My wife and I recently returned from an inspiring trip to
Rome. “The Eternal City” is for many, if not the cradle, then the nursery of
Christianity. Throughout the city, religious and public art overwhelm with a
sense of living in the midst of history.
While the churches are full of tourists, students, and the
needy, they are not necessarily full of the faithful. After receiving ashes
early in the morning at St. Sabina’s on the Aventine Hill, we were surprised
the rest of the day to see no one else with a mark on their foreheads. We
weren’t embarrassed to have ashes smudged on our skin – how could we be
embarrassed when surrounded by shrines of early century martyrs who truly
suffered. It did, however, remind us that faith, lived with immediacy and
relevancy, can be a catalyst in the lives of others, especially when embraced publically
and not privately.
Each major religion has seasonal times of self-examination.
For Christians in the catholic traditions, Lent is our forty days of penitence,
wisely placed at the end of winter and before the tilling of the spring, to
reflect on where we have been, where we are, and where we hope to be in our
relationship to God, but also to one another. In our external sign of the
season of Lent, and in our internal life of prayerful reflection, we became
tangible embodiment of current faith walking the ancient paths.
In THE HOUSE OF THE SOUL, modern mystic and
spiritual writer Evelyn Underhill comments that our interior life, lived in the
natural and supernatural sense, must be balanced with the external world around
us, what she calls “the city.” For Lent calls us not just to self-examination,
but to also scrutinize our relationships with our neighbors. Our moments of
penitence might be more meaningful if we not let our interior examination
prevent our outward gaze. Taking time for self is important, but the self is
always in relationship to the other, our neighbors, and “the city” that helps
us to live a life that is visibly celebrated in faith.
Pax,
Fr. Shawn
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