Thursday, January 31, 2008

Preparing for Lent, The Example of Christ

"Unto this, indeed, you have been called, because Christ also has suffered for you, leaving you an example that you may follow in his steps." 1 Peter, 2:21.

"IN HIS STEPS"
Some years ago a clergyman in Topeka, Kansas, wrote a book called "In His Steps." It attempted to show how people living today can and must walk in the way that Christ has trod. It brought the example of our Lord right down to the lives of modern business men, the modern laborer, the modern mother, the modern journalist. The book was a best seller. People liked the idea of putting the life of Christ into present-day language and modern application.

Although the book gave us nothing new, it did make very up to date one of the all-time classics, "The Following of Christ." And it did pose an all-important question:
"What would Jesus Christ do under each condition which confronts the man of today?"

Prior to this a British author had come out with a work entitled, "If Christ Came to Chicago?" Both authors were accused of a lack of reverence. Yet, there is no irreverence in trying to find the steps of Christ in twentieth century life. There is no disrespect in asking ourselves:

"What would Christ do in my position? How would Jesus act in this situa­tion? What would Jesus do today and now?"

WHY LENT?
That is one reason the Son of God came to this earth - to give us an ex­ample which we might follow. One of the principal reasons for Lent is the chance to do just that in a special way at a special time.

Why Lent? Why do we fast and deny ourselves, why do we attend spe­cial services, say more prayers and better prayers for forty long days? We do it because Christ did it.

FOLLOW ME
"Unto this, indeed, you have been called, because Christ also has suf­fered for you, leaving you an example that you follow in his steps."

The same Spirit that led Christ into the desert, leads us into the land of self-denial. The same Spirit that called Christ, is calling you, for we read:
"Now Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led about the desert by the Spirit for forty days, being tempted all the while by the devil." St. Luke, 4:1.

Listen to that same call. Answer that call. Follow His example, for -

"Yet on the plains of common life
"Through all the world of men,
"The voice that once said, 'Follow Me,'
"Speaks to our hearts again."

IN THE DESERT
Picture Christ in the full bloom of His manhood, starting out into that barren, desolate desert. No tree to cast a shade; no spring to quench the thirst; no couch on which to lie; nothing of what the body craves - nothing but burning sand, jagged rocks and thorny bushes. No sign of life but the howling of wild beasts.

Into this wilderness went our Master. There, away from the maddening crowd, away from all that would turn His mind to things of sense, in sol­emn stillness Jesus speaks to His heavenly Father. There He remains for forty days, forty days of the most rigorous fasting, forty days of conversa­tion with His Father, forty days without the simplest comforts of the body.

Because our Savior spent those forty days in penance, we try to do the same. For us, for you and for me, He fasted and prayed and suffered. But He wants us to do our share. He wants us to follow Him. He wants us to follow the call of the Spirit. He tells us:
"If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." St. Matthew, 16:24.

Oh, yes, gladly we sit with Jesus at the marriage feast of Cana, gladly we stand with Him at the seaside, eagerly we crowd about Him as He multi­plies the loaves and fishes, as He heals our ills and forgives our sins. Why is it we can be brave and friendly with Him as He teaches and heals and blesses, and then - then desert Him when He starts out for the wilderness?

No such fair-weather friends will we be! Rather, we will enter on these desert days, these days of Lent, walking in the footsteps of our Lord, shar­ing His great pains in a little way, imitating His strict fast according to our ability, praying and speaking to God from our narrow hearts.

FASTING
For forty days our Lord fasted. He ate nothing. For this reason Mother Church asks those who can to fast also, to cut down on food and drink, in imitation of Jesus.

But, kind Mother that she is, the Church realizes that many of us, weak children of Adam, working for our bread in the sweat of our brow, or even worse, not being able to work when we want to, cannot keep the strict fast from food.

Accordingly she dispenses those who work hard, the sick and convalescent, and others who have some valid excuse. However, do not take it upon yourself to dispense yourself. Ask your priest either in or out of the confessional to dispense you and to give you some other penance as a substitute. Too often lukewarm Catholics excuse themselves from fasting and then do no penance at all. Everybody must do some penance.

SPIRITUAL FASTING
There is another form of fasting, spiritual fasting. What a lovely way to fast, you may say. Lovely, but not so easy. By spiritual fasting I mean fasting from sin. This fast we must keep all year, and all our lives, but par­ticularly during this season of penance. Fast from sin, cries the Church, fast from sin.

EYES
We can fast with our eyes. Do sexy and suggestive scenes find their way through your eyes into your soul? Are your glances at the opposite sex occasions, serious occasions, of sin to you? An impure picture, be it in newspaper, magazine or book, be it in photograph or print or TV, that you take into your heart through your eyes is a breaking of this spiritual fast.

Here is a test: Would I read this passage or dwell on this picture if my mother or father, or my one and only were at my side? If you would not read it then, do not look at it now - or later. Even if no human being sees you, God does see you. Think of Christ in the desert giving up the sight of every­thing pleasant and lawful for you. For His sake give up the sight of what is unlawful.

It is in this spirit that many followers of Christ give up movies during Lent, even good movies. They do penance with their eyes.

TONGUE
There is also a fasting with the tongue. Not merely abstaining from food and drink or certain tasty things like candy, but abstaining from filthy lan­guage, from suggestive stories and speech, from cursing and swearing, and from uncharitable talk. When such words come to your tongue, swallow them. Tell our Lord, who was silent in the bitter silence of the desert forty days - tell Him that you will choke back the wrong word for His sake. Fast with your tongue.

EARS
Let your ears join in this fast. Close them to the kind of talk I just men­tioned. Open them to the word of God. Open them to the commands of your parents or superiors, the advice and instruction of your teachers, the corrections of your true friends and of your spiritual leaders, your priests and your bishop. Make your ears do penance by listening to Lenten sermons. The value of doing penance with your eyes and ears and tongue is pointed out by St. Francis de Sales:

"Believe me, the mortification of the senses - of the sight, the hearing, the tongue - is more beneficial than to wear a chain of iron and a hair-shirt."

DECIDE YOUR PENANCE
Before you leave the presence of God tonight, tell Him just how you are going to fast this Lent. Don't simply say: "O God, I'm sorry for my sins. I will do something to make up. I will do something to share in the suffer­ings of Christ."

No, be definite; be practical. Tell our Lord:
"O Lord, I am sorry for my sins. To prove my sorrow I will fast with
my eyes by cutting out all unlawful reading and shows, and also by not looking at movies which might even be lawful. I will fast with my tongue by stopping all unkind and indecent speech. I will fast with my ears by closing them to what is impure and unkind, and opening them to what will do my soul some good, to Your voice and the voice of those who serve You."­

ASK GOD'S HELP
Then ask God to help you keep your resolve. Often repeat your resolution. Every morning and evening make your promise again. With the help of Christ who spent forty similar days in checking His ears, His eyes, and His tongue, you will be making a fast that is pleasing to Almighty God and profitable to yourself, here and in the happier life to come.

PRAYER
Christ went into the desert not only to do penance, but also to pray. As we follow our Savior into the wilderness we see Him day after day going without food, without drink, without any human comfort. We also see Him frequently raising His magnificent eyes to heaven. Often we come upon Him kneeling beside a rock or a tree, talking to His heavenly Father. The greater part of those forty days Christ spent in prayer. Would you be Christ's follower? Then you too must pray, especially during Lent.

MASS
The best prayer is Holy Mass. It is the best prayer and the best sacri­fice combined. It is the uniting in one service all the sufferings, all the teachings of our Lord. No one can measure the value of a single Mass. Yes, we Catholics appreciate the Mass. Most of you deserve a pat on the back for your faithfulness to Sunday Mass.

But, during Lent we want to do more. Many of you can come during the week. It will mean sacrificing some sleep, but I know you will make that sacrifice once you bring home to yourself this fact: Jesus spent forty days without a decent place to lay His holy head, and I don't love Him enough to give up a little sleep for Him.

Mass reminds us of the desert; Mass is the Last Supper all over again; Mass is Gethsemane; Mass is the passion; Mass is Calvary; Mass is the cru­cifixion; and Mass is Easter Sunday - all made present to us again.

MEDITATION
In that first Lent Christ not only did penance and prayed, He also thought and meditated. Meditation is simply prayer without words, prayer of the soul and mind and heart. It is talking to God with the tongue of the spirit, and hearing Him answer with the ears of the soul.

Meditation is for the sanest and most sensible people, even though it sends the soul soaring through the skies. Thought is necessary in the ma­terial world. It is even more needed in the spiritual world. On every ship there must be someone to think out the problems and map the course and see that the ship pursues that course. Otherwise the vessel drifts aimlessly and will never make port.

Everyone of you is captain of your own ship - your soul. Either you will sail it or wreck it. To meet the problems of every day you must think. I once heard a great psychiatrist of the University of Chicago declare abou't thinking:
"People who think two minutes a month, will be the leaders."

Yes, men who meditate will be masters of their souls. Am I asking you to spend hours doing nothing but sit with your head in your hands, gazing over the ocean of thought? No, but I am asking everyone of you to sit down each day - and think. Sisters and priests have a definite time set apart daily for spiritual thinking. Here is how to do it.

Read a paragraph or two from a religious book or pamphlet. Close the book and think about what you read. Thinking means putting two or more ideas side by side. We have just heard that Lent is a time of penance and prayer in imitation of Christ Himself. On the one hand we have the in­spiring picture of Christ, the thought of His prayer and His penance. On the other, stand we, a distressing thought, with our poor prayers and our paltry penances. Compare yourself with Christ and you are thinking.

Picture Christ in the desert comparing His life there with the life His heavenly Father wanted Him to lead. Jesus spent days in this spiritual thinking. We can surely spend a few minutes each day thinking about God and ourselves, and how we stand with God, in the light of the Great Ex­ample, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master.

QUIET
To think you should have quiet, you ought to be alone. You ought to be alone often, because alone you came into the world, alone you leave it, and alone, pitifully alone, will you stand before the Supreme Judge. To get acquainted with yourself, you must be alone with yourself, at least alone with your thoughts. Don't fear that being alone with your thoughts is to be lonely. A certain poet puts it: "Alone, but yet not lonely."

And that keen convert, Cardinal Newman, tells us: "I am never less alone than when alone."

Get acquainted with yourself. Talk to you. That is thinking, that is meditation, that is what Jesus did in the desert, and that is what He wants us to do during part of these forty days.

ASHES
Let us do a little thinking about what happens on Ash Wednesday. When the priest puts ashes on your head, he speaks the solemn, serious words: "Remember man that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return."

Ashes tell us more loudly than words that death will reduce our bodies to a little handful of dust or ashes. Ashes remind us that this body, no mat­ter how beautiful, no matter how brawny, no matter how healthy, will break down, will wither and die and turn to ashes.

WORLD CALLS THIS GLOOMY
A pessimistic thought, cries the worldling. Why cloud life with such a gloomy idea? But is this such a gloomy thought? No, because we followers of Christ know for certain that the body dies, but the soul lives on; the body is mortal but the soul is immortal; the body rots but the soul takes on a new brilliance, a higher and better life. Ash-Wednesday brings m mind those sobering lines of Grey's Elegy, or Song in a Country Churchyard:

"The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
"And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
"Await alike the inevitable hour­
"The paths of beauty lead but to the grave."

In mock beauty these lines tell us that rather distressing truth: You must die. You must go back to the earth from which you came. But, beside these lines of Grey, we place the hopeful, uplifting lines of Longfellow, which tell us the soul lives on:
"Life is real, life is earnest,
"And the grave is not its goal.
"Dust thou art to dust returnest
"Was not spoken of the soul."

TEMPTATION
As Jesus finished His forty days of prayer and penance, He was tempted three times. Some say He was tempted constantly during that first Lent. You, too, can expect to be tempted during Lent, tempted to go back on your Ash-Wednesday promises, tempted to go back on your Lenten resolutions, tempted to give up fasting, tempted to go back to your sins, tempted to quit attending Mass and receiving Holy Communion frequently or even daily.

Do you want to be a true follower of Christ? Then, like our Lord, brush those temptations aside. To do this, think of Christ in the desert and beg for the grace and strength to walk in His footsteps, for He has left you an example that you may follow in His steps.

THE MAGNIFICENT CHRIST
The Magnificent Christ! Who so powerful, so royal, so humble, so he­roic, so loving, so unselfish as the King we follow? What can keep us from giving Him our love, our service, our devotion? With St. Paul -
"I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things pres­ent, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans, 8:39.

We will follow Him; we will be true to Him. Like Judas, we may have betrayed Him; like Peter, we may have denied Him; like Magdalen, we may have offended Him; like Pilate, we may have condemned Him; like Herod, we may have insulted Him. But, all is forgiven and forgotten. We are going back to Him, to Christ, not to a Caesar or Napoleon, not to a Hitler, a Mussolini or a Stalin, no, but back to Christ, to swear loyalty to Him, to follow Him, cost what it may, for He - Christ - Christ alone is our leader. Amen.
__________________
Adapted from With Christ Through Lent
by Fr. Arthur Tonne, OFM (©1951)

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