Exhaling

Another Lent looms before us. Some people I know dread these six weeks of intensified prayer, giving, and fasting, but I always see them as an opportunity to take a step toward Freedom. The Church gives us this time to clean out our minds, our souls, our bodies, and our closets - and by the end, if we have made good use of the time, we are lighter (physically and spiritually) and able to soar closer to Truth.

I was talking with someone recently and suggested that we jettison all our props and embrace our poverty so that we can be blessed; the Kingdom of Heaven can be ours. God continuously forgives our crutches, our anchors, our safety valves; the Divine pity dismisses all we think we need to prop ourselves up or hold ourselves together in one piece, even as we are invited to surrender it all and be free. We must let go of one thing so that our hands are free to accept something better.

That something is the Truth, which sets us free. But first we must let go of our litle falsehoods, because wherever the lie remains, the Truth is not welcomed into that space. We open ourselves to the Truth to the extent that we rid ourselves of the lie; God is only able to fill the space that we open to Him by doing so. Every personal expedient, every prop for our self-love, every shred of self-sufficiency, every thought of our own ability to progress by our own efforts, every memory we hold on to in order to define ourselves according to our own desires, every habit of thought and action that does not allow for the action of grace - all these are false, and where we cling to them for fear of facing our utter powerlessness and emptiness, we are not free for the Truth to animate us. Christ fills what He is allowed to fill, but our willfulness prevents Him from filling us wholly. Truth and untruth cannot peacefully co-exist.

They are at war. But the beautiful thing about Truth is that it is not a thing, but a Person. And that Person is the King of Peace. Not only does this King maintain a profound peace wherever He is allowed to reign (Reign in us!), but Truth alone is able to peacefully conquer - as Christ is allowed to fill us, He subdues or exiles every falsehood with such gentleness and brings such joy that we hardly know that there has been a fight to the death. We only know that fear has succumbed to the force of Love, and Truth has triumphed in us - we recognize His victory by the peace and strength and certitude it brings.

He wants to give Himself wholly to us. He wants us to dwell wholly in Him. When we are surrendered totally to Him, every boundary within us is obliterated and we are free to embrace every good thing. No longer are we moved by our needs or wants or brokenness or bitterness; at last we are free to be moved by His Spirit dwelling within us, and we cannot seem to give enough until we have given all.

So this Lent, let’s take up arms against every falsehood within us until we have cleared the way for the King of Endless Joy and Peace to reign fully in us. When Truth triumphs, we are free.