To step into Lent is to acknowledge our desire for being known. If we truly want to be known we need to open ourselves up to the possibility of a shared life with each other. A shared life often feels like compromise…something accepted rather than wanted. A compromise may feel as though we are settling for less than what we originally wanted.
But what if a shared life together actually opened the door to an even greater desire to love? Often, it is only through the genuine opening of our hearts that we can be transparent enough to allow someone to love us in return. Yes, hurt and disappointment are also available emotions to be felt. But isn’t that also part of being known? Can joy really be expressed without an understanding of sorrow?
Lent is a time where we open ourselves up to both the joy and the sorrow of knowing ourselves. It is a time when we allow ourselves to be transparent. It is a time when we trust the truth of God to work within us and accept both the limitations and the possibilities of who we are as people.
Let us now let go of the fear that imposes itself upon our souls and breathe in deeply the freedom and the desire to be fully known.
God of all truth, you are truth itself, and therefore truth is not an idea or a concept, but first of all a life, and energy, a love, a relationship with everything. Teach us to love truth and to truthfully love; then we always know we will be loving you. Amen.
