Who we are and how we act

 There is often a cynical reflection of many priests and parishioners that confirmation is the sacrament at which a person exits the Church. This reflects an understanding which shows there is a difference between what we believe and how we act. In many ways, it shows a culture of religion that is superficial and seeks to receive blessings rather than entering into a deeper relationship with God. There is a tendency to hold God at arm's length and a belief that religion belongs solely to the private realm.

The challenge of our time is the discovery that we have an interior life that guides our external actions. Often we are taught that if we make behavioral changes then we will live a more fulfilled life. Yet anybody who has tried to enter into a diet or given up a long-term addiction knows that external actions can only have a limited effect on the person. This is why whole services have emerged to guide us on how to lose weight or overcome a particular addiction. However, if we put all our reliance on a person or a program which is external to ourselves we may find ourselves wasting a lot of time and money on what cannot satisfy the deeper longing within our hearts.

What appears to be missing is that we seek a deeper meaning to life which can sustain us against our own inner contradictions and the ability of people to take control of our vulnerabilities. I believe this is where our disciplines of prayer, fasting, and alms giving become important practices. They help us to make connections between our interior selves, the places where we are bound up in attitudes or behaviors, and how we can become people who are authentic in our concern for others. Lent is not designed to make us more introspective or isolated from God but rather to see how we are drawn into deeper communion with what brings faith, hope, and charity.

In this Mary provides us an insight into her spiritual life which acknowledges her fears, her practical situation, and a decision made out of freedom to be herself in response to God's invitation. She does not hide or play games with God by running away like the prodigal son or harboring grudges like the older son. Rather she reveals herself to the hidden mystery of herself which allows God to enter into her in a way that transforms her life and the life of the world. Lent allows us the opportunity to encounter God as we are and discover how we are called to respond.