To the Beloved in Christ at Ashmont

Dear Friends:

I have written at least forty Lenten Letters as a priest over the years, and I confess that my first thought about this Letter is:  What more can I - or anyone, for that matter - say about Lent?

Over the years I have recommended “giving something up” (experiencing the salutary discipline and freedom of self-denial).  Other years I suggested “taking something up” (focusing on taking up new and beneficial practices: better diet, exercise, Bible reading, prayer, for example).   I have myself experienced huge benefits from both giving up and taking up, and I strongly recommend both. 

{grid8}This year I am going to focus on attitude.  I decided to do this as I was reading something by Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker.  He was writing, of all things, about the Second Law of Thermodynamics -- the Law of Entropy.   This law states that energy always decreases.  The bumper sticker for this law is:  “Things fall apart” and “What can go wrong will go wrong.”

Some people find this Law depressing: The universe in which we live is impersonal; it doesn’t care about us.  In this universe there are many more ways for things to go wrong than to go right; things are all always degenerating.  Pinker states that we should be amazed when things go right or are right, rather than foolishly expecting (as we usually do) that things should go well.  He concludes: “What needs to be explained is not poverty but wealth.” We could add: success should surprise us, being liked should surprise us.  In other words, we should expect the worst.

I have worked a lot in recent years with young people in their twenties.  I am stunned by the number of twenty-somethings whose basic assumption seems to be that the universe (or something) owes them a living, health, success. Their expectation is that the universe - or the system - should take care of them.  Their expectation is that life should be happy and fulfilling, not problem-filled.


But it was Jesus who warned: “In the world you shall have tribulation.” The reality of life is that we should expect troubles.  Jesus didn’t recruit followers by promising a trouble-free or easy life.  He did not say things would be easier if we followed Him.  He did not promise that we would be more prosperous in this life. Jesus, in fact, said the opposite: “Take up your cross and follow me.” Life for the followers of Jesus will always be costly.  As Theodore Parker Ferris used to say: “If your Christianity isn’t costing you, it isn’t Christianity.”


If we take the saints as models for our lives - and reading the life of a saint or two would be a good Lenten discipline - we could search forever and not find a single saint’s life that was easy or placid. The saints expected that life would be hard, demanding, full of bumps and bruises. And they went on to do great things anyway.

Let’s get real this Lent about what we expect from life.  And let’s get a lot tougher.  I challenge myself (and you, if you are so inclined) to the following this Lent:

  1. I will start each day being grateful for what I have.  Yes, I have cancer, but I have enough health to live a productive life.  I may not be rich, but I have a roof over my head and enough to eat -- and enough to be generous to others.
  2. I will do some things I have put off:  Call that person about whom I have occasional guilt feelings about neglecting.  Offer my time and energy (a meal, a letter, a call, or all of the above) to someone who is lonely or ill or aged.
  3. I shall risk (and it is a huge risk) trying to reconcile with someone about whom I have harbored hard feelings.
  4. I will spend several hours doing something inconvenient or unpleasant that might benefit some person, group, or organization. (I think - as a tiny example -- of those who put up and take down our crèche at Christmas, a long and boring and thankless lugging of the various figures up and down…).
  5. I will require of myself more than the usual spiritual discipline.  This Lent, when I am in Boston, I shall attend Stations of the Cross and Benediction on Wednesday nights.

These are my resolutions for this Lent.  You will have better ideas for your own Lent.  The important thing is attitude: Set your goals for this Lent and resolve with all your heart and mind and strength to meet those goals. The “universe” (or whatever you call the natural laws we have to live with) is against you. Your energy will diminish. It will not be easy.  But if you seek God’s help, He will be with you in the valleys as well as on the mountain tops: “For Thou art with me.  Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” Every Sunday in the Angelus, we ask Our Lady to “pray for us, O holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.” I am praying that, with Our Lady’s help, I can make this my best-ever Lent. And that is my prayer for you.F.W.J.



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