Readings: DT 30:15-20; LK 9:22-25
(To all those following this blog. Little did I know that the Spiritus Christi website has been upgraded and now has blog capacity! In a few days, this blog will be migrating over to the Spiritus site. We’ll be posting instructions on how to follow it there instead so that all of the Spiritus stuff is in one place. Thanks for understanding and look for the change this weekend….)
We hear some powerful words today.
From the Hebrew scriptures, “I have set before you life and death; choose life.” From the Christian scriptures, “If you want to follow me, you must deny yourself.”
I often wonder about my own life – but more generally about the wider dominant culture that we live in – are we losing touch with what gives us life? Do we even know how to choose life?
I believe that deep within us, we know the difference. Yet looking around at how we treat each other and the world, I often wonder.
For me this represents a great Lenten question, “How do I know if something gives me life or drains it? How do I know if something supports a culture of life or the culture of death? Who or what helps me to get clear?”
I think about the Quaker educator and writer Parker Palmer who advocates for “clearness committees.” Palmer believes (as do the Quakers) that each of us has an inner teacher and voice of truth that can offer guidance and power. And yet that voice can often get garbled by interference – from within and from without. So we engage a wider circle of people who help us to listen to that voice. This can clearly include friends and family, but during Lent we might try to include scripture to help aid us in our clarity process.
I think this is also why Jesus advocates for self-denial. He’s not trying to be a party pooper nor does he want us to be miserable. He wants us to get clear so that we can choose a path that leads to life. But there’s so much that usually distracts us. And so during Lent, we pursue a path of denial and what the mystic Meister Eckhart called a spirituality of subtraction in order to strip away whatever might be blocking real life from flowing through us.
For today, take a little quiet time and settle into your body. What makes you come alive? What makes those around you come alive? What makes our planet come alive? And how can we lean into this more often?
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