I am sitting here the sun streaming in my window and if I do not finish this soon the screen will be washed out by the sun. 
The snow is rapidly melting and the promise of spring is here. I am ready to rip out the amaryllis bulbs from my desk planter and put in some spring bulbs from the supermarket. Renewal, hope, new life.
One the opening prayers for the Eucharist talked about the JOY of Lent. Most of us do not think Lent is a joyous season. But the opening prayer of Lent is about the joy. The preparation for any feast is always filled with work. Lent is a time to work on our salvation just like the preparations for Easter or Christmas requires work. For many all the preparation is joyful, not choreful.
Lent becomes for many a period of creativity. A time to create meatless meals on Friday. Some may scoff at his idea but the creativity that we Catholics come up with for our Sacrifice of abstaining from meat is not real penance, real sacrifice. But if we remember what penance and sacrifice is all about it is to bring us closer to God. We divorce our daily life from God. We separate the mundane from the divine, when the divine is always a part of the mundane. God is with us always in all that we do and it is when we forget this that we create a great chasm between us and God.
On Thursday the gospel from Luke (16:19-31) talked of the great chasm that existed between Lazarus, the poor beggar outside the rich man’s house, and the rich man. The gospel reads when both died the rich man implored father Abraham to let Lazarus come across the impassable chasm to give him a drop of water. We create the same chasm in our lives when we forget that God is with us every minute, when we get too caught up in the things of this world. We need to remember that all is a gift from God.
So the sacrifice of Lent is a gift to be enjoyed and an opportunity to give thanks to God. The fish fry! The tuna casserole! Would they exist without Lent? Our imagination to get around the poverty of sacrifice need not be a sign of our unholy worldliness but a sign of joy in sharing in the beauty of God’s creation. The danger comes in our desire to just have the comforts that God gives so freely and desire nothing but them for ourselves and for those we love. Our desire should be to grow in love of God and holiness, not love of this world and the things of this world. This world can remind us of the love of God if we do not let the chasm grow too deep, too wide.
It is interesting that I started this column talking about flowers. It is a sign of the wealth and the distance that we have come from praying to God for food, our basic needs. I pray for pretty flowers. The current news is full of stories about the scarcity of tomatoes because of the freezing temperatures in Florida. I remember when there were not tomatoes in March. My immediate reaction to the story about tomatoes was: thank God, I had red and yellow peppers in the refrigerator and freezer. I did not need God’s help I had my G.E. (older folks explain that to the under 40).
We have become self sufficient for most of our needs. That does not mean that we do not need God. In fact it should mean that we now have more time for God. We now have time to thank God for those who came before us. Those who worked so hard so that today we are self-sufficient for things and can spend out time praising and honoring God. Don’t let a chasm grow between God and you. Celebrate the salvific gift of Christ Jesus.