27th Week in OT 2019 - Tuesday - Ordinary Spiritual Growth

Every year we hear this passage from the prophet Jonah on the first week of Lent, 7 days after Ash Wednesday.  It’s one of the most dramatic responses to the call to repentance in the entire old testament: a city of about 120,000 people all come to repent the nobility, the peasantry, show signs of their repentance by fasting, covering themselves with sackcloth, and sitting in ashes.

We begin Lent on Ash Wednesday doing the exact same thing—with fasting and the imposition of ashes on our foreheads.  And throughout Lent we undertake practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving—visible and external signs of our internal sorrow for our sins.

Repentance is a pre-requisite for new spiritual life.  Repentance seeks to end the cycle of sin by acknowledging it with heartfelt sorrow and firmly resolving to sin no more.  Repentance ends the illusion that independence from God and his commandments brings the fulfillment we long for.

I’ve spoken before of the order of monks who take as their motto: “Semper Quadragesima”— “Always Lent”.  They seek to live, all year round, in that penitential Lenten Spirit because it is so effective in disposing us to the new spiritual life God wants to bring forth in us. If we are not actively seeking to be free from selfishness and to grow in generosity and charity, then we are in trouble.

Penitential Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, are taken up, particularly during Lent, but they are meant to be part of our normal spiritual growth—our Ordinary Time spiritual growth.

In the Gospel, Jesus rebuked Martha for being anxious about many things and not focusing on the one thing that really matters, namely, Himself, his presence in her life.  So what are the modes of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving that perhaps we need to commit to or recommit to, in order to be more centered on Christ, more serious about becoming liberated from selfishness.

Semper Quadragesima—always Lent.  May we be generous in surrendering all the different parts of our life to God’s transforming mercy, and allow God to reform, reshape, and renew us today and every day, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That hearing the call to repentance preached by the Church, all men may turn away from their sins to the mercy of Christ.

That world leaders may look upon the Son of God, believe in him, and seek the peace and justice that only he can bring.

That our young people may take seriously the missionary call of Christ, that they will turn away from the evils of our culture to spread the good news of Christ’s eternal kingdom.

For all whose lives are marked by suffering, may they come to know the healing and peace of Christ.
For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased clergy and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom.

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.