Lent provides spiritual spring training

Believe it or not, spring training for the Orioles will soon begin at Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota, Fla. After last year’s stellar performance, hopes are high that the 2024 season will be even better, perhaps propelling our home team to a World Series victory.

I’m anything but an expert in baseball, but I’m pretty sure that when a batter faces a baseball coming at him at almost 100 mph, his eye-hand coordination needs to be top-notch. As a former softball player, a leftie who inexplicably batted right-handed, I know this much: my eye-hand coordination left much to be desired.

Well, now it’s time for spring training in the Church’s life. We call that “Lent.” Often, Lent is depicted as a dreary season when we give up things we like for reasons we don’t understand. I’d like to offer another view of Lent: it is a time to ensure that our spiritual life is in top-notch coordination. But it’s not just eye-hand coordination; it’s mind, heart and hand coordination.

I didn’t invent this idea on my own. Actually, I heard it directly from Pope Francis when I visited him in mid-January with Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly. We spoke to the pope about the charity of the Knights of Columbus. He was pleased with the tremendous charitable work of the Knights, coupled with their faith formation. Pope Francis commented that for charity to be genuine, the mind, the heart and the hand have to be coordinated and work in harmony.

What does it mean to coordinate mind, heart and hand in our love for God and for others, especially those in need?

First, the truth and beauty of the Lord and the faith his Spirit has bequeathed to us must impress itself on our minds. As we search the Scriptures and contemplate the faith, we are not merely absorbing abstract truths otherwise inaccessible to our minds. Nor still less are we puzzling over a thicket of rules and restraints. No, faith begins with listening to the Lord, and listening leads to vision, to a perception of how good the Lord is, how true is his teaching, and how beautiful is his countenance. Instead of trying to fashion a religious experience to suit our preferences, we are to absorb with the eyes of faith the One “who is all good and worthy of all our love.”

Second, as the goodness, truth and beauty of the Lord impresses itself upon us, our hearts are transformed from sin to grace and from grace to glory. In Lent, we often speak about metanoia, a conversion of mind and heart. Changing one’s mind and heart is difficult and requires dying to oneself. But this is not merely a form of “true grit.” It is more like falling in love so much so that one is willing to set aside one’s ego and preferences, including sinful preferences, for the One whose beauty has taken possession of one’s soul – the One whose beauty is inexhaustibly “ever ancient, ever new.”

Third, as mind and heart are coordinated, so too must be our hands. Put another way, contemplation leads to love – love of God to be sure, but also love of others, a love expressed not only by financial generosity, but also by hands-on charity, by loving service to those in need, especially those who cannot repay us – things like making casseroles for Our Daily Bread or helping expectant mothers in a pro-life pregnancy center or volunteering at the Franciscan Center.

Prayer, fasting, almsgiving: the mainstays of Lent and the essentials of spiritual spring training, the coordination of mind, heart and hand. Have a blessed Lent and a joyous celebration of the Lord’s Resurrection.

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