Now all the tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Luke 15:1-2

A Funeral

Some one very close to us passed away this week. It was Patricia. It came as a shock. I still haven’t processed it yet. Maybe I am not quite ready to do it. Thankfully, Mary was able to write a brief reflection about her and I will include it here.

At the funeral, I wore my clergy attire. Almost none of our youth has ever seen me in my priestly gear, except for Patricia’s daughter. I used it to visit her mother in the intensive care unit when she suffered a stroke last year. It is interesting that they did not make any comments about it. They just accepted it as something normal. The wake gathered some of Patricia’s immediate relatives. None of them have been present in her life since she was a teenager living in the streets. None of them visited her in the hospital when she had a stroke. None offered any help when she was partially paralysed. However, they were all present at the funeral. They were a little taken aback when I asked for the youth to gather around the casket. These young people were there for Patricia. I saw their tear stained faces looking at me waiting to hear what I had to say. Mary was among them. Each and everyone of them helped Patricia the best way they could. The last year Patricia was showered with so much love. No one can say that she departed this life not knowing that she was loved. I said several prayers improvised from the funeral rite of our Prayer Book. I did a short reflection about God’s judgment and grace taken from the gospel (Matt. 25:31-40). I emphasized that these were the words of Jesus and not a doctrine invented by my church or any other church. At this point, I will insert Mary’s reflection because it bears the essence of my simple message at the funeral.

Mary’s Reflection

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in. Matt. 25:35

Patricia’s heart stopped beating three times on Sunday afternoon. Now she is with our Lord.

We met Patricia in the city square where we used to spend time with the kids. She and her children and their children lived in a tent which they had to move according to the whims of the police in the area. Over time our relationship with this three generational family grew and we were privileged to be part of their journey from their tent to a small rented room.

In this room, the size of my living room, Patricia received many of the homeless kids and shared whatever she had to eat and whatever space was left over in their two beds. When we came over, she would make a pot of coffee for us, too.

Last year Patricia suffered a stroke and was no longer able to make coffee for us or to cook for the others, but that never could stop her from opening her heart and home to whoever showed up at her door.

I was a stranger and you invited me in. Matt. 25:35

Patricia became our friend never allowing our differences of education, class, or nationality stand in the way. Whenever we visit Florida, the nice people in the churches say we are blessing to the people on the street but they would be surprised how Patricia’s gracious acceptance of us is a rare and special thing, even though we are foreigners and I (Mary) have strong accent and make numerous mistakes in my Portuguese. Sometimes folks in the church can not get past our foreignness to see the real people we are. This was never an issue with Patricia. She accepted us as her good friends.

Today, we remember Patrica and how she invited us in. So thank you, Patrica, and goodbye.

Well done, good and faithful servant!

After the Funeral

The funeral was held at the end of the world. For us and the homeless youth anywhere beyond the center of the city is no man’s land. After the burial was done, Patricia’s blood relatives got into their cars and drove off. The rest of us had to walk about thirty minutes to catch a train. Obviously, Mary and I could have caught an Uber and made it back home in 40 minutes. However, we decided to walk back with the youth. It ended up taking about three hours to get home.

Cida walked up next to me and asked where Patricia was at this moment. She told me that she hoped that Patricia had said the so-called “sinner’s prayer” so that her soul would have been saved. I knew exactly who told her this. Cida herself had just buried her infant daughter a few months ago. We were going to buy her a tub for her baby and ended up paying for a tombstone. Therefore, it wasn’t just plain curiosity on Cida’s part. She needed to know if God is merciful enough to receive Patricia into His arms. It made me sad and angry at the same time. Sad that our youth are being tormented by doctrine purely based on speculation. Angry because the people who spread these doctrines never lift a finger to help these youths in their moments of need. Tomorrow, Patricia’s daughter, Taina will be in danger of losing her room and becoming homeless again with her three children. Purveyors of these doctrines are never found at these moments.

I told Cida that no one knows what happens to the soul. This is beyond our limits of understanding. However, we can take comfort in Jesus. He is real and present. He taught us that God is a Loving Father. I shared with her that we need to discard this false image of God who is angry and needs to be appeased for our sins. At this moment, the parable of the prodigal son came to my mind. However, I think that the parable is really about the Loving Father more than anything else. The sons, the younger and the older, never appreciated nor understood the Father. They thought of the Father as someone preventing them from enjoying life. Even the young son’s decision to return was not based on the knowledge of the Father’s love. He formulated an argument to convince His Father to accept him. He never knew the Father who waited anxiously for him to return even though he spent his entire life with Him. His decision to return to the Father’s home was just as egoistic as his decision to leave. They were both based on self-preservation. Nevertheless, the Father accepted him back lovingly. The Father did not care what brought the Son back. He was overjoyed that he was back. This is the main focus of the parable; not the younger son and much less the older son. The parable asks us if we understand the Father’s unconditional love. God is not waiting for us to fail. He just wants us to understand that He loves us unconditionally. The so-called “sinner’s prayer” is not our savior. If anything, it reduces the wealth of the gospel message. God the Father is the loving God who sent His Son into this world so that we will know that we are loved and accepted unconditionally. Jesus is the manifestation of God’s powerful and creative Love to the world. The resurrection is proof of God’s creative Love. It takes a hopeless situation and transforms it into something new, joyous and eternal. Therefore anyone who receives this unconditional creative Love cannot but be transformed by it. This Love is too powerful to be ignored and too creative not to provoke change in our lives.

This is the Father who is going to receive Patricia. He has always been with her. He has guided her through the worst moments of her Life. According to the parable Jesus taught, God the Father is not going to wait for arguments to accept Patricia. He has accepted her already before she even knew it.

Taina called us after a few days. She needs some help with the rent. We promised that we would help with what we could. However, she really just used it as an excuse to say that she really missed her mother. She told us that her mother always wanted to spend time with us even when she was partially paralyzed. We shed tears together. We will move on because we are confident that our Loving Father will fill our hearts with the creative love to move forward.

Then he told this parable: A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, “See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?” He replied, “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig round it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.” Luke 13:6-9

A few interesting things happened this week; nothing remotely exciting, just normal stuff. The first was a message from a clergy friend. She asked if I could share about our day to day ministry. The other was my friend’s decision to participate in our ministry. This friend has been a regular guest at our home for years. Every time we sat down to have a meal together, we tend to talk about our interactions with the homeless young people. Our friends know the names of our youth because we talk so much about them. Finally, he asked us if he could be part of this ministry. He wants to join us at least once a week and last Monday was his first day. Two simple events but interesting enough to inspire serious reflection. I want to add a third element; the gospel parable about the kind and compassionate gardener.

My clergy friend’s request is simple and straightforward. However, she is not just asking for information. She is looking for a door to participate in our ministry. Therefore, it makes it a deeply spiritual request. I could easily describe our daily activities in a couple of lines. After all, we have done the same thing everyday for almost 12 years now. We meet the young people in the streets where they sleep. For the present moment, it is in a city square. We usually talk about an hour or so sometimes even longer. Then the same youth comes by every day asks us to start a game of Uno. It has been the same game for a few years now. We tried changing the game but they did not take too well to it. In general, changes are not well received. They live in the streets where things are constantly changing. Therefore, they want some things to remain the same. It is not just our homeless youth. It is our human nature.

Our games usually last for a couple of hours. We play with just three or four youths. The others tend to gather around us and talk among themselves. Yesterday, they were talking about strange people they have met. They like sitting close to us. It gives them the feeling that we are a little family. In many ways, we are one. Someone looking from the outside might see all this as a waste of time. It would seem like a fruitless manner to spend our time, in our case, our lives. They are right but we would do it over and over again if possible.

Our friend joined us for the first time on Monday. The young people received him and even the dogs. I forgot to mention them. We do have some dogs thrown into the mix. They can be very protective but they welcomed our friend. He played several rounds of Uno with us. The conversations flowed naturally but something was different. The youth were cordial but a connection was lacking. The topic of conversation was the same but there was a lack of trust. In our interactions with the youth, many times they like to fib. They don’t do it in an intentionally way. It is their way of filling the gap in their stories in order communicate something. Sometimes they do it because they don’t want to look ignorant. They know that we know when they are lying. However, they know that we understand too. With a new person present there, they don’t feel so confident. This is just one small aspect of the disconnection. There is something more profound and I am unsure if words could express it. This disconnect made me miss the youth even though they were right front of us. They weren’t able to be themselves. One new person changed the dynamics of the group. It is our hope that as our friend comes more frequently and consistently, the youth would open up to him. For the time being, if I am honest, I am glad that he comes only once a week. Maybe I am being a little selfish. It has come to be that we need the connection with our youth as much as they need it from us. Therefore, when there is a disconnection, something essential is missing from our lives.

Our homeless youth have many people going through their lives on a daily basis. There are groups who serve them food. These people deliver the food to them and leave. There are health workers from the public clinic. They do their rounds among the homeless and attend to whatever medical needs they have and then they leave. All these people come to address a specific problem of homelessness. Once the need is addressed, the connection between them and the homeless youth evaporates too. All these people provide important services to our youth. However, no one just “wastes” time with these young people. It is through these so-called “useless activities” that the young people know that we just like being with them.

A ministry that follows in the footsteps of the Incarnate God cannot be problem focused ministry. Jesus did not come into this world to solve a problem. He came to show us how to live our lives to the fullest.

There are some religious groups which reduce the gospel to a problem solving gospel. They preach that Jesus came to save us from our sins. Sometimes the message is extended to say the things Jesus can do for us. Jesus becomes a functional being. Then the focus is always on this aspect and nothing more. However, Jesus spent a bulk of His time on earth just living Life like your everyday person. In other words, He sanctified our everyday lives. His words and ministry are powerful and enduring, not because He used beautiful words and did amazing miracles. It is because He was connected with people. He participated in the life doing things like sitting around talking with his mother and brothers. Maybe he spent time with friends doing absolutely nothing “productive”. Maybe He spent a lot of time playing with children and this is why the children were drawn to Him. These are mere speculations but the fact is that for thirty years Jesus just lived a normal life. These times were essential for Jesus to create a deep and profound connection with the people. This is not a mere sentimental attachment. It is deeply spiritual. It creates a unity between our Lord and the people. It helped Him become One with the people and it helped the people become one with Him.

The parable from the gospel is interesting. I used to interpret it as if God the Father was asking the tree to be removed and God the Son was interceding for a second chance. However, this would be inconsistent with the essential message of the gospel according to Jesus. He came to reveal the Father and not Himself. I see it now as two conflicting ideas we have of God. We have an image of God which is still common and active in the imaginations of many as a God who is demanding and detached from the world. The Gardener is the true image of God according to the gospels. He sees things from a different perspective. He looks at the tree from a perspective of someone who participates in the life of the tree. Even though the tree has failed to produce fruits, it is still His fig tree. He cultivated it and has taken care of it from the time it was seedling. He understands what it needs to flourish. The owner thinks it is not worth the time and energy because he is detached from the life of the tree. The gardener participates in its growth and the tree becomes spiritually part of Him.

Our friend who has just joined us will understand all this one day. For now, he is still a little detached from the youth. He needs to waste some time with them doing the same and repetitious things. It is not going to happen overnight. It might take a few years. Participation always takes time. It took our Lord 30 years. Don’t expect things to be easier for us. There is no quick and easy way. We have to be willing to pay the price to gain a space in someone’s heart. This is what participation is all about. If we are not willing to waste time with the other, then we won’t appreciate being one with them. Our Lord, however, thought it was worth it.

At that very hour some Pharisees came, and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” And he said to them, “Go and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. Nevertheless I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.”
Luke 13:31-33

“Tragedy is an imitation of life.” I am pretty sure Aristotle said these words. At least, some have alluded that these are his words. I am not entirely sure. At any rate, they sum up his views on the subject of poetry or theater. He goes on to say that tragedy invokes in us two important sentiments; empathy and fear.

The gospel reading above is not poetry, nor a play, but it unfolds as such to us as modern readers. We tend to read it as spectators of a drama. However, it brings about the same effects that Aristotle talked about. We are brought into the life of Jesus and at the same time made to confront our own mortality. In other words, our fear of death.

The Pharisees claimed that Herod was trying to kill Jesus. It is really doubtful that they were concerned about the welfare of our Lord. In all likelihood, they hoped that the fear of death would paralyze His active ministry. This does not mean that Herod wasn’t indeed a menacing threat. Jesus did not exclude this possibility. He made it clear that as far as probable death was concerned, it made no difference to His ministry. Jesus continued to do what He has been doing, perhaps to the chagrin of the Pharisees. Our Lord even went a step further. He predicted His own imminent death in the hands of the very people who were supposedly trying to protect him from the corrupt king. Jesus accepted that death was inevitable and he boldly walked towards it. Jesus confronted the fear of death by accepting death.

No one has power over the wind to restrain the wind, or power over the day of death. Ecclesiastes 8:8

St Augustine, in his book, City of God, wrote that death is the one thing we know for certain from the day we came into this world. He wrote this when the city in which he was living was being sieged. He died shortly thereafter. In modern times, talk about our mortality is very often avoided. This attitude hasn’t done any favors for us except to make us more superficial. If we avoid reflecting on one aspect of our life, then it is only natural for us to avoid profundity and intimacy in other aspects, too. We end up living our lives from one superficial experience to another without ever enjoying the full depth of any of it. In the past, the Christian faith embraced the spirituality of “Memento Mori” *. I wrote about this in my previous Lenten reflections and I won’t repeat myself here. However, the season of Lent is a time we reflect on the humanity of Jesus and His mortality plays a significant role.

A famous Brazilian singer, Gilberto Gil, in his advanced age, composed a song about his own imminent death. The chorus repeats an universal human sentiment. It says, “I am not afraid of death but I am afraid of dying.” He explains one is after the fact but the latter is a present reality. Jesus had to deal with this sentiment throughout His life or at least when He became fully aware of His vocation.

There is an unspoken belief among Christians that Jesus was some kind of superhuman who had perfect knowledge of everything from the day He was born. This is perhaps left over from our polytheistic past where gods disguise themselves as humans to experiment human life. Jesus did not come into this world to experiment with human existence. He was a complete human being. Therefore, He lived the complete process of human development. He grew into the knowledge of who He was and had to confront the fear of losing His personal identity in the face of death. The doubts and insecurities we feel towards death, Jesus sensed them too. He knew that each day that passed brought Him closer to His own brutal death. The Pharisees hoped that this thought or realization would paralyze Him. They made the mistake of thinking that Jesus was just like them. We know that His spirituality transcended that of the Pharisees.

The Pharisees lived their lives dominated by fear of death. All their decisions were influenced by this fear.

A very dear friend is celebrating her birthday this Sunday. She lives away from her home city. She has been living in this city about three years. She wanted to celebrate the day with her new family of friends here. She lives in a tiny apartment and we offered to plan a special celebration at our place since our place has the space. She was overjoyed and invited a dear friend. Unfortunately, this friend is terrified of the neighborhood where we live. She imagines that people here get robbed and murdered left and right although where we live is safe, if not safer than where she works and lives. There are people in the streets at all hours of the day. Many times I have seen elderly women walking their dogs at midnight here. Unfortunately, fear is much stronger than reality. She turned downed the invitation, refusing to participate in a celebration of life because of the fear of death. Of course, this does effect the friendship. Our friend is too kind to say anything about it.

Our fear of death is a real thing. It is part of our evolutionary development. We would not exist today as a species if it wasn’t for this defense mechanism. The fear of death was strong in Jesus, too. He overcame it so that we too can overcome it. Nevertheless, we don’t overcome the fear of death just by being fearless. Fearlessness borders many times with stupidity. Jesus never taunted death, nor lived recklessly. He overcame the fear of death by engaging in the ministry of healing and casting out demons. He was involved in the sufferings and pains of his fellow human beings. He also participated in their joys and celebrations. We must not forget that part of Jesus’ ministry involved eating and drinking, too. The Pharisees accused him of being a glutton and drunkard. At least, Jesus said that they did. This is also part of healing and casting out demons. Therefore, it is important for us to consider what it means for us to participate in healing and casting out of demons. It will help us to face death with boldness.

Today we have doctors and hospitals. As for demons, we have priests to exorcise them if we believe in literal demons and spirits and we have psychologists for medications for those who believe otherwise. Therefore, what is left for us as regular people? We have to figure out for ourselves what it means to heal and cast out demons in our everyday lives. In Jesus’ time, sickness and demon possession were elements which robbed people of their humanity. These ailments kept people isolated from the rest of society. We, humans, are social beings. When we are cut off from the world, we feel lost and our sense of identity is threatened. Consequently, we lose the zest for living. Presently, we live in a world where we see a slow and gradual process of dehumanization. People are losing their jobs and with this they lose their connection with the world. Better said, they lose their place in this world. Parents are losing contact with their children and feel a loss of their identity especially mothers. The value of friendship is no longer considered important nor essential. We are surrounded by people but no one is truly a friend. We are slowly slipping into slow and premature death. There is a need for the healing touch of love in this world. There is a need to cast out the demonic lies which reduces a human being into a mere machine which only exists to serve a function. The ministry of healing and casting out demons is as relevant today as it was in the time of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is able and willing to use anyone who is open to participate in the life of our Lord. He led the way and now He beckons us to follow Him.

As for the fear of death, the Bible teaches us;

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. 1 John 4:18

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19-21

The season of Lent is upon us once again. I started writing this reflection on Sunday. It was also the day of the Oscar award ceremony. Usually this does not interest me. However, this year’s Oscar was a little different. A Brazilian movie was nominated for best foreign picture as well as best picture of the year. The whole city was waiting in anticipation. There was a good chance for it to win and it did for best foreign movie. Almost everyone we know has watched the movie. We watched it a couple days ago. We were impressed. We have joined the crowd hoping that it would win. For those who are curious, I am talking about the movie, “I am still here”. In my opinion, it is well-written and directed. The cast were impeccable in the execution of their respective roles. It is based on actual events. In fact, the very final scene of the movie was shot close to where we live. The real life protagonist lived close to our neighborhood and very close to where we meet with our homeless youth. The story is about a former politician who was kidnapped by the military dictatorship. Eventually he was classified as someone who disappeared even though the regime’s secret police had tortured and murdered him and then disposed of his body. This is, by no means, a spoiler but a mere backdrop to the story. The real story is about how the mother and her five children survived the ordeal. It is really a story about a family. The director spent a great part of the movie focusing on the day to day life of the family. For those of us who like to get straight to the point, these trivialities could be a little frustrating. I wasn’t interested in knowing the idiosyncrasies of the family. The movie showed scenes where one of the daughters liked to wear her father’s old shirts. There were long segments of the children playing on the beach and narrating to their father their adventures. There was so much time spent on trivialities. However, these trivialities brought them closer to us. They became more human and real. Finally, when the tragedy struck, we felt the impact together with the characters. There were no explicit scenes of violence. It wasn’t necessary. We could the sense the violence of the situation by seeing how it disrupted the lives of the family. I realized that participating in the trivialities of their daily lives helped us to empathize with their sense of hopelessness and despair. The story is not a complete tragedy. It is about our human struggle. It is about hope.

Perhaps you are wondering what’s all this have to do with Lent. Maybe you are wondering how I am going to make this connection. Well, I am not going to attempt to do it. There is no need for it. The season of Lent highlights the voluntary participation of our Lord in the trivialities of our human existence. We can forget this. We can skip to the main thrust of the gospel narratives; the Passion of our Lord. However, in doing so, we might end up dehumanizing Jesus. We make Him into some object which serves a purpose. He becomes a mere tool to ensure our salvation. Jesus is not a tool!! He is God Incarnate. The gospel is not about the Cross. It is about God Incarnate. Jesus’ ministry did not begin at His baptism. It began the day He was born. God lived as a human being without any special privileges for thirty years and then He spoke of the Kingdom of God based on His experiences as a human being subjected to the trivialities of Life.

I recently heard a Jewish rabbi talk about the term, “Allah”. He was asked what he thought about the Muslim’s concept of God. He claimed the word, “Allah”, is a corruption of an Hebrew word for God. In other words, he stated that the Muslims and the Jewish people worship the same God. However, he emphasized that Christians do not worship the same God as these two religions. We worship a man named Jesus. This wasn’t a criticism but a careful assessment. We part ways with other monotheistic faith because of our faith in the God Incarnate. To imagine God becoming Human is a concept so strange and unbelievable to them. On the other hand, the polytheistic religions have mythologies portraying gods taking on the disguises of humanity. It is not so foreign to their doctrines to imagine the God Incarnate. Obviously, we are not talking about the same thing.

Jesus was not disguised as a human. He was a complete human being. He was subjected to the daily routines of our lives. He lived most of his life doing what we considered the monotonous routines of life which never get done nor completed or, as Albert Camus termed in his book, the Myth of Sisyphus, the absurd repetitious monotony of Life. At least, this is what I understand it to state. Besides this, Jesus spent most of His life as an unknown; a nobody, just like the vast majority of us. Most of us are a mere number in the eyes of the world’s authorities and Jesus was one of us. For Muslims and the Jewish people, it is scandalous to call such a person God Incarnate. Not just the people of these faiths but even the peers of Jesus. They could not believe that Jesus could be the Messiah because He was their mere carpenter.

“Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas?” Matthew 13:55

A Muslim friend once asked me this question. ”Why would God waste precious time subjecting Himself to these mundane things?” It is a good question. It is an existential one, if I am allowed to get technical here. Of course, we can take refuge in doctrinal answers like, “Because He came to die for our sins.” In the history of humanity, many great people sacrificed their lives for the sake of friends, family and strangers. We honor them but we don’t worship them. There is something more profound about Jesus than His sacrifice. At the same time, I could not give my Muslim friend a satisfactory answer. Yet, the answer does not elude me. It is present in my soul. His earthly Life transformed the way I see my daily life.

The humanity of Jesus breaks down the barrier between God and humanity. The Father doesn’t seem like a distant figure oblivious to the tediousness of our human struggles. He came to participate in them so that we could learn to participate in His Life. God could have chosen to be born into any household. He could have been born or raised in household like Moses where servants abound to do the mundane things of Life. He chose instead to be a commoner. A life which is common and assessable to a vast majority of the world especially to the poorest of the poor. Jesus used examples of daily life to teach the profound things of God. He showed us that we can learn of God’s hidden mysteries through our everyday trivial interactions with Life.

In the present time, we heard people term the time spent on doing the trivial things as “unproductive” or “dead hours”. Everything is reduced to function. However, participating in these trivial things is essential in relationship building. Most of our ministry is spent on trivialities. Often times, I wonder in my head, “could we be doing something more productive?”. To be honest, I used to think those thoughts but not anymore.

Recently, the homeless youth informed us that a young man, Igor, was looking for us. He asked for us by name. In the streets, there is never a lack of people named “Igor”. There must be about ten with the same name about the same age. My mind was running through all the Igors we knew and none fitted the description. Finally we ran into him. He just recently got out of prison. He is handsome young man covered with tattoos. His tattoos could not hide his childlikeness. He was genuinely happy to see us. We responded appropriately but both of us were sure that we had never met before in our lives. Finally we asked him how he knew us. He told us that he has seen us playing games with the children and sometimes just coloring pictures with them. Once we bought him a meal. It must have been during the Pandemic when food was scarce. We bought food whenever the youth asked for it. In regular times, it wasn’t necessary because there is ample supply of food. We must bought something for him without thinking much about it. It was just routine stuff for us. However, for Igor, this simple and trivial act meant a great deal for him. It was a special moment. I wished I had paid more attention to it. Thankfully Igor did. He needs some documentation done. He is determined to stay away from crime and wants to register into a government program to help him with jobs. The documents are going to be a long and tedious bureaucratic process. We are going to spend longs hours in life-reducing offices. We told him that we will help him. It seems like an excellent opportunity to grow into the likeness of Christ. This is what we are doing for Lent: paying careful attention to the trivialities of Life.

Have a Blessed Lent!