theROCK

A Season of Transformation

The most holy season of Lent is one of my favorite liturgical seasons. We begin on Ash Wednesday, signed with a reminder of our mortality and repentance. We enter into the desert with Jesus for 40 days, praying, fasting and giving alms so that we can rise on Easter Sunday one step father away from sin and closer to Jesus. Lent challenges us with the question “what are you going to work on or eliminate from your life that will help you to know Jesus more personally come Easter?”

When I was little, my mom would have my brothers and I make caterpillars during Lent out of pompoms. We could decorate them any way we wanted and when we were done they would each get placed in a brown paper bag, their cocoon, only to be seen again on Easter Sunday. Miraculously, on Easter Sunday when we awoke, our caterpillars had turned into beautiful butterflies hanging over the dining room table, complete with felt wings perfectly shaped! Although this was a simply craft, it holds a beautiful significance for Lent and Easter. We begin Lent by entering into the cocoon with Jesus where he transforms us so that on Easter Sunday we rise changed. I encourage you to spend some time reflecting on this question: “What in me needs to be transformed so that I can rise on Easter Sunday closer to Jesus?

A good examination of conscience for this precise question is to ask, who do you let influence your life….who is leading you, teaching you what is morally right and wrong….why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own? We tend to be so judgmental about everyone else and what they are doing wrong. But Jesus is challenging us to stop and look at our own shortcomings and to focus on living just a little differently and a little more like Jesus to change our world. You have the power to change the world one small step at a time. Lastly, Jesus says that a tree will be known by its fruit. Lent is a time to reflect on what are the good fruits and bad fruits in my life. Where do I need to be pruned in order to bear more fruit?

Don’t let Lent pass you by without truly examining your life, so that by the grace of God you will slowly be transformed into the person God created you to be. For, we were not created to remain caterpillars, but to be transformed into beautiful butterflies bringing the message of Christ to all!

Jesus, Make Yourself at Home!

In October of 2023, I attended the Madison Eucharistic Congress with other members from St. Dominic. I was able to see and pray with the Eucharistic Miracles from around the world on that occasion, a work that was researched and published by Blessed Carlo Acutis. How fitting that this coming week, we will have the exhibit available here at the parish for us to meditate on and be drawn into the miracles of Jesus revealed in his body and blood. Carlo died at the age of 15, and was beatified in 2020. A first class relic of Blessed Carlo will also be available for us to venerate and reflect on this young man’s life and love for Jesus. May he become one of your new favorite “saints.”

While I was in Madison and was praying in front of his relic, I was drawn to one of his prayers: “Jesus, make yourself at home! Live within me as if it were your own dwelling!”  I meditated a long time on this reality, ‘live within me as if it were your own dwelling.’ How insignificant and unworthy I felt. I found myself in tears realizing the gap of this reality. This amazing God within me. How can this God come into my life, unworthy, sinful, doubting, imperfect, weak, and broken as I am? 

Lent is the time we look back at the past year, acknowledge our brokenness, and allow our Lord into our hearts, to heal us and open ourselves to His love. His love is what we often run from because we don’t feel worthy. We don’t want to look at our flaws and sins, our failures and wrong doings. It is tough to acknowledge where we failed. Yes, it is in our brokenness that room can be made for repentance that can bring us home to His heart. It is confusing to believe that it is in our brokenness that God can work in and through our lives. In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians we read, “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ.” (Eph. 2: 4-5).

What a great hope we have that our Lenten journey can bring us to new life by “cleaning out the crud in our lives.” Friends, let us make this Lent a new season for our souls. How can we do this? Come to Jesus in the Mass, in adoration, in silent prayer, and in the sacrament of reconciliation. When receiving Him in the Eucharist, allow Him to penetrate your heart, to change and renew you in His love. His love will transform you. Then together with Blessed Carlo, our prayer can be, “live in me as if it were your own dwelling.” Blessed Lent my friends.  Blessed to journey with you to His heart.

Comfort Zones

Do you ever get a bit of inspiration from God and then suddenly it seems like He’s beating you over the head with it, bringing it up everywhere you look? That happened to me recently while pondering the idea of comfort zones. First, in a Chris Stefanik talk, then in a secular book I got for Christmas, then in Season 4 of the Chosen, “comfort zone” has been everywhere. Clearly God wants me thinking about comfort zones.

We all have them. Safe places we live in, can usually control, or return to when things are out of control. Boundaries of what we will and will not do to maintain our sense of safety. There is a need for comfort zones. They keep us alive, safe.

But our comfort zones can also hinder us. If we hold onto their boundaries too tightly, they become prisons. The thing that is meant to free us to live becomes the very thing that prevents us living freely. And as a result, they can prevent us from growth, from progress. Because growth is always uncomfortable. Progress always requires that we step forward from what we already know into what we don’t yet know or have mastery of.

Next to time, discomfort is the second most cited reason people say no to God. Instead of following His will and trusting Him to keep us safe, we decide to keep ourselves “safe.” Our comfort zones, in this way, have become false idols that prevent us from authentically worshipping God. The walk of discipleship is uncomfortable. We only have to look at Christ on the cross to know this. We have to love God more than we love our comfort zones, or we have let our comfort zone become our god.

It's the same with our neighbor. We struggle so much with the discomfort of talking to others about Jesus. It’s too awkward. We don’t want to offend. Isn’t God worth some awkwardness? Isn’t their salvation worth the risk? We must love other people more than we love our comfort zone, or we risk them never getting to know Jesus. We might even risk their salvation.

Our love of God and our love of our neighbor MUST be greater than our love of our comfort zone. Or we aren’t really following the God of the Bible. The God of the Catholic Church. The God who came to die on a cross that we might have life…not that we might be comfortable.

So this Lent, I challenge you to make your Lenten resolution stepping outside your comfort zone. Do one thing each day (for God) that is uncomfortable. Say that prayer. Mention Jesus by name. Start that Bible study. Or simply open the Bible and pray. Because if we learn to get comfortable being uncomfortable, there is no end to what God can do through us.