WALKING AND PLEASING GOD

 A REFLECTION FOR THE 2ND SUNDAY IN LENT

The problem with Lent isn’t that it lasts so long.  It isn’t that the fasting and abstinence laws are so vigorous as to be intolerable.  As we enter the second week of Lent, it should have dawned on us by now that the problem with Lent is that we are very weak and self-willed creatures who just have a hard time denying ourselves every little luxury of life that presents itself to us.  It’s a little problem called “human nature,” or more specifically “fallen human nature” which demands that we pamper ourselves with every creature comfort, even those which might offend God.  The main thing, it seems, is to satisfy our every whim, yield to every passing desire, and in general, crown ourselves as the supreme being of our own individual little world.

We are all guilty of this, whether we are conscious of it or not.  We want—we take, it’s as simple as that.  One of the purposes of fasting and doing other penances is that it subdues this inclination to make ourselves the ultimate deciding factor of our behavior and replaces “me” with “God.”  Every time we get that urge to satisfy the appetite of hunger and reach out for the cookie jar, we are forced to remind ourselves that there is a Being superior to ourselves, and to whose divine will we must submit if we are to save our souls.  There’s nothing wrong with eating a cookie, usually, but if God decrees that we must refuse that otherwise innocent little pleasure to satisfy the laws of fasting, then it is God we must obey and not our own base instincts.

This gift bestowed on man, to freely choose the will of God over our own, places us above the brute beasts of the field, who act purely on instinct.  Animals are incapable of understanding that on Friday they must not eat meat.  They don’t even understand what a day of the week is, let alone that there is a Supreme Being who has inspired his Church to impose a law on us to abstain on the sixth of those day, so as to make reparation for the Crucifixion.  The animal is hungry, so he eats.  We submit our instincts to our higher rational determination to please God first.  We are not just animals, we are rational animals.  Unless, of course, we lower ourselves by becoming animals, obeying only our instincts and ignoring God’s will.

Today’s Epistle is more blunt in this regard, as St. Paul reminds the Thessalonians of their duty to “abstain from fornication.”  The deadly sin of lust, we must remember, is the chief cause of death for souls the world over.   Our Lady of Fatima said: “More souls go to Hell because of sins of the flesh than for any other reason.” It is so important that we fight against this tide of impurity in our culture, and most importantly, in ourselves.  By developing that instinct not to yield to the temptation of the cookie jar when we get that urge to eat between meals, we will be well practiced in the art of denying ourselves other, more sinister pleasures, when the devil seeks our downfall.

So this week, let’s concentrate on being more conscious of what we’re doing when we fast.  It’s an enormously important ingredient, along with the grace of God, that enables us to resist temptation, avoid sin, and ultimately save our souls.