Love unites Valentine's Day and Lent this Ash Wednesday reflects Offaly influencer

This year, Valentine’s Day, a day of love and joy and chocolates, coincides with Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, a day of dust and sacrifice and a stark reminder of our mortality.

At first glance, these two days could not be more different. But suddenly it hit me: Maybe they are not as different as I think they are. After all, they are both expressions of love.  Valentine signifies love and so does Lent. The relationship between the two is that they are about love and giving.

You cannot talk about Valentine without mentioning love; also, you cannot talk about Lent without mentioning love. That is it. Love is the reason for both seasons. Love is an affective tendency towards some good that leads to active communication with it. Put in another way, love is the affinity of being with being. Love alone is capable of uniting living beings in such a way as to complete and fulfill them, for it alone takes them and joins them by what is deepest in themselves. Hence, love is the most universal, the most tremendous, and the most mysterious of God's gifts to us.

Entering Lent

As we enter into the season of Lent, let us take a moment to reflect on the sacredness of this time. Let us remember that Lent is a season of repentance, of turning back to God, and of renewal. It is a time to recommit ourselves to the path of love and compassion, to examine our lives and make changes where necessary, and to seek a deeper relationship with the Divine. Let us begin this season with a prayerful heart, asking God to guide us on our journey. Let us open ourselves to the transformative power of Lent, allowing it to shape us into more loving, more compassionate beings. May we approach this time with humility, recognizing our own imperfections and the ways in which we have fallen short. May we seek forgiveness and extend it to others, allowing the grace of God to heal and transform us. May we fast and pray, seeking the wisdom and strength we need to live in accordance with God’s will. May we remember that we are not alone on this journey, but are surrounded by a community of faith that supports and encourages us.

All your heart

We are living in strange and chaotic times. A statement some might choose to describe the state of our world today. As we look at the global landscape, it isn’t difficult to see why when war and violence, illness and grief, economic uncertainty and fear, injustice and polarization rule the headlines and impact each of our lives in some way.  But during the season of Lent, we are given a reminder: even now, God says to us, "return to me with all your heart." The spirituality and gospels of Lent ask us to find God in all things and to see all people, things, and circumstances as gifts that can bring us closer to God. So, yes, even now, even in the strange and chaotic state of the world we now live in, we are called to find God.

Back on track

For me the season of Lent is an attitude of honesty and humility and a time where I reflect on where I find God in my life. Lent offers us all a very special opportunity to grow in our relationship with God and to deepen our commitment to a way of life, rooted in our baptism.  In our busy world, Lent provides us with an opportunity to reflect upon our patterns, to pray more deeply, experience sorrow for what we’ve done and failed to do, and to be generous to those in need. But Lent is also an attitude of relief and joy, knowing that our sins have been forgiven, that we have the chance as Pope Francis said, "To get back on track" and that our slate has been wiped clean as we seek to serve our God with our lives.

These next weeks of Lent are a time for us to look deep into our hearts, to think about our lives and how we have been living them. If people want to temporarily give up certain things for Lent as a sign of love for God, that’s fine. But what Christ is really concerned about is what’s in our hearts. Resolve this Lent to be emptied out, to make room in your heart and soul for God to bring about great work in you for the good of yourself and others especially those most in need in our world.

Helping others

What I have found in reflecting on my life especially during times like Lent is that I find God in helping others. On one of these occasions of finding God I remember one cold morning when I worked with the Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity on the streets of Calcutta, I went to Sealdah Railway station to reserve my ticket for a short holiday to Darjeeling to follow the footsteps so to speak of the journey of Mother Teresa's beginnings. It was cold, foggy weather which was unusual for Calcutta. My taxi dropped me near the station and I tried to go inside to the ticket counter.

Suddenly, I saw a middle aged woman, trying to get relief from the cold with a torn blanket, lying on the ground at the entrance of the toilet area. She was suffering from leprosy and the fingers of her hands were falling off, and one of her feet was also falling off and hanging by its sinews and she was trembling from the cold. She was trying to cover her body with the torn blanket so that no one would see her deformity or her leprosy, but she failed every time to do it. She wished for someone to come and help her. So many people passed by her, but no one helped. I forgot all about the cold and I was whispering to myself, "God, why are you giving so much pain to this beautiful woman? Why are you not helping her?"

Then I suddenly realized that God sent me to help this person and I quickly ran to help her cover her body. She was barely able to whisper the words, "thank you". I lifted her, cradled her in my arms and carried her to the front of the station through the crowds and flagged down a taxi and the taxi driver seeing our predicament sped through the streets of Calcutta waving a red flag or handkerchief out the side window of his car so that we could get to the Mother Teresa's house called Kali-ghat which was also known as Mother's hospital for the sick. I found out on our journey from Sealdah Railway station to the house of the dying that her name was Mara.

On that journey she told me her life's story which sadly is the story of many women and girl children in our world and it was a story of abject poverty, abuse and horror. By the end of the taxi journey I didn't know whether it was me helping her or her helping me in the way she was profoundly thankful for me being there in her hour of need. I carried her from the taxi among the throng of people on the streets of Calcutta into Mother Teresa's house called Kali-ghat. I cleared a spot for her on one of the beds. I was standing near her feet and as the Mother Teresa sister's cleaned her and cared for her along with a close friend of mine Fr. Eamon Kelly from Donegal who was at that time working with the sisters in Kali-gath, I couldn't help notice or stop looking at the fact that half her left foot was missing. It had been completely eaten away by maggots and as Fr. Eamon and the sisters cleaned it and many more maggots were taken out. The bones were sticking out of her foot and some of these had even been worn away because Mara had used her foot to drag herself along because she couldn't walk in her condition. The foot was eventually amputated that day and Mara died a few days later surrounded by much love and prayers from Fr. Eamon, myself and many of the Mother Teresa sisters present in Kali-ghat.

Help the poor

It might not be a big thing for everybody, but it changed me a lot. God gave me the dream to help the poor and those in need in our community and in our world. I realized that a dream is one thing, but trying to achieve it is another thing altogether. From that day, I promised myself, whatever it may take, I will help lots of people to live in a more caring and loving world if I can. I am still doing my best to try and do that but I need help and I need your help and at the end of the day we all need one another's help. I have at times failed miserably to live up to that ideal that I set myself back then and I have let family and friends down at times and for that I am always truly sorry for, but it's important to keep trying and not to quit and that is what I will continue to try and do going forward on this journey called life.

The serenity prayer has helped me greatly with that. I find God all the time when I am helping others in need. I would like everybody, if you see anybody who requires help, don't just pass by. Try to give possible help to them. Maybe God sent you to help them. Maybe during our prayer and reflections during this Lent that's where we will truly find God in those situations where we are helping those most in need!!

Empowerment

Jesus tells us that Lent is a time of self-denial, a time to give up something, a time to repent. But Jesus isn’t concerned with you giving up chocolate or not listening to your favourite song; he’s concerned with what’s going on in our hearts. Lent is that man who stood in the back of the temple, looked down at the ground and prayed. “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

Lent is a time for us to be like that man, to give up our sinful habits, our sinful attitudes, to repent and to stand before God and to ask him to forgive us, to wash our sins away, and to empower us to turn away from our sinful past and to live new lives that are dedicated to God and to helping and loving others especially those in our societies who genuinely need our help and care.

Forget the masks

As I said, these are strange and chaotic times and the observance of Lent is a call to a deeper faithfulness. It is also a reminder of our own humanity and the acknowledgement that we will all face the limits of life, one day coming face to face with our own frailty. We’ve seen that frailty all around us, especially over the last few years. Let me illustrate with a story from my Nana Scully's prayerbook.

"There is an old tale about three Christians who decided to travel to a distant city to spend the high holy days with a famous priest. They set out on their journey, without food or money, intending to walk the entire way. Several days into the journey, weak from hunger and still a long way from their destination, they knew they had made a mistake and they must do something. They came up with a plan. They decided that one of them would disguise himself as a priest.

That way, when they came to the next village, the people would offer them food, honored to have a priest visit their town. None of the three, being pious, wished to be the deceitful one, so they drew straws, and the unlucky one who drew the short straw had to don the clothing of a priest. Another dressed as his assistant. When they drew near to the next village, they were greeted with excited cries of joy, “A priest is coming! A priest is coming!” Escorted with great ceremony to the local inn, the hungry threesome was treated to a delicious meal.

When the meal was done, however, the innkeeper approached the “priest” and spoke with great sorrow. “Priest, you must pray for my son,” he said. “He is dying and the doctors have given up hope. But the Holy One, blessed be his name, may respond to our prayers.” The pretend priest looked desperately to his friends for help. They motioned for him to go with the innkeeper to his son’s bedside. They had begun this hypocritical game, and now there was no choice but to keep on playing the game. The pretend priest accompanied the distraught father to his son’s sick bed. That night, the three travelers slept fitfully. They were eager to get out of town before their deception was discovered. In the morning, the innkeeper, still hoping for a miracle and grateful for the prayer of this visiting “priest,” sent the party off with the loan of a carriage and a team of horses.

They left the village and travelled to the great city where they spent magnificent holy days under the spell of the famous priest. His teaching of the Gospels carried their spirits to the very vault of heaven. But too soon, the holy days were at an end, and the three companions had to go back home through the same village to return the borrowed carriage and horses. Terrified, the pretend priest resumed his disguise; his heart was in his throat as they approached the village, especially when he saw the innkeeper running toward them, waving his arms furiously. But to the pretender’s delight and surprise, the innkeeper embraced him with joy, exclaiming, “Thank you, priest. Only one hour after you left our village, my son arose from his bed well and strong. The doctors were amazed, but my son lives, and I am grateful for your faithful prayer.” The two companions looked with astonishment at their phony “priest” companion. What had happened? Had his prayer healed the boy? Was he truly a holy man all along, without telling them? When they were alone, they turned on him with their questions. “What had he done at the boy’s death bed?” they demanded to know. He replied that he had stood at the boy’s side in silence and then began to lift his thought to heaven: “Master of the universe, please; this father and son should not be punished because they think I am a priest. What am I? I am nothing! A pretender! I wear a mask! If this child dies, his father will think a priest can do nothing. So, Master of the universe, not because of me, but because of his father and his faith, can it hurt that his son would be healed?”

The reason I write this story is because of its profound insight into all of us. We are all pretenders and fall short of what God’s desire is for us. My prayer for myself and for you is that this Lenten season, we remove the pretend masks we hide behind. Take the inward, healing, cleansing journey and allow God’s gracious, merciful, forgiving and redemptive work to begin in us. So that by Easter Sunday, God will have renewed our spirits by the transforming of our minds, hearts and souls.

Thought for the week

As your thought for the week, as we journey through this season of Lent, let us be mindful of the sacrifice that Christ made for us. Let us remember his suffering and death, and the love that inspired him to give his life for us. May we be inspired by this love, and may it motivate us to live lives of service, compassion, and justice.  May this Lenten season be a time of renewal and transformation, as we journey together towards the resurrection of Christ. May we be open to the movement of the Holy Spirit, and may we be guided by God’s love and grace every step of the way. May we always remember that each one of us has a purpose and a place in the world.

Each of us experiences pain, tiredness, loss, sadness, joyfulness, love, and hope and many other feelings and emotions associated with our human conditions. If we look more intently this Lent at the people we encounter on a typical day, we will see who they truly are, persons loved by God and an opportunity for us to love God in them. Regardless of appearance or situation, the woman, man, or child before you each of the days of our lives are brimming with holy possibility.

Consider that you are gazing into the eyes of God and understand that Jesus comes to us in many faces and places and it's there we will find God in our lives. Let me leave you with this Lenten prayer for spiritual renewal that I like to pray - God, heavenly Father, look upon me and hear my prayer during this holy Season of Lent. By the good works You inspire, help me to discipline my body and to be renewed in spirit. Without You I can do nothing. By Your Spirit help me to know what is right and to be eager in doing Your will. Teach me to find new life through penance. Keep me from sin, and help me live by Your commandment of love. God of love, bring me back to You. Send Your Spirit to make me strong in faith and active in good works. May my acts of penance bring me Your forgiveness, open my heart to Your love, and prepare me for the coming feast of the Resurrection of Jesus. Lord, during this Lenten Season, nourish me with Your Word of life and make me one with You in love and prayer. Fill my heart with Your love and keep me faithful to the Gospel of Christ. Give me the grace to rise above my human weakness. Give me new life by Your Sacraments, especially the Holy Mass. Father, our source of life, I reach out with joy to grasp Your hand; let me walk more readily in Your ways. Guide me in Your gentle mercy, for left to myself I cannot do Your Will. Father of love, source of all blessings, help me to pass from my old life of sin to the new life of grace. Prepare me for the glory of Your Kingdom. I ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever. Amen.