Sunday, February 26, 2006
. . . as we think about Lent
Many years ago a young woman brought her 7 year old son to Mahatma Gandhi. She said: “Babu, my son has a bad habit of eating lots of sugar. Please tell him to stop this.”
Gandhi said: “Come back in one week.”
She did. And then Gandhi put his arms around the little boy and said very softly and firmly. “You should not eat all that sugar, it is bad for you.”
Then the mother asked Gandhi: “Babu, why did you not tell my boy this a week ago?”
Gandhi replied: “Because a week ago I was still eating sugar.”
Lent is coming and Lent is always a time for conversion, the conversion of our own life. The only person we can really change and need to change is ourselves, and we can only do that with the help of God. So we have Lent to ask God to help change the things we need to change, to accept the things we cannot change, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Abbot Thomas
