“The sun is out. The grass is ris. I wonder where the birdies is?” Obviously Mother Nature is not familiar with the old days. The joy of living in Canada! Eh! It makes us who we are as staunch Canadians. This begs the question “What makes a staunch Christian?” “The SON is out. The LORD is Ris. I wonder where the Christian is?”
We walk on, entering another week during Lent pointing toward Jerusalem. Just like the city roads and highways, I’m sure like myself, you’ve encountered many potholes – large and small. It is also the same with our spiritual lives. We can choose to do a quick fix (six weeks of Lent) or a semi-permanent fix which will last for at least a few years (real conversion).
Like the city roads folks may be short of funds because of poor planning (sorry Mayor Joe); therefore, some of the potholes receive only a hit and miss mending. So too with the results of our own Lenten resolutions, we may not have planned well or we may have overestimated our ability for conversion. The important thing to remember is that conversion is the work of a lifetime.
Think of the cars and trucks that don’t see or anticipate the potholes. Here we find ourselves again, just from a different angle. Either we avoid or we tackle the potholes?! Challenges from every side! But we forget all that as spring progresses and summer is on the horizon. When summer arrives let’s make sure we look in the rear-view mirror, it will call us to look to reality. Like our Christian life each season has its joys and challenges making for “never a dull moment”.
Keep your eyes wide open for those potholes or they will find you every time. Will you patch or fix? Just remember the Lenten road is heading into the final march toward death and resurrection.
I wonder if there were any potholes on the road to Jerusalem?
Barbara Vaughan, CSJ