Day 24, Friday, 12 March Returning to myself

 

RETREAT IN LENT 2021

Day 24, Friday, 12 March 

Returning to myself

Augustine, in his Confessions, addresses God, ‘Being admonished to return to myself, I entered into my inmost depths, with you as guide; and I was able to do because you were my helper.’ In Hosea, 14:2-10, which we read today, we see the same cry, ‘Come back to the Lord. Say to him, “Take all iniquity away,” so that we may have happiness again.’ The theme of ‘turning back’, ‘returning to the Lord’ is constant in Lent.

Another word is ‘conversion’ (from Latin, vertere, to turn) with the idea of turning to my true self. We often live a false version of our true self. Shakespeare, in Hamlet, says, ‘and above all else, to thy own self be true’, implying that it is a struggle to be true to oneself. So Lent is the time to ‘enter into my inmost depths’ and reflect whether this or that way of acting, this or that choice I make, is really true to who I am, is really in harmony with whom I am and is a true living out of my gifts.

If we are true to ourselves, we provide a light to encourage others to be true to themselves. In Mark 12:28-34, the scribes, for once, are on the same page as Jesus! They all agree that ‘the first of all the commandments’ – to love the Lord your God – is linked to the second – to love others as yourself. This is the heart of the matter! True love of self flows into love for others and is an expression of our love of God. These three – self, others, God – is the journey of life. We begin by being conscious of ourselves. After a while we come to ‘know’ others, normally starting with our mother, and finally we broaden our scope by coming to know God.