You really can’t beat the sheer volume of wisdom found in the Church’s readings for the season of Lent.

 

In just the first full week of Lent, we have Ash Wednesday giving us to-the-point statements like “when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing” and “go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.”

 

The days following those first Gospel instructions to help us do the three pillars of Lent — prayer, fasting and almsgiving — without involving our egos, bring us additional nuggets of wisdom from Jesus such as:

 

“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take 

up his cross daily and follow me.”

 

“Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.”

 

We also hear how the devil tempted Jesus in the desert and how someday people will be separated into one group that unknowingly ministered to Jesus in what they did for those in need and another group of those who didn’t help the needy. And we hear what happens to both groups — hopefully becoming inspired or re-inspired to do what we need to do to get to heaven.

 

We hear Jesus teaching the Our Father prayer, how the sign of Jonah — a person who simply preached repentence — is the sign we will receive to be saved, and we are told that “everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” although trust in God’s often unanticipated good gifts is needed.

 

And we learn the necessity of addressing the first inner movements of serious sin, including anger, before it gets out of hand.

 

That’s just the first 10 days of a Lent filled with five more weeks of wisdom.

 

Hopefully we all are absorbing these familiar bits and pieces into our minds, hearts and souls, and will continue to do so throughout this holy season. We are rather trained by most of the various forms of media to allow much of what we see and hear to skip over us. The majority of the information that comes at us is skip-worthy indeed, but not the Lenten Gospels. Those are worth chewing on, savoring their flavors and accepting the nutrient-rich bits down into our deepest levels – the places where we ask the big questions like the meaning of life, of love and what we are all about.

 

Jesus is timeless. What he tells us is ever new for each generation. Although the settings have changed over these two millennia, the essence of human beings continues. People in the year 2023, those back in 30 A.D., and everyone in between face(d) trials and tribulations and experience(d) temptations and regrets, joys and sorrows with similar strengths and weaknesses.

 

All generations suffer pains and celebrate milestone moments. All of us long to be part of something great, to be appreciated, to be loved and to feel safe. We suffer defeats. We sometimes succeed in big or small ways. 

 

Jesus and His Father know all the ins and outs of us even when we don’t know where this emotion or that sensitive, vulnerable spot comes from. The Trinity knows our secrets, including those of our childhood that we can’t recall with any accuracy. God understands us. He truly ‘gets’ us, and Jesus’ wisdom in the Gospels, particularly these of Lent, are meant to help whatever threatens our wellbeing here and in the future — including our everlasting future.

 

“What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?” asked Jesus in the Gospel read the day after Ash Wednesday.

 

May we listen — truly listen — to the Gospels this season, and reap the harvest of their wisdom.