Friday March 13th. – Lent 2009

An article by Frank    No Comments

One of my favourite books is Thomas A. Kempis’ Imitation of Christ. It is a deeply moving work that has much to meditate on. I was reading through some of the writing where he reflects an inner conversation between Christ and the faithful soul and this struck me, I thought it was very relevant to the fasting aspect of Lent where often we deny ourselves of something:

The Disciple: Lord, I willingly commit all things to You, for my anxiety profit me little. But I would that I were not so concerned about the future, and instead offered myself without hesitation to Your good pleasure.

The voice of Christ: My child, it often happens that a man seeks ardently after something he desires and then when he has attained it be begins to think that it is not at all desirable; for affections do not remain fixed on the same thing, but rather flit from one to another. It is no very small matter therefore, for a man to foresake himself even in things that are very small.

A man’s true progress consists in denying himself, and the man who has denied himself is truly free and secure.

Kempis’ words of Christ have a lot to say about the power of fasting and denying ourselves of certain things. That power is very true in our world where we are bombarded with messages telling us all the things we need, deserve, desire and should have. We are a culture beholden to the need to have. We are often enslaved by our desires and the pursuit of the good life, yet it is so true; often when we obtain that which we were striving for we often find that it wasn’t all we imagined it to be.

During this time of Lent, many of us will be sympathetic to the words of Christ in this dialogue “It is no very small matter therefore, for a man to foresake himself even in things that are very small.” For many the novelty and that feeling of cavalier strength in the face of the adversity of denial may be starting to wear off. It’s in that space, that hard space where we may wish to give up, that we discover our inner self and we meet our addictions. In a world where consuming is everything, it is denial that we find freedom.

If you are struggling with your Lent goal(s), now is the time to draw on the hope that exists in entering a time of denying yourself something. If you are feeling “withdrawal symptoms”, take the time to draw on the hope that at the end of the journey is freedom from that thing. When you deny yourself something, that thing loses its control over you. This is the power of Lent, we submit our desires and wants and leave more space for God. Imagine the freedom of subjecting our whole life to this process.

A man’s true progress consists in denying himself, and the man who has denied himself is truly free and secure.