Sarah Hollcraft, Fiat Ventures
First Sunday of Lent
The days leading up to Lent are some of my favorite days of the year because it’s the best opportunity to ask about people’s prayer lives in a less than awkward way. The past few weeks I’ve been asking the high school teens I work with what they’re doing for Lent and the most popular response I get is social media. When I ask adults the same question, their most popular response is sweets. Lent always sneaks up on us and people “run out of time” to pray about their fast so their first instinct is to reflect on their indulgences and bad habits. While this is not a bad instinct, it can create the wrong intentions. When we give up something because of its physical impact on our lives, we only see the physical benefits it creates for us, but God wants to reveal something deeper than that. He has a particular message for each and every one of us, so doesn’t it seem odd that He would call us all to give up social media and sweets? Doesn’t it seem odd that the thing you gave up last year is something you still struggle to balance in your life?
The first reading reveals a key part of our creation that we don’t reflect on enough during Lent. God did not just form man out of clay and let him walk away, but God “blew into his nostrils the breath of life.” God doesn’t just want us to give things up so we can feel more efficient or healthier in a tangible way. God wants us to give up things and to empty ourselves, so that He can breathe life into us and transform our spirits, not just our bodies or our agendas. To allow God to dwell and move in this way often requires that greater fast and sacrifice that we never choose during Lent because it is “too hard”.
When people decide what they want to do for Lent, their decision weighs heavily on what they think they are capable of. A few years ago I was introduced to something called Fiat90: a 90 day fast of screens, snacks, late nights, gossip, alcohol, and secular music, while implementing rosaries, Mass, Marian devotions, workouts, confession, etc. I did it one year leading up to Easter and decided to invite other women to do it with me the following year. The resounding sentiment among my friends was that they believed they were incapable of doing something so intense. When has fasting ever been related to our own strength or grit? When did anything in the spiritual life rely on our own capabilities? The second reading says that while sin devastated the world because of the action of one imperfect man, then the action of a perfect, divine man will have an even greater impact of grace upon the world. Jesus is infinitely greater and stronger than all of our doubts and insecurities, so if He calls us into something, we know that He will give us the ability to do it. And He never calls us into something just to suffer. Because of the cross, we know that suffering bears extraordinary fruit and draws us into relationship with God in ways that we could never fathom. It’s time that we sacrificed something that we don’t think we’re capable of or we don’t think physically possible for our lifestyle. If that is social media or sweets, then give God the space to reveal to you the spiritual benefits of these fasts. Lent is the season where we can follow Jesus into the desert and receive His authority to repeat His words from the Gospel, “Get away Satan!” Don’t let the evil one make you feel incapable of hard things. Let God be your strength.
Leave a Reply