As the Church across the world prepares for the Feast of Easter, a Lenten time is ‘scheduled’. While we envision stacks of pancakes dripping with butter and syrup, we remember that Ash Wednesday follows, leading us into the Lenten practice of prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
It really is a sorting out time: the good fruit from the bad fruit of our lives. What burdens our spirit, mind and heart is what we are asked to attend to…in the wilderness with Jesus. Is it grief, insults, back-handed conversation, loss of a loved one, lies, your job or your health, abuse of any kind? Are these the specks that have become the ‘logs in your own eye’ to which Jesus refers? (Luke 6:39-45)
I wonder if, over the 6 weeks of Lent, decluttering rooms of the house, or the shed or garage, might help to sort out the interior disposition of our hearts and minds – dispositions that guide our life toward producing good fruit, or away from it. Allowing ourselves the time to be in that wilderness with Jesus might be helpful. We might head to the pantry to cull what is not being used appropriately and share it, or to the clothes closets, or get some order to the bill payments. What about ‘eating clean?’ Efforts to declutter our diet from fats and sugar overload?
Jesus asks, “Can the blind lead the blind?” I really need to ask myself who I am following when it comes to behaviours. Are they good examples, with a history of desiring to produce good fruit? If they are not, it is likely time for a change, to see and experience what is on the other side of the mountain…coming out of the wilderness with Jesus.
It is the Creator’s desire for His children to live fruitful lives with joy – fruit found not in the thorns or bramble bushes, but on the trees grown in well cultivated land, where “a person’s speech discloses the cultivation of the mind” (Sirach).
A Pilgrim with you in a Jubilee Year
Mary Balfe