CLEANING HOUSE

A MESSAGE FOR QUINQUAGESIMA

Today is Shrove Sunday, and our thoughts turn with greater urgency to cleaning house, both literally and spiritually, before Lent begins later this week on Ash Wednesday.  Tomorrow actually used to have the name of “Clean Monday,” as we scurry to rid our homes of all those half-empty bags of candy and other tempting goodies that lurk in our pantries ready to allure us into breaking the Lenten fast.  By all means, let’s clean things up tomorrow so we can finish everything up on Mardi Gras!

As faithful Catholics, our more serious attention must be given to our spiritual preparations for the penitential season of Lent.  On Ash Wednesday, we remember that we are nothing but dust, and unto dust we shall return.  A sobering thought, which, if we give to it the assent of faith, must surely inspire us to turn away from our usual bodily comforts, and provide the right food for our souls instead.

God, in his mercy, allows us the transitory pleasures and vanities of this earthly life as a passing relief from the arduous test that we are all undergoing.  They were never meant to replace the true happiness of eternal life with God, for which this life is meant to prepare us.  Shrovetide is meant to remind us of our priorities.  It’s up to us now to commit to those priorities according to the degree of love we have for God.  Ash Wednesday sometimes comes as a bit of a shock when we realize just how little we do love God, and how little we are prepared to do for him!

Let’s remember that God made us to know him, love him, and serve him in this world so we can be happy forever with him in the next.  Know, love, and serve God—the three keys to happiness.  At the Last Judgment, our Lord will judge us only on the degree to which we have used these three keys to unlock the chains binding our souls to our own interests rather than God’s.  These three last days of Shrovetide are all that’s left for us to turn these three keys and commit to knowing, loving and serving God by making a good Lent and following his Son up that steep road to Calvary.

Let’s make a good confession today, receive our Lord in Holy Communion, and prepare our souls for a commitment to penance and self-sacrifice with all the generosity our poor love for God admits.  A very blessed and fruitful Lent to all.

Father Hall