I'm giving up liver for lent

 

Well, it has arrived! Although, some may still have outside Christmas decorations up around the house, Lent has arrived.

For the next forty days we find ourselves doing whatever we can to bring us to the Cross on Good Friday.

 And we call it our Lenten Journey, our journey with Jesus to Calvary.

 Every person’s journey is different, but yet, every person’s journey is weighed by Jesus. He knows the weight of our offerings in relation to what He did for you and for me.

 And yet no one can come close to that love and appreciation of laying down one’s life for one’s friends.

 So, the Church offers us some means to reciprocate, by fasting, abstaining from meats, praying, adoration and even suggests other forms of sacrifice. And, of course, some things we are obligated to do, while others, we are encouraged to do.

 In the true sense, fasting means abstaining from all food and all drink, but in reality, by the Church’s definition, fasting means going on a disciplined diet.

 I say disciplined because we find out who is in control, you or the aroma of our favorite foods permeating the room at the wrong time.

 Disciplined because to show we are in control we suppress the urge to eat with prayer. Fasting, in the right sense, should bring us much closer to God.

“When you fast”, Jesus tells us in the Gospel of Matthew, “do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting.

I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you”.

 So, why do we even have a Lent? Why do we need forty days to do some form of repentance?  Because we owe it to God. It is a renewal, a reminder of what Jesus did for us and a short period of time to go beyond our means of saying thank you. And it is truly a way of saying, I am sorry.

 He has given us so much, including our life.  So Lent is a time and a means to offer an acceptable sacrifice on our part to prove our love for Him.  

 Hanging and dying on that Cross of shame, we could once again be united with Him.

 Jesus told us to look like we were not fasting, not to show our hunger pain. We must tell ourselves for the next forty days, that “Lent is not about me but Lent is always about Jesus and his sacrificial love for me alone.

 Yes, we have sinned, but we cannot focus so much on our past sins that it brings us fear of rejection.

 We must approach these forty days with sorrow but at the same time with a sincere desire to develop a truly intimate relationship with Jesus.  Jesus calls us “friends”, not enemies.

 The deeper the relationship with Jesus, the less prone we will be to hurt that friendship. Sin pulls us away from the one who will save us.

 It isn’t the meat or the candy or the desserts that we give up for lent that matters; it’s the human heart.  By the way, the number one item given up every lent is chocolate.

 We can give up all these things, but know why you are putting yourself through these disciplines. Don’t do it strictly out of the obligation but as an opportunity to appreciate more intensely what Christ has done for us.

 When you feel that hunger pain, twenty minutes or three hours after you ate, remember the Cross. When you desire to sit down and look at TV, remember the nails penetrating the flesh. In all these things, remember God loves you! 

 That’s why it is important to offer a sacrifice that hurts, or one that we really miss, or strengthening a weakness, otherwise it will have no impact on the alternative, which is prayer for the love of Jesus.

 For some of us it could be worse. Just think if the Church obligated us to replace our usual daily consumption of regular meat with liver, and our vegetables with beets or lima beans. And every breakfast must be three slices of scrapple.

 For some that could be a sacrifice of a lifetime. For others, that could be a treat. But I don’t believe that will ever happen.

 St. Paul tells us “Whatever you do, whatever you eat or drink do for the glory of God” And to that we can add, whatever you sacrifice, sacrifice for the glory of God, who loves you.