I just discovered the intent for this year’s Lenten fast. For me. I was reading in Matthew, chapter 20, when the two blind men began to cry out to Jesus that their eyes might be opened. Verse 34 says that Jesus, “moved with compassion,” touched their eyes and they regained their sight and followed Him. That was for me one of those, “close the book” moments. Not that I won’t return at the Sixth Hour (Sext) to open it again, but it was to me a world of truth and hope and promise and direction, all in one.
To each her own. May you find your purpose in every season here in this Abbey, but I have just been lamenting a certain amount of blindness before the Lord. I just spoke about it three days ago, the difficulties that some of those I love best have with blind spots and blindness to the Gospel and to the goodness and power of the Lord. As I have had.
I call them my “D.L.F.s”, and those of you who have read C. S. Lewis will know to whom the moniker refers. It was the dwarf, Trumpkin, who had won both the esteem and the affection of the Pevensie children, despite his curmedgeonly temperment. Trumpkin was for the dwarfs! … but also for valor and uprightness of heart and loyalty to those whom Aslan loved. The children called him their “D.L.F.”, their Dear Little Friend, and meaning not any disrespect at all, whatsoever. He was to them a boon companion, loved and trusted.
I too, a smidge less curmudgeonly, taller, younger than Trumpkin, but I hope with a spot of valor in my heart (I want valor to be found there,) will defend those whom Aslan loves. They are my D.L.F.s … my very Dear Little Friends and my Dear Little Family. In all my own blindness I do see this, that there are times in all of our lives when we do not see as clearly as we might, when we may be or may have been blinded by jealousy, fear, despair, passions, and most particularly, by wounds that have not healed.
Jesus told us that it was of surpassing importance that the light within us should not be darkness. What?? What could He have meant? It took me years to discover the truth, but I came to know that if the way we see the Father is wrong, distorted, twisted, fear-ridden, without joy, without faith, expecting grief, refusing hope, unacquainted with the Covenant of Good that He has made and will keep, then we are in terrible danger. The only light that can ever illuminate a soul for eternity is the light of the knowledge of God in Christ Jesus. When we see God as merciless, fickle, ineffective, unreliable, aloof, quick to anger, and eager to destroy, how great is that darkness.
For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6, NASB)
So … I want to spend this Lenten season moved with compassion for those I’ve been given to love, those for whom I carry a weapon (I couldn’t handle the ax Trumpkin was able to wield, but those dwarves were able to forge sharp, beautifully-designed two-edged swords, and one has been crafted for me.) I sharpen my sword on this whetstone, that when the Father is seen in the light of the gift and the sacrifice of His Son for the sake of the world, everything begins to come into focus, and, moved with compassion, I want our eyes to be opened!
Peter Dinklage as Trumpkin, The Chronicles of Narnia, Prince Caspian
Fair use, Wikipedia – see the movie!
Marketplace Monastics 