Friends and Neighbors,

We enter the season of Lent. Lent can seem very focused on the individual. For sure, we are called to consider our sinfulness and mortality. We do not stay there, but turn our hearts to God's forgiveness and grace.

In my Ash Wednesday sermon, I emphasized that our sin and our salvation are not just personal matters. There are corporate sins that we also lament and repent of as a people. Many of the calls for a season of fasting in scripture were to whole communities. Sin itself is about breaking relationship with God and each other. Our salvation is not just an individual matter. Tending to our soul opens us to the need for healing and forgiveness for all of creation. 

Faith is both an individual and corporate exercise. I can easily think of the whole community when I point out problems and failures. Of course, I often know the solution to all the problems I see in others and the world. A change in mind and heart (repentance) shows that even my advice-giving can be a kind of violence that ignores real needs and doesn't honor the dignity of others. Can our hearts be open enough to listen to the anger, grief, and sadness of those around us without rushing to fix things or give advice? Can we make our Lenten fast one that opens us to see the interconnectedness we share with all of creation? 

What a beautiful thing that our faith has a plan for the failures of the faithful. No, it isn't eternal damnation or complete destruction. God's plan is persistent, relentless grace that declares that even death can't separate us from God. May Lent be a time that reminds us of our need for that grace of God, and our connection to each other. May we know grace to so abundant as to be a messy thing that spills on those around us so that they too may know God's love and acceptance. May we look inward to our own hearts and be turned outward to those around us. 

Peace,

Fr. John Mark