This Sunday is the third Sunday of Lent. In three weeks, we will begin Holy Week. We are halfway through this season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. So, how are you doing? Have you kept up with the plans you made on Ash Wednesday on how you’ll observe this season?
There are probably some days that have gone well, and some not so well. Maybe you’ve just not been able to get into the rhythm you hoped for, and you’ve given up. Or, perhaps you’re doing great. If the last one is true – congratulations, keep up the excellent work!
If you identify with one of the first two, don’t worry. There have been Lenten seasons when I didn’t even persist with my commitments through the first Sunday of Lent, and by the third Sunday couldn’t even remember them. Be assured; it’s never too late to restart or even figure out a new direction that will fit better.
As St. Francis de Sales encourages us, “Have patience – especially with yourself.” He also says, “God takes pleasure to see you take your little steps; and like a good father who holds his child by the hand, he will accommodate his steps to yours and will be content to go no faster than you. Why do you worry?” Isn’t this a wonderful and comforting image?
Perhaps the deeper reason it’s been difficult, or even impossible, to maintain the course you set for yourself is that it is too divergent from who you are and the circumstances of your life. St. Francis de Sales says that holiness – what he calls the devout life – is found precisely in living well your daily life. Francis teaches that many people think true holiness is tied to just doing religious things like praying, fasting, and doing service works. And these are good things, but they don’t make one holy by themselves, Francis says. Why? Because we all know people who pray every day and then insult and ridicule others either publicly, online, or behind their back. We know people who fast from food to lose weight but don’t fast from anger, hatred, and grudges; and people who donate to or volunteer at social service institutions to be seen but ignore their friends or family members who need help.
For Francis, true holiness – the devout life – is integration. Holiness comes from integrating your love for God (or even just the desire to love God) with everything else in your life. Holiness calls you to integrate your interior (your heart) with your exterior (your actions). In this way, you become whole, and wholeness is holiness.
As you go about this week, I invite you to think and pray about this saying: “Wholeness is holiness.”
Ask yourself how whole you are.
Do your words match your deeds?
Do your actions match your motivations for doing them?
Are you ready to try and live a wholly holy and devout life?
Ask Jesus to help you try and live a wholly holy and devout life.
Have a blessed third week of Lent.
Fr. Jack Loughran, OSFS
Provincial
Toledo-Detroit Province
