March 10th (3.03.15), Tuesday, Second Week of Lent

Isaiah 1: 10, 16-20, Psalm 50: 8-9, 16bc-17, 21 and 23, Matthew 23: 1-12

Isaiah, the Psalmist and Matthew come right to the point and profess the main theme of Lent (fasting from sin)…‘wash yourselves clean,’ ‘cease doing evil,’ ‘do not follow their example, for they preach but they do not practice.’ As it is with any negative, there is always a positive and so I believe in looking and living the other side of that coin ... as Isaiah also states, ‘learn to do good.’ As Fr. Chuck Faso notes in “The Joy of Lent,” printed in the front of this booklet, it’s the difference between fasting and feasting, or as I also see it, the difference between evil and good, doubt and faith, sorrow and joy, darkness and light, anger and forgiveness, fear and love, and despair and hope.

When our oldest daughter Christine was two or so, my wife began a new bedtime ritual with her, which she continued with our second daughter Lauren. She calls it “Fun Day,” a review and sequenced account of what happened during the day. She says she started it to ensure Christine’s memory would be tested and challenged…I now reflect and believe that “Fun Day” serves a higher purpose. “Fun Day” truly focuses on the good, the joy, the love of the day rather than reviewing just the sins and faults. It says: Live in the moment/day, not the past or the future.

Over the past 3 years, it has been hard to find and live that “Fun Day” at times and so Lent, the season of sorrow, has become a special time for me…it provides the hope that comes from despair. In Lent, I see both death and life, a sorrowful Good Friday and a joyous Easter Sunday, the brutal Crucifixion and the celebration of the Resurrection. I have become keenly aware that Christ died for our sins and so I should take action to move from sin to a “Fun Day.”

My not-so-unique theory is as follows: If we all fill our lives with more love, more good times, more good deeds (for the sake of others) or simply live and feast on “Fun Days,” then how can sin and evil survive?

Marty Mueller, husband of Carolyn for 19 years, father of Christine (4) in heaven and Lauren (4) on earth