Fr Robert Hendrickson
Dear Friends in Christ,
Lent is meant as a time to focus on sin. That focus is not about self-flagellation or dismal self-shaming.
That focus is about joy.
In our culture we far too easily conflate happiness and joy. There are few things in life that bring me more happiness than chocolate and peanut butter. Seriously, they are a delight! They make me happy.
They are not, however, always a source of joy. Feeding that happiness too eagerly, with too little reflection, leads to that joyless time on the scale! Giving into our need for momentary, fleeting happiness too often leads to an undermining of our joy. The deeper sense of purpose and promise that is joy requires a certain discipline.
Lent is one part of that certain discipline.
There are all sorts of things that make us happy — they are not bad in and of themselves. In fact, they are small signs of God’s delight. He did not cause chocolate and peanut butter to be made so as to only be gazed upon from afar! But the many things that make us happy can also become vexations — even addictions.
The things that make us happy can be as varied as each individual. They can even, on the surface, seem to be unhappy things. I know people who seem to find happiness in being critical or even cruel. They fill some fleeting need, get some endorphin rush, by being petty. They will never be people who experience joy though.
Lent gives us the chance to examine the cost and opportunity that come with happiness and joy. It gives us a chance to choose joy. It gives us a chance to reject the unexamined life and to live with determined commitment. In that commitment we may find the source of true joy.
Yours in Christ,
Fr Robert