Daybreaks: Daily Reflections for Lent & Easter
by Ron Rolheiser, OMI

“This is how you are to pray: Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be you name,
you kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven”.

(MATTHEW 6:9-10)

In the early years of the Church, it was thought that the idea way to die as a Christian was through martyrdom. A rich spirituality developed from martyrdom, which people began to see more metaphorically, such as giving one’s blood through selflessness, through sacrificing one’s hope and dreams for others, through giving away one’s life through duty, and through letting oneself be constantly called our of one’s personal agenda to respond to the needs of others.

If we understood this, we would be happier. When we try to live as if our lives are about ourselves, we either end up too full of ourselves or too empty of everything else, inflated, or depressed. Put simply, we either end up dying in selflessness on one hill or we end up full of ourselves and self-hatred on some other hill!

This longing for martyrdom has various disguises, some lofty and others less so. The desire for martyrdom manifests itself in the desire for heroism, the desire for greatness, the desire to be a great lover, the desire to leave a mark, to be immortal. Underpinning all of these is the desire to take love and meaning to their ultimate, altruistic end, death in sacrifice for others.
 

This is the deep, instinctual pattern written into the soul itself, and it posits that real maturity lies in being stretched truly tall, on some cross, in crucifixion” (9).

Almsgiving is following Jesus: taking up my cross, thinking more of others, and following Him. Lent, through this gift and act of love, is about having the opportunity TO BE like God in all things: in His generosity and magnanimity.