We needed to get the Stations of the Cross that hung in our Saint Anne’s Chapel in New Mexico ready for Lenten use in the Cor Jesu Chapel. After thirteen years in storage, they needed some serious cleaning, polishing, and buffing. If you’ve ever polished brass you know what that looks and smells like. But did you ever reflect on the spiritual reflection this process affords us?
Think of tarnished brass like our souls laden with sin. It takes work to clean them. It smells. There is black residue. Minute details take extra effort. (We use a pen cap clip to polish and clean nooks and crannies.) Just as tarnish needs a caustic chemical applied with elbow grease, followed by a clean buffing until it’s restored to a high gloss, so our souls need constant contact with a cleaning agent (prayer, repentance, grace). Black residue might be thought of as our tendency toward sin that also must be vigorously buffed to completely remove. And you have to keep it up with regular polishing and buffing. (keep praying and going to confession)
How will we do this cleaning process this Lent?
First – the vertical dimension – by spending time with Jesus and letting him work in our souls in his own inimitable, and undetectable, way while we rest (maybe not so easy) in desert solitude. In the busy world, distractions can derail progress in sanctification. In the silent desert, all sounds are noticed and all visitors seen from a distance. We can stay better focused on Our Lord.
Second – the horizontal dimension – by letting Jesus do the polishing in our interactions with other sinful humans. Rocks polish rocks, they say. Sometimes we ourselves are each a vigorous scrubbing and buffing cloth to another human soul. But the shine that results!
Third – It’s best to focus on shining the Station in front of you, rather than compare another one someone else is working on. Meaning concern yourself with what you need to change, not what you want someone else to change. This needs energy and patience and charity.
