Lenten DYNAMISM

Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent

Genesis 17:3-9

Psalm 105

In this Genesis reading God forges a covenant with Abram.  It is marked by a change in his name:

“No longer shall you be called Abram; your name shall be Abraham.” 

Getting a new name, biblically speaking, is a huge deal!

What follows is a litany of promises about how God will maintain this covenant…leadership, fruitfulness, stability.

“For your part, Abraham, you and your descendants after you must keep my covenant throughout the ages.”

The psalm refrain today is “The Lord remembers his covenant for ever”

But God knows.  He knows that we human beings are going to come up short.  We will have trouble holding up our end of the bargain.

I hear the echo: Come back to me, with all your heart…joel 2:12

Coming back demands that we first notice that we have veered off.

This Lent, I have been reflecting on Psalm 51

Which has all the turns…all the honesty…

It is a dynamic that moves us

From darkness to light

From blindness to sight

From death to life

And the truth is…and we all know it…
This is never a one and done exercise for us 

Exercise…that is what Lent is…yearly boot camp;)

And so, for me

I count on Lent rolling around once a year

So that if…for some reason... 

I have been avoiding this work

The church reminds me…and calls me back

But she does it gently…after all I have 40 days

The pay off, the fruit of this work

is Peace and Thanksgiving…Shalom

Lent after Lent we go into training

SO THAT

This reconciliation thing might become for us a habit…a style of living...
A way of life

I love the way my professor Thomas Richstatter, OFM puts words to this dynamic:

Dynamic of Sin and Repentance*

1.

We remember what God has done.  As we hear the Word of God we remember our story and what wonderful things God has done for us.

2.

As we remember we are lead to sentiments of gratitude, a thankful (Eucharistic) appreciation for God’s love.

3.

This gratitude for God’s love makes us aware of how little we have loved back.  Love given calls for love to be returned.  Our remembering illumines our own ingratitude for so great a love.  This awareness of the difference between how much we have been loves and how little we have loved in return is the conviction of sin/sense of sin

4.

This sense of our ingratitude then moves us to acceptance of God’s love even in the face of our own sinfulness.  This acceptance is the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, assuring us of “forgiveness.”  The gift is always offered…the trick is accepting the gift.

5.

Forgiveness is recognized by the gifts of peace and freedom.  Our word of sorrow meets God’s word of forgiveness and explodes into Shalom, wholeness…that is worth celebrating.

*from my classnotes;) emphasis mine