“Our great drama is this: Man does not have confidence in God. Hence he looks in every possible place to extricate himself by his own resources and renders himself terribly unhappy in the process rather than abandon himself into the tender and saving hands of his Father in heaven. Yet, how unjustified this lack of confidence is! Isn’t it absurd that a child would thus doubt his Father, when this Father is the best and most powerful who could exist, when he is the Father in heaven? In spite of that, it is in this absurdity that we most frequently live…How many young people, for example, hesitate to give their lives entirely to God because they do not have confidence that God is capable of making them completely happy. And they seek to assure their own happiness by themselves and they make themselves sad and unhappy in the process. This is precisely the great victory of the Father of Lies, of the Accuser: succeeding in putting into the heart of a child of God distrust vis-à-vis his Father! It is, however, marked with this distrust that we come into this world. This is the original sin. And all our spiritual life consists precisely in a long process of reeducation, with a view to regaining the lost confidence, by the grace of the Holy Spirit who makes us say anew to God: Abba, Father!” (Fr. Jacques Philippe)

Where are the areas that we fail to trust in the Father’s providential care? Where are the areas we have difficulty in surrendering to God? Here are the areas of our focus this Lent. Jesus is calling us to join with him in his death for our sins so that with him we can have new life at Easter. “Unless a seed falls into the ground and dies, it will not bear fruit.”  As we enter into this grace season, ask God for the strength to choose to surrender and to remain in that choice.