Pot Holes

Lent is the time when I try once again to form the habits I was supposed to get down years ago. Such as daily prayer and flossing my teeth.

Yesterday at Mass, Fr. (who's name I cannot spell) gave a great homily about what Lent is for. Of course, he did it much better than I am about to but here is the basic idea.

When Jesus is about to start His public ministry He separates Himself from everyone and He changes His routine. He goes into the dessert and fasts for forty days. He does this because when ever you change something about you're routine, issues that were hidden come to the surface. He is tempted. He has to overcome these temptations to prepare Himself for His mission. The analogy Fr. used was pot holes. He said our town must be the pot hole capital of the nation. I'd have to agree with him. On our daily commutes we know where all the pot holes are. We know where to slow down and when to hold our coffee up so it won't spill and how to go around the things. We get them filled in but come next spring when the snow melts those pot hole will be back. New one and some in the old places. For Jesus, forty day's in the dessert meant not going around the pot holes anymore but filling them in. During Lent we break up our routine by giving something up or doing something differently for forty days. Little problems that we have learned how to go around face us and we have to learn how to overcome them. They may be the same problems we had last year but we still need to fill them in. Sports people do this every year. Before the season begins they go back to the basics. They learn how to run again. They start with the most basic, vital skills to their sport. Fr. teaches jazz piano at Gonzaga and he talked about teaching jazz to a classical pianist. The student was already a great pianist but Fr. had to challenge him to go back the first grade and overcome the weaknesses he had learned to 'drive around' in his years of playing classical. It takes doing something different to see the pot holes that we have learned to drive around. It just takes some time and energy to fill them in.