When Lent drags on

Last night my Bible study convened for our weekly meeting. Since next week is spring break and we wouldn't be seeing each other for awhile, I decided to do a quick check in on how Lent was going and to use the group's camaraderie to encourage one another. As we went around, it seemed like many were struggling through and even experiencing desolation. What do we do when we fail in our sacrifices? Perhaps harder still, even when we're observing our sacrifices, how do we respond when there is little strength, no joy, and we don't see any fruits? Should we continue when our sacrifices perhaps cut us away from a greater good? One of the guys gave up listening to his ipod on his walk to class. He wondered whether it was good to continue, since sometimes the things he heard due to open ears were scandalous to his heart; conversations about weekend activities, slanders, etc. Instead of hearing these things he could be listening to uplifting Christian music. This is difficult.

In our study this week we're looking at St. Athanasius's battle against Arianism. Arians denied Christ's oneness with the Father declaring that he was a created being. Their mantra was "there was a time when he was not". God's fatherhood means that he as Father must have existed before the Son. But we have clear indication from scripture that "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God". Theologically speaking, this discussion has huge implications. If Jesus was not God, then the Incarnation and the Resurrection lose their redemptive powers. If Jesus was simply a created being like all the rest of us, then there is nothing special about him, but he perhaps becomes as another Lazarus, whom God favored and chose to raise from the dead. But, because of Jesus's Christhood, his Godhead, we are able to say with St. Paul "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church." Because Jesus is God, our sufferings and our humanness have meaning, are redeemed, and are united to his sufferings on the Cross. Because we are his body, our sufferings are his sufferings. Our anguish is his anguish. Our crosses are his Cross.