This Lent, I am participating in Magnify 90. We participants actually started January 5 and will conclude at Easter. I was sort of keeping up with the demands of the program but on Ash Wednesday I decided to jump in completely and give up my secular audiobooks, scrolling on SnapChat, and definitely chocolate!
I turned instead to my School of Reading book: Jesus our Refuge by Matt Fradd (highly recommend) and the Hallow app's 40 day challenge. In this challenge, on the first Sunday of Lent, Fr. Mike Schmitz posted his homily for the day. WOW. Homily here
I am going to summarize the homily but I encourage you to listen to the whole thing.
Fr. Mike talked about writing our autobiography. Not starting with our birth and going through a timeline, but rather by making a decision about how our lives will look starting today. Because is it Lent, we are called to three things in particular: prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
Each Lent is a time for personal renewal and growth in our relationship with God. Giving up "stuff" just to give up "stuff" isn't enough. We need to lean into these self-imposed crosses as a way to find more time for prayer, to eliminate the false refuges in our life that lead to overindulgence, sloth, vanity, laziness etc., and to help those in need in a more concrete way.
In short, it is time for a new beginning. A new strong start, for our autobiography to make a difference, not just for Lent but for a lifetime, is needed.
Fr. Mike taught that a strong start has 4 parts:
-irreversibility
-identity at stake
-risk
-agency
Once we make a decision it is irreversible. We dive headlong into that decision and whatever it is, and it will change us.
Our identity is at stake: who will we be after we make this decision and stick with it?
It is risky: we don't know what the future holds.
Agency is making the decision to start.
I won't go through the bad choices we could or already have made. You know your shortcomings. But I will suggest a great choice that will change everything, one I have made a multitude of times in my life:
Confession!
Going to confession will absolutely change your autobiography (if you are completely honest with the priest, and you are willing to be made whole.)
When you walk into the confessional and unload your life, the effect is irreversible: God forgives you. He washes you clean and those past sins no longer matter. You are free to move forward in your new holiness.
Your identity is really at stake. After confession, you are a new creation, but that means things in your life will have to change. The people in your life may have to change if they are holding you back from drawing closer to God. Your habits will have to change. Your prayer time will have to change. God wants all of you!
It is risky for all of the above reasons. You will have to (truly you will WANT to) start being authentically Catholic. What does that future look like? It's up to you and God. Ask Him. He will show you.
You have the power (agency) to make this decision. Only you.
Talk to God. What strong start do you need to make to change the trajectory of your autobiography into one that delights Him? Are you willing?
A little note on irreversibility: Every decision leads to consequences, good or bad. If you have made bad decisions, you can reverse course and make better ones. You already know how the bad decisions have molded you, changed your identity, and affected your future. The point here is, make a strong start toward a better tomorrow. The homily talks about the prodigal son. He made some really bad decisions. However, he was able, with a strong start, to begin again and be healed.
Have a blessed Lent.
