My own way of entering into the season of Lent is to consider it as a grace-filled opportunity to choose God rather than myself. My motto this season is: That God may increase; and I decrease.
All too often, we find ourselves usually preoccupied with concerns for the self. In short, there are many occasions when we have been self-centered. When we are still children and dependent, we need attention and care from those whom we rely for our subsistence. Oftentimes, we fail to outgrow this selfish need so that even if we have grown already we tend to view life from a child’s point of view. We remain self-centered.
The sign of maturity is transcendence. When we have grown, we are called to transcend our initial self-centeredness and begin to reach out to others. We are called to become other-centered. Ultimately, we are drawn by God to himself. We are invited to be God-centered.
The season of Lent facilitates our call to make God first in our life, to choose God rather than the self. The rite of the imposition of ashes on our forehead reminds us of this invitation.
“Turn away from your sins; and believe in the Gospel.” There are two directions in this one and the same movement: Turning away and turning towards. We are invited to turn away from sins. Our sins are our acts of rejecting God and choosing ourselves instead. To turn away from my sins then can mean to redirect my love from myself to God. To turn away in this case means to turn towards God.
It is difficult to turn away from something without someone or anything to go towards. It’s emptiness. No wonder, many who wanted to change their lives ended up in even worse condition. Why? Because they have not embraced God. Only the goodness of God can fill the void left by turning away from sins. So that what’s really essential and life-changing is the turning towards God. When we train our heart to God, we are empowered to leave everything behind. When we have God, anything else including self is secondary.
After all, the ashes on our forehead remind us of our nothingness. Only God gives us our worth. Only his love dignifies us. Without God, we are but dust.
It’s good to enter into the season of Lent indeed. It allows us to see God and ourselves in the proper perspective. God should be the God of my life. It is foolishness and sheer stupidity to insist on putting myself in stead of him.
The gospel reading today (Mt 6:1-6, 16-18) presents three religious practices linked with the season of Lent: fasting, almsgiving, prayer. Each of these, we will see, is meant to help us transcend our selfishness and ultimately embrace God dearly.
Fasting trains us to renounce even the necessary nourishment our bodies require. When we fast, we transcend even our basic bodily needs. We can only do this, when we see God as more important to our lives than food. This practice allows us to actually show to ourselves that God is the God of our lives. We fast not only from food but also from other created goods we deem significant. They are significant but only secondary to God.
When we fast then, we choose God over any beautiful and valuable created things.
Almsgiving obviously calls for transcendence too. Almsgiving trains us to see beyond our own needs. We become sensitive to the needs of others. A self-centered person will find it difficult to share his graces. But a person who truly loves, one that has the eyes and the heart to see and feel the needs of others, will rejoice in every opportunity to share whatever he has. Lent is a season that invites us to have loving eyes and hearts to see beyond ourselves and reach out to the needy brothers and sisters who are the presence of Jesus in our midst.
Prayer is our spirit transcending every vestige of self-centeredness to reach out to God. It is a privilege place to encounter God, who is our love. In prayer, we commune with God and allow ourselves to be lost in him. In prayer, we lovingly embrace God. Or more correctly, we allow God to lovingly embrace us. It is this incomparable consolation that gives us the confidence to “let go and let God.”
What are the forms of self-centeredness in my life? May the season of Lent give me the grace to transcend my selfishness and to submit myself to God’s loving embrace.
