The Lenten Journey – What might Theo of Golden suggest?
Kevin, the husband of a wonderful couple my family first met while serving as a Maryknoll Lay Missioners in Quito, Ecuador some 40 years ago, recently suggested that he and I have a conversation on a book he had just finished reading, Theo of Golden. I hadn’t heard of the book at the time and went to the local East Lyme, CT library to see if it was available. All 65 copies were checked and 388 were on the waiting list. East Lyme has a population of just over 19,000. This was telling me something. I finally found a bookstore several towns away that had a few copies left.
As I began reading the book as well as listening to an interview of the author Allen Levi that Keven sent me (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=allen+levi+in+conversation) * it occurred to me that this book could easily provide a Lenten reflection. Even if you haven’t read the book, I think the extracted underlying themes that follow will hopefully speak to our collective Lenten journeys and beyond…especially so in these lunatic times.
My take with apologies for the prosaic bullets:
Lent is not a self-improvement challenge, or of grand victories, but a journey in and back to the One who has been with us all along.
It is about slowing down, letting the insane noise that surrounds us to fall away and listening more attentively to God and to each person we encounter along the way.
It is about being aware, noticing, and choosing to genuinely love instead of judging or dismissing the other.
Like Theo, the 84 y/o Portuguese protagonist, we don’t try to convince or fix others, but to be attentive to them as treasures to hold onto.
As Theo also lives out, Lent (life) is not about proving our strength, but about embracing our vulnerability. It’s less about achievements and more about allowing God to transform us.
Prayer, fasting and almsgiving are not spiritual performance measures, rather ways of opening space so that Love can speak.
Transformation often happens in surprising places and times – at a shared meal, working in community, mending a broken relationship
Trust and honesty are so important – letting go of managing & protecting our image before God and others and allowing ourselves to be known.
Finally, as Maryknoll Lay Missioners Joanne Blaney (Brazil) and Heidi Cerneka (U.S./Mexico Border) know so well from their work in restorative justice, assure that mercy is always attached to justice.
Teach us to slow down, to walk humbly, to see beauty in the smallest acts of kindness,
and to let go of all that diminishes Your light in us.
* A long but captivating interview that will give you insight into the author, Allen Levi.