From the desk of
Father John McCormick
A weekly message from this weeks BulletinGETTYSBURG AND WHAT LENT MEANS TO ME
As I have mentioned more than once, I believe that by now if it is ever meant to happen, I will finally get a grasp on why Lent? The Church Fathers have taught us over the years that since Our Lord prepared for his public life by forty days of fast and prayer, it is fitting that as good followers of the Master we would do the same. And so Lent was born, and then came the list of sacrifices; the meatless Fridays, the Stations of the Cross and the forty days where I listen to my husband every time he speaks. And then I remembered a scene from the movie “Gettysburg” when Colonel Joshua Chamberlain spoke to some of his men as they sat on the grass. These were some of the points he made that come to mind:
1. “Whether you fight or not, it is up to you.” Lent is a period of time that reflects spiritual growth, and much like the admonition of Christ, that it should be done in the privacy of our rooms, and the Father who sees in secret, will repay us. Lent is a time of inner spiritual conversion, and perhaps, only you and God will notice. Each of us must decide.
2. “ Some men signed up to fight because they were bored at home, some even because they like killing, many because it was the right thing to do.” Some Catholics will e-mail or text family and friends on their Lenten sacrifices, others when they go out to eat will refrain from dessert or wine and tell you why, many please God, will strive to be better people because, we are called to respond in some personal fashion to the cry of the Messiah: “What else could I have done for you, ANSWER ME.”
3. “ We are a different kind of army. We fight not for land, there is always more land. We fight to set men free. No man needs to bow to another, we all have value.” After forty days of Lent are the family of believers any less attached to material possessions than before, am I any more compassionate to the homeless or the hungry, are pornographic images on the computer any less seductive, will fewer unborn children die in the womb of their mothers, will church-going people be any more supportive of the ministries of their parishes? At the end of Lent am I any more free from sin and the attraction of the goods of this passing world?
“We judge you by who you are, not, who your father was”. So often it seems to me that many Christian people explain themselves today by what has happened to them in the past, ‘my father walked out on us, I had to leave school in the tenth grade, Tony Romo should never have taken Jennifer Simpson to Cancun, no one at the parish offered to help’. Regardless of the blessings or the disadvantages, each of us must live in the present and speak for ourselves. Even the Scriptures remind us that at the end of time, every man and woman will have to render an account of themselves to God. Similarly, Lent this year should not look or sound like Lent last year, because if it does, I am standing still. The past is history, the future may never come, the present is God’s on going gift to me, and now is my response to Our Lord’s admonition repeated on Ash Wednesday, TODAY IS THE ACCEPTABLE TIME.
God Bless,
Fr. John McCormick, Rector