All That Glitters

When I was just 6 years old, my oldest sister went away on a wonderful trip. She was part of a collaborative concert band, and was able to travel to several countries in Europe to perform. What I remember most is that I missed her terribly. What I also remember are the gifts she brought home. I received a pretty lavender shawl, and some teeny, tiny bottles of perfume samples. I was enchanted by their size, their beauty, and the strength of their fragrance!

At some point during the next school year, several of my friends were giving one another small gifts. As the miniscule bottles of perfume were such a treasure to me, I decided to share them. However, when I told the other little girls of their origin, their response was disbelief. After all, no one from our small town was known to travel to France. The sweet little containers were cast aside as worthless and part of a fictitious story I must have concocted to gain attention. I was heartbroken. My precious perfumes were gone, and my story never believed.

As the season of Lent has progressed, I’m sure many of us have heard homilies or Lenten mission talks on the need for increased prayer, almsgiving, and fasting. God asks us to give more and more of ourselves to Him. We are called to times of confession and penitence. More opportunities are given to experience the sacrament of Reconciliation. As our Lord spent time in the desert fasting and praying, we are “called away” for forty days, too. With the psalmist, we pray, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:23, 24) We have the opportunity to let go of all that hinders us from having a deeper relationship with God. We can allow ourselves to have blinders removed.

And in exchange? Our heavenly Father offers us so many gifts. Often, their worth is beyond our comprehension or ability to imagine. We conclude that we must not be getting the whole story. No one would offer us something so wonderful and lavish such amazing things upon us. It must be a ruse. He must be trying to pull one over on us. “Too good to be true,” we surmise. The worth of these gifts cannot be as wonderful as we are led to believe. We are giving up so much. How can His gifts be worth all that?

However, it is a glorious exchange! As the prayer of St. Francis says, “It is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.” As we give more and more of ourselves to God, we will be more open to hearing Him and receiving His truth. The gifts He freely offers, we will freely receive.

May the remainder of your Lenten season be one of losing (yourself) and yet gaining (Christ).

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” James 1:17

“Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:33)