Fr Ben Garren

Do not claim the title teacher, for you have but one instructor, and you are all students alike.
—Matthew 23:8

Dear Siblings in Christ,

Are we preparing to experience Easter for the first time? Amidst Lent the expectation is to make our life more rigorous in some way, through deprivations or additions to our routines. This is often talked about as a means to make us aware of our sinful natures, and each of us needs a growing sense of awareness of how we participate in the sorrow, pain, and strife present in our society. There is another purpose, however, that we should also reflect upon… how the rigor of these forty days can prepare us to engage Easter, the Resurrection, Springtime, ourselves, and our neighbors in a new way.

When we have engaged the process of confession, be it with a priest or amidst direct prayer with God, there is still a purpose to Lent. If any of us arrived at Ash Wednesday with no sin to confess we should still be at a point of transformation as we encounter this second week. Are we being transformed to experience Easter afresh this year… or are we going about this Lent prepared to be affirmed in what we already teach about the Easter Mysteries and the Resurrection? All of us should be working on how we can come to the Easter Vigil as students prepared to learn. This is true regardless of what theology and expectations one holds, or purposefully does not hold, about this feast we are all preparing to celebrate.

Our Lenten Gospel today warns us of making our phylacteries broad and our fringes long. This warning is not about vestments, however, but ego. The true warning is to any of us taking on the trappings of the teacher who knows instead of the student who needs to learn. These various trappings of the ego can become a hurdle for any of us regardless of our theological position. What we are called to place aside during Lent are the things that keep us from seeing everyone around us as equally students of the same loving God.

Our Lenten question should be, what is it that we need to learn about Easter this year. The one most in need of further Lenten discipline is the one heading into Easter believing they have sure knowledge about the Easter Mysteries.

Pax,

—Ben