Lent: A Season of Abundance?

Written by Andrea Hanley on Friday after Ash Wednesday

Four years ago I found myself at the foot of the cross as Lent began.  It was like the Church calendar and my personal life got together and decided to give me an opening to grace.  My two year relationship had ended and my life and plans were thrown to the wind.  This was not the story I was cast into.  I knew God, and I knew this was not the story I was created for.  God doesn’t allow this kind of pain… or does he?  My heart had been broken open in ways that I was certain it would never recover from.  My life was in fasting mode.  The only thing in abundance was my time available for prayer and reflection.  I became acutely aware of the ways in which I was never in control.

Heartbreak and suffering have a way about them. They settled into my bones in a most excruciating way and caused me to reach out to friends and to God with great urgency—urgency that doesn’t exist in the smoother waters of life.  I solidified relationships in my life and prayed day and night.  My prayers were with hope and despair and every breath in between. “Heal my heart.  Give me hope.”

I say all of this because it is no trite thing to be getting married this summer, to someone else.  To stand on the other side with a heart that is whole and with a person that is deserving of this heart is something I do not take for granted.  In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus says, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast,” (Matthew 9:15).  I never understood what that meant, but I feel the closest to it now. To be in a season of abundance in a Lenten season of penance, reflection, refocus, and recommitment is a harder invitation for me than when I had no other options and my heart needed healing and grace in the most tangible way.  How can I fast when there is much to celebrate, as the disciples with their Lord with them, and as wedding guests in the midst of a feast?  In what ways am I being stretched to see Lent as the whole picture instead of the sullen process?  This Lent I pray to embrace the entire Paschal Mystery of life, death, and resurrection in the events of my own life as they have happened, and as they will happen again.

Questions for Reflection:
Are you in a season of fasting, abundance, or somewhere in between in your life?  How is this place a gateway to refocus into the Lenten season?

Andrea Hanley
Andrea is a young professional who has been a member of St. Mary Student Parish for five years. She is a Child Life Specialist at Mott Children’s Hospital where she works preparing children for surgical procedures. She and her fiance, Greg will be married on August 27th of this year.
Email: andrea.mary.hanley@gmail.com