The Final Countdown

The countdown has begun during these last few weeks of Lent. We are preparing ourselves for Easter, when our Lord and Savior is resurrected. We are picking out our Easter clothes, buying the best steaks to grill after Good Friday, for those of you who have been fasting from coffee and haven’t slipped yet…God has truly blessed you with caffeine free grace, but I wouldn’t be surprised if at least on of you will visit Starbucks once Lent is over.

While most are preparing for the resurrection of our Lord, some of us, those who are coming into the Church, as I am, we are preparing to completely receive our Lord for the first in the most holy of all Sacraments, the Eucharist.

I have been fasting from playing video games on my computer and instead using that time to study the Bible and get to know more about the second person of the Holy Trinity (yes, I have slipped some, but I pulled myself back up on the “fast wagon”). On Ash Wednesday and every Friday I’ve abstained from meat. I have even started attending a Bible Study class of the Gospel of Luke. And I have been praying a lot more than I have ever prayed in my life…I’ve been following the office of hours…7 times a day (6 sometimes because I slept right through my alarm to wake me up for the first hour of prayer…so I would combine the one I missed with the next set of prayers). I’ve been busy. Not trying to brag by the way. Just stating the obvious to make the point that Lent is about self sacrifice, penance, and dying to self to prepare ourselves for our Lord.

During the final moments of our preparations, we, being human, will start to countdown the days until Easter when we can relieve ourselves of the sacrifices we’ve been putting ourselves through for this season. I will admit, I’ve been counting down the days too, but for a different, still selfish, reason. I am counting down to the day when I will be confirmed into the Church. I am counting down to the night (Easter Vigil Mass) when I will finally get to receive God through the Blessed Sacrament and finally get to have Jesus physically in me through the Consecrated Host. I am anxious and excited that the night when I can become a member of the Body of Christ is coming up soon. I know exactly which part of Jesus’ Body I will be too. It will be the same body part that I believe all Catholics are…Jesus’ Sacred Heart, for that is where His love for us is and that is where our love for Him is. None of us are spleens or toes or pancreases or phalanges. We are His heart as we make Him our heart.

Instead of counting down to when we can finally indulge ourselves in that which we have given up for Lent, let us instead count down to the day when Jesus comes back to us in His marvelous resurrection.

To end this article, I will quote one of my favorite songs…by Europe! “It’s the final countdown! Dododododododododo.” I didn’t have to do that, but it was the perfect opportunity.