ENTER LENT A CATERPILLAR
RISE EASTER A BUTTERFLY

The door into Lent is DESIRE!

Luke writes about the desire of Zacceus to see Jesus. Just curious and expecting nothing more than a glimpse, his life was changed. This Zacceus-Jesus drama is also our drama. It begins with DESIRE!

Like all who heard of Jesus, the tax collector desired to see this much talked about celebrity. To join the crowd lining the street of Jericho and see Jesus was his desire, nothing more.

He was 'short' and the crowd was large. His desire overcomes and leads to decision. He runs ahead and climbs a sycamore. At last he saw Jesus. Jesus also saw Zaccheus.

To his utter surprise, Jesus looked up and said: "Zaccheus, hurry down. I mean to stay in your house today". Zaccheus quickly descended and welcomed him with delight. Jesus said: "Today salvation has come to this house".

Because tax collectors were 'public sinners', some were scandalized and murmured about Jesus going to a sinners home as a guest. Jesus said: "The Son of Man has come to search out and save what was lost".

The DESIRE of Zaccheus set the stage and opened the door to life in Christ as a Man of God.

We follow our desires. We only seek and obtain the goal and fulfillment of our desires. Desire is like the key that ignites the engine and sets the car in motion. The 'energizer bunny' is a good example. Desire moves us forward. It is true of everything in life. When desire ebbs, fades and ceases, our profession, vocation, friendship, marriage, business, studies, etc., ebb, fade and cease.

This is true of our Christian life. In one of his many books, Benedict XVI, wrote about Lent and the entire Year of Grace: "Lent keeps alive in our consciousness and our life that being a Christian can only take the form of BECOMING a Christian ever anew. It is not an event over and done, but a process requiring constant practice".

Yes we are created in a condition of becoming. We are always in the tension and challenge between the already and the not yet. That is because we are open to the unlimited. We are a thirst that is never quenched. We are a hunger that is never satisfied. We can always know more, love more and be more alive.

The first teaching of Jesus sets the agenda for the Christian who seeks the Kingdom of god. "Reform your lives! The Kingdom of god is at hand" (Mt 3,2). Mark 1,14: "Reform your lives and believe in the Gospel". Reform comes from the Greek word metamaia 'change your mind' believe in the Gospel - Jesus and his Good News. This is the ongoing drama of our conversion.

A down to earth comparison comes from a spiritual giant of the early Church. St. John Chrysastam, (354-407) Patriarch of Constantinaple said in one of his many homilies: "The Church under the leadership of Christ takes SINNERs and turns them into SAINTS. When someone enters the Ark of the Church, they enter a CATERPILLAR and depart a BUTTERFLY".

Of course Chripastam (Golden Month) uses this metamorphosis as a description of the transformation of each Christian. We are always in the process of 'becoming' more a Christian and flying to new heights.

Much about the insect teaches us. The caterpillar (larva) is earthbound. It hugs the earth on which is slowly crawls. Our life as a Christian can be like this in many ways. Especially in the graced 40 days of Lent we need to know the ways we are earthbound and cannot fly. A serious Lent will free us from what holds us down and from flying with Christ.

Always, but especially in the Forty days of Lent we ask: "What keeps me from flying more? How at this time of my life am I still like a caterpillar". Remember, the entire Christian life is a dynamic tension between the 'already and not yet'. The 'NOT YET' is the ongoing agenda for each of us. It is our Lenten agenda.

The 'already and not yet' relates to every aspect of life - vocation, marriage, business, relationships, prayer, Mass, love, faith and more. We ask: "How am I like the caterpillar? Am I earthbound, in a rut, moving at a slow pace, grounded and stuck? Are my attempts to break free and fly half measures because I just inch along or am at a standstill? Is it because I am lukewarm and put it on the back burner or simply that my heart is not in it"?

Jesus teaches: "Where your treasure is, there is your heart".

Our primary treasure is to become a man/woman of God in the likeness of Jesus who shows love and brings about our DESIRE. All the other secondary treasures we desire find meaning in the great treasure the Pearl of Great Price.

To be ready for the Forty day journey Easter we ask: Do I desire to enter Lent? Do I desire to follow Christ and rise with Him on Easter a better Catholic flying more and higher? Is my heart in it?

The ashes on our forehead are a grim and urgent message about a caterpillar life!

We enter Lent knowing that Jesus loves and calls us. Remember - there is no saint without a past. There is no sinner without a future.