Tupperware Lids and Why I Need Lent
By Lori Fontana
What a problem! I find the perfect container for the leftover soup, pour the soup in, and then… no lid that fits. YIKES! So I start my search again. It’s annoying.
Periodically, I lay out all our food containers, pull out all the lids, and match them up. Then I toss any container or lid that doesn’t have its corresponding part. But things never seem to stay matched for long.
On Ash Wednesday, I was whining, “Where is a lid that fits this?” as I tried to snap on several “similar” but wrong lids. I caught myself – what am I complaining about? Do I really think THIS is a problem?
Our world is experiencing so much suffering, near and far: the brutal war in Ukraine; the terrible devastation from the earthquakes in Syria and Turkey; hunger, disease, and drought in so many places – Yemen, Afghanistan, North Korea, Nicaragua, Haiti. Closer to home, in Seatac, a mom with three children struggles to feed them and scrounges for diapers for her baby. Wouldn’t she just laugh (or scoff) at my so-called problem – a container missing its lid!
The ancient Ash Wednesday prayer, prayed as my forehead is marked with the cross of ashes, calls me up short: “Remember, woman / man, that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.” What’s a missing Tupperware lid in light of this prayer?
This is why I need Lent. I need Lent’s invitation to pause, to reflect on my own life, and to, symbolically at least, go into the desert with Jesus, where there is time for quiet prayer to listen to the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. Lent is a time to see more clearly some basic truths: my mortality and the gift of my faith.
Lent calls me to lift my eyes from life’s small irritations and really look around to see the afflictions of so many. But once I see, how do I respond? With reflection, two things are clear to me. First, my problems are so very small; and second, I don’t have the power, nor is it even my job, to relieve all the world’s misery.
In regard to the truth of small problems, I know that, yes, I can whine less! But I still need a lid that fits…How, then, do we followers of Jesus deal with our everyday annoyances? Is it okay to complain sometimes? Frustration is a normal human response. The challenge for Christians is to move through the complaints and self-pity.
Lent is a reminder that, though we will be impatient or tired, misunderstood or inconvenienced, mad, sad or scared, we can’t wallow for long in these feelings. Why should a missing Tupperware lid rob me of peace! Spiraling into the mire of “poor me” is not what Jesus asks of us as people of faith. Jesus promises us, “Peace I leave with you; my peace do I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.” (John 14:27)
One simple and sure way to pull out of the mire of self-pity is a grateful heart. Another is to “offer it up,” as so many of us were taught by our mothers or fathers or Catholic school teachers. Both gratitude and “offering up” work a conversion in me. I can turn my thoughts outward toward the deep suffering of so many people. Spiritual writers exhort us to pray, joining our suffering, great or small, to the suffering of Jesus, who embraces the suffering of all.
As to how one addresses the suffering around the world: no one person can relieve the world’s suffering. What can I do? I firmly believe each of us can be good, do good, be a power for good in the circumstances of our daily lives. Some are called to far-away mission work; most of us are not. But each of us lives in “mission territory,” where people are suffering, where the love and hope and JOY of the Trinity are sorely needed. We can be messengers of Jesus’s love, hope, compassion, JOY. After all, as St Teresa of Avila says, we are the hands and feet, heart and voice of Christ now on earth. Every little act of kindness furthers the reign of God.
What does this look like? For me, it’s showing patience in the doctor’s office or waiting in the phone queue. It’s a smile and hello to someone in need on the street. It’s asking the grocery clerk how her day is going, and really listening to her answer. I’ve had quite the conversations while buying milk and eggs! It’s compassion and kindness to those closest to us, in our homes, our work places, our neighborhoods. And a belief that is really opening up my heart to be more loving is that most people are doing the best that they can.
The Scriptures of Holy Week lead us through Jesus’s passion and death. What great love Jesus shows for us in both his life and his death. There is no greater love, and Jesus gives his love to us freely and completely. In the end, love is what matters most. I pray our hearts will overflow with gratitude for this gift of Lent, which helps us grow in our love for Jesus and one another.
Now if I can just find that darn lid…
