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Allow Yourself To Be Changed This Lent

[During Lent, Diocesan Publications offers daily Lenten reflections from a variety of guest bloggers. To receive these in your mailbox, please fill out the “Subscribe” box below the post. May you have a blessed Lent! – Editor]

 

Here we are one day into Lent! Some of us really know how to conquer Lent and don’t have a problem with it, while the rest of us lowly individuals probably forgot yesterday that bacon does in fact count as meat. I place myself in that final category.

I have always struggled with Lent, but I think that’s because I grew up with a misunderstanding about what Lent really is. I grew up thinking that Lent was a time to suffer, to give up the things we love, and to be miserable for the sake of being miserable. I think anyone with a brain would detest this idea of Lent and while Lent may include suffering and sacrifice, it is really about change.

Just as we have seasons throughout the year we also have seasons in the Church. I know that every year I get excited for fall. The leaves change, it gets a little colder, there are more bonfires, and I love Halloween and Thanksgiving. But the thing I love most is the changing color of the leaves. Every season brings with it some sort of change and whether we like that change or not, it helps bring us to the next season.

For example, I am not a huge fan of winter, but winter has to come in order for us to get to spring. It has to freeze so that eventually it can thaw and allow the trees to bud and bring about beautiful fruit. Sometimes we have to go through something that may not be ideal in order to get to the things that really make us joyful.

It is the same with Lent. Some of us may not be particularly fond of the sacrifice and struggle that comes with Lent, but the more we allow ourselves to change throughout this season, the more fruitful we will be in our daily lives.

Although sacrifice may sometimes hurt, it ultimately makes us stronger and brings us to greater joy. Instead of going into Lent with a negative attitude about sacrifice, let’s all look to the sacrifice of the cross and be thankful that Christ was willing to give the ultimate sacrifice in order that we might be changed.

“Jesus Christ has taken the lead on the way of the cross. He has suffered first. He does not drive us toward suffering but shares it with us, wanting us to have life and to have it in abundance.” ~St. John Paul II

“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” ~Luke 9:23

 

 

Change LentTommy Schultz is a full time speaker who was most recently the Director of youth and young adult ministries for the Diocese of Baker, OR. As an experienced speaker on all things Catholic, he has addressed thousands of teens and young adults on topics such as the Sacraments, chastity, and boldly living the Catholic faith. He has given many talks and hosted retreats across the nation. Driven by his passion for Theology of the Body, Tommy studied at the Theology of the Body Institute and has spoken at numerous Theology of the Body conferences. From 2012-2013, he served as a missionary of purity, speaking to over 20 thousand youth about the message of purity across the state of Pennsylvania. He is also a founder of the Corpus Christi Theology of the Body campus organization at Franciscan University. To book Tommy for an event or for further information please visit www.tommy-shultz.com.

pick up your cross
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When The Cross Gets Heavy, Help Someone Out

Christ tells us that we must pick up our crosses and follow Him. And so we do. Most of the time, we carry those crosses pretty well. Sure, it’s heavy. It’s not always convenient. There are people who blatantly tell us it’s a stupid thing to do: bear a cross for someone whose existence they say we cannot prove. But we carry on.

And then there are times when our cross gets so heavy our knees buckle. We fall. Our mouth is full of dust and dirt. We’ve skinned our knees and elbows. We lay there, under a cross that seems far too heavy for one person. We just don’t know if we can carry on.

Denise C. McAllister has some advice. When you see someone lying there, bloodied and exhausted, with their cross bearing down on them, help them. Pick up their cross, set it aside for a moment. Cleanse their wounds and offer a drink of water. Then, when they are ready, help them stand. Then carry their cross, along with yours, just for a bit, until they are able to take the weight of that cross back.

McAllister was raised by a Marine Corps father, who instilled in her a “get it done” attitude. But she knows that sometimes, we can’t “get it done” on our own:

[O]ftentimes in life, people need more. They need a different kind of encouragement. They need an advocate who will speak on their behalf, even against themselves and their own negative thoughts. They need someone to come alongside them and give them strength because they are empty, broken, poured out, and hopeless.

They don’t just need praise or inspirational slogans; they need someone to enter into their life in a personal way and fill them with courage. This involves getting to know them, reminding them of who they really are, comforting them with love, exhorting them, and counseling them. Bottom line, it takes active involvement from the encourager.

Americans tend to value hard work and the ability to accomplish things on our own. We romanticize cowboys: those men who take care of business, not needing help from anyone. Moms get a dose of guilt whenever they buy cupcakes for a class party instead of making them at home. Our kids are pushed into sports and band and reading clubs and study sessions because parents are afraid that without a healthy “resume,'” their kid won’t get into college. The careers we choose often define us, rather than being defined by our faith and character.

And we do work hard. Until we can’t.

Maybe it’s an illness. Maybe it’s a job, or lack of one. Maybe your kid has gone off the rails and you don’t know where to turn. Maybe it’s that we are so in debt we don’t know how we’ll ever be able to manage our finances.

That’s when we hit the dirt, face plant, with that cross on our back. And we cry out, “God, where are you?? I need help and I’m so alone. God!!!” We feel weak, lonely, forgotten. McAllister:

The need for encouragement is part of living in this world, and we aren’t doing one another any favors by not giving it. The Bible is full of exhortations to encourage one another. Why? Why not just say, “Rely on yourself” or only “Trust in God” (although there is that too). Why are there so many passages that say “encourage one another”? Because life is difficult, and it’s human to struggle, spiritually, physically, and emotionally.

We need our family and friends to build us up. We need our bosses to remind us of what we can really accomplish, inspiring us to greatness. We need our coaches, counselors, teachers, and pastors to come alongside us and spur us on with boldness and love. When we don’t have it, we flounder and fail, and even if we somehow overcome, we aren’t always happy and we’re certainly not humbled.

Asking for help, to say we’re in need, to say we just can’t do it alone is not weakness. That is probably one of the hardest things to do. Many people don’t ask, so those of us who can give need to be on the lookout for the needy, for the ones who are struggling and encourage them. Is there someone in your life who is downcast, angry, withdrawn, underperforming, overwhelmed? Why ignore them? Why think, “They’ll get it together on their own”—or worse, “It’s not my place to get involved. I did it alone; they’ll have to make it on their own too”?

We can do so much better. If there is someone in your life, either at school, work, church, in the neighborhood, and you know they are suffering or discouraged in some way, help them. You will be better for it, and so will they.

Today, if you need help with that cross, ask. Someone in your life will step up and help. And if someone today needs your help, then pick up their cross, along with yours, and walk alongside them until they are ready to carry it again themselves. Needing help is not weakness, and offering help is not being judgmental.

For I want you to know how great a struggle I am having for you … and all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged as they are brought together in love, to have all the richness of fully assured understanding, for the knowledge of the mystery of God, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Col. 2:1-3