First Things First

Dear Friend,

For some, “First Things First” presents a helpful framework for getting our house in order during Lent. In the readings for the first Sunday of Lent, however, it’s first places that come first. The first reading takes us to the garden of Eden - can’t get more “first” than that - while the second returns us there, as Paul reflects on that garden experience in the light of the cross and resurrection. Keep in mind, Paul is writing to Christians in Rome, the very place from which he intended to begin his outreach to the vast new territory west of Jerusalem.  

Finally, the Gospel brings us with Jesus to the desert, a place so resonant with the history of challenge and new beginnings in the life of God’s people. 

Yes, “first places” all, which has me asking, as a Franciscan, where in Lent do we begin the journey of the heart? 

In a poem (prayer?) entitled “Primary Wonder” Denise Levertov offers an answer: our journey begins with awe and wonder. Here is the birthplace of religious experience itself. Some would say that all religions are born here. Over and over again our Lenten scriptures will summon us there. As they do so, I invite you to keep this poem in mind. 

 Gratefully, Father Dan

Primary Wonder

Days pass when I forget the mystery.

Problems insoluble and problems offering

their own ignored solutions

jostle for my attention, they crowd its antechamber

along with a host of diversions, my courtiers, wearing 

their colored clothes; cap and bells.

And then

once more the quiet mystery

is present to me, the throng’s clamor

recedes: the mystery

that there is anything at all,

let alone the cosmos, joy, memory, everything,

rather than void: and that, O Lord,

Creator, Hallowed One, You still,

hour by hour sustain it. 

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