ALL SAINTS MARGARET STREET

Next before Lent

Fr Ivan Aquilina

Things tend to become complicated. When things become so there are two options; either to react and bury our heads in the sand or to respond and face the issues by going back to the basics. Even if that is painful and costly it will be liberating and refreshing at the end of it all.

In the life of the Church there are plenty of examples. Just to mention some. The rule of St Benedict and the Monastic movement that followed was a breath of fresh air from the Holy Spirit to the Church. However even such a holy movement was not immune from becoming complicated. The answer was going back to the basics and that is what the Cistercian reform achieved in the twelfth century. The universal Church Catholic also became very complicated in the sixteenth century and the English Reformation stood out prophetically by pointing the way back to basics. By the middle of the last century the liturgy of the Church of Rome became too complicated, liturgical reformers went back to basics and achieved a reform that also blessed our own Church of England with a back to basic liturgy.

Our spiritual lives get complicated and multi layered, freedom lies in going back to basics. Lent is such a time: a time of grace, hope and freedom. Whether you are taking extra things up or giving up extra things for this Lent the most important principle for the true keeping of Lent is to go back to basics.

How do we go back to basic in our spiritual lives?

St Gregory of Nyssa, an Eastern bishop who lived in the fourth century, assists us in answering this question in his fifth homily on the book of Ecclesiastes. In the first part of the homily he asserts that the beginning of blessedness, joy and a life of virtue is the rejection of evil. Evil and Good are like darkness and light, foolishness and wisdom. The supreme good of our life is to be in light, to be joyful, good and wise. Therefore, he goes on to say, it must be of necessity to dwell in the light, the joy, the good and wisdom itself.

Gregory proceeds by asking: “Who is this light, this joy, this good and this wisdom? It is Christ Jesus our Lord!” Having established this by explaining it from Scripture and Tradition and showing that it is reasonable, Gregory moves us forward to the point, the moment of back to basic. The person with the right attitude must be that one that fixes his or her gaze on Christ. Notice: not look to Christ from time to time, or in moments when we feel pious, the gaze must be fixed continually.

What does it mean to have our gaze fixed on Christ?

It means looking constantly on Christ the head of the Church where clarity of vision is never obscured by evil. Just as a person can not see darkness in light so the person who fixes his or her gaze on Christ will see everything in its proper perspective, the gaze is fixed on Christ the reason of all creation, the source of perfection, joy, truth, wisdom and good. Seeing everything in its proper perspective means that we attach the real value to things, this, like St Paul, may make us look foolish to the world, but because we see things in their real light that does not bother us. We are blind to this life as our eyes are fixed on Christ. With Paul we ask: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”

Fixing our gaze on Christ means that it is not us who live but Christ that lives within us, and this reality is the source of unexplainable inner joy, wisdom, light, depth and good.
How do we fix our gaze on Christ?

First by listening. Going back to basic means going straight back to the Holy Gospels, the living word of Christ. We need to listen attentively as it is only through this silent and attentive listening of our hearts and minds that the features of Christ are carved out for us to behold.

Secondly by being. Sharing moments of stillness with Christ, asking and learning, wrestling with our big questions. In humility we understand that silence is wiser than words.
Thirdly by doing. Let us do joyfully and without counting the cost what Christ asks from us. Let us be generous with Christ. Let us say Amen to his YES on the Cross. Let us be burning fires that radiate not our own light but His Light, that glorious Light that we shall spend the next forty days preparing for, that glorious Light of the Easter Vigil.
Listening, being, doing: This is how we fix our gaze on Christ. This is going back to basic which I recommend to you as together we embark on our Lenten journey. May your Lent be a joyful adventure.