Ash Wednesday

Growing up in the Church of Christ, Easter was nothing more than an opportunity for candy and perhaps some new clothes. We took communion every Sunday and talked about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ regularly, so Easter was not treated as different from any other Sunday of the year.

Likewise, Christmas was about Santa and presents; not about the birth of Jesus. In 2004, I used Catholic devotions and the Weekday Missal for the entire Advent season; it helped to change my perspective on Christmas. This year, I’ve decided to use a Lenten devotional to provide some perspective on Easter.

Lent was not a part of my experience prior to moving to Biloxi in 1979; the large Catholic population along the Gulf Coast meant that during Lent, the public schools offered only fish on Fridays, and many kids came to school with ashes on the foreheads on Ash Wednesday. I knew Lent meant giving up something like chocolate or gum for a few weeks, though I never knew what the point was exactly.

Two years ago a Jewish coworker said to me just before Good Friday that this must be a very special time of year for me; he had just celebrated Passover with his family, and we had been talking about how much time he took off from work for Passover. His comment created an awkward moment for me; here was someone who knew my faith was deeply important to me and so assumed that Good Friday to Easter must hold special significance. The truth was, I had given it no more thought than stopping to consider public school holiday schedules and finishing up purchases for Easter baskets. I don’t remember what I said in reply, but I still vividly remember the conversation: I can tell you where we were standing (on the balcony outside the English Department) and what the weather was like (clear blue skies).

So, here I am with Lent and Easter Wisdom from Pope John Paul II. The introduction tells me that Lent is a journey of conversion, and this fits with the passage from John Paul for today: he says that remembering we are not permanent residents of earth but travellers headed toward heaven “spurs us to undertake a resolute journey of personal renewal. We must change our way of thinking and acting, set our gaze firmly on the face of Christ crucified and make his Gospel our daily rule of life.”

I like that. In part because it fits with all that I’ve been listening to lately on changing my thinking, but more so because I have become increasingly aware lately that growth and maturity is about a journey, not an event. I kept waiting for the moment of transformation–the suddenly when I’m no longer eating out of emotion or controlled by anger–but I see that instead I am transformed in moments: moments of choosing not to eat because I know I’m not hungry, moments of choosing to pray rather than respond in anger, moments of worship that get my mind off myself and onto God. The cumulative effect of all these moments and choices is a transformed life, but I can’t point to the calendar and say, “this is when it happened.”

I’m looking forward to this journey.

Tagged as: catholicism, Church-of-Christ, Lent, Lent and Easter Wisdom, Pope John Paul II, thinking