When my daughter was
little, before my son came along, in quite moments when we weren’t distracted
by other things, maybe outside for a walk or something like that, I used to
tell her to remember she was a special child. I’d say – Look behind you,
daughter, and see all the people that came before you… so many people, all the
way back to the first mother and father. So many people. They’ve
lived, so you can live now! Live well, to honor their gift to
you!
And look ahead of you…
see your children, and your children’s children, and their children, and on and
on… all the way into the long future. Live well so they can live!
Live well as a good gift for them.
Would it make a
difference if we remembered we lived not just for ourselves, but for those
coming after us?
Used to be Lent was
something to be endured! It focused much more on us poor sinners
groveling before the Lord and wallowing in our unworthiness. At least
that was the way it generally played itself out in people’s lives.
That’s certainly a way to look at this.
Although I don’t necessarily buy the “I’m a groveling worm” routine when
it comes to prayer before God, the truth is, in theory we do occasionally need to look
inwardly and see where we stand, review the choices we’ve made, the path we’ve
been walking… assessing our lives to that point.
In asking these
questions, we’re really seeking meaning for our lives, making sense of who we
are in the midst of this big world.
Religions
at their best offer ways of helping us to at least ask – if not answer – these
questions. But more fundamentally we do this because it’s a human thing to do. The meat
of the 12 steps is one way to address these deeper issues:
4. Made a
searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5.
Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of
our wrongs.
6. Were
entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly
asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a
list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them
all.
9. Made
direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would
injure them or others.
10.
Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted
it.
11.
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God,
as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and
the power to carry that out.
Sound easy? (…he asked
facetiously)
What if we really lived
believing our lives are gifts from those gone before us – to be lived with
honor and dignity? And gifts to be
handed on to those coming after us – to be lived with honor and dignity so as
to give them this gift as
well?
There certainly is a
personal element to this – where we focus on us and our lives. But the
thing is, not only do we not live in a vacuum, we also live as part of a
group. Yom Kippur – the Jewish Day of atonement – has three parts to
it: Repentance, Prayer and Fasting. Repentance is first about this
self assessment, and our turning to God. But it’s also about our role in
the greater community we are a part of! Here’s a prayer from the Yom
Kippur liturgy:
For the sin that we have committed under stress or through
choice;
For the sin that we have committed in stubbornness or in error;
For the sin that we have committed in the evil meditations of the heart;
For the sin that we have committed by word of mouth;
For the sin that we have committed through abuse of power;
For the sin that we have committed by exploitation of neighbors;
For all these sins, O God of forgiveness, bear with us, pardon us, forgive us!
For the sin that we have committed in stubbornness or in error;
For the sin that we have committed in the evil meditations of the heart;
For the sin that we have committed by word of mouth;
For the sin that we have committed through abuse of power;
For the sin that we have committed by exploitation of neighbors;
For all these sins, O God of forgiveness, bear with us, pardon us, forgive us!
When Al Khet is recited, people traditionally gently
beat their fists against their chests as each sin is mentioned. Sins are
mentioned in plural form because even if someone hasn’t committed a particular
sin, Jewish tradition teaches that every Jew bears a measure of responsibility
for the actions of other Jews.
Lent is our Christians
version of this. It’s about us and our
journey, about who we are and who we can become. It’s about where we came
from and where we are going. This assessment, this inventory of our
lives, ought not be just a one-time thing.
It would be healthiest for us to be part of a grand cycle in our
lives. We live, we act, we assess… we
live from there, we act from there, we assess again… and so on.
This helps us remember,
and open up to, the idea we’re part of a grand miracle, a wonderful
mystery.
Incorporating this
assessment process into our Lenten disciplines helps us get in touch with our
true selves. And it could help us remember we don’t just live for
ourselves; our lives are gifts from others that came before us, and our lives
are a gift to others coming after us.
Check out this video – it fits for this
Journey of Lent
Peace,
Pr. C-
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