The Grammar of Lent
Possibilities
Starting with Life…
The word possibility rouses both hopes and fears in us.
If something is possible, it means that the situation facing us has not reached a definitive conclusion. But it is also true that if something is possible, then we must make the commitment to concretizing those possibilities.
It would be all too easy to spend our life imagining “what might have been” or else wasting the opportunities offered us.
Our whole life is a vocation to choose among the possibilities we constantly confront.
Listening to the Word…
The Word of God continually presents us with possibilities. This Sunday’s readings speak to us about covenant and conversion–images of the possibilities offered us by God. A covenant is the eternal pact God made with us in Christ. His love will never end. It is like a home to which we can always return by converting–that is, changing–the direction of our life.
The Word of God is good news because it reminds us that a new beginning is always possible at every moment in our life.
Where can we find the word “possibility” in the Bible?
Wisdom 12: 19
You taught your people through your deeds
that those who are just must be kind,
and you gave your children good grounds for hope
by giving them the possibility to repent for their sins.
Hebrews 11:11
It was by faith that Sarah, in spite of being past the age,
was given the possibility to conceive,
because she believed that he who had made the promise
was trustworthy.
For reflection:
• What do you feel when you face a new possibility?
• What possibilities for change is the Lord offering you today?
