For some the season of Lent might mean a time of lamentation and deprivation. For others it has little or no significance except that it precedes Pascha (Easter).
For me, it is a time of deep reflection, the opportunity each year for renewal and ultimately of joy.
It is the time when we can (and should) examine ourselves and ask serious questions. Most especially to ask ourselves, "Am I being saved?" Not, "Am I saved?" but "Am I being saved?"
We know our salvation is not a one-time event but an ongoing conversion - a progression of being transformed and perfected in the Image and Likeness of Christ.
Do we reflect the manners of Christ in our mannerisms? Or do we treat others as obstacles to getting what we want? The kindness of Christ in our speaking? Or do we talk trash? The Face of Christ in our faces? Or do we walk around with a scowl? Are we so sensitive to offense that our conversation with our husband/wife/close friends is a monologue of the indignities we had to endure throughout a given day?
We often get pulled in so many directions throughout our daily activities that we struggle with remembering all the things we are supposed to do so we carry day planners and set alarms and ringtones on our cell phones to notify us of various appointments. I wonder how it would work if we set our cell phones to tone and display a note saying, "Be still, be silent, remember God and give Him your loving attention for the next 5 minutes."
I have said before that I am not a fan of resolutions because they are usually of a selfish nature and are rarely kept. I stand by that statement. However, if one is determined to make a ‘resolution’ Lent, it seems to me, is the better time to do it than New Year’s.
But in either case, we should use caution in deciding on these ‘resolutions’. We should be cautious in resolving to do something that we do not have some realistic notion of being able to carry through. This is often why we seem to fail. We set the bar too high. Most often, however, the things we seem to pick to ‘give up’ for Lent also just so happens to have ‘self-improvement’ qualities as well. We ‘give up’ sweets and desserts and it also helps us to lose weight. Convenient.
Are we really giving up the sweets and desserts for the sake of disciplining our appetites to encourage a greater hunger for God’s Presence? Or are we giving these up so we can say we gave something up for Lent and because we think we might be able to drop a few pounds and look better in our new Easter Sunday Best clothes?
We should examine our intent.
Many years ago I heard an Orthodox bishop tell a story during his homily. Perhaps it is a well-known story, perhaps not, I do not know. But I do know it made an impact on me at the time such that I have never forgotten it. The story goes that a young soldier in the army of Alexander the Great was accused of desertion in the face of the enemy during a campaign. The young soldier was caught by his superior officers and brought before the king. The young man was ashamed and afraid for his life and so kept his head bowed and stared at the ground. The king asked the young man his name. There was no answer. The king asked the same question several times with no answer and became angry. He got up, stood before the young man and drew his sword and asked once more, “What is your name?”
The quivering young man finally looked up and fearfully whispered, “My name is Alexander.” The king looked at him sternly, sheathed his sword and said to the youth, “Change your conduct or change your name.”
Although repentance is not confined to one season of the year, Lent is, for Christians, the time of opportunity to change our conduct, for we dare not change our name. Not if we want to live.
To isolate and focus on one particular aspect of our thinking or doing and to offer just that for God to change according to His Will may not seem very notable but it is the little things that so often cause us to stumble. “The devil belittles small sins; otherwise he cannot lead us into greater ones” (St. Mark the Ascetic).
These little things become like signposts pointing the way to the answer of “Am I being saved?”
The activity of Grace in our lives and the progress we think should ensue often seems to happen very slowly or in ways that are seemingly insignificant. The Holy Trinity is always working. Christ is ever working, drawing us to the Father through Himself and in the Holy Spirit but it is we who resist. We resist in ways we don’t even realize and so it takes some effort on our part to cooperate with Grace. That cooperation often takes some not so pleasant forms. It may take the form of simply remaining silent when someone offends us. Or it may take the form of doing something even when we don’t feel like it. I suspect there are many opportunities of Grace that I have missed out on simply because, when it came to being somewhere or doing some thing, I didn’t feel like it. Our Christian lives are not based on how we feel. How we feel has nothing to do with Am I being saved?
We may not feel like going to church or participating in the Liturgy at any given time, but are we being saved when we don’t?
A change of heart (metanoia) is the essence of repentance and should be a continuing condition. Our conduct and attitude is a reflection of this inner state of our heart and the disposition of our heart is, in turn, influenced by our thinking and doing. As Fr. Stephen has profoundly noted: “The heart changes in the crucible of our actions. Generosity and kindness are begotten of generosity and kindness”.
But our actions are always preceded by thoughts, as St. Mark the Ascetic affirms: “When you sin, blame your thought, not your action. For had your intellect not run ahead, your body would not have followed.”
We should discriminate in what we give our attention to.
Feeding the intellect a steady diet of gratuitous violence, horror, bloodshed, sex, greed and hypocrisy and calling it ‘entertainment’ will certainly beget something in us but it most likely will not be generosity, kindness or humility. Or love.
I tend to think there is a lot more to that old cartoon of the three monkeys with their hands over their eyes, ears and mouth – See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil – than many of us would care to admit.
Are we being saved?
Are we being saved in our marriage relationship? In our relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ? In our church? In our monastic community? In our Vows?
These are hard questions that cannot be answered with excuses.
Christ emptied Himself that we may receive His Fullness. He continues to empty Himself and we are not worthy of His Emptiness nor His Fullness. We are not worthy of such a Saviour, of such a King … of such a God!
May our journey through Lent prepare our hearts to meet the Answer.
For me, it is a time of deep reflection, the opportunity each year for renewal and ultimately of joy.
It is the time when we can (and should) examine ourselves and ask serious questions. Most especially to ask ourselves, "Am I being saved?" Not, "Am I saved?" but "Am I being saved?"
We know our salvation is not a one-time event but an ongoing conversion - a progression of being transformed and perfected in the Image and Likeness of Christ.
Do we reflect the manners of Christ in our mannerisms? Or do we treat others as obstacles to getting what we want? The kindness of Christ in our speaking? Or do we talk trash? The Face of Christ in our faces? Or do we walk around with a scowl? Are we so sensitive to offense that our conversation with our husband/wife/close friends is a monologue of the indignities we had to endure throughout a given day?
We often get pulled in so many directions throughout our daily activities that we struggle with remembering all the things we are supposed to do so we carry day planners and set alarms and ringtones on our cell phones to notify us of various appointments. I wonder how it would work if we set our cell phones to tone and display a note saying, "Be still, be silent, remember God and give Him your loving attention for the next 5 minutes."
I have said before that I am not a fan of resolutions because they are usually of a selfish nature and are rarely kept. I stand by that statement. However, if one is determined to make a ‘resolution’ Lent, it seems to me, is the better time to do it than New Year’s.
But in either case, we should use caution in deciding on these ‘resolutions’. We should be cautious in resolving to do something that we do not have some realistic notion of being able to carry through. This is often why we seem to fail. We set the bar too high. Most often, however, the things we seem to pick to ‘give up’ for Lent also just so happens to have ‘self-improvement’ qualities as well. We ‘give up’ sweets and desserts and it also helps us to lose weight. Convenient.
Are we really giving up the sweets and desserts for the sake of disciplining our appetites to encourage a greater hunger for God’s Presence? Or are we giving these up so we can say we gave something up for Lent and because we think we might be able to drop a few pounds and look better in our new Easter Sunday Best clothes?
We should examine our intent.
Many years ago I heard an Orthodox bishop tell a story during his homily. Perhaps it is a well-known story, perhaps not, I do not know. But I do know it made an impact on me at the time such that I have never forgotten it. The story goes that a young soldier in the army of Alexander the Great was accused of desertion in the face of the enemy during a campaign. The young soldier was caught by his superior officers and brought before the king. The young man was ashamed and afraid for his life and so kept his head bowed and stared at the ground. The king asked the young man his name. There was no answer. The king asked the same question several times with no answer and became angry. He got up, stood before the young man and drew his sword and asked once more, “What is your name?”
The quivering young man finally looked up and fearfully whispered, “My name is Alexander.” The king looked at him sternly, sheathed his sword and said to the youth, “Change your conduct or change your name.”
Although repentance is not confined to one season of the year, Lent is, for Christians, the time of opportunity to change our conduct, for we dare not change our name. Not if we want to live.
To isolate and focus on one particular aspect of our thinking or doing and to offer just that for God to change according to His Will may not seem very notable but it is the little things that so often cause us to stumble. “The devil belittles small sins; otherwise he cannot lead us into greater ones” (St. Mark the Ascetic).
These little things become like signposts pointing the way to the answer of “Am I being saved?”
The activity of Grace in our lives and the progress we think should ensue often seems to happen very slowly or in ways that are seemingly insignificant. The Holy Trinity is always working. Christ is ever working, drawing us to the Father through Himself and in the Holy Spirit but it is we who resist. We resist in ways we don’t even realize and so it takes some effort on our part to cooperate with Grace. That cooperation often takes some not so pleasant forms. It may take the form of simply remaining silent when someone offends us. Or it may take the form of doing something even when we don’t feel like it. I suspect there are many opportunities of Grace that I have missed out on simply because, when it came to being somewhere or doing some thing, I didn’t feel like it. Our Christian lives are not based on how we feel. How we feel has nothing to do with Am I being saved?
We may not feel like going to church or participating in the Liturgy at any given time, but are we being saved when we don’t?
A change of heart (metanoia) is the essence of repentance and should be a continuing condition. Our conduct and attitude is a reflection of this inner state of our heart and the disposition of our heart is, in turn, influenced by our thinking and doing. As Fr. Stephen has profoundly noted: “The heart changes in the crucible of our actions. Generosity and kindness are begotten of generosity and kindness”.
But our actions are always preceded by thoughts, as St. Mark the Ascetic affirms: “When you sin, blame your thought, not your action. For had your intellect not run ahead, your body would not have followed.”
We should discriminate in what we give our attention to.
Feeding the intellect a steady diet of gratuitous violence, horror, bloodshed, sex, greed and hypocrisy and calling it ‘entertainment’ will certainly beget something in us but it most likely will not be generosity, kindness or humility. Or love.
I tend to think there is a lot more to that old cartoon of the three monkeys with their hands over their eyes, ears and mouth – See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil – than many of us would care to admit.
Are we being saved?
Are we being saved in our marriage relationship? In our relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ? In our church? In our monastic community? In our Vows?
These are hard questions that cannot be answered with excuses.
Christ emptied Himself that we may receive His Fullness. He continues to empty Himself and we are not worthy of His Emptiness nor His Fullness. We are not worthy of such a Saviour, of such a King … of such a God!
May our journey through Lent prepare our hearts to meet the Answer.
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