We are driven and motivated to succeed by our wants and desires. In fact, they are strong motivators. The more we want, the more we are driven to secure the objects of our desire. To covet something, sets us multiple traps in front of us because the object of our desire does not belong to us. The greatest of our disappointments in life are when we have expectations that cannot possibly be fulfilled. During the Lenten season we take inventory of the talents and resources that we can claim as our own. What makes me, me? What is outside of us, we must evaluate and be certain that it is not covetousness that is motivating us, but a true desire for self-improvement.

 

Extraordinary events will surprise us into expressive responses (sometimes overwhelmingly expressive responses). You cannot help contain your emotions when something unexpected happens – news that you won a prize, learning your child achieved at top levels in school, the announcement that your loved one has overcome a deadly disease. The word ‘miracle’ is thrown around to describe such events. Jesus makes a point of telling those whom he heals, to not share the news of their recovery. Perhaps what we consider as a miraculous event is merely an ordinary occurrence in a life lived in faith. Lent grants us that opportunity to stay calm in the face of the unexpected, discover the miracles that are all around us, and therefore, celebrate and respond to all of life.

 

 

Day 6: In Between

Not long ago we could see, either with our eyes or with our minds’ eye, the connection between two telephones. A chord came out of the telephone we talked into, and a chord went into the telephone of the person to whom we were talking. And even if we didn’t understand the technology, we knew that there were solid wires connecting those phones, whether those phones were next door to each other, across town or across the country. Today, we pick up a cell phone and talk to another person somewhere else on this planet. There are no wires in between those two phones. We talk and we hear without knowing what’s in between, but we’re certain there is something that is carrying those sound waves between those two phones. We talk and we hear God, without seeing what’s in between us, but we know there has to be something connecting us. Look for the connections – a good work or deed, a mother’s prayer over us, a tear from our eyes signaling our compassion. It is the Spirit at work.

Daily meditations during the Lenten Season

by Fr. Vazken Movsesian

 

And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? – Jesus (Luke 18)

“…for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. – Jesus, (Matthew 17:20)

How big is a mustard seed? 2 millimeters. Is that all the faith that we need to do seemingly impossible feats? How big is the coronavirus? 70 nanometers (try a million times smaller than a millimeter). The pandemic has jarred us. We have lost the confidence in and the certainty of goodness. What is faith? And how does it fit into our equation of life? It can move mountains, and certainly there are mountains that need to be moved.