Next Sunday is Palm Sunday! As the time of Lent is getting shorter and shorter, we face yet another risk, in fact a big temptation: to measure, to judge, to assess our ‘performance’.
After the risk of an ‘Abstract Lent’ with no impact in our concrete day-to-day life; the risk of a ‘Formal Lent’ made of diligent external duties without an interior conversion of heart; the risk of an ‘Orphan Lent’ divorced from the Holy Spirit and disconnected from Easter and Pentecost; the risk of ‘1/2 Lent’ whose spirit is limited within closing parentheses, we face now a big risk: a ‘Performance-Oriented Lent’.
We measure up our Lenten efforts, we beat our breast admitting poor results, we rely on constructive criticism, we find good excuses…
PLEASE, Stop!
The point of Lent is not to perform well, no. The point of Lent is to discover our own weaknesses, to enter our temptations, to touch our limitations and also to fall. These experiences are the foundations of our spiritual life, because thanks to them we ‘know’ who we are. And this is the whole point of Lent!
Principle of the Spiritual Life is the knowledge of ourselves (and then of God). The acknowledgment of our own weaknesses is the very beginning of our healing. Only entering in the trials of temptations we go deeper in acquiring the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit. Even adversities and falls can turn into a real blessing as we experience the Providence and Mercy of God.
It is Lent.
Not an ‘Abstract Lent’ dissociated from our reality.
Not a ‘Formal Lent’ emptied of its deep meaning.
Not an ‘Orphan Lent’ separated from its origin and destination.
Not ‘Half a Lent’ with a long-awaited expiring date.
Not a ‘Performance-Oriented Lent’ but knowledge of our own selves.
It is still Lent… ‘sacred Lent’
