3rd Lent Its Not too Late for Life

After nearly 20 years of being with families experiencing death, it will never get easier. The more tragic and painful experiences are those persons that died suddenly; accidents or sudden health issues. Part of the tragedy is that the final words, the final “thank you”, the final “I love you”, the final “forgive me”, the final “I forgive you”…did not get spoken.   So, don’t wait. Now is the time.

As we approach Easter, let's go to Christmas. Particularly the tale “A Christmas Carol.” We kind of know that tale; Ebenezer Scrooge, a rich old man, bitter and isolated, gets visited by three Spirits; past, present and future. Ebenezer is shown those moments in life when he made a choice in the past that led to his sad present; whereas the Crachitt family, poor, lived with joy; and then a future, the grave. Ebenezer wakes up and with joy realizes he has time to change the direction of his life. It was not too late.

A former doctor of mine, many years ago, noted that I was gaining weight. He told me in a wonderful bedside manner, if I don’t change now I will soon be 300 pounds. I knew he was exaggerating, but he made his point, so I tried to make changes.

Repent means to change the direction of our lives. Repent means that we look at our lives now and honestly ask ourselves where are our choices and actions leading us? Repent also means to have an idea of our goal in life; whom do we truly want to be? How do we truly want to live?

We can merely coast through our lives, just go with the flow; but that does not always bring us to a fullness of life. Life will surprise us; for the good and for the bad.

We as Catholics, as Christian, believe all human persons have purpose, have meaning. Our lives are meant to be fulfilling, and that fulfillment can only be achieved in communion with God and with others. Life in the full is as Jesus revealed through his own life, and this his death and resurrection: the paschal mystery.

Our path in life is about living in love, about living for and with others. It is a life in which we give of ourselves for the good of others. Our choices, our actions, our path will be directed by this goal.

This is our goal because this is the very nature of God. And we, created in God’s own image, therefore are created to be as God.

Christ calls us to be mindful of this. We are called to be mindful of this especially in this lenten season: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. We look at ourselves, and ask the hard question: Where am I heading? Being egotistical? Being greedy and self-centered? Harboring resentments and bitterness? Waiting for others to make the first move? Worried about appearances, winning, being number one?  If so, maybe we need to wait on three spirits to visit us, and shock us into a different path?

Actually we don’t need to. The Holy Spirit comes to us, all the time, reminding us of Jesus' words: Repent! Have Faith!

The Holy Spirit comes and reminds us of Jesus’ own paschal mystery and how God gave to us the beloved Son to save us; how that beloved Son gave of himself as the Father does, and healed, forgave, welcomed, and chose to die.  The Holy Spirit reminds us that Life comes from this, thus the Resurrection.  And the Holy Spirit comes upon the bread and wine, to change them into the source of all life, so that we who consume can remember; remember and make real, remember and make visible the way to life.

So that we can go and say “I love you” to those whom we love. So that we can say “Forgive me” to those we have wronged. So that we can say “I forgive you” to those that wronged us.

So that we can go into this world and make a difference with compassion, mercy and kindness.  We can help to feed the poor and do what we can to end poverty.  We can go and work to end injustice.  We can welcome those who are strangers and unknown; make them known,

And truly walk in the way of life and salvation. Before it is too late.