THE SPIRIT OF ST. LOUIS a weekly bulletin & newsletter March 4, 2018 • 3 rd Sunday of Lent
BUSYNESS AND LENT
By: Will Rooney, Seminarian This bulletin testifies to the fact that we stay busy here at St. Louis. It’s full of a multitude of ways to do good and opportunities for ongoing formation. I’m constantly amazed at the variety of ways God works here. We are constantly in search of the next thing we must do. And in a way, this is a good thing; to love our world in the name of Christ represents an essential part of our call as Christians. But today, I wonder, how many of my actions flow from that intention? Pondering for a moment, I realize that often I stay busy because I fear what might arise in the silence of having nothing to do. I think this is a common modern problem: We are uncomfortable with silence because we are uncomfortable with ourselves. We clothe ourselves with noise so that we don’t have to see ourselves. Ultimately, like Adam and Eve, we try and hide from God because we don’t trust him to see our brokenness and still love us. But God will not allow us to remain hiding in our brokenness. God lowers himself to where we are: mired in sin. Thus,
we proclaim as our Savior one who can sympathize with us in every way and who himself understood human nature well: Christ Crucified. Crucified, God knows what it’s like to be broken physically, emotionally, and spiritually. He enters our brokenness to heal it.
God will not allow us to remain hiding in our brokenness.
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He truly “has the words of everlasting life,” which will heal our hearts if we pay attention to them. But we won’t notice Him if we are hiding behind busyness. Silence, the opposite of busyness, is essential to Lent, because it forces us to admit our brokenness. More importantly, it makes us realize that God works to heal us. As we continue our Lenten journey, let us examine our activity and ask why we find ourselves so busy. Then let us silently give the Crucified One our hearts so we can experience the healing he desires for us. Then, healed and alive in Christ we will be able to participate in His work of loving the world, not out of fear but with true charity.
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