First Sunday of Lent

Psalm 25
R. Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.
Remember that your compassion, O LORD,
and your love are from of old.
In your kindness remember me,
because of your goodness, O LORD.




Today is the First Sunday of Lent, a journey of reflection and penance preparing us for Easter and the Resurrection that began this past Wednesday with receiving our smudges on our foreheads.  As a Catholic, we are pretty well known for our rules and regulations.  You would have to have lived under a rock to not know that Catholics don't eat meat on Fridays in Lent without sinning.  We are known for our Lenten Fish Frys.


Catholics split sin into two categories: mortal and venial.  Mortal sin is called that because it kills our relationship with God (venial is still disobeying God, but it doesn't kill the relationship).  It severs our connection with him.  No one sins mortally by accident.  It requires grave matter, it has to be intentional (full consent), and you have to know it's grave matter (full knowledge).  We can kid ourselves and others, but we can't kid Him.  God knows if all three conditions are met.


I remember one Friday morning in Lent, I ordered a bacon, egg and cheese on a roll  with a LARGE coffee at a deli on my way to work.  Shortly after I ate it, someone walked by my desk saying "Happy Friday".  "Oh shit, it's Friday", I thought.  I was horrified that I had eaten meat; I was surely going to Hell.  Then I thought about it for a minute...it was early and I had forgotten it was Friday, which means I didn't have full knowledge at the time.  I didn't set out to say "Ha!  It's Friday, no one is going to tell ME what to eat!"  I didn't intend to "disobey".  God IS good.  He knows us intimately, and He knows when we are intentionally breaking the rules and when we aren't.