Spring. . . when you’re 70.

Was it just me or was this past winter a particularly hard one? Maybe it seemed that way because I’m getting old- er and less vigorous in mounting the usual “winter coun- ter attack”; you know . . . brisk winter walks in the snow (blaah!).

But now it’s spring and we know what is soon to happen. Driving down to Elmira last week I passed mile after mile of brown, matted field grass. Not a blade of green. The fields seemed to say to the infant springtime . . . “you think you can raise all this brown to life? We’re REALLY dead. But give it a shot, see what you can do.”

And here’s your thought for the day – – do you want to start again? Do you want to live another year? Like nature are you ready to come back to life? Are you ready to embrace the trials and joys of living on this earth?

Certainly we all want to “keep living”. But that’s not what I’m asking. Are you ready to EMBRACE the duties you carry at this stage of your life? Are you ready to “steady on” as loving spouse? Faithful friend? Patient sufferer? A lonely remnant, honoring what once was?

These days of Lent give us the opportunity to look more deeply at things we sometimes take for granted. Like life itself.

It’s a gift. It comes from God through our parents. It gives us a chance to experience an amazing moment in time – – this time, this moment. We have an invitation to contribute something the world has never seen before. Your love. Your caring.

Sooo? After all these winters, do you want to come to life again? It’s really rather simple, it all starts with attitude. What’s yours?

Are you still trying hard to get the shiny things in life? Are you trying mightily to be free of cares or worries? Does thinning or absent hair make you sad? Does being unappreciated and ignored cause resentment?

I think of all the time I’ve devoted myself in this way. Full blown, they create an attitude that expects life to be “for me”, “mine”. My choices are carefully arranged to serve…me. Jesus tells us this way of thinking misses the purpose and reason for which God gave us life.

“If anyone wants to come to me, he must forget himself. Whoever wants to save his life (i.e. protect it , guard and hoard it) will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it (save it).” Luke 9: 23, 24.

And again . . . “Unless the grain of wheat dies it remains just a grain of wheat. But if it dies it will bear fruit a hundredfold.” John 12: 24.

The message? We are here to be “for” something other than ourselves. That’s right. Our lives, given to us as a gift, are to be given back in love and service, first to God and then to our neighbor.

This saving message of Jesus reveals the purpose of our life. With it, comes a whole shift in attitude. We begin a life of “giving ourselves away”. And guess what hap- pens?! Peace. “Peace is what I leave with you. My own peace I give you. Not like the world and its peace.” John 14: 27

So again. Do you want this new spring? Do you want to pick it up again? That cross you’ve been carrying?

I do. Want to join me? Happy Lent!

Fr. Tim