Shadows Toward the Light

We’re now in the fourth week of Lent. As we go towards Easter, towards Holy Week, our readings—the experience of the gospel—is that all roads lead to Jerusalem. There is increasing darkness, testing, and questioning of Jesus. Leonard Cohen, in his great song Anthem, says, "There’s a crack in everything, and that’s where the light comes in."

Perhaps we're at this point in our Lenten journey, having reflected on sin, taken on almsgiving and fasting and prayer in a more intensive and intentional way.

We come to a point where the light is indeed the light of Easter. We see it even in the season of Lent.

And so it's a reminder for us that we're not just called to concentrate on sin and sinfulness, but to celebrate as well the coming of this great event of God's mercy in our lives—that now is only three weeks away.

A time in which we are called to flourish: to flourish in friendship with God, who so loves us; to flourish in our experience of God's life; to flourish in being our best selves, as we've been renewed in this Lenten season; and to flourish as our best communities, as all of us share in the renewal of this season.

So let us continue along in our Lenten journey this week, knowing that indeed there is a crack—and in that crack, that's where the light gets in.