The Monthly Note
March 2011
I was thirsty, I was sick, I was a stranger - Matthew 25, 35
by Benoît Lacroix, O.P.
This year, Lent is from March 9th to April 24th. During springtime, the role of spring is to convert winter into warmer weather. The role of Lent is to convert our everyday lives into a time of contemplation, of meditation, of prayers and of silence. When spring arrives, the birds come back, the barnacles fly over our cities and countryside. Let’s not forget the white geese. Spring summons light, at the same time that the sun recovers his strength and gives us much longer days.
Lent, as defined by our ancestors, was made up of sometimes harsh fasting days, of all sorts of deprivations at the home, of more frequent visits to the parochial church. For consecrated persons, the same period consisted of retreats, days spent in silence, sometimes nights spent in prayer, hours of adoration and many other rites a bit forgotten today.
Of course, times have changed. Work has become harder. A great part of our weekdays is spent at work, sometimes during the night too. One day, the good Pope John XXIII intervened and abolished the yesteryears harsh fasts, even reducing the days of obligation to Good Friday and to Ash Wednesday. His reasoning is valid for today: life is more difficult today, people tire faster. The ways of fasting change. What is recommended today is also demanding. It not because flowers are more difficult to grow in the city that the sun will not continue illuminating us. This renewed spring, the one that will give us more warmth in our souls and in our hearts, will consist in saving time to think of Jesus, in his ways of forgiving, to be helpful, to give his/her life day to day.
In this Lenten spring, I will try my hardest to be more loving, more smiling. The Lent that Jesus wishes for me is less one that wears down my physical strengths than one that resurrects in me a sense of forgiving, or better yet remaining silent in front of the criticism of others, even of the governments. Keeping ones tongue is harder that giving money to the poor. The renewed Lent, just like the renewed spring, suggests the light of a generous heart and longer days in the service of others, visiting a sick or forgotten person, taking ones time to listen to someone rather than spending time alone watching television. The time you give to a person suffering of Alzheimer’s disease is an evangelical time of gratuitousness. Remember the Jesus’ instruction, according to the Gospel of Saint Matthew: « You received without charge, give without charge.» Thus, I have received, free of charge, the time of life, of love…I give it return.
I suppose that now I have said enough of how much this cosmic spring calls upon you, wherever you are, to, once again, find the Light of the Lord and to walk behind it…until Easter.
