Lent at Last

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.

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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).

from http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2013/02/today-we-begin-new-journey-liturgically.html