A Time for Reflection

I was thinking about the notion that information is not lost in the universe. I don't pretend to understand the ideas involved in this theory, but it got me thinking not about physics but metaphysics. We are in the season of Lent, the 40 days before Easter in which we reflect on our lives, repent and try to do better.

In physics, the idea is that any physical process is theoretically reversible. For example, rust, also known as iron oxide can be reversed to elemental iron. Indeed, we routinely do so in a blast furnace. On the other hand, in metaphysics, when we die, God will review our lives and we will have to answer for everything we have done, and everything we have not done. God does not forget anything.  As Christians, we recognize that we have all fallen short of the glory of God that we were created to be. But Christ came into the world specifically to live the life that God intended, and thus become the innocent sacrifice for all our sins.  It is why we call him the Lamb of God, harking back to the ancient Israeli practice of sacrificing a lamb as atonement for sin.

Yesterday, Thomas Klocek had a great piece on Lent entitled A Time for Reflection about some of the things we are reflecting on. It may seem as if Christians should be morose at this time of year. Indeed, Garrison Keillor, on the "A Prarie Home Companion" said that "For Lutherans, every day is Lent" to great laughter. But actually, nothing could be further from the truth. We are joyful, especially in this season precisely because we look forward to Easter. Wouldn't you be excited to learn that someone so loved you that he deliberately provoked the Roman empire to crusify him to just save you?  I would, in fact I am.

klocek writes:

Christians around the world are embarking on the solemn season of Lent. This is a period for reflection, prayer, fasting, and repentance. For Catholics, it is part of the liturgical year, the cycle of feasts and celebrations, much like the cycle of feasts God instructed the Israelites to observe after He brought them out of Egypt. The liturgical year takes the faithful on a journey from the incarnation of Christ, God made man, the incarnate Word, through his life of preaching the kingdom of God with healing and parables, through His passion and the Cross and other key aspects of God’s revelation to His creation.

Living a meaningful Lent has become more difficult in recent times. The devil is clearly at work in the world. The devil’s whole existence is centered on separating us from God. Satan, in his pride and wanting to equate himself with God, split from God, rejecting God’s love. Christians are assaulted at every turn. The secular world has become evil. Not only does it fight against God, it tries to make everyone (except perhaps Muslims) bow down to its altar of self and its sacraments of abortion, transgenderism, gay pride, and gay marriage, all contrary to God’s will and His love for us.

I can't disagree with Klocek's basic point that the world is evil. But it has been evil all along. What Klocek is talking about is the recent re-emergence of ancient evils that Christians fought against for the last 2 millenia. Before Christ, life was cheap, brutal and short. The Devil is on the march, infiltrating every cultural institution in society. One by one, these institutions have become to espouse ideas that are opposide the principles they have before espoused. Even the Church has been infiltrated at the highest levels. Of course, the Church will stand. The Devil can only do whatever damage God allows. He is in total control. Understanding this, it behooves the faithful to resist the Devil's work, and I see this happening more and more.

Organizations like Pew Research repeatedly report that those who believe in God, pray regularly, and try to follow God’s laws are happier, more stable, and have less despair. With this information available to all, I find it difficult to understand why people continue to immerse themselves in depression and resist turning to God. Part of it is because we humans think we are self-sufficient, that we can do everything ourselves. But we can’t. We can do nothing without God. This is what it means to surrender to God, to acknowledge that without him we are dust. “Return to the Most High and turn away from iniquity. Know the justice and the judgments of God... in prayer to God, the Almighty.” (Sir 17:26)

So, when you see your neighbors who are Catholics walking around with ashes on their foreheads, recall that this is a time for you to think about yourselves and your smallness before God. Turn away from the ways of this evil world. Fight for what is good. Part of loving your neighbor is to encourage him to do what is right and good. Warning the sinner is an act of mercy. Christians want everyone to get to heaven and so we encourage them to turn away from sin. Trying to deny that things like abortion and transgenderism are sins doesn’t alter the fact that they are. Stand up and fight.

It is a time to look inward at our relationship with ourselves, with God and with our neighbors. We do this by renewing our efforts to increase the virtues of faith, hope, and charity in ourselves and our daily lives. It is characterized by Jesus’s words in the Gospel of Mark, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel.” Mk 1:14-15