Lent Reflection: Turning Over Your Tables

Father Robert Barron is a popular Catholic author, speaker and theologian.  He is also the founder of the global media ministry Word on Fire which reaches millions of people by utilizing the tools of new media to draw people into or back to the Catholic Faith.

This Lent, Fr. Barron has been sending out daily Lent Reflections via email.  Here's his reflection from yesterday called "Turning Over Your Tables" (you can read this on his website here):
 

From very early on, Christian theologians and spiritual writers made a comparison between Jesus' cleansing of the temple in Jerusalem and Jesus' cleansing of our hearts and bodies. St. Paul refers to the body as a "temple of the Holy Spirit." Your self, your body, your whole person is meant to be a temple, a holy place where God dwells and where prayer and union with God is central. It's a beautiful image: rightly ordered, we become temples of the Holy Spirit.

This image leads to an important question: what goes wrong within the temple of our souls? The same thing that went wrong with the Temple in Jerusalem--what's meant to be a house of prayer becomes a den of thieves. All kinds of distractions came into the Temple, money changers and corrupt influences, those who turned people away from worshiping God.

Today, we should ask, what distractions and corruptions have come into the temple of my heart and body?

Lent is a terrific time to allow Jesus Christ to make a whip of cords and come into the temple of our hearts, and, while there, to turn some tables over, to flip things upside down if he has to.

What would Jesus chase out of your heart if he had a chance? If you let him in, with all the wonderful fury displayed in the Gospels, what would he cleanse?   

You can sign up to receive Fr. Barron's daily reflections here.

Clayton Imoo is husband to Gail and father to sons Sean Isaiah and Jacob Isaac and daughter Kayla Marie.  He has served as the Director of the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver for the past ten years, helping parishes develop their own youth and young adult ministries.  When not doing ministry, Clay enjoys spending time with his family, playing music, playing sports, playing naptime, and writing blogs on topics such as family, faith, and the Vancouver Canucks.  Learn more about him at http://www.claytonimoo.com or follow him @claytonimoo      


  

Making the Most out of Lent

“Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” (Hebrews 13:16)

If you ask a young person what he might be doing for Lent, you’ll likely get responses along the lines of:  “I’m giving up Facebook” or “I’m giving up eating chocolate.”

Granted, these may be noble notions on their own, but young people (along with many adults) often get too caught up in what they might be “giving up” for Lent instead of why they are doing it.

We know that Lent is a solemn, reflective season that prepares us for Christ’s glorious resurrection at Easter.  The forty days of Lent recall the forty days that Jesus spent in the desert resisting Satan’s temptations before starting his public ministry.  During Lent, Christians are called to renew themselves through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving (charity).  Think of it as a spiritual tune-up.

Solemn and reflective does not have to mean miserable and depressed.  Lent gives youth ministers a wonderful opportunity to teach about sacrifice, and how these sacrifices can be pleasing to God.  When we sacrifice in one area, we grow or make room in another; in the case of Lent it’s in our relationship with God.  Fasting is a perfect example: it’s less about what we are giving up (food) and more about how we are growing (in prayer).

“One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4)

An avid cola drinker, for the past 12 years I have proudly proclaimed that I am giving up pop for Lent.  But it wasn’t until a few years ago that I realized that simply sacrificing pop wasn’t enough…God was challenging me to do more.  To spend more time in prayer.  To be a better steward of my resources.  To be more generous.  And to be more “present” to my wife and children.

As youth ministers, we can pray for humility; that we can “die to ourselves” and instead set our hope on the living God.  In doing so we recall the sacrifice He made for us on the cross.

So yes, I will once again give up drinking pop.  In fact, I’ve cut back on my cola consumption since January 1 of this year.  But it’s admittedly only a small part of my Lenten plan to strengthen my relationship with God and with others.

I know that some people like to let everyone know what they’re sacrificing, whether it’s for accountability or for sympathy.  Others may declare their Lenten promises to show people that they are actually doing something.

However, I see no need in posting my other Lenten promises and sacrifices here or on Facebook or Twitter for the world to see.   If you want to really know (for whatever reason) what I’m going to be doing for Lent, just ask me.

May we all use these next forty days to strengthen our relationships with our loved ones and with our loving God.  Amen.

Clayton Imoo is husband to Gail and father to sons Sean Isaiah and Jacob Isaac and daughter Kayla Marie.  He has served as the Director of the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver for the past ten years, helping parishes develop their own youth and young adult ministries.  When not doing ministry, Clay enjoys spending time with his family, playing music, playing sports, playing naptime, and writing blogs on topics such as family, faith, and the Vancouver Canucks.  Learn more about him at http://www.claytonimoo.com or follow him @claytonimoo     

Going Slow with Dr. Low

Lent and Culture

One of my favorite things about Lent is that it's one of the few Christian traditions still widely talked about in our secular society. Other than Christmas shopping and Easter Egg Hunts there are not a lot of other Christian traditions people freely talk about at the water cooler or in the newspapers. But I've seen Lent mentioned in the newspapers quite a bit lately and I was very encouraged when I was watching Regis & Kelly last year to hear Lent being talked about for the first 5 minutes.

Kelly Rippa shared how she gave up cheese for Lent one year and chocolate one year. She went on to explain how she's teaching her kids that a Lenten fast has to be something difficult and meaningful otherwise there's no sacrifice involved. Rippa's guest co-host that day, Mario Lopez, shared how he had given up chocolate one year and coffee one year. Just the fact that these two were so casually and openly talking about their faith in front of tens of millions of viewers was very encouraging to me.

Hearing this on a TV show watched by tens of millions of North Americans was a friendly reminder to me that I'm sharing Lent this year with hundreds of millions of Christians worldwide. To me this is one of the biggest joys of participating in Lent - the feeling of being connected to the Body of Christ worldwide as well as 2000 years of Church history.

Going Slow with Dr. Low

The Holy Season of LENT

Today is Ash Wednesday which is the first day of Lent.  Many people are not familiar with Lent or don't practice it in their churches or their personal lives but most people are familiar with the Season of Advent.  Just like Advent helps prepare our hearts and minds for Christmas, Lent provides us a similar opportunity with Easter.  When we don't celebrate Advent Christmas can come and go so quickly and we can lose the meaning of it.  Easter too can come and go so quickly that it's easy to skim over the incredible sacrificial journey Jesus took for us.  When Easter is limited only to a day, or maybe a long weekend, it can end up being just another holiday where we get a break from school and work and go shopping with friends and family.

So one of the big advantages of celebrating Lent is it gives us a 40 day period, almost 6 weeks, to focus on the Easter miracle and the Good Friday sacrifice.  During this 40 days Christians are invited to spend more time praying, fasting, worshiping, serving and tithing than we usually do.  Focusing more on our faith in these intentional ways can help turn our hearts and minds towards Easter weeks before it's on our doorstep.

It's been traditional for hundreds of years for Christians around the world to give something(s) up for Lent such as chocolate, meat, liquor and other luxuries that are difficult for people to sacrifice.  In the past it was often food related because these types of foods were considered delicacies so people really missed them when they couldn't have them for 6 weeks.  Nowadays many people are giving up things technology-related because technology has become the comfort, treat or indulgence that special foods were hundreds of years ago.  For example, every year some of the students at Rocky Mountain College in Calgary go on a technology fast.  For the 40 days of Lent they give up social media, texting, gaming and/or movies in order to give more time and attention to their faith.

Why give something up for Lent?  Well, for starters, it's hard to add in more prayer, journaling, serving, tithing etc. when our lives are already so full of things that keep us busy and satisfied.  So sometimes we need to give things up so that we more time and energy for God, and seek Him to satisfy us rather than the usual things we use in our culture to satisfy or even sedate us.  You might be thinking, "Ya, but that sounds really hard!" - especially the technology fast.  Well, that's the point, it's supposed to be hard.  If giving something up for Lent isn't hard then you can't really call it a sacrifice.

Why sacrifice?  Partly to give yourself more time and energy for other things and partly to recognize your comforts and maybe even addictions so you can turn to God to comfort you, fill you and heal you rather than turning to other "gods" as we so often do.  The other reason for sacrificing during Lent is because Lent is largely modeled after Jesus 40 day fast in the desert before His crucifixion.  Biblical scholars agree that Jesus' time in the desert was about preparing Him and strengthening Him for the journey ahead.  He was tested and tempted in ways that strengthened His faith and trust in God rather than giving into worldly comforts.  Lent is an invitation for us to follow His example and symbolically join Jesus in His journey towards the cross.

I did not grow up practicing Lent in my church or my family but began following the tradition in my late teens.  Every year it is such a rich experience for me as it turns my heart and mind towards Jesus in a way that wouldn't happen if I just keep going about my regular life routines.  Every year I give up one or two comforts which forces me instead to turn to God when I'm tired, bored, obsessive, depressed, lonely or whatever rather than turning to my usual fixes.  This has become a very formative part of my Christian walk so every year I look forward to it even though it can be very challenging.  This year I will be giving up chocolate and Facebook Scrabble.  That means every time I gesture towards eating chocolate or playing Scrabble (several times a day for both) I will have to catch myself and turn my attention towards God to fill my desires rather than these instant fixes I am so accustomed to.

If you have any questions about Lent feel free to write me at coach@frombeginningtoend.org and I would be happy to join you in exploring Lent this year.