5th Sunday of Lent Change of Heart
Change, change, change. All around us we have calls made upon us, even demands that we change. Change your body shape, your clothes, your lifestyle to something touted to make us happier, better people. “You are not good enough as you are, we will tell you how to be better.” Often this change is supposed to make each of us a ‘unique me’. But will it? Amazing how narrow the range of body shapes to which we are supposed to diet and exercise, how similar the range of houses styles are supposedly ‘different’. The ‘unique me’ seems to be very common. In the first reading we hear a call from God to change but change at the deepest level of our being: a change of heart. God wants us to allow the Spirit to enter into us and guide us in the divine ways. Now this is uniqueness. God has created each person as a work of art, and it is when we listen to the Spirit’s guidance we become the glory that God wants us to be. Too often we do not allow ourselves to imagine just what we could be as God’s loved one, so we live with levels of discontent that are fed by society’s shallow calls to change. We need to take time to pray and imagine what we would like to be, what God would like us to be. I know that when I do this, I am more courageous and creative than when I follow the paths of little old me. And I find that I am kinder in term. Being the creation God wants us to be, does not mean that we need to diminish others. Yes they may be uncomfortable with our change, not quite know what we are up to. But ultimately, they too, have to enter into themselves and find their own calling of the Spirit.
Sr Kym Harris OSB |