I am sure all of us have heard this at one time or another. Hopefully it was discreet and not announced in front of a room of people. On my way into work this morning, I saw a billboard add for Eclipse gum. The whole idea is that the gum is so powerful, it will "eclipse" your bad breath so you can "eat sushi and get smoochy". Cute ad, but it got me thinking.
During this Lenten season, we are to pray, fast and give alms. Why? Yeah, the Church encourages this, but why? I had the opportunity to speak about New Horizons to the youth group at our Church that my Godfather James and
SteveFalon started(check out their blogs; interesting reading). We were discussing alms giving and ways that we can do this creatively; not just giving money. I was asked to speak about New Horizons as a way to give "time" and "help" to others in need as a form of alms giving. We read many scripture verses about alms giving and the question was asked, "is there a reward for alms giving?" Of course the quick answer was yes, "treasures in heaven". Then James suggested another reward, and earthly one: that when I give of my time, I become less distracted from my sinful place before God. I have felt this way exactly! One example of this is my selfishness. There are many times where I would prefer to stay home and read a good book or watch a movie than go to New Horizons on a Saturday night. Whereas if didn't volunteer at New Horizons, I would read my book and not see the selfishness that is there.
Now, back to the gum. Our bad breath are the consequences of our sin. The incredibely powerful gum is our distractions. In a sense, we "eclipse" our consequences and we can go for a time, tricking ourselves and others, that we don't have a problem with bad breath. Chewing the gum does not the fix the cause of our bad breath, it just hides it.
I was thinking how we here in the good ol' US of A, have many distractions. Sometimes we can have multiple distractions at once. Feeling "bad" is not acceptable. In the process, we don't see the disease of sin, or "halatosis". So we continue chewing our gum, wasting our money instead of eating better or going to the dentist and seeing our doctor to prevent the halatosis. That is what the Church is for. That is what Lent is for. Not only to limit our chemical induced fresh breath, but to then offer us a cure: ultimately the Body and Blood of our Lord and His Holy Spirit. It not only "covers" the bad breath of sin, but it transforms it into sweet smelling joy and Fire of our God.
