Looking back at the weekly messages of Father Paul Counce, first published in The Carpenter, our weekly Parish Bulletin
Published: March 10, 2019
Dearest Parishioners and Friends,
Lent has now begun. On the First Sunday of Lent each year – from the 4th chapter of Luke’s Gospel this year – we hear of Christ’s own special time of temptation at the beginning of His adult life and ministry. It was a 40-day time of challenge in a desert wasteland, and so it is the model of our own special season of deliberately difficult religious focus.
But where did it happen? Sure, Jesus Himself went into the vast rocky desert somewhere east or south of His native place. But we don’t have to, and it doesn’t really matter! The Biblical word for the place He went is á¼”ρημος [erÄ“mos] in Greek (מִדְבַּר [midbar] in Hebrew). While we often translate it as “desert” the word more accurately means “wilderness.” Had Jesus been from Louisiana His time of testing would likely have been in our wet wilderness of swampland, a hot and humid place, rather than the similarly hot but more arid wasteland of the Middle East!
There’s a lesson here for us: wherever we are there this challenge is possible. And of course, this challenge offers an opportunity of growth, of change for the better. When we overcome our fears and weaknesses, when we forge ahead with life despite the challenges of doing it here, where we are, we become stronger and our society better. Our insights into what is really important become more disciplined, and ultimately when we rest from our labors we can draw satisfaction that we were less the victims of circumstance or our own shortcomings, and more the masters of our destiny.
This is what Lent should be for us: a time when we attempt to become better. A time when we strive not to live life as we have been doing – a “same old, same old” – but instead to improve. A time when we take up self-sought challenges. Traditionally these are more prayer (communication with God), more fasting (self-denial and -mortification), and more almsgiving (giving money to persons and institutions in need).
Yet just as the location of purposeful trials and challenges changes, so too can our penances and other Lenten disciplines. Our prayer can be more focused on reading, not only of the Bible, but perhaps of inspiring lives of the saints. Our fasting can be a digital diet, a time away from Facebook fascination, Instagram immersion, and Twitter tribulation. And our almsgiving can move past increasing our contributions to the Church and charities to actual time and attention given to individuals instead – perhaps lonely, aged persons who never have visitors?
While on Tuesday, March 19, the Feast of St. Joseph, our patron, occurs, with its special 12 noon Mass, St. Joseph’s Altar and free meal for everyone, until then nourish your spiritual life maybe in less joyful but still effective ways!
Yours in Christ, who triumphed over temptation,
Rev Paul D. Counce
