Tuesday of the Seventh Week of Ordinary Time
Tomorrow Lent begins. Today, Shrove Tuesday or Marti Gras, the Church has given us a powerful reading from James to kick off this penitential season. We begin with the question, “…where do the conflicts among you come from?” This question can inform each of our individual Lenten observances this year. What’s at the root of the conflicts between you and others? What habit, disposition, memory, or belief feeds the conflict? What are we holding onto so tightly that we wish to fight about it?
In our polarized world and our polarized Church, consider James’ suggestion that our passions, covetousness, and envy are the cause. I think I am right. I love my idea of how things should be. I love the idea of a world where people choose to act the way I think they should act. This is a problem. Whether my desire is toward something good or not, the problem is how I place it ahead of my love for God and God’s people. It’s a convoluted way of loving the world in the way that James condemns. It is not a holy way of Loving the world as Christ loves. It’s a way of chasing after my worldly desires. We can want the things of this world (status, money, big houses, fast cars, flashy phones), and we can simply want to be right.
The antidote to these sinful dispositions is the same: “Submit yourselves to God…purify your hearts, you of two minds.” We must put our ‘love of the world’ to death. Death involves mourning. It’s hard to give up our sinful ways, and God knows it. But letting go of sin means holding onto God, and that’s a great trade! So as Lent begins, may we “Begin to lament, to mourn, to weep.” Let go of that which divides, so that we can hold onto Christ ever more tightly.
-Chris Nieport