Who are we seeking?

Ash Wednesday is a time for fasting, almsgiving and prayer. These are traditional practices which allow God to be at the centre of our lives. However, they can at times seem to be hard work rather than a way of allowing God to draw us closer. We hear this in the Gospel in the temptations which are put before Jesus. He is tempted to sustain himself with something which is not bread. We can often hunger for something or someone to make sense of our lives. We can consume things without thinking or consideration because they ease the hunger pains either in our minds, our hearts or our stomachs. Yet afterwards feel empty again. Fasting allows us to discover what truly nourishes us. Then Jesus is tempted to change situations at the click of his fingers. We want the quick solution or the instant result. Yet once again it is what we give our lives to which changes the situation. What are we truly moved to dedicate our lives too? Lastly, there can be the belief that we have to be across all the news in the world to be relevant and up to date. We want to be in control and responding to every situation with candour, wit and perspective. We try to put ourselves at the centre rather than allowing God to be at the centre. Lent is essentially about allowing God to be at the centre of our lives and listening so that we can discover what truly leads us to life.

Can I afford that?

There is a constant worry that we will never be able to afford something. We do all the sums, make all the calculations and consider the future. Often there is a great anxiety about paying all the bills and making all the ends meet. Yet the major consideration is who do we become? There can often be a tendency to overemphasise the cost of everything and the value of nothing. We often grab the bull by the horns and then worry whether we can stay on for the ride.
Yet in the Gospel, Jesus challenges us to see what we value first so that can be the motivator for our whole life. If we seek something which will sustain us in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, in joyful times and in sad times. Essentially, Jesus points to how our relationship with God and each other sustain us. It calls us to look at what has eternal value, not just transitory worth. It calls for our prayer to translate into action. By seeing our lives as God sees them we find that we have eternal worth and value. 

Being Foolish

When we consider our relationships with others we can always subconsciously want something in return. We can make our love conditional on what another can do for us or what we can do for them. There is a sense in which even if we don't say it that you owe me and there can be a sense of obligation which can become present. The way we are present to another can reflect our relationship with God. If our prayer becomes more about what God can do for us rather than allowing God to be at the centre of what we do, we can easily miss the mark.

Yet God calls us to love our neighbour as ourselves. This is a profoundly simple statement but it points to the unconditional nature of God's love for us. If we seek a good for ourselves then we should also seek it for another. God seeks the best for us so that we can bring savour to others. At the end of each day, we can review our day to see the time when we lived this commandment and when we did not. To give thanks for the time when we kept God at the centre and the times when we noticed placing ourselves at the centre. In all things, God desires the best for us so that we can bring life to our world.

Anticipation and accomplishment

One of the hardest things to acknowledge is when we find ourselves consumed by anger. It can take over our life and cause to act in a way which seeks to destroy what we believe to be the source of that anger. We can strike out with words that are aimed to hurt and which damage our relationships with others. The Benedictine rule notices that when we find anger rising within us we should deal with the other person with moderation. This essentially comes down to the reality that our anger is telling us more about ourselves than about the other person. We need to acknowledge what is happening inside ourselves and take ownership of it. When we are able to bring that to pray we can ask God to show us what we need to pay attention to and how to respond in an appropriate way. This is the source of the teaching for this weekend we are called to recognise that the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets draw us to pay attention to how God calls us to relate to each other. This is not out of fear of punishment but so that we can enter more fully into the life that God opens up for us. It allows God to be at the centre of our life rather than ourselves.