Ash WednesdayJoel 2:12-182 Corinthians 5:20--6:2Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

Spring Training

As all those who follow baseball know, this is the time of spring training. Although in many areas of the country it is snowing and bitter cold still lingers, in Florida, Arizona and California the best baseball players in the country are working hard to prepare themselves for the coming season. All the players come to their respective training camps with one goal in mind -- to make it to the World Series in October. The pain, the sweat, the hard work that is involved in being a baseball player is all worth it, if the goal can be accomplished.

Baseball players have to prepare themselves in at least three ways. First, they have to get into shape. Running, exercising, dieting -- all may be necessary to drop extra weight and obtain the stamina that will be necessary for the long season ahead. A player who is in good shape stands a much better chance of helping his team reach that World Series goal. Next, a player needs to practice the fundamentals of the game. Constant work in the batting cage will hone the offensive skills needed to score runs. Endless hours in the field shagging flies and fielding ground balls will develop the defensive skills needed to win. Lastly, a good baseball player must develop a positive mental attitude in order to succeed. Baseball is a team game in which individuals can shine -- but it is the team that wins or loses. A winning team must have a winning attitude.

The season of Lent is much like spring training in baseball. This is a time given to us by the Church to prepare ourselves. We prepare for a goal and we need to hone our skills to succeed. Our readings today describe what the goal is and what we need to do to achieve it.

The goal for all Christians is not difficult to determine. The prophet Joel speaks God's word and says, "Return to me with your whole heart, ... rend your hearts and not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God." There is no magic or new revelation here. God desires that we return to our creator, the one from whom we came in the beginning. We are to be reconciled to God, as St. Paul says in the Second Reading, so we might become the very holiness of God.

How do we return to God; how can we be reconciled to the Lord? The Gospel today describes the three traditional Lenten means to prepare ourselves for the return journey. First, Jesus says we need to be almsgivers. Sharing the gifts of God which may be ours is part of the Christian call which this holy season asks of us. We need to spend some time in reflection as to what that might mean for us this year. Possibly it will mean giving of our resources to some project or fund. It might mean that our very valuable time will be given to others so that their life may be bettered.

Next, Jesus says we need to pray. We know that we always need to pray, but today we are called to a renewal in our prayer life. Maybe this rethinking will manifest itself in more quiet time with God; possibly it is an invitation to a new form of prayer. The challenge is to make certain that we spend sufficient time with our God.

Thirdly, Jesus suggests that we need to fast. Catholics have special "fast" days built into the liturgical calendar, like today and Good Friday. Catholics are asked to refrain from eating meat on Fridays. While Protestants have no fast days as such, fasting can be so much more if we try. If we give up some food item, if we choose to skip a couple of meals per week -- can we then spend the time and/or the resources that would have been expended in eating in some activity of additional prayer or ministry? The greatest challenge of all may be to practice the traditional Lenten observances with a new attitude that says I am preparing myself for God in a special and meaningful way and not, as the Gospel describes, so that others may see what we do.

Lent is here and our preparation must begin. Athletes, as St. Paul once wrote, deny themselves many things to win a crown of laurel -- we might say a World Series ring. But Christians during Lent deny themselves so as to prepare for the Easter event, a mystery of untold significance. Let us today think about our own preparation, our own "spring training," so that we can return to God, be reconciled, and find eternal life.

Thursday After Ash WednesdayDeuteronomy 30:15-20Luke 9:22-25

The Christian Paradox

If you look in a dictionary for the word "paradox" you will find a definition which in paraphrased form would say: a statement that on first inspection appears to be false, but on closer examination is found to be true. There are many examples of paradoxes in our world. I can think of two, one in literature and one in mathematics. The famous dialogue "Meno" by Plato contains a well-known paradox. In the dialogue Socrates is speaking with his friend Meno. In the course of their lively exchange Meno poses the question, "Is it possible to know that which is not learned?" Meno's answer is a resounding no -- there is nothing that a human being knows that has not been learned. Socrates, however, says the answer is yes; it is a paradox. There are certain things, such as the emotions of love, that a human knows without being taught; they are innate to the human psyche.

Another paradox comes from the world of numbers. If you want to get from point A to point B, and each time you move you travel exactly one-half of the remaining distance between where you are and the intended goal, how long will it take you to arrive? One might initially answer, "This cannot be that hard; I must be able to calculate the answer!" Actually, however, the answer is that you will never arrive at the desired destination. You will come infinitesimally close, but never arrive, for you can go only one-half of the remaining distance with each move. It is a paradox.

Certainly the greatest of all paradoxes is that of Christianity itself. We hear about that paradox in today's Gospel. Jesus says that in order to save your life you must lose it. This, of course, makes no sense to the initial hearing. That is why St. Paul referred to the cross as an absurdity to those who do not believe. Jesus says that it is only in dying to self that we are able to find eternal life with God. There appears to be another paradox, or at least a contradiction, in today's readings as well. Moses in the first reading tells the people to choose life over death. When we look at the context and the overall message of Moses, however, we will see that the liberator of the Hebrews from bondage in Egypt is saying that the people need to choose life for others. Thus, there is not a contradiction, but rather, a correlation in today's readings. Both tell us that we need to live for others so as to find God.

We have a choice from God's gift of free will. We can choose life for ourselves. On the surface this seems to be the only logical way to go. It is the only path by which we can find that which society says is so important, even vital, the material things of this world. But the paradox is that this path, although appealing and usually less congested and trouble-free, will, in the end, lead nowhere. The only way that leads to life, eternal life with God, is to live for others. As the Gospel says, we need to daily pick up our cross and follow in the way of the Lord. It may not be easy, but then Jesus never promised any of his followers a path swept clean of pain, troubles and other hazards.

As our Lenten journey begins let us choose life for others. The ways will vary; the methods will be diverse. Yet, the result will be the same: life with Jesus, who is brother, friend and Lord to us all.

Friday After Ash WednesdayIsaiah 58:1-9Matthew 9:14-15

Welcoming Others

On December 8, 1932, a young woman reporter on assignment for America magazine came to Washington, D.C. She came to cover a protest march to be held that day. After covering her story, she came to the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on the campus of the Catholic University of America. As a recent convert to Catholicism she came to this church on its special feast day to attend Mass. While there she prayed fervently to God that she would be shown a new direction in life. Her past had been painful including a broken marriage and an abortion. She asked God to direct her to the vocation which had been planned for her. She left the Shrine that day confident that God would answer her prayer.

When she returned to her small, lower eastside Manhattan apartment she soon realized that she would not have long to wait to hear God's answer to her prayer. Friends told her that a man had been asking for her in her absence. He insisted upon staying in the apartment until he could speak with her. This man, a French immigrant to the United States via Canada, had a new vision of life. He wanted to give back to all people the Christian dignity which was theirs from God. His plan included houses of hospitality to shelter those who needed a home and farming communes to emphasize the "return to the land" mentality which was popular in those days. Finally, his plan included the need for lively discussions in which the problems of society could be properly addressed and solutions found. His plan needed someone to organize it and bring it to reality. Thus, on that day the man with an idea, Peter Maurin, and the woman of organization and journalism, Dorothy Day, formed a partnership which would become the Catholic Worker Movement, publishing its first one cent monthly paper on May 1, 1933. The Catholic Worker is a ministry of help; it reaches out to serve the poor, neglected and fringe peoples of our society. At its heart, however, the movement is a ministry of welcome for those whom society has discarded as useless or unproductive.

I am sure Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin wore big smiles when they read the words of Isaiah contained in today's First Reading. We know that Lent is a time of fasting, a time to give up something so as to prepare ourselves -- spring training as we said. Fasting in this way is good, holy and welcomed by God. But Isaiah is suggesting that there may be another form of fasting that is equally important and has an active element to it. This is the fasting we hear described by the prophet. He says God desires a fast which gives release to those unjustly bound, setting free the oppressed, feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless and clothing the naked. These acts of kindness will produce a light which will break forth like the dawn. All of these acts as well describe the ministry of welcome to those whom society has forgotten.

Jesus also speaks of welcome in today's Gospel. The disciples of John the Baptist want to know why Jesus' apostles do not fast. Jesus, simply put, says that as long as he, the groom, is with them the apostles cannot fast. No, they have a more active apostolate to engage -- that of welcoming the Jews and those on the outside into the life and ministry of Jesus. It requires energy -- thus, the disciples cannot fast.

The ministry of welcome is an often overlooked aspect of our Christian call. Each day we have opportunities to give welcome to others. It may be a member of our family, a friend or a business associate. We may be called upon to offer welcome to the lowly, the anawim of this world. It just might be as well that a more fervent welcome needs to be extended to God in our lives. We have many examples of welcome in today's Mass. We have the example of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin; we have the words of Isaiah and the challenge of Jesus. Let us be more welcoming in all that we do, so that in the end God will welcome us as well.

Saturday After Ash WednesdayIsaiah 58:9-14Luke 5:27-32

The Lenten Check-Up

There is a popular expression which says, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Some people use this attitude in the way they use cars, their homes and especially systems of operation and ways of doing things. For some items this may be the best policy, but probably not for all things. There is another attitude that says we must periodically make checks on things to see that they are still properly functioning. During my time in the Navy we used a system called Planned Maintenance System or PMS for short. This system required a periodic maintenance on every piece of equipment on our ship. Some checks were done weekly; others were conducted monthly, quarterly or after a prescribed amount of running time. We can see a similar idea when we change the oil in our car every 3,000 miles or rotate the tires at 5,000-mile intervals We could all think of different things in our lives that we periodically check to see their condition and ability to operate properly.

The readings today seem to take the second of our two possible attitudes with respect to the check-up which we must make on our spiritual lives. We are encouraged to be active and do something today, not to wait until something goes wrong. Continuing from yesterday's First Reading Isaiah today again tells us that a light will rise if we feed the hungry and satisfy the afflicted. The prophet says further that if we will allow God to act then our strength will be renewed like a watered garden

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or a spring whose source of water never ends. When we act we are challenged to act for God and God's people, not for ourselves. In short, we need to look after our sisters and brothers at all times, not only when they call upon us.

The Gospel also speaks of the active ministry. Jesus suggests that we must reach out to those who are damaged, broken or incomplete. In his own life Jesus came to call sinners, not those who have no need for a doctor. Jesus will not wait until we think we need him; he is there now and always will be inviting us to participate more fully in his life today. The call by Jesus of the tax collector Levi, a stereotypical sinner in the eyes of the Jews, is the example which Jesus gives us in searching out the lost. Active ministry does not wait for humans to fail; it seeks to aid people all along the road of life.

Jesus, the great healer, came to heal us. Jesus came to save us from the evils and pitfalls of this world, and even at times from ourselves. Lent is a time to check up on ourselves, to make an annual evaluation and inspection. How are we doing in our Christian life? How have we been doing in our life of discipleship? What is the status of our ministry to our sisters and brothers who are in need? Why do we do what we do; what is our attitude? Do we do things for self or for God and God's people?

Let us during this Lenten journey take ourselves in for our annual check-up with the great healer, Jesus, the Lord. If we can be truthful in our self-examination through prayer and reflection, then certainly as Isaiah says, the light will shine, we will ride on the heights of the earth and our preparation will be that much better for the great Easter event.