February 19, 2010
Taking the Time to Make a Difference
Preparing for the coming of the kingdom
BY PAUL R. LEINGANG
(Listen to Paul read this column | Weekly podcast)
The meeting was about to start when my cell phone rang. Public schools were going to be delayed the next day and I had to get the word out to the broadcast media about the Catholic Schools schedule.
It was another interruption in another busy day, and in between times, I kept thinking that the next day was my deadline for writing in this week’s paper, and there were several things I had to do yet — and oh, by the way, the next day was Ash Wednesday.
I am grateful that we have 40 days to prepare for Holy Week and Easter. It is an opportunity to bring a halt – or at least a slowing —to the interruptions of our interruptions that fill headlong days full of way too much busy-ness and not nearly enough thought and reflection.
I have enjoyed reading the description of how Lent came to be, written by Father Jim Sauer. In his column, the Christian Journey, he describes the custom starting with just a few days of preparation before Easter, and then the complexity of different traditions melding into our current practice.
I am not surprised at all that it now takes more days to get ready than it used to. Yet at the same time, I know, there is ever-increasing pressure in our society to celebrate everything before it happens — even Christmas during Advent and Easter egg rolls during Lent.
A peculiar exception to this great push to rush ahead is what is happening at the movie theatre. More commercials are being shown among the previews and other vignettes before the feature presentation begins. Although I never thought I would praise having to sit through more commercials, I have to say the waiting period gives people time to shut off their phones, go back to the bathroom or the popcorn counter, to get their eyes adjusted to the lack of light and their ears prepared for the volume of the latest in multi-multi speaker systems.
Why is it that theatre operators have discovered the wisdom of anticipation?
Elsewhere, people don’t wait for the next morning’s newspaper to see if they have won the lottery; it’s better to scratch off the numbers right there at the counter. Couples don’t wait for the wedding day to move in together.
Waiting can be a challenge, or a time of real preparation.
From the time of Jesus (in Matthew 25), we hear about the “ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise.
“The foolish ones, when taking their lamps, brought no oil with them, but the wise brought flasks of oil with their lamps.”
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In remarks quoted by Catholic News Service, Pope Benedict XVI said Lent was a time to focus on justice, a time for conversion.
Conversion to Christ gives people the strength to break the bonds of selfishness and work for justice in the world, Pope Benedict XVI said in his message for Lent 2010.
“The Christian is moved to contribute to creating just societies where all receive what is necessary to live according to the dignity proper to the human person and where justice is enlivened by love,” the pope said in the message released Feb. 4 at the Vatican.
The first step to restoring justice in the world is to repent of one’s personal sins and sincerely seek to live according to God’s will, the pope said.
The reward for repentance and good works, the pope said, “is not the admiration of others, but friendship with God and the grace that comes with it, a grace that gives peace and the strength to do good, to love even those who don’t deserve it and to forgive those who have offended us.”
That to me, sounds like the path to take toward celebrating our salvation — making a difference for those around us, as we work to create a society where all will receive what is their due.
Comments are welcome at office@cfm.org or the Christian Family Movement, P.O. Box 925, Evansvsille, IN 47706-0925