Spiritual Advisor's Corner
Father Timothy Sahd
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We are entering the season of denial. Doesn't that sound fun!?
The Fridays of Lent are so penitential to me. I cannot stand fish (and we have a GREAT Fish Fry at Seven Sorrows and a lot of other parishes!). But I just can't stomach fish, but we must deny ourselves meat on those days. And we deny ourselves our favorite things when we make sacrifices during this season.
But even more, we must focus on denying ourselves the indulgence of sin. Shouldn't that happen every day? Yes! But this is the season of denial. We don't deny ourselves the good things of life for no reason! We do it so that we learn to live for Christ alone, and to pull away from things that pull us away from Him.
And sin does that most especially. Jesus tells us that sin keeps us from Him, and Hell is a permanent destination if that is what we choose. The rich man who did not help Lazarus, the begger outside of his home, went to Hell when he died. He asked to have his tongue cooled by Lazarus, who he saw in Heaven. But it was impossible, because there was a chasm between the two realities. You can't go from one to the other.
That is the choice we are staring at this Lent. Deny sin, or deny Heaven. God bless you!
Fr. Sahd
