“We beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus to make even greater progress.”

It is the second week of Lent.  Perhaps our knees are wobbling; perhaps we are beginning to wane from our first fervor.  Anticipating this, the Church encourages her children onward with an exhortation from St Paul  “ to make even greater progress”and with the Gospel account of the transfiguration to strengthen our resolve to fulfill our labors of Lent if only for the heavenly reward which awaits those who are faithful.

Have we fallen from our first fervor?  Perhaps our old ways are returning.  I resolved to fast,... now I wake at 2:00 am to sneak ice-cream from the freezer; I resolved to rise promptly out of bed this Lent... now I hit the snooze button; I resolved to say such and such morning prayers on my knees... now I say them in the shower; I resolved to meditate on the sufferings of my Savior during my drive to work... now I listen AIMLESSLY to the radio; I resolved to do my chores more promptly and cheerfully, my homework with more care... now I am again engrossed in computer games and complain when dishes need be washed.

I resolved to practice charity towards neighbor... but am now no-longer eager to excuse his faults, and, instead, again using them against him in gossip; I resolved to quit my impurity ... but find myself more and more going back to my old ways; I resolved to quit my vanity...  “Ah, but alas, now I find myself spending less time on the lashes my dear Lord suffered for me and more and more time thinking how I would look with longer lashes!”

In whatever mortifications we have taken this Lent to crush unlawful attachments or only disordered ones, let us ask our dear Savior at this holy Mass for the strength to bring them to fulfillment.
 
To advance our perfection, there is no better remedy than to meditate often on our Savior’s passion.  The new movie, The Passion of Christ, will help us do this perhaps better than we ever have before... and this is a good thing.  Indeed, against the media fear, when I saw the movie I left the theater not wanting to beat-up a Jew, no, I wanted to beat-up myself... such is fruit of meditating on the God who suffered for us: we wish to suffer for Him, not cause others to suffer!... and thereby advance our salvation.

Along these lines, and to give us a daily dosage of courage to bring to completion our chosen devotions of Lent, there may be no easier remedy than to make the saint’s lament our own.  Every day, from now until Holy Saturday, when faced with a temptation to break our resolutions, say often and with care, this phrase, “Ah, my Lord, when will I have loved Thee enough!”