by Mike Hughes, Assistant Vice Provost, Graduate Enrollment
One would think that at this stage of my life – someone who began studying the Baltimore Catechism in second grade in 1961 – I would have a good sense of, and a clear mission for, Lent. But I don’t. Almsgiving, Prayer, and Fasting. Self-reflection. Renewal. “What are you giving up for Lent?” we asked each other as children. A solid chocolate Easter bunny was the ultimate reward for our abstinence. “Don’t give up chocolate for Lent this year!” proclaims a blurb touting “Best Lent Ever,” a program of daily videos for each day of Lent.
The fact that the Passion leads to the Resurrection means taking a hard look at man’s inhumanity to man. Then, and now. To me, no stations of the cross, no gospel, no crucifix, no statuary, portray what must have been the reality of the visceral, brutal, primitive death that Jesus endured, or the gut-wrenching, irrational fear that the human Incarnation of God must have felt leading up to it.
It’s a hard road for me to go down for six weeks in the Spring. How to reconcile the beautiful morning this week in San Francisco that brought us Ash Wednesday? Was it a beautiful Spring morning that found Jesus in front of Pilate, knowing what the day would bring for Him?
It’s all very confusing. So I have to think. My confusion, my understanding of Lent, my self-expectations about my Lenten observance, is centering around – me. And I’m not at the center. You are.
In The Waters of Siloe, Thomas Merton quotes the Rule of St. Benedict: “a humility that concentrated not on his own self and its miseries but on the greatness and nearness of God, the constant presence of His indispensable grace and the action of His will in all things.”
So, I’ll leave it with You to give Lent’s meaning to me.
We are each other’s center. Insightful questions you pose, makes me think about how our modern day “Pilate.” Thank you for sharing this. I’m a fan of Thomas Merton too!