I’ve been scouring the house top to bottom.
Good practice for Lent: Being clean on the outside aids in being clean on the
inside. I’ve reorganized all the
closets, folded all the laundry, and scrubbed the bathroom tile grout on my
hands and knees with steel wool and Comet. Books are reshelved, magazines
recycled, trash removed. The disaster
known as the garage remains to be organized – as it has since the day the
movers piled up the miscellaneous wood scraps and useless, placeless
paraphernalia of life that we never get around to throwing away because it
might come in handy. After straightening
the garage, I am even thinking of pulling up the sleeping grass. That job just takes too much time. But it is penitential, so maybe one day in
the next six weeks, I’ll tackle it as a form of mortification.
I’d like to say I’m doing this cleaning as preparation for
the holy season ahead, but my motivation is company from the mainland. We’ll
have siblings and nieces here for 2 weeks. The house is brimming with
anticipation. We have made a list of
things to show the fam and have an instructor lined up to teach them to scuba
dive along with our 10 year old daughter. (Which makes me incredibly nervous –
I just keep reminding myself that she can’t go deeper than 40 feet.)
Now we just have to hope that it doesn’t rain too much and
that the rumor of the best beach closing because of a ship offloading
ammunition is just a rumor and that the sea turtles don’t all hide and that the
water is not too choppy or too murky and that no one gets sick.
While we’re thrilled that family is coming to visit, I’m
also afraid that they’ll be disappointed with our home and this island that
we’ve grown to love so much. When we
first arrived, I was depressed by the sort of run-down feel of the place and
the lack of tropical blooms. I was anticipating the postcard picture of a
tropical island: clean, white beaches, frangipangi and plumeria scenting the
air, waveless turquoise seas.
You could set that picture up on Guam, but outside the frame
would be discarded cans, rhinoceros beetle scarred coconut trees, rusty cars,
mildew-marred buildings.
On top of that, we woke yesterday morning to this sad news: The peacefulness of the island was scarred by
a deranged attack in the downtown area by a mentally disturbed guy wielding a
knife. At least 2 people were killed – perhaps when his car ran up on the
sidewalk – and 12 injured. Reports are contradictory at this point: one says 3
people died and 11 were injured. It
sounds like most or all were Japanese tourists, so not only are people who live
here horrified, so is the international tourist community.
This island has very little history of violent crime. An
event like this is stunning. The assailant is in custody, but no motive has
been released. No one is safe from
senseless violence.
In reality, Guam is not postcard perfect, but what place is?
The other part of the picture that the
frame doesn’t show are the great neighbors, the respect for family, the amazing
world underwater, the remote waterfalls, the unhurried pace of life that make
living here wonderful. Our visiting family may not be able to see all of that
in their first glance at the island, but we hope that when they head home in
two weeks, they will have discovered it – and feel like the price of their
tickets was justified.
So we head into Lent with the sorrow at the Pope’s
announcement and the deaths of all those people downtown, but also with joyful
anticipation of sharing the things we’re grateful for with our family. I haven’t thought as much about what we’ll DO
for Lent as how I’m happy to have the season to remind me to focus on basics. Like
usual, we’ll give up sweets and alcohol, but I don’t want to force my penance
on our company, so we’ll have wine and dessert more nights than usual, and I’ll
just offer up something else (most likely I’ll have to work on letting go of my
plans – always a struggle for me). With company here, it will be easy to fast a
bit from the internet. I’d like to work more on being more charitable – both in
my heart and in my pocketbook. I’d also
like to do some spiritual reading, but I’m not sure what yet; I’m still slowly
consuming Anna Karenina, with more delight than I began it. In many
ways, it is spiritual reading. As for
prayer, this year I think I’ll focus more on intentions – so many people are in
need, and I need to remember to be grateful and to reach out, even if only in
prayer.
I think I’ll find the gratitude part easy these next couple
of weeks.
And to close, two passages from Pope Benedict's last Ash Wednesday as Pope that remind us of our communion in Christ and our duty to seek and serve the Lord:
This "return to me with all your heart,"
then, is a reminder that not only involves the individual but the entire
community. Again we heard in the first reading: "Blow the horn in Zion!
Proclaim a fast, call an assembly! Gather the people, sanctify the
congregation; Assemble the elderly; gather the children, even infants nursing
at the breast; Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her bridal tent
(vv.15-16). The community dimension is an essential element in faith and
Christian life. Christ came "to gather the children of God who are scattered
into one" (Jn 11:52). The "we" of the Church is the community in
which Jesus brings us together (cf. Jn 12:32), faith is necessarily ecclesial.
And it is important to remember and to live this during Lent: each person must
be aware that the penitential journey cannot be faced alone, but together with
many brothers and sisters in the Church.
***
In the Gospel passage according of Matthew, to whom
belongs to the so-called Sermon on the Mount, Jesus refers to three fundamental
practices required by the Mosaic Law: almsgiving, prayer and fasting. These are
also traditional indications on the Lenten journey to respond to the invitation
to «return to God with all your heart." But he points out that both the
quality and the truth of our relationship with God is what qualifies the
authenticity of every religious act. For this reason he denounces religious
hypocrisy, a behaviour that seeks applause and approval. The true disciple does
not serve himself or the "public", but his Lord, in simplicity and
generosity: "And your Father who sees everything in secret will reward
you" (Mt 6,4.6.18). Our fitness will always be more effective the less we
seek our own glory and the more we are aware that the reward of the righteous
is God Himself, to be united to Him, here, on a journey of faith, and at the
end of life, in the peace light of coming face to face with Him forever (cf. 1
Cor 13:12).
