By REY FLORES
Do you have a special favorite time of the year? I know that I do and that season is fall. I have always loved fall because it is a time of reflection, knowing that soon that another calendar year is coming to a close.
The seasons I certainly am not fond of are winter and summer, in that order. My winters now in Virginia aren’t as harsh as they used to be back in Chicago, but summer is definitely worse down here because of the extreme humidity, which can be suffocating at times.
This year I am trying to make the most of spring. I want it to be my new favorite season because as I get older and closer to the autumn of my years, I want to enjoy spring the way I used to as a child.
Spring to me then meant the nearing end of the school year. It meant baskets of Easter candy and the first pitch of the baseball season down at Comiskey Park where the Chicago White Sox play. Though I never attended an actual opening day in the South Side, I eventually made it to the ballpark, with the wafting smell of hot dogs and popcorn and the spilt beer on the concrete ground.
At some point in my life or another, I quite can’t recall when, I lost that joy of the spring season. Since whenever that was, I had up until now preferred the seriousness and melancholy of fall. I liked the crushing of the leaves under my feet, the smell of the leaves, in the air and the smell of burning leaves from nearby yards.
Fall also meant Halloween back when it was still pretty innocent, at least for me. I so much looked forward to getting one of those cheap Ben Cooper costumes with the one-piece vinyl “overalls” and a really cheap mask which had eyeholes and a mouth cut out so sharp it hurt your face sometimes.
Of course, fall includes Thanksgiving Day, which up until recently was always a special day with family — but enough about fall because it’s a done deal for me.
The most important thing for me this year will be Lent. It starts this Wednesday, March 1 with Ash Wednesday. I especially like to wear my ashes in public where non-Catholics look at you funny, especially those unfamiliar with Ash Wednesday. They might think we are part of some occult group in some cases — as one person once asked me.
I will make the effort to actually remain true to fasting and prayer as I should. I must confess, however, that I always start strong, but by the third week of Lent I am already ordering a Big Mac at the local McDonald’s.
While I know plenty of strong and committed Catholics who are very good at adhering to all of the required sacrifices and penance, I unfortunately know more of us who are too weak or unwilling to follow through.
Now more than ever, we must pray and fast like never before. It is this secular world which tells us that our customs are antiquated and irrelevant. It is these same malevolent forces who have told us that praying the daily rosary is unnecessary and that we should just be friends with Jesus.
Of course we should see our Lord Jesus as our friend, but He is so much more than that. He is our Savior and Lord and He is the Judge. He isn’t simply someone we can call just a friend. Heck, I consider many saints and angels as my friends as well, especially St. Anthony when I lose something. He never fails.
This Lent I want it to mean so much more than just ordering the Filet-O-Fish instead of the Big Mac. I want to make prayer, fasting, and abstaining from many pleasures my priority this Lent. I want to get away from the highly addictive social media and the sloth I am so prone to.
It isn’t also just about the sacrifices and the fasting and prayer, but Lent should also be a time of renewal in our family life. I know I could certainly make a greater effort to spend time with my children, or make more of an effort to help my wife with some of the daily chores.
When Lent ends and we celebrate our Lord’s Resurrection, all of these efforts shouldn’t cease. On the contrary, let Lent be the spiritual boot camp people like me need: people who are spiritually lazy and prone to mostly taking the easy way out.
This spiritual laziness is detrimental not just to ourselves but to our spouses and children. Children imitate what the parent does and if the parent fails to develop in the faith, guess what? The children will follow mom and dad down that road to perdition.
It is easy to say that it is never too late no matter what age we are to start this renewal in our faith, but we never know the day or the hour in which the Lord will say, “This is it — time is up.”
Do we want to look back on that very hour and say, “I should have tried harder”? No, of course not.
Let this Lent be your renewal in all that it means to be a son or daughter of the King. Let this Lent be something life-changing for all of us. Please pray for me and I’ll keep praying for all of you.
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(Rey Flores is a Catholic writer. Contact Rey at reyfloresusa@gmail.com.)
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