Fix it, it’s broken!

Life’s lesson says “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” But Lent’s lesson is “it’s broken, now is the time to fix it.” So the Bible reminds us to go into the desert so as to fix our broken lives. Jesus went into the desert immediately after his baptism by John the Baptist at the river Jordan. Patriarch Fouad Twal of Jerusalem tells us that the fast of Jesus “took place in the desert region four kilometers northwest of Jericho, on a mountain named “Quarantena” (or Quruntul in Arabic)”.

Prophets, like Moses and Elijah, went into the desert to fast and pray either for themselves or for the sins of others in preparation for an encounter with God. In the book of Prophet Hosea 2:16, God says, “I will allure her, I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart.” In the book of prophet Ezekiel 20:35-36 we read “then I will lead you to the desert of the peoples, where I will enter into judgment with you face to face. Just as I entered into judgment with your fathers in the desert of the land of Egypt, so will I enter into judgment with you, says the Lord God”. You will recall that after the children of Israel left Egypt, they wandered for forty years in the desert en route the Promised Land. It was while in the desert, as we read in Exodus 16, that the children of Israel started complaining to God that they had no water to drink, no food to eat and that they would have preferred to die in Egypt under force labor and slavery rather than in desert.

So what do we find in the desert? Life’s lesson informs us that in the desert we find a sea of sand, wild animals, hostile and unfriendly weather conditions. The one thing that is not common in the desert is water. There is heat in abundance and life can indeed be difficult. Here was where Jesus chose to go to after his baptism. Mark the evangelist reminds us in the first chapter of his Gospel, in the 12^th verse that: “The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remind in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him.”

Since the conveniences of life are lacking in the desert one can only be confronted by ones mind. Here all illusions of riches and wealth give way to a stag realization that we need a being bigger and greater than ourselves. Here we rely on God for everything. Here we experience our nothingness, our helplessness and our dependence on God. In the desert we have to make do with the barest necessities of life. In the desert God becomes our all and all. Oh yes, it is easy for God to speak to our hearts directly and we will listen to him. In the absence of material things around us, we become easily attached to God. In the desert it becomes easy to begin to fix our broken lives after we have stripped ourselves of the glories of life, our self-importance and our authority and the feeling that we are better than everyone else.

As we enter into this season of grace, let us create our own desert and take a long loving walk in and around it. Let us spend some time in prayer and constantly feel our need for God and our dependence on one another. Lent will only be meaningful after we have spent some time in our wilderness, our desert. So let us heed the lesson of Lent and begin to fix our brokenness in the desert created just to be with God and God with us.

Why do we fast?

In the book of the prophet Isaiah 58:3 we read these words: “Why do we fast, and you do not see it? Afflict ourselves, and you take no notice of it?” This was God’s way of replying to the children of Israel who wondered why God was paying a deaf ear to their supplication. Don’t we feel like this most of the time? We sometimes wonder why we go to Church at all if our prayers seem to go unanswered. So as we begin this season of Lent it would be good to look at the pillars of Lent: Prayer, fasting and almsgiving. We are told by Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that we should pray more, fast a lot and give to those in need more than we have ever done before during Lent. But note: he said that all these should be done in secret since the one to reward us is God himself. Please read for yourself these sacred words that come out of the mouth of the teacher himself as recorded by the Gospel of Matthew 6:1-8,16-18. Notice that Christ started by sounding a note of warning: “…Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father."

God, in the passage from Isaiah quoted above, went on to state why the fasting and the prayer of the children of Israel do not go up to Him. “Lo on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits, and drive all your laborers. Yes, your fast ends in quarreling and fighting, striking with wicked claw. Would that today you might fast so as to make your voice heard on high! Is this the manner of fasting I wish, of keeping a day of penance: that a man bow his head like a reed, and lie in sackcloth and ashes? Do you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? This rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; Setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; Sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; Clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own” Is. 58:3-8.

From the aforementioned, there is a strong correlation between fasting and justice. God links the fasting that pleases him to doing justice. The reason why this is so emphasized during Lent, I think, is that Lent should bring out the best in all of us. Since during Lent, we must necessarily think of the welfare of our brothers and sisters as well as doing all that we can to avoid sins and all that lead to sins. In his message for Lent this year, the Holy Father, Pope Benedict calls “us to be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works. He stated that, “Christians can also express their membership in the one body which is the Church through concrete concern for the poorest of the poor. Concern for one another likewise means acknowledging the good that the Lord is doing in others and giving thanks for the wonders of grace that Almighty God in his goodness continuously accomplishes in his children.”

In his Lenten letter the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal reminds us that we fast during Lent so that we may “adapt our lives with determination to the will of God, freeing ourselves from any egoism, lust for power, or avarice, by opening our hearts to the love of Christ and neighbor, especially the poor and indigent. Lent, as the Holy Father reminds us, is a providential time for us to recognize our frailty and welcome reconciliation, in order to orient ourselves to Christ.” So we fast for various reasons, but most of all we fast so as to imitate Christ, according to Patriarch Twal, “to be conscious of those who hunger and thirst. As proclaimed by the fourth Preface for Lent: “For through bodily fasting you restrain our faults, raise up our minds, and bestow both virtue and its rewards, through Christ our Lord.”

This then is the type of fasting that pleases God. Listen to Him, “If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech; if you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday; then the Lord will guide you always and give you plenty even on the parched land. He will renew your strength, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails” Is. 58:10-12. What else can I tell you?   

It’s Lent again

Every year the Church gives us a second chance. A time to sit back and reflect on life; to get our perspective aright and take stock of our relationship both with God and one another. This second chance is called Lent. This is the springtime of life. Lent begins with Ash Wednesday when we receive ashes on our forehead to show that we are ready to humble ourselves and repent of our sins, to do penance, to pray some more and to think of others more than we think of ourselves. There are 46 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. So what will you do differently this year?

Last year, in this blog, I gave you some practical suggestions on how to observe Lent. I talked about sin reduction rather than giving up food and things. I wrote about kicking some bad habits, like smoking and avoiding gossiping. I did not write much about assisting others, though I suggested that you should give the savings from giving up a bad habit like smoking to assist the poor. This year I want to stress the importance of thinking of others before self (avoiding ‘I before others’ syndrome and replacing it with ‘others before me’ mentality). Let us talk about giving alms instead of giving arms. In giving alms, we see ourselves as God’s stewards who have been entrusted with many blessings by the creator and the author of life. We are to see how we can share these many blessings with others. In giving alms, we see ourselves in relationship with one another as well as with God. I am sure you know that being a Christian means being in a relationship with a living person - Jesus Christ, the second person of the blessed Trinity. Do you have to be rich before you share your blessings with others? By no means! Our gifts are meaningful when the giving hurts us. That is what is called sacrificial giving. And that too is how God loves us. He sent his only Son into the world to redeem us and he did this by giving his life as expiation for our sins. So instead of giving arms, let us give alms. Giving arms only brings misunderstanding and conflicts. It robs us of our peace of mind and instills disunity and disharmony in our lives. A good and practical observance of Lent should help us to experience the peace that only Christ can give us.

This Lent, therefore, let us learn to be all things to all people. Be available to the people around you. Ask a simple question like, how may I be of help to you? Share your blessings with the people around you. Go out of your way to assist someone in need. Pay attention to simple things, like sharing a smile or laughter with people around you. Let your parting words be ‘May God bless you’. And wish everyone the best of the day. Forget not simple pleasures of life and remind your friends to do the same.

You can now see that being a saint is not that difficult after all. This indeed is how God wants us to live, and Lent will all the more be meaningful because we care! 

What are you driving or what is driving you?

Life’s lesson has it that as all lizards lie with their stomach on the ground it does not make it easy to know which of them has stomachache. In our everyday life we meet people. They are tall while others are short. They are beautiful while others are not so beautiful. They are white and others are black. They are well endowed in shapes and seizes while others are of moderate shapes and seizes. Some are rich while others are not so rich. Many are healthy while others are sick. No matter how much we try, it is not easy to determine who; among those that we meet, are really happy and who are not. How right was William Shakespeare when he noted in Macbeth Act 1, scene 4 that “there’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face.”

Many of those that we meet are either driving a big truck or are being driven by it. Driven by something that will make our jaw drop if we were to know the forces behind them. Unless we are invited to navigate in their world and are allowed to share their problems we will never know the terrain of their world and the load that they carry. Few days ago we were shocked with the sudden death of Whitney Houston, the lady of Songs with a magnificent voice that would want us to keep listening to her. She was rich and famous, had enough money to have guaranteed her happiness, but she was either driving a heavy truck or was being driven in the wrong direction. She was found dead in her bathtub, in a hotel room. Last year Michael Jackson, another musical icon, the king of Pop bowed down and out under a powerful drug called propofol. Our dear brother was unable to sleep in spite of his popularity and fame. He was either driving a heavy truck or was being driven by something greater than himself. So we wonder why such a rich man found it so difficult to sleep at night. We have read of many sport stars who have crumbled under the powerful influence of drugs or who adopted a life style that is difficult to understand.

As I watched the funeral of Whitney Houston I realized that all those who are driving a heavy truck or who are being driven by it have one thing in common: they are looking for something. They want to be happy. To have peace of mind! To be loved, not just because of their money or because of how they make us feel when they sing or dance, but just to be loved for who they are. They want to go to bed and sleep as every other person without paparazzi following then around, waiting for them to make a mistake so that they would report it to the whole world. Oh the burden of stardom! Life’s lesson comes handy here: nothing and no one can make us happy. We are either happy or we are not. Money, things, and even human beings cannot make us happy. St. Augustine was on the money when he noted: “God, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in you.”

Another life’s lesson, this time from the Book of Psalm #49 is at rem at this point. Please read and learn: Hear this all you peoples, give heed, all who dwell in the world, men both high and low, rich and poor alike! My lips will speak words of wisdom. My heart is full of insight. I will turn my mind to a parable, with the harp I will solve my problem. Why should I fear in evil days the malice of the foes who surround me, men who trust in their wealth, and boast of the vastness of their riches? For no man buy his own ransom, or pay a price to God for his life. The ransom of his soul is beyond him. He cannot buy life without end, nor avoid coming to the grave. He knows that wise men and fools must both perish and must leave their wealth to others. Their graves are their homes for ever, their dwelling place from age to age, though their names spread wide through the land. In his riches, man lacks wisdom; he is like the beasts that are destroyed.

So the only thing that should drive us is our desire to be at one with God, to see things from God’s perspective. God meant for us to be happy, to love him and be loved by him, to be in touch with our inner-self, to know that we brought nothing into this world and we will take nothing out of it. We are meant to live simple lives, not to accumulate too much for ourselves but to share what we have with others. By so doing we will only be driven by one thing, and one thing only and that is love.