Ash Wednesday begins the Lenten season this week, and what we say about the challenge to discipline our bodies to do hard work (like farming and ranching) we might also realize to be the case with our souls. The Christian life is not for the faint of heart. It takes discipline, endurance, perseverance and resolve to enter the Kingdom of God. It’s a lifelong journey and the Lenten season is our annual opportunity to review of our relationship with God and our response to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Lent should lead us to a renewed commitment to live as disciples of Jesus.
With what focus might we begin this Lenten season? Well, Jesus began his public ministry with the Sermon on the Mount. In Chapter 6 of Matthew’s Gospel he said, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.” (Mt 6: 33) Thus, two obvious questions arise: 1) Am I seeking after the Kingdom of God, and 2) Am I seeking the Kingdom of God first? If you were to ask a group of people at Church how many of them wanted to go to heaven, I would imagine that most of them would answer in the affirmative. Then, if you asked them what they are doing to realize that goal, many would not have a clear answer. We would like to think we are seeking after the Kingdom of God, but practically speaking, how is that going? Many things can easily take precedent over our pursuit of God’s Kingdom.
Jesus’ admonition to “Seek first the Kingdom of God” comes at the end of his discourse about worrying. To that end, we might find a practical approach to the Lenten season by reviewing the patterns of worry in our lives. Instead of giving up coffee or chocolate, television or scotch, what if we were to give up worrying, something that we need not go back to at Easter? Getting more serious about our Lenten disciplines might yield greater spiritual fruit, as well, starting with the lie that we have to worry about everything.
Take any worry, public or personal, such as a financial matter, an employment issue, a recent health diagnosis, an issue with a member of your family, something in the news like Pope Francis’s declining health and the prospect of a new pope, etc., and speak it to the Lord. Simply say, “Lord, I am worried that….and tell him directly.” As you speak this to the Lord, notice what that’s like for you. What’s your sense of how God receives your statement of concern or worry? This is the process of surrendering the stuff we worry about to the Lord. Undoubtedly, some of you are familiar with the “Surrender Novena.” After the prayer for each day, one prays 10 times saying, “Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything.” I have been praying it as a continuous novena for a few years now.
If we are going to “Seek first the Kingdom of God,” we must first set aside that which keeps us from advancing, that is, our worrying. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus asks his disciples, “Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your lifespan?” In other words, worrying bears no fruit. On the contrary, it is FRUITLESS to worry. Well then, if it is fruitless, it is then a hindrance to our spiritual growth. And this is why it is such a necessary theme upon which we might focus our spiritual discipline this Lent. Worrying is a tactic of the evil one, to take our focus off the Lord and have us fixate on some fear. As long as we take our focus off the Lord, the devil scores again.
Certainly, there are plenty of things to worry about in this life, but do you really want to be caught up with concern about things you are powerless to deal with? We have become so good at worrying in this age that we think it is normal. Do you really ENJOY worrying? The Lord does NOT want us to be caught up in the worries, fears, anxieties and the “what if’s” that enslave us. Again, that is why this is such an important Lenten focus. Rather, if we seek first the Kingdom of God, Jesus says that all these other things will be taken care of as well.
My encouragement for you is to focus on something this Lenten season that will truly make a difference in your spiritual life. Worrying might be something we all have in common, but there might be other themes about which the Holy Spirit is asking you to pay attention. Perhaps it is a vice that has plagued you for some time. Maybe it’s an attitude that derails you in judgment and lack of charity toward someone else. Is there a favorite sin that you keep hanging onto like a precious stone in your pocket, the one thing Jesus wants you to give to him, but to it you are so attached?
Like farmers and ranchers, we have to engage in the hard work and discipline of the Lenten season. If we seek first His Kingdom of God and do what is pleasing to him, the Lord will lead us to His Kingdom. Have a Blessed Lenten season and let him free you from the daily anxieties of lfe.
