration, though, He is in. All in. Where before He was considered even by his key followers as a man of God, now even they begin to see the God-man.

It also means, though, that He sees the final part of the journey. That is why these readings are set in the second week of Lent, to prepare us, as He was preparing, for Holy Week.

The Transfiguration, the Cross, and the Resurrection are a sort of tryptich. Each leads in a way to the other. All the past, as Shakespeare says, is prologue. We, like Jesus, must now prepare for the journey. Each of us comes to know how we fit into a relationship with an Almighty God. We do it gradually, and when we understand, however dimly, we prepare for our own death and resurrection. Lent helps to teach us how.

Day 11, March 9, 2020

Condolent. adj. Having Sympathy with a person experiencing pain or loss.

In giving a Homily on brokenness, the idea that we are all somehow broken and in need of repair, there is one certainty. Unlike a sermon on any other subject, it is certain that more than one person will approach the preacher and comment, almost universally in a positive manner.

This seems to mean that large numbers of us, if not all of us, acknowledge that we are broken in some way. The people who come up to comment on this message by no means could be classified as

5

obviously being broken. Eminent members of the community, as well as people who seem a little bit down, come up to talk. Somehow, we all feel it.

In the Gospels, Jesus understands this as well , with a wide variety of people. Obvious cases, lepers, blind, paralytic people, come or are brought to Jesus. Even Lazarus, and Jarais’ little girl, broken to the point of death, are involved.

Less obvious at first are the others. The woman at the well is broken, but is hiding it. The woman brought to Jesus as caught in adultery has been found to be broken by others. The rich young man comes up probably with a smile on his face, but leaves, deeply troubled, having found out that he is broken, and worse, unwilling to undergo repair. Even Peter doubts, and denies.

The common denominator is the sympathy, and even empathy Jesus shows to each of these people. He lightens their load of pain or loss, as much as they will allow Him to. At that point, they become His.

He will do more than that. He will go to death to lighten the load, the pain, the loss, to lighten their load of death itself.

We have all met condolent persons in our lives. They do the work of God, with the Grace of God. We know or sense that they alone cannot undo every pain we have. We sense there must be more. There are a few people who don’t feel, or don’t admit to feeling, any brokenness. Pray for them. They need condolence perhaps more than the rest of us.

Day 12, March 10, 2020

Prevalent adj. Widespread in a particular area at a particular time.

There is a difference between fashion and style. Many are familiar with the look back through an old high school yearbook. Different hairstyles, different modes of dressing, different shoes have fueled much hilarity, not only by younger viewers but by those who once wore those fashions. The best one can say is that ”We thought we looked good at the time!”

There are fads that come and go, but there is an underlying “something” with some people who carry off any fad with style. So it is with what we call religion. After Vatican II, there were many forms of praising God, which were put forward in the name of reform, which some look back on, askance. Some of them went a little far, exceeding basic beliefs. Others, though out of favor today, were not basically against teaching, and served a basic purpose of enhancing our relationship to God. There were songs and hymns written in folk music genre, which have morphed over time for piano or organ, and are still used. Such changes as the “turning around” of the altar, the use of the vernacular, and lay participation in parts of the Liturgy are now the norm.

There are many who are always in favor of what is prevalent, what is the passing “norm”. Change from that “norm” upsets them, has them question the values of the institution itself. Change is difficult. The definition of what is “prevalent” above indicates that change may be expected either right around a corner or in the next short time period.

There are two things to remember in this context as we think about our life in the Church this Lent. One is that though there may be changes in the fashion of how some things are done in the Church, the core remains. The Creed is the Creed. The Sacraments remain. Those words etched in red in the Gospels still pertain. The second is that Jesus Christ was an agent of change. Liturgical details, ritual details, were just that. Details. When Pharisaical folks asked him about them, He would change the subject. He would go

6

to the core, to style, not fashion. What is your relationship to God? All else depends on that. One can spend Lent worrying about details, or about the relationship to God. One of those will not be there in ten years.

Day 13 March 11, 2020

Pestilent adj. Infectious, as a disease; pestilential.

When the Black Death roared through Europe in the 14th Century, it was simply known as The Pestilence, or The Death. Historians debate, but it killed between one quarter and one third of the population. Look to your left and right. Of the three people you see, one would die a horrendous death. When it was over, cultivated fields returned to nature because there was not one heir to inherit and claim them. All the heirs who might claim were gone.

People reacted as people still react to such things. Unwilling to blame God directly, some did so indirectly, saying God was punishing a sinful society as a whole. One still hears that from some preachers when a calamity occurs. Some thought smaller, saying the dying were being punished for their individual sins. That sometimes did not fit, when a patently virtuous person succumbed to the disease. Some blamed evil spirits, others Jews or Muslims. No one knew about germ’s relationship to disease.

Today we are presented with the same quandary when a passenger plane crashes, when a tsunami hits, or after a hurricane. We may even play the same mind games, especially when a tornado levels one family’s home, leaving the next door neighbor’s house intact.

What we forget is that death is universal. When a number of people die at once, we forget that all around us the same drama is being played out for everyone, at a slower pace. We all die. It is part of the human condition. None of us is superior because we did not die on a day, month, or year, when many others did.

What is more important is what happens next. We believe in the Resurrection. We are a people of the Spring. Like bulbs or seeds planted in the Autumn, we will leap into something better. This is no magic, and is not tied to devils or the state of society.

Our resurrection is only tied to faith, and our love of God and neighbor. We know not the day nor the hour, but we are prepared for the feast. The Kingdom of God is at hand.

Day 14 March 12, 2020

Lentil n. an annual plant, Lensculinaris, having flattened, convexo-convex seeds which constitute a food similar to peas and beans.

Lentil soup is very satisfying. It is most often served in the poorer areas of the globe, as it is a cheaper grain to produce, like millet, which, in richer climes, we call bird food. Lentil is to be desired in less well off areas because it has a lot more protein, percentage wise, than other grains. It is still boring to eat it every day.

In developed countries, lentils carry a certain danger. Diabetics who have to count carbs in their diet know lentils are packed not only with protein, but also with a lot of carbohydrates. What is health food and a necessity in one place is a caution in another. In moderation, of course, and balanced with other foods, any danger is lessened.

7

There is something to this, however. We are not all alike, we do not all adopt the same culture, and the circumstances where we find ourselves determine a lot about us. Lentils may seem an exotic, if somewhat bland food choice in a more economically well-off country, a necessity in a less well-off society. People are sometimes surprised at what other people do in other countries. There is surprise at how much grain is used in developed countries to fatten cattle, just so steak can be on the menu.

Look, however, at the basics. We all need protein, and carbohydrates. We all need water. Bread is a common denominator for all humans, whatever the grain used to make it. Communion bread or Matzo, we all feel the pull.

Lent should emphasize the commonalities, not differences. Have some lentil soup on Friday, perhaps with a little matzo as an accompaniment. We inhabit a big world.

Day 15 March 13, 2020

Truculent adj. Fierce and cruel; brutally harsh; savagely threatening or bullying.

We are used to looking into the face of the crowd shouting for Christ’s execution. Take a look through their eyes. Now you are fierce – cruel – savage. You see the victim – the bullied one. You see Pilate – the power, the authority, the majesty. Who do you side with? The odd man out, or the one who can decide whether you live or die, feast or go hungry? One challenges the social order. The other allows you to worship as has always been done, complacently, perhaps without thinking or feeling. Now look around. All the others like you are shouting, feeling superior to the victim, sure of their righteousness, and afraid of what might happen if they don’t go along. They don’t wish to change places with the victim. Do you? Besides, it is sort of amusing, and will all be over by this afternoon. It has all happened before, and will, again, and again.

Pretty much each one of us has bullied someone. We go with the crowd, which is truculent. We hide in group identity. No one can pin the deed on us. Who can tell who throws the first stone? We become uncomfortable when we think about it because each of us has also been bullied – found different, criticized, or made fun of. We have looked through both sets of eyes.

Now look through the victim’s eyes, again, at the pugnacious crowd. Then, forgive them. That is where Lent leads us.

Day 16 March 14, 2020

Lentando adj. Music Becoming slower, As a direction in music.

Wait…we already said to slow down for Lent. We said it was necessary to drop out of the pace of modern life in order to consider the realities of Lent. Are we to go slower yet?

Yes. We are engaging mysteries that take some time to get acquainted with. Why would someone die a willing death for others, when he was guiltless himself? Why would a Deity accept living the way we do? Why does the Deity seem to always side with the lesser of us sinners? How can this story stretch over thousands of years of prediction and fulfillment, and still be relevant today?

How can such a message have such an impact, and yet we have a need to revisit it every year? How can we learn something new each one of those years?

8

We need to go slow. We need savor each reading, each day of Lent, weekdays and Sundays as well.

We should avail ourselves of communal resources as well, the Stations of the Cross, Reconciliation rites, Friday soup dinners after. Lent is not just a time to be alone. The cross someone else is carrying might be like our own. If we share, the burden is lighter.

Go slower now. The world is still outside those walls, and it will not change all that much while you are in Lent. Day 17 March 16, 2020

Lentisk n. A tree with an aromatic resin.

The Lentisk is also known as the Mastic tree. It has an aromatic or spice-laden resin. Early on, humans began to take that resin and chew on it, as gum. We are not sure why, but chewing on something gum-like is satisfying to us. Even when the flavor goes away some, we still chew. The word mastic may be where the word masticate comes from, meaning to chew.

When we bump into someone chewing gum, or really anything, we seem to relax.

It is hard to think of someone chewing gum as being hateful. Gum chewers are generally non -threatening.

Likewise, we use chewing as a symbol for thoughtfulness. Westerners in the U.S. and characters in movies chew on a toothpick or the end of a matchstick and we know they are then thinking hard. When we talk at length, we call it chewing the fat. When we re-think something, we say we are “chewing on” an idea or a piece of writing. It would be well to be “chewing on” scripture. Whether the Jewish writings or the Gospels and Christian texts, ideas are presented at different levels.

Especially in the parables of the Christ, there are levels for the people he faced then, and separate ones for those in generations to come. Most preachers will tell you that even as they present their ideas on a given text, new viewpoints pop up. It never loses its flavor.

It is good to chew over texts we think we have down by heart. Since we are in a relationship with God, and since our perspective changes from time to time in any relationship, so does our view of the relevant readings. We see new things, we hear a different voice. Our perception changes according to our experience. The aroma of the spice changes, but here it does not grow stale, and may even enhance.

We keep and re-read old love letters or emails for the same reasons, what is or was a relationship changes in our view over time. We chew over the past, our present, and what we believe about our future. It is more than a metaphor, it is a process. We have been doing it a very long time.

Day 18 March 17, 2020

Fraudulent adj. Given to or using fraud, as a person; cheating; dishonest.

There are two kinds of fraud at law. Fraud in the inducement is where a party enters into an agreement with a rough idea of what it is about, but enters into the agreement based on false information from the other party. Fraud in the factum is where a party signs an agreement, but does not realize the true nature of the agreement.

9

The Father of Lies, (however you conceive of him), is a practitioner of both kinds of fraud.

In our daily lives, we enter into arrangements which are truly to our worldly and spiritual detriment, but the wool is pulled over our eyes. Very often this is with our own assistance or connivance. For instance, in adultery, one recognizes that some sort of agreement is meant by the tryst, but we enter into it based on the false information that this behavior will somehow be better or more exciting or fulfilling than the commitment we already have. When the bottom falls out, we are “shocked” that this premise was false.

Whole nations have been hoodwinked into the second kind of fraud. People have voted into power or brought into power regimes which have promised paradise. They have turned the other way, hidden their faces, when those regimes commit wholesale murder or offensive war. After it fails to turn out well for them, they repent. “If we had only known!” they wail.

Let’s be honest. We are induced to sin because we let ourselves be, by ego and desire. We sign on to long range wrongdoing because we gain, and maybe what we have cast our lot for might work out, just this once. Those that get hurt maybe won’t get hurt too badly, whether spouse, “sucker”, or target minority. Besides, we think, they are the other.

We should drop the “Who, me?” mentality for Lent, and after. Conscience is that thing which tells us we are defrauding ourselves as well as others. It is best listened to before the decision, rather than in seeking forgiveness later.

Day 19 March 18, 2020

Turbulent adj, Disposed or given to disturbances, disorder, or insubordination.

“He went out into the desert to pray.” He went out for the silence, as we treat elsewhere. However, there is more to distraction than noise. Remember, compared to today’s life, even Jerusalem was relatively quiet.

Today, just in a restaurant, don’t they have music from speakers and multiple TVs? Truly, each of us carries a device which summons us, sometimes by sound, sometimes by vibration, sometimes just by our uncontrollable need to check—our phone. As well as sounds, there are sights, and comparisons and feelings brought on by any number of events and circumstances. People vie for our attention. People need us and want to be needed by us. Merchandise calls to us by sight, smell, tactile sensation. There are people in our way, people in whose way we find ourselves, and people we are reminded that we miss.

It is essential from time to time to escape to the desert. This is because the desert is large, elemental, and not capable of rendition to something smaller. It is hot in the day, cold at night, and we cannot stop that. It is by far too big to tame. There is turbulence, to be sure, on a micro or macro scale. Life and death struggles between rattlesnake and desert rat exist, but are put in perspective by the size of the area involved.

Find your desert. Go there. It may be a lake. It may be a wooded trail, or a city runner’s path. It may be a room. The reality is, you can make your own desert inside you, if you really want to. Do not feel badly about shutting others out temporarily, you don’t have to be in the desert long if you do it right, and let go. Jesus needed perspective, and if He did, we do.

Pray while you are in the desert. He did. This is where perspective comes from, in a really big way. Just you and the Creator, that is enough. Don’t just talk. Listen. There is a chance your talk will kick up

10

turbulence. That turbulence is good. It is yours. You and the Creator can handle it. Talk some, then listen. The turbulence in your place will likely recede. When you leave the desert, you will be prepared for the work ahead.

Day 20 March 19, 2020

Virulent adj. Toxic; poisonous; fast growing.

The word comes from virus, the Latin word for toxic. Early microscope wielders, finding small bits of life which apparently brought disease to us, called some of these bits by the name virus. We learned that these little beings multiply at enormous rates. The term virulent describes this growth rate, and still carries the negative nuance. We have since learned of some less vicious forms of viral nature, and the word viral, as used in electronic media, now just means fast growing.

The message of Lent should be virulent, in its best meaning. It should root out self-centeredness, and be passed from person to person like a late Winter Cold. It should destroy all manner of pretension and self-promotion. Side-effects should be generosity, real concern for our fellow beings and nature, oh, and yes, forgiveness of others.

In a Church History class a few years ago, the teacher asked: “What caused the early Christian Church to grow so fast?” One of the students answered: “ Well, I think it was like this. First there were the apostles and disciples, all in Israel, and then, Boom! Something happened.”

This was well said. The Holy Spirit went viral. Christianity was virulent to the evils of the Roman Empire, which was why the Empire resisted so much. The message was uncontainable. It still is, but it requires host bodies, willing to spread the spiritual genetic material from person to person. If you feel on fire with this during Lent, don’t fight it. It’s not fever. Boom! Something is happening.

Day 21 March 20, 2020

Ambivalent adj. Having simultaneous conflicting feelings about the same person or object.

There is a disease today in our media led society. While the 1950’s were known for stark right versus wrong pronouncements, today is the era of ambivalence. The media, in order to appeal to broader and more diverse audiences, find equivalence something deeply valued. One side of a political, legal, or moral argument must be balanced with the other side, however frail it might be. Even those who really do not do this, who are one-sided, call themselves “fair and balanced”. Ambivalence sometimes disguises itself as “political correctness” as well. The standard news story says: “Some say this, while others say that.” The young are left to ponder, lacking enough perspective from life to differentiate between sets of beliefs. Adults follow the ambivalent mode sometimes, hedging their own bets in water cooler discussions. This is exacerbated by the radical fringe of any argument, who just want to get their point heard, however specious, in an obliging media.

How does this relate to Lent? It seems complicated to explain, today. It need not be so. There are things that bring us closer to God. We call this grace. There are things which take us away from our relationship to God. These have been called sin.

Jesus did not run around condemning people. He did talk about the things which separate us from God. He warned us about them without ambivalence. When he talked to the adulterous woman, he led her to

11

see the results of her behavior. He did not condemn her, but sent her on her way telling her to sin no more.

We should follow this example. We should not be ambivalent about our beliefs. We should not condemn. Sometimes a conversation ends, not because we are adamant, but because the other person just walks away. One can remain open to conversation and dialogue without being either ambivalent as to core beliefs, or judgmental. While “An argument can be made.” for almost anything today, that does not make it Grace filled.

Day 22 March 21, 2020

Valentine n. An amatory or sentimental card or the like, or some token or gift, sent by one person to another on St. Valentine’s Day.

Formally, the popular notion of the Valentine really took off during the Victorian era. The idea of romantic love, suppressed in much of Victorian life, came thundering out in gaudy paper declarations of love on this feast day of a martyr. (Hence the color associated with the missives). More recently commerce has made the desire to say: “I love you”, furtively or not, a requirement on this day. Thus, as with the commercial side of Christmas, we feel obliged to profess our love to people we really don’t. We do this on cards made by the millions, many identical, or with flowers grown in another country, where it is warm in February and the wage structure is lower.

Ironically, this is exactly what we are called to do. Not the commercial part. We are called to love those we really don’t. According to Christ, even Pharisees and Gentiles love those they are near to. Believers are called to love those we do not love yet. We are called to love those who have done us harm. There are those who have forgiven someone who has killed their child. Amazing. This is not just buying your boss or roommate a card and some Skittles. This is mind boggling.

We are called to love people of all colors, sizes, theologies, income brackets, smells, languages, and any other thing you can think of that might bother you. Even those who might hate us. Yes. That too.

This is more unnerving than finding out that the drug store is out of roses on the big day. How far do we have to go in this loving others thing? Our leader stretched out his arms to all of the people mentioned above, while on a cross. He forgave all of us for His being there. He told us to love each other as He loves us. In the story of St. Valentine, he believed this all the way to martyrdom himself. We do not have to send everyone flowers, or even a card. What we are called to do is much larger and difficult than that.

Day 23 March 23, 2020

Crapulent adj. Sick from gross excess in drinking or eating.

Giving something up for Lent is often made easy by the person setting the goal. Maybe we don’t give up all chocolate, just dark chocolate. Maybe we give up texting, but allow ourselves general use of the telephone side.

Let’s get real for a moment. Very real. There are people reading this who have addictive behavior. This Lent may be your best bet to come to terms with this. Addictive behavior is a set of behaviors, caused by a variety of things. It may manifest itself in a variety of ways as well. A priest who manifested alcohol addiction and was able to be in recovery also gave up smoking later. He was celibate, gave up drinking, and stopped smoking. He said the hardest thing to give up was the cigarettes. In one family the addictive

12

behavior may manifest itself in gambling, drug addiction, compulsive shopping, as well as drinking. There are others. It is the underlying cause which must be solved.

If you are reading intently now, you should use this Lent to get help. Religion, friends, book knowledge are helps, but you must use them, and above all else get the needed professional help. Those who can help you will not judge you. Those who judge you cannot help. The turning point is not on this page. The turning point is in you, and you and God are enough to take the first step, admitting the problem and seeking help.

If you are reading this and you are concerned that, from a family history, you may someday have an uncontrollable problem, start to fix that problem now, this Lent. Break the patterns you are concerned about. Take yourself out of harm’s way. Use this Lent to alleviate future sorrows for your family, friends, and you. Use this Lent to prevent future disasters. Get as much help as you think you need, and maybe a little more.

Richard Rohr says that the most repeated phrase in the New Testament is “Be not afraid.” This is from God. Do not be afraid to use this Lent to defeat addictive problems. Do not be afraid to ask for help in heaven and on earth. It can only get better.

Day 24 March 24, 2020

Lentic adj. Of or living in still waters.

Both the Judaic texts and the Gospels speak often of still water. The 23rd Psalm, so often used at funerals because of its calming nature, is the prime example. In the Gospels, Jesus calms raging waters tormenting his boat and disciples. He directs Peter across other scary waves. Cool water from a deep well, figuring in both traditions, is pretty still.

On the other hand, there is great respect for living water. Living water simply meant that it was moving, as in a creek or a river. John the Baptist worked in the midst of the Jordan River. The Church’s preferred water for Baptism is “living” water, which is why in an otherwise quiet church one can hear the trickling of a fountain in the Baptismal font. So, which is it to be? Calm, or roiling waters? Jesus certainly roiled the waters of the establishment in his time. He was a storm that blew through the status quo. Yet, He calms the storm inside of us. There is an old saying about comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. So, the answer is both. If one is complacent about the status quo, the arrival of “something bigger than yourself” is almost sure to roil your waters. Since we are not at perfection yet, and cannot be until the Kingdom is realized, to “go status quo” is to accept some part of imperfection. We are not supposed to accept injustice, poverty, predation of the weak by the strong. Our waters become troubled.

Likewise, when we are troubled, that “someone bigger” calms us. If we find the right place to be, if we follow where we are led, even turbulent waters are calmed for us. This is what Peter understood, if only fleetingly the first time.

The best leaders do not leave a wake as they pass through the waters. The status quo is relieved of its downside. For those who understand and believe, no boats are turned over. Yet progress is made.

Day 25 March 25, 2020

Lentigo n. Age spots.

13

Creaky joints. Crow’s feet and wrinkles. Some people as they age panic at not being young anymore. Others age with such grace that no matter how old they are when they die, it still seems too young.

Our society, meaning mostly the United States here, does not know what to do with older people. As this is written, the baby Boomer Generation begins to pass. When they were younger the Pepsi Company dubbed them, (hopefully), the Pepsi Generation. This large lump of people was promised by marketing departments everywhere that they were close to immortal. The Corvette, Mustang, and Camaro were invented to appeal to them. Given the generational buying power, the companies wished that kind of immortality to be true. Today, a wise buy is in nursing home stock.

There are two ways to mistreat older people by stereotyping. One is to push those who are still spry and healthy into early relegation to meaningless old age by treating them as children.

The other is to fail to realize a real frailty when it does occur, leaving the older person feeling left behind or isolated in daily existence. It is a fine line. How can we cope, whether it be with relations or acquaintances?

Once again, the person of the Christ instructs us by example. He is always personally present to each person he interacts with in the Gospels. While he exhorts us to do our best all the time, he sees each person for what they are, and erects no delusional expectations. This, of course takes time and energy. One must get to know the other, in an intimate way. A stereotype does not fit older people today any more than the word “teenager” applies to younger people. One size does not fit all.

Given the large size of the Boomer Generation, almost all of us know at least one member. Often they are relatives. There could scarcely be a greater gift than taking the time to get to really know them, where they actually are in life, and what they need. You may even find yourself understanding their point of view as they claim their place, and their true status. The rewards here on earth may be slim. However, there are other places. Jesus brought fulfillment to Simeon’s old age, sought out little children to come to himself, placed his aging mother with his best friend John. He was at home with all ages, unintimidating, unintimidated.

Day 26 March 26, 2020

Sklent n. Sideways glance; to look askance.

We have all done it. Someone is telling us a story. We consider it a tall tale. Someone else in the room is of the same mind. We exchange a sideways glance at them, perhaps smiling, perhaps frowning, perhaps rolling our eyes, but sometimes so afraid or concerned about reprisal from the storyteller that we just glance.

Thus it is even when we hear religious or belief oriented stories sometimes. We are more likely to roll our eyes if we are listening to a story from someone else’s religious tradition, but we must admit that even in one’s own tradition things can get a little weird.

Take, for example, St. Denis. On the right side of the front of Notre Dame in Paris, (left side if you are facing it), there is a long line of saints on a façade. One is St. Denis, patron saint of Paris. He has no head on his shoulders, but carries it in his arm. The legend of St. Denis is that he was martyred by beheading, but then walked around Paris for a few days carrying his head.

Sklent.

14

We are skeptical. Since the Middle Ages the whole rational thought thing has made us so. Science has become, for some, faith. We realize that the story of St. Denis is, well, a nice story.

Each of us lives a life which is part rational and part faith. There are some outliers who are one hundred percent of one or the other. The problem is when we confuse the two. When someone critiques faith from a rational underpinning, that won’t work, because the underlying assumptions are different. Not wrong, just different. Critique the other way around won’t work either.

So where are we left? Most of us plan our day around the elements of both rational thought as well as faith. Good news. It is alright to believe in quantum Physics and the Resurrection. Einstein did.

Do not be troubled about doubting the St. Denis story. Though anything is possible with God, not everything is probable. There are great holes in physics still also, or people would have ceased spending money to hire physicists. Sciences do not flinch when they say that there is still something not understood by science. Neither should the believer when that “sklent” moment arrives. Chaos theory says that anything has some possibility. Believers just add the words: “With God”.

Day 27 March 27, 2020

Talent n. A special natural ability or aptitude.

One of the most formidable parables is the story of the talents. The master divides his goods among three servants before going on a trip. Two of the servants invest, (or gamble), their talents, in the end achieving double the investment for their master. The last poor soul went and buried his, so he would not lose it. He was afraid of the master. He is removed from his position by the master.

A talent was a unit of money. The word talent has a different meaning today. Since parables often work at different levels, this is acceptable. We will treat the word talent as having today’s meaning, but remember in both instances it is something of value.

Each of us has been given some form of talent. Some talents are perhaps more hidden than others. Still, it seems, they surface over time. Talent may be in sports, electronics, arts and sciences, the fine arts, higher education, the ability to make people laugh, to give comfort to others; the range is as wide as a human endeavor. While we can encourage and enhance such a gift, we are not responsible for its existence, only its enhancement. We are also responsible for wasting it.

In the universe, nothing is wasted. Every dog awakes each day and proceeds, without waste, to be the best individual dog it can be. The same is true of ants, elephants, and blades of grass. Each does not do this consciously, but proceeds faithfully anyway.

We humans, receivers of free will, have the opportunity to opt out. It is an opportunity which, while freely given, has consequences. To know one’s talent, and to hide it goes against the grain of the enterprise, of the universe as created. Suppose Beethoven had not composed, that John Lennon had never written. Would you be irritated with them? What if Monet had suddenly, for no apparent reason, ceased painting? We expect high quality athletes to compete for the championship at least once. They can “go out on top,” and never defend the title, but seldom is it alright to quit early.

This is not just about competition. Rather, it is about being what you are and are built to be. It is about risk, but it is not about risk of derision or what others may think. In the final analysis only we know if we gave full effort. That is why it is not about wins and losses, but about how the game is played.

15

The third servant’s behavior is what we sometimes call a “sin of omission”. Only we, in our heart of hearts, know whether we could have done more to help the poor, or teach someone to read. Only we know whether we can “go another mile as well.” Sometimes we cannot. Other times we have the talent and see the need, but we slack off. These sins are real, and, as the third servant finds, need to be addressed. Lent is a good time to do this.

Day 28 March 28, 2020

Cholent n. Sabbath stew.

Even if you live in a place where there are few Jewish people, it is possible to see the importance of Saturday to working people. Those who do not work for big chain stores or operations can be seen in the late afternoon of a Saturday beginning to close up their smaller places of business.

It is not so much a smile on their face as body language. The Used Car lot worker pulling shut the bars which block the entrance to the lot is somehow beginning to relax. The small business owner flipping the “open” sign over to “closed” is clearly thinking about home, and what is for dinner, and relaxation.

Thus it has been for millennia for the Jewish part of our family. The Sabbath rituals are all designed to bring everyone home, together, and to emphasize a certain calmness. This is where God may be found.

Cholent is described as having been created over hundreds of years. It is made up different ways by various sections of the Jewish Community, but a general recipe calls for meat, potatoes, beans, and barley. Some put in whole eggs, in the shell. Due to requirements of the Sabbath, it is put together the night before, and simmers all day. One can imagine the lingering smell, warm and homey, not fancy but comfort inducing.

Most of us have some smell that resonates like this. A smell, a meal, a gathering that says home. To set aside a time for such is holy. It does not take too much to see that fast food is a substantially poor substitute. Likewise, weekends, Saturdays and Sundays where each moment is accounted for, where work of some sort is implied in everything we do, including sports, is also not exactly family time. On the seventh day God rested.

Day 29 March 30, 2020

Succulent adj. Full of juice; juicy.

How can this word relate to Lent? One suggestion is to talk about a cactus, which is called a succulent plant, and lives in the desert. Biblical, perhaps. Fruit is a better story.

Fruit is by nature succulent, that is, juicy. The story of us picking up fruit, opening it, and eating it makes a better story.

Fruit, by virtue of its make-up, is messy. Whether a tomato or a grapefruit or a ripe apple, the best are messy. There is often pulp and juice and other parts everywhere, sometimes ear to ear. That is also where our smile extends. One never quite feels as rich as when one savors really good fruit. Though it takes work to garner and grow, it is also offered to humans freely, as we read in Genesis.

So it is with grace, and faith. Gifts given freely, there are many other things about faith and grace that are like good fruit.

16

Faith is messy, if one is doing it right. Being a part of the interaction between God and humans, a relationship, it cannot be otherwise. Relationships are malleable, changing. Faith is often what answers our most important questions. We have new and changing questions all the time. It is a messy process.

There is likewise an abundance of God’s grace beyond our understanding. It gets everywhere, just like juice from an unruly grapefruit. We organizing humans try to channel grace through ritual, but it slops around, even on people we don’t expect. We are sometimes surprised, even irritated by that. But there are juice and pulp and seeds everywhere, more than enough to go around. Indeed, when we try to hoard a large harvest, trying to keep it to ourselves, the fruit rots, and goes to waste.

It is part of nature that fruit is using us in this process, as well. The fruit is an attraction to us, causing us to break it open, in turn liberating its seeds, which are to begin other fruit bearing plants. Even the rind may be fertilizer for the growth of the next generation. Grace begets grace, Faith begets faith.

So, eat it up. Spread the seeds, share the wealth. Gorge on grace, on faith. Pulp and juice everywhere. Grin from ear to ear. God told us, from the fruit of every tree but one, you shall eat.

Day 30 March 31, 2020

Blent/Reblent v. pt. and pp. of blend Blended thoroughly.

There is still much concern about race. This is particularly true among the older half of people, for whom race played a prominent, if changing, part of their history. Younger persons, experiencing a greater amount of interaction among people of different colors and cultures, are less attuned to the concept, though there are pockets of strong feeling. The election of President Obama in the United States signaled continued change. Countries such as Britain and France have experienced more mixture of peoples, though perhaps not so much blending. There is still racial hatred in a variety of places, both in developed and under-developed areas.

The interesting thing is that the mapping of the human genome has changed the very rules of engagement on this matter. We are told that there is no gene for race. There are genes for skin color. There are genes for flat or pointy noses, and what your eyes look like. These, however, are not inextricably linked, and so, by definition, there is no genetic thing to be called race.

It must be, then, that what we call by that name is mostly related to culture. In the largest part of the 50,000 or so years that humans have been around, large groupings of us were separated from other groups by oceans, deserts, mountains. We differed in some physical aspects, due to environmental pressure, or perhaps in some cases just happenstance. With some internal variance, the groups resembled each other more than the others. Chunks of DNA were passed on among a specific group, but were not necessarily linked to each other. The concept of race was born, based on outward appearance. Mr. Darwin’s findings, made without the advantage of a super microscope, added support to this drift.

The idea that there is no such genetic thing as race is something few have commented on outside of genetics study. Certainly there has been a dearth of comment in popular media. Likewise, churches, synagogues, temples and mosques have not led the way. Science now knows, though, what religions have alleged all along, that we are simply a human race.

Perhaps there is a perception that there is too much to lose. It is considered best not to upset the people in the pews. In balance, however, this is an opportunity to really lead humanity.

17

There is no reason to throw away the accomplishments and history of the cultural entities we came to know as race. We can keep those. The music, art, stories, traditions, pride of those cultural entities should be and are celebrated. They should be retained. They also change in themselves over time.

What needs to be cast aside is that any human has something in their genes, something in their very make up which cannot be changed, for which they can be condemned. Or discriminated against. Or be deprived of a living. Or a home. When we believed that race was set in stone, people were displaced, beaten, starved, gassed, and there was nothing they could do or say to alter the view that others had of them.

We know better now. Religion, in its best aspect, has always known common humanity. Now Science knows better also.

It is up to those of us who practice Lent to be among the leaders showing the way, tolerant of cultural differences, intolerant of prejudice stemming from something that really does not exist.

Day 31 April 1, 2020

Plentitude n. Fullness in quantity, measure, or degree; abundance.

One of the advertising pitches we are assailed with each day goes like this: “ You deserve a new car!,” “You deserve lower insurance rates!”. And so on.

So, you are eighteen. Tell us what you have done with your life that is so outstanding that you deserve a new car. You are thirty, and you are allowed under the company you work for to a vacation, whether your performance through the year warrants it or not. But do you really deserve the Grand Tour? The play here by the seller is to make you feel entitled to the product being sold, to make you not only want it but to be possessive of it. Genius.

Salvation doesn’t work like that. None of us deserve it. We are all broken. (See Condolent.) If we had to be perfect, or deserving, to enter into a full relationship with God in the place we call heaven, it would be pretty much empty. Instead, God gives us a plentitude of Grace.

Some say this differently, by saying that God gives us enough grace to face any challenge. That often leads to people tallying up their daily challenges, and, being still broken in nature, feeling short changed.

We have to look past the day to day. We have to look for the ultimate. We are meant to arrive at the fullest possible relation to the Deity. A Messiah is the way for that to happen, one who knows both parties because he has lived it. Christ said he came to bring us life and to give it to us abundantly. The plentitude of Grace cannot be about the day to day, though when we feel its fullness it makes the day to day bearable. Jesus dealt with day to day problems, illness, insanity, disbelief, because he understands intimacy with the eternal the ultimate. He makes the same possible and available to all of us. It takes a plentitude of Grace for us to be real. But there is always more.

Day 32 April 2, 2020

Equivalent adj. Equal in value, quantity, force, effect, meaning.

18

In the very beginning of the First book of the Bible, we are told that humans are created in the image and likeness of God. Later, Christ calls us His brothers and sisters. This is heady stuff. Our egos are boosted.

Sometimes they are boosted too much. It is not uncommon for Christians to feel a certain superiority, sometimes toward non-Christians, sometimes toward other Christians. There is a great temptation, because of the promise that our sins may be forgiven and forgotten, to believe in our own superiority, and equivalence with God. This is the “Holier than thou” aspect.

There are several problems with this. One, even Christ did not act this way. A canticle from Philippians, perhaps commonly used as a hymn in early Christian times, tells us:

“Though He was in the form of God,

Jesus did not deem equality with God

As something to be grasped at.

Rather, he emptied himself

And took the form of a slave

Being born in the likeness of men.

He was known to be of human estate,

And it was thus that he humbled Himself,

Obediently accepting even death,

Death on a cross!

Elsewhere, Jesus asked His disciples, “ Why do you call me holy? Only the Father in Heaven is holy.” If Jesus refuses to be holier than thou, how can we do so? In the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee, he teaches that those who feel superior are not.

This “superiority “ feeling usually arises when we are judgmental. Almost all of us do it at some time or other. It just feels so good. Unfortunately it is a sign that our own self esteem is low, so we climb on someone else’s back so that we can look down on them. After all, WE are brothers and sisters of Christ. Ummmm…so are they. Well, they are sinners. Ummmm…so are we. We have been saved! So have they.

This Lent, lose the ego. Salvation is not a contest. It is a relationship with a God who bends down to be with us. We are not equivalent to God. We are all his children.

Day 33 April 3, 2020

Exhalent n. Emitted breath or vapor.

19

In Genesis it says that God breathed upon the waters. They then came to life. In the scriptures, the

breath of God wrought change, fundamental change. The same thing happens with Adam in the story,

the ancient writer connecting the breath of life, without which humans do not long exist, with the Deity.

On the Cross, Good Friday, the same thing happens. We are told in the Gospels that Christ exclaims “It is

finished”, “and then breathed his last.”

With that last breath, he ended an old order and began a new one. In as much as his last breath

redeems us, He breathes into being a new creation. When the Father breathed on the waters, we were

not around. We in today’s world were not at the historical crucifixion. The Spiritus, the breath of God,

does not require our presence, but brings us to be, and continues our existence.

It is, perhaps, a sigh, a longing for us. It is a longing for return of love given. Perhaps there is a word

murmured as well. Each of us hears the word, and we are all called to respond. The possibilities are

endless, but we first must do our part.

The Resurrection is, of course, the outcome and the promise. Without the Resurrection it is just an

interesting story, and Jesus just a remarkable man. But without that last breath, the resurrection is not

possible. He breathes on us, bringing us to life.

Day 34 April 4, 2020

Repellent adj. Causing distaste or aversion.

Some things or people are repellent to us. There is often little explanation as to cause. Sometimes we are repelled by a trait a person has, such as lying or being self centered, but often personality conflicts have little or no discernible basis in logic. One sees two people of the same ethnicity, social status, learning, and gender, and they detest each other. Without the aid of a Psychology Doctorate in the analysis, we are lost.

Yet, we are told to love each other. We are told to love everyone. How can this be, and how can we try to accomplish this?

Think for a moment of the person you like least in the world. Whatever the reason, or lack of a reason, you do not like this person, and in all fairness they probably do not like you.

God created them. Just like you were created. You cannot figure out why, and probably no one can tell you convincingly, but there it is. God created them for some purpose. They are a child of God, just like you. It is not likely that each of you was created just to vex each other.

A wise priest once said that you don’t have to like them, but you do have to love them. They are here for a reason. God loves them. Jesus said his new Commandment was that we love one another. Swallow hard. If necessary, pray in love for change, in them, in you, in circumstances. Whatever the outcome of that, love them. In some cases, that may be all that comes from Lent. That might be enough.

Day 35 April 6, 2020

20

Lentissimo It. Music . adj. Most slowly.

Now it is Holy week. Palm Sunday has come and gone. We assembled in the gym, heard the Gospel about the people shouting praise to the Christ. We sang a hymn of praise on the way over to the Church. It is Spring, so it was windy, breaking up the rhythm from the front of the procession to the back. Then we all picked up the strains of the organ through the open doors of the Church, and got back together by the end of the hymn.

At the Gospel during Mass, the Passion is read. It has a sort of jarring effect, but the Church knows that not all of us will be at other Holy Week services, and doesn’t want us going into the Resurrection failing to notice the purchase price.

Now it is Monday. A brief pause before Chrism Mass, Perhaps a Tenebrae rite on Wednesday, and then the Triduum, the holiest days in the Church year.

Again, we should slow down. There is no “getting it right” as such during these rites, but if we slow enough to see each moment for what it is, we will be most likely to become better people. It does not take a Theology of liturgy course to achieve this. God’s Grace is always enough. There is enough literature, tension, pain, love, hope, and, yes, passion here to last the year. And then…there is Easter.

Put your watch in the drawer on your way out the door to Church. We are on God’s time. Spend this Monday in preparation for the week, as you have all Lent. Just prepare a little slower, a little more thoroughly.

Day 36, April 7, 2020

Opulent n. Wealthy, rich, or affluent, as persons or places.

Chrism Mass, celebrated on the Tuesday of Holy Week, is when the priests of the diocese repeat their promises to the Bishop. It is also when the oils for use in the Liturgical Year are blessed, the Chrisms and Oils to be used to anoint those being baptized, catechumens, the sick and dying, and those being ordained to the priesthood.

Anointing with oils was considered, of old, as an extravagance. Kings and Emperors were anointed, consecrated to God’s work. Priests of various religions were anointed for the same reasons. The oils contained spices which made the rich and famous smell good in societies where baths were not common. The oils the Church uses today are likewise sweetened with spices. After a baptism both the baptized and the baptizer benefit from the anointing by carrying the aroma around with them as a reminder, the rest of the day. This reminds both that they interacted with the Holy that day.

God is opulent with us. We may not deserve it, but God offers us sweet smelling, abundant opulence. In the Baptism Rite, we are called to be “Priest, Prophet and King…”, after the One we follow. In other words, we are called to the three anointed offices. Christ means “the Anointed One”. We are invited to join in this. God offers us not the opulence of the world, but true abundance of life and the understanding of life, and what is. What could be richer than that?

We are called to say Thank You, and to share this wealth with all we meet. Standing at Chrism Mass in the Cathedral, with members from all over our diocese, we are reminded to share with them, and those outside the church walls as well. It is ours to respond.

21

Day 37 April 8, 2020

Somnolent adj. Sleepy; drowsy.

Numerous things induce sleep. Exercise causes the body to wilt. A short, or sometimes long, nap helps. Boring occasions, ones we have resisted attending, induce sleep, and sometimes embarrassed snorts as we awake. Weather causes us to want to sleep in.

Stress can also cause this effect. It seems odd, but the body can sometimes shut down under periods of acute stress, especially when it is prolonged. This may be what happened in the first stage of the Passion of Christ. He is clearly stressed, and so are the disciples. They had all just finished a meal, including wine, as well. He goes apart from them expecting them to pray, as he intensely prays. More than once, He returns to find them asleep. He is frustrated to find his closest friends in this condition. While He is clearly frustrated, He does not condemn them, because they are human, and so is he. His God-side understands their frailty as well, sensing they are shutting out the impending stress of the moment. Maybe for a moment He even wishes He could do the same.

What is this to us? Consider a frosty morning, with a low wind chill, one set aside for helping feed the poor at the food pantry. Awakened in a warm bed, the temptation is obvious. Delivering groceries in a scary apartment complex is difficult, stressful. The bed is warm.

Consider a beautiful Spring morning, already scheduled for teaching catechism to rowdy third graders. There’s always that one kid that interrupts. The soft cool breeze wafts through the windows, scarcely ruffling the sheets. One could always “say” that the alarm failed.

Failure in these scenes won’t condemn us. Though we are perhaps tempted not to be the people we should be, we are human.

There is another, more serious somnolence. This is a willful failure to see the issues raised before us by the Gospels. We sleep more comfortably, because we totally shut out the problems presented. We consider this relationship with God to only involve us and God, and not our fellow human beings. We fail to recognize the follow through to the Golden Rule, and the two lists Jesus outlines in Matthew 25, just before He begins the passion. This is more serious. This is not stress induced somnolence, this is sleepwalking, sleep walking through a life meant to have much more meaning.

Wake up, whichever your circumstance. God wants you to get up and take a walk with Him in the garden.

Day 38 April 9, 2020

Benevolent adj. Desiring to do good for others

The ancient Greeks and Romans mixed water with their wine. Ostensibly this was to maintain a more civil and even discourse at get-togethers where intellectual discussion was scheduled to take place. It was sometimes felt, however, that the hosts who did not have as much wealth were more prone to water the wine a little more. It was also felt that those more inclined to party diluted the wine somewhat less.

22

At the Mass, the Deacon or Priest pours wine into the chalice, and then adds just a drop of water. According to liturgical theory, the wine represents the aspect of God, the little drop of water is us. This represents the relative importance of each entity.

Consider: throughout His ministry Jesus tells us about a wedding feast. It is one of his primary metaphors, used over and over again. He tells us this is what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. His first miracle is at a wedding feast. He changes the water to wine.

Theologically, the Mass is both the real sacrifice of the Cross, and also a meal where God shares himself with us. It is a feast. It is THE feast. The Messiah has told us that he wants to party with us. This is astounding: It sounds so out of the ordinary that it is hard to say. God wants to party with us. The wine will flow, with little dilution. This is mind boggling.

We are children of a benevolent God. The word comes from two Latin words, bene meaning good and volent meaning given. God wants only good for us. All we have to do is say yes, and thank you.

Lent is often loaded with contemplation of sin, guilt, the weighty matters of salvation.

Take a moment on this, the feast of the First Eucharist, and think this through. God wants to party with us. Amazing. Grace.

Day 39 April 10, 2020

Violent adj. Acting with or characterized by uncontrolled, strong, rough force.

Good Friday is violent. There is the physical detention. The spitting in the face. The stripping, an act of violence in Middle Eastern culture. There is the flogging, feared even by stalwart Roman soldiers, and which even Pilate believes to be enough punishment for this preacher. There is lack of food and water over the entire period. There is the intentionally ironic carrying of the cross-beam by the accused, so difficult that a bystander is brought in to assist. There are the crown of thorns and the belittling of the accused, and the nails in the flesh. Crucifixion is death by way of suffocation, particularly traumatizing as the victim fights to stay alive. Finally, the “mercy” stroke, the dart, or spear, to the side. Target practice.

The most painful of all this, however, is not the physical part. The most painful part for the Savior is the emotional and mental strain.

Whatever your Christology, whether low, (Christ understands over time who He is and his mission), or high, (Christ knows both his identity and mission from the start), certainly by the Crucifixion he is fully informed. So, as he stretches out his arms, He has the vision of all of us, through the centuries. He sees the millennia, not just those physically before him.

He sees each of us, and sees each of us walk away from God at various times in all of our lives. He sees each time that we know what we are doing, what is at risk, and yet we turn away. The enormity of all this must be crushing. The seeming imminent victory of evil is frightening. A natural human response would be to surrender, or to return like for like, and further rupture the relationship, perhaps permanently.

But this God-man is different. He forgives. All of it. He is fully God, fully man.

23

By doing this he defeats the physical violence and the emotional and mental violence as well. He offers to help us do the same, without perpetuating the cycle of violence. This, and the Resurrection, are the turning points.

Day 40 April 11, 2020 Easter Vigil

Lenten adj. Of or pertaining to, or suitable for Lent.

So, that’s it. Forty thoughts on Lent. Now, on the eve of celebrating the Resurrection, the Baptism of Catechumens and Confirmation of others entering the Church, and the recognition of what we are really all about,…well, what?

Hopefully after forty days in our own desert we are better people, better Christians. We are more humble, hopefully we love a little easier. We forgive each other, even for terrible things. We put trust and faith where it belongs, not with material goods or passing fancies. We come closer to being fully human. We seek to emulate the One Who Is.

So, we don’t need to do this next year.

No.

I have a Lenten book I have had since I was in the University Parish when I was in college, in 1969. It is called: “Remember Man, A Lenten coffee table book for people who do not have time for Lenten reading”. I have referred to it each year for well over forty years, not just forty days. Lent as I work through it is not complete unless one specific section that I love is read and contemplated.

We know internally that we are not perfect, no matter what we show the outside world. (For the record, the world knows as well.) We know we need Lent, to purge what we do not need, to draw us closer to what and Who we do need.

We will be back next year, to the mount for the Transfiguration, to the well for water, to the Supper, Gethsemane, Calvary, and the hewn out cave. The Good News, now and then, will be the same:

He is risen.

Thank you to Deacon Bill Gordon for sharing all of his wonderful insights and hard work in preparing this for our parish this Lenten season.

24

2020 Lenten

Small Group Materials

25