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Psychologists and counselors frequently say that people have difficulty in asking for what they need. What do we need this Lent: time? reconciliation? freedom? peace?

We have choices: indifference (ignoring Lent), compromise (tolerating Lent) and celebrating (choosing Lent).

You never really know someone until you know what they want, what they really care about. The meaning of life is intimately connected to the choices we make.

Lent is a season of choice. Lent will be what we make it. Lent will be what we choose. What a colossal difference these 40 days can be if we cast a cold eye on our indifference to God's Word.

This year, Lent calls us to choose something much more than giving up candy or not eating between meals. Lent calls us to see the potential that we have to be Christ for one another in every venue of our lives: in our homes, in the places at which we work or interact with others, in our classrooms, within our own lives.

This Lent, we need to allow Christ to show us that life is more than just the material quantities derived from the earthly realm, and that the qualities of the spirit lay firmly within our grasp.

The word Lent apparently derived from the Old Eng-lish lencten, which means to "lengthen." This refers to the daylight that grows longer and longer in the northern hem-isphere as spring approaches.

Maybe this is the year in which springtime and the newness of life will truly take on a new meaning for us! How will you choose?

Maybe this will be the year when, as Easter arrives, it will not be just Jesus who has been raised from the dead.

(Father Rosson is pastor of St. Mary's "Our Lady of the Lake" parish in Cooperstown.)

Editor's note: During the holy season of Lent, we will feature a weekly commentary on its various aspects and observance.

(02/25/10) [[In-content Ad]]

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