Tuesday of the First Week of Lent

A week ago, amid Mardi Gras you may have put the finishing touches on your Lenten plan. Were you looking at Lent as a time to forego sweets and lose weight, a time for spiritual and physical spring cleaning, a time to impress God with fasting and almsgiving? Such things are good and very human. And that’s what Lent is all about—our sarx, our humanness, our selves that Gerard Manley Hopkins calls “potsherd” and “immortal diamond.” Ash Wednesday leads to Holy Week when we consider the body of Jesus—the body that took on all our sarx to redeem it, the glorified body risen from the dead, the Body received in Holy Communion, the body that became cosmic and co-extensive with his church. Maybe you’ve been thinking of your body this past week—craving sweets or being reluctant to give up a free evening to attend a parish event. That’s OK. Just keep on trekking on your Lent journey. Use the cross as your compass.