A Season of Contemplation

If you are a college basketball fan, this is a great time of year with the NCAA men’s and women’s tournaments going on. Every year, there are the “Cinderella stories,” the teams from relatively small schools who made the tournament but were not expected to win a game yet end up knocking off the bigger schools everyone assumed would win. Most of us like rooting for the underdog – unless, of course, we happen to be fans of the schools that lost. Imagine being a member of one of those losing teams and living with the embarrassment of not living up to expectations and hearing chants of “overrated” from the crowd. After the loss, coaches and players alike spend a lot of time contemplating what could have been done differently. 

During the season of Lent as we pay special attention to our Lord’s suffering and death on our behalf that we might be reconciled to God, we also contemplate our sinfulness. What could we have done differently in situations where we gave in to temptation? What steps do we need to take to make sure it doesn’t happen again? 

Sometimes we’re stuck in the general confession of being a poor, miserable sinner. We’re born with that inclination, so what can we do about it anyway? The reality is, we can’t, through our own abilities, make ourselves into perfect people. But that doesn’t mean we are ok with our sin. Rather, we come to our Lord,  asking that He, through His Spirit, review the game film so to speak, and show us not only what needs to be corrected, but works in us the desire to walk more closely with Him and the discipline to walk in His ways. As St. Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 10:12-13, “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”