A Word from the Desert
A monk came to Abba Sisoes and said: ‘I have fallen out of God’s grace, Abba, what should I do?’ He answered him: ‘Get up.’ A little later, the monk returned and said: ‘I have fallen out of God’s grace again. What should I do now?’ And the old man answered him: ‘It is easy. You must get up again. Never stop doing that!’
A Word from a Brother
So, you started Lent with good intentions. But now, just a week in, the first cracks in your resolutions begin to appear. You wobbled, you fell, and you feel you have failed. Disillusion threatens to break your resolve. Easter seems further away than ever. We have all been there; many of us are there again today. Jesus already warned Peter that the spirit may be willing but that the flesh is weak (Matt. 26:41). The desert fathers also wrestled with this issue.
Yet, despite the proverbial warning that ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions’, we need not despair when we fall because that was bound to happen anyway. We are not perfect, and the idea that we could reach heaven using only our willpower is an old heresy called ‘Pelagianism’. Lent reminds us that we need help. We need God.
But there is more. We must act. To live is to learn. And the best way to learn is through our mistakes. I need help with this. I hate making mistakes, yet they are unavoidable if we want to grow in faith. I learned this from observing some of the best sportspeople of our time. They study their mistakes and competitors' mistakes meticulously to improve their performance. Every mistake is an opportunity to get better.
What would happen if we approached Lent in this way? We try, we fail, and we try again. And while we are at it, we honestly try to understand what happened, draw lessons from it, pray, and - with the help of God - try again.
A Prayer for the Road Ahead
My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think that I am following
your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this, you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
Amen.
(Thomas Merton)
Picture: thanks to Daniel Reche (Fotorech) at Pixabay