Pastor’s Corner — February 27th, 2022
Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving: The Trifecta of Conversion
Lent starts on Wednesday. In the early Church the season of Lent was an intense period of preparation for the catechumens as they prepared to be received into the Church at the Easter Vigil. Lent eventually became a season of preparation for the whole Church and it was thus marked by the three penitential practices that Jesus speaks about in the Sermon on the Mount: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. St. Peter Chrysologus said of the three practices:
“There are three things, my brethren by which faith stands firm, devotion remains constant, and virtue endures. They are prayer, fasting, and mercy (almsgiving). Prayer knocks at the door, fasting obtains, mercy receives. Prayer, mercy and fasting, these three are one, and they give life to each other.”
The saints speak so highly of these practices because without them we cannot grow in love of God. And if we cannot grow in love with God, we’ll grow in love with the world. But when these are present in our lives and we choose to open our hearts to the Spirit of love, the life of God within us grows. So it’s time to prayerfully consider how you’re going to pray, fast and give alms this Lent.
Ingratitude: A Spiritual Disease That Can Be Cured
Recently I’ve been thinking about how ingratitude is a scourge on society. It tears apart families, societies and even rips apart our very souls. Rather than acknowledging one’s existence and the good things of this world as gifts to be enjoyed and shared, the ungrateful person, turns inward on himself and believes he is entitled to the things he needs and wants. Others owe it to him. Caught up in himself, he fails to grasp that his very existence is a gift. Unable to see the true beauty of reality, he interprets reality in terms of power and not in terms of love. He dispenses himself from a life of gratitude and service and instead vies for possessions, pleasure and power. Gratitude to others (or to God) isn’t useful for him in achieving his own goals. It’s a little surprise that when we see ingratitude creep into society, relationships and especially in our relationship with God that it can flower into a spiritual disease of entitlement that poisons everything it touches.
The reason that ingratitude is so destructive is that it represents the rejection of the giftedness of love which is at the very foundation of everything. Everything good we have is a gift: life, intelligence, freedom, love, laughter, friendship, marriage, children, play, the beauty of creation, art, music, and culture, etc. Even the wise man notices that while evil can tarnish gifts from God, it cannot destroy them. The gift of God’s love is so great that even when we chose to rebel against him who is the very foundation of our existence, he responded by sending his Son to take upon himself our punishment. He destroyed the works of the evil one, sin and death, and won for us eternal life without suffering with him forever. And we didn’t deserve any of this.
It’s no accident that the heart of our response to all God has done for us is thanksgiving. In fact, our very worship takes the shape of thanksgiving precisely because it’s a response to his creating and saving love. The Eucharist means “thanksgiving” and when we worship God we offer ourselves to him with Jesus his Son to thank him for the gifts of creation and salvation. It is by our worship we are united to God (in light of eternity nothing is more useful). Regardless of how one gets to this place, we should come to understand that the refusal to worship God (or “forgetting” to worship him) is a deadly spiritual disease. Like having cancer and not knowing it, the most terrifying part of this spiritual disease is many people who have it don’t even know they are sick.
I’ve said in my daily Mass homilies at least a couple of times that a sure sign of spiritual health is that our hearts are filled with praise and thanksgiving to God. (Studies have also shown that thankful people are also the happiest people) My mini-challenge for Lent:
1) Ask God to give you a spirit of praise and thanksgiving for the gifts he has given you.
2) At the end of each day ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you at least five ways he’s loved you that day, and simply thank him for those things. Living a life of thanksgiving is a way of reducing your risk of the spiritual disease of ingratitude and finding fulfillment in living your life as a gift from God.
Couples Prayer Series Starts March 1
We had a great turnout for our marriage celebration a couple of weeks ago. Our Marriage and Family Ministry is now offering couples a great opportunity to deepen their intimacy with each other and with God through our Lenten Couple Prayer Series starting March 1st. We highly encourage couples to sign up for this excellent six week series. Registration is free. To register please go here.
Your servant in the Lord,
Fr. Mathias