Now that we’ve begun the Holy Season of Lent, or as the prayers of Ash Wednesday call it, “Our campaign of Christian service,” it’s a good time for us to recall that Lent is not about what we can do but what God can do.

 

In the fourth century a theologian named Pelagius had the idea that human beings are basically good. We’re all trying to hack it and do the best we can right? Therefore, in a certain sense, it’s up to us to try our best, do our duty, and by our striving and struggle, we attain our salvation. The bishops in Pelagius’ day sought to remind him, while we must work out our salvation in fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12), and that we must be cooperators with God’s grace, ultimately, our salvation is not our doing, it’s God’s.

 

I am not an advocate for “Don’t give something up for Lent! Take on some things virtuous!” As a matter of fact, it is critical that we not only increase our efforts in doing good during Lent, we must also mortify ourselves, deny ourselves, the spiritual logic being that we create that hole which can only be filled by God.

 

The purpose of Lent, then, is not to arrive at Easter saying, “Wow, that was hard, but by golly, I did it!” The purpose of Lent is to cut away the excess, the unnecessary, and focus on only what is truly important for human flourishing and freedom. The purpose of Lent is to keep our eyes fixed on Christ.

 

We can do that in many ways: no chocolate, no cheese on the spaghetti, increased acts of almsgiving, paying extra close attention to our gossiping, etc.

 

During this period of Eucharistic revival, might I propose one way in which we can keep our eyes fixed on Christ quite literally — Eucharistic adoration!

 

We can spend extra time with Jesus in the presence of the Most Blessed Sacrament.

 

People often ask me: But Father, what do I do while I’m in there? You can make up your own prayer, you can read from a prayer book, you can read a spiritual book, pray the rosary, the divine mercy chaplet, you can read the Wall Street Journal! The point is to be in the presence of Him who knows you better than you know yourself.

 

When I was in college we took a choir pilgrimage to California. It was the sort of things where you sing at various churches, stay in families’ homes, but on the last day we got to go to the beach! Well, all of us Midwesterners were bummed out because we’d waited the whole pilgrimage for some fun in the sun and no sun. It was cloudy, overcast, gray. So, obviously, a young Jon Bakkelund of 19 didn’t put on any sunscreen. 

 

It was the worst sunburn of my life. Even though I couldn’t see it, the rays were powerfully affecting me. In the same way, whether our time in adoration with Jesus is moving, profound, powerful or dry, arid, and “gray” the Son is powerfully at work within our souls. We need only trust Him.

 

To conclude I need to get a bit nerdy. In philosophy we learn there are, in general, two types of acts. Transitive acts and intransitive acts. The end, or purpose, of an intransitive act is contained within the act itself. The end of a transitive act is found in the act’s completion. The purpose of the act of seeing (vision), which is an intransitive act is seeing. The point of vision is vision. Walking is a transitive act. The purpose of walking is found in its completion. In other words, the point of walking is not walking for walking’s sake. The purpose of walking is to arrive at the donut!

 

In adoration we often get confused and think that adoring Jesus in the Eucharist is a transitive act. We do it to get what we want through prayer, to get God to do our bidding or some such thing. But being with Jesus in the adoration chapel is intransitive. The point of being with Jesus is being with Jesus.

 

Adoro Te Devote!