2nd Sunday of Lent, 2007
Today we might begin to contemplate our communal and individual preparations for the season of lent that will begin next Wednesday. In this regard, our readings do an exceptionally good job of providing us with significant “food for thought.”
As luck would have it, I just returned from five days of meetings at Loyola University in New Orleans. Despite the unbelievable devastation that remains in the wake of hurricane Katrina and the unexpected tornado that once again sundered portions of the city last Monday night, somehow the people of New Orleans still possess the unflappable spirit and the unquenchable desire to stage the parades and pageants that highlight the Carnival Season that will culminate on Mardi Gras or fat Tuesday.
The origin of the word "Carnival" is unclear. Some scholars claim that it comes from the Italiancarnovale, arrived at by combining the Latin word carnem for meat and levare the verb meaning to lighten or raise. Thus Carnival is a period before "removing the meat" or before one "stops eating meat". Other scholars suggest that the origin of the word derives directly from the Latin caro the word for flesh or meat and vale meaning farewell. Hence Carnival symbolizes a "farewell to meat" or even a "farewell to the flesh" a final fling, as it were, before “letting go” of or renouncing bodily desires.
Whatever the etymology, I am sure that it will matter little to the thousands who flock to Bourbon Street this weekend to find themselves awash in Mardi Gras beads, doubloons of all sizes and the full range of food, drink and other practices that have established New Orleans’ well known reputation.
On the flight down and back, one of the airline magazines carried several advertisements for luxury spas and resorts that proudly proclaimed, “You can have it all.” Perhaps that is what the revelers at Carnival are seeking. Perhaps during Lent we might contemplate what that phrase might mean for us.
The Christians living in the Greek port city of Corinth, to whom Paul wrote his epistles, were certainly no strangers to excessive practices of every variety. In fact those who think that the contemporary world has sunk to a heretofore unknown level of decadence should read through the entirety of the Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. In doing so, they will find that such an exercise only gives greater credence to the familiar French phrase “the more things change, the more they remain the same.”
Clearly Paul feels the need to admonish the Corinthians and to remind them that they not only share a likeness to the first Adam, the Adam of the flesh, but also they bear a resemblance to the second “Adam,” the spiritual Christ of faith. Paul is prompted to write because many in the community have completely lost sight of this latter reality and now find themselves totally enslaved to the full range of earthly passions. Their behavior suggests that they are unable or unwilling to discipline their desires and to make right their lives. Consequently the entire Corinthian community is beset with all sorts of factions and divisions that render the possibility of true happiness and peace nearly impossible.
Our gospel today from Luke, presents a straightforward and yet incredibly demanding message: Love your enemy and do good. Here good is defined as being compassionate, being non judgmental, and being willing to pardon others. It means going the extra mile even with those whom we would never choose as friends. The author of the gospel encourages us to emulate in our own lives the type of unconditional love for others that God extends to each one of us.
At the heart of the matter lies our own willingness to make a definitive choice in favor of what is ultimately good. How awesome it is to realize that such an opportunity for self actualization is left entirely within our own control!
In our first reading we see an amazing portrayal of that dramatic moment of choice. With Saul asleep at his feet, Abishai whispers to David, “God has delivered your enemy into your grasp this day. Let me nail him to the ground with one thrust of the spear, I shall not need a second thrust!”
How often during the course of any given day do we find ourselves in a similar position? Metaphorically speaking, how often do we hold our spear high and with one thrust we can choose to act to excess; we can decimate a colleague with the sharpness of our tongue; we can take much more than we need of something, simply because we can; we can humiliate those who are dependent upon us; we can indulge our passions; we can condemn others to a fate that we cannot begin to imagine or even fathom for ourselves.
OR we can choose to speak a word that soothes and encourages; we can see the pain and the need of others that is invisible to less discerning eyes; we can undo years of neglect and harm; we can act in a manner that takes note that the second Adam, continues to be a vibrant source of true life in our contemporary world.
Perhaps this year, Lent calls us to do something much more than giving up candy or not eating between meals. Perhaps this year, Lent is calling us to see the potential that each one of us has to be Christ for one another in every venue of our lives; in our homes, in the places at which we work or interact with others; in our classrooms; or maybe even within our own individual lives. Maybe this Lent we need to allow Christ to show us that life is more than just the material quantities that can be derived from the earthly realm and that the qualities of the spirit lay firmly within our grasp.
The word Lent is apparently derived from the Old English lencten, which means to "lengthen." It refers to the lengthening of the daylight hours that occurs in the northern hemisphere as spring approaches. Maybe this is the year in which springtime and the newness of life will truly take on a whole new meaning for us! How will you choose? Maybe this will be the year when Easter arrives it will not be just Jesus who has been raised from the dead.
AMEN.