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| "The Fall of Adam," Hildegard of Bingen |
Twice-born types feel acutely the gap between the world as
it is, and the world as it ought to be.
The reality of suffering and evil can sometimes overshadow their ability
to perceive what is right with the world.
The tension between their perception of evil and their desire for good
can occasion an existential crisis requiring a profound conversion experience
for its resolution. For this type, every
day is Ash Wednesday!
The once-born take God’s grace for granted. The twice-born are surprised by grace. The former experience conversion as a process
of embracing more fully the grace they always have known. For the latter, conversion is an event, a
reorientation to graceful life from which one has strayed. Once-born folks can’t point to any one
particular experience of conversion.
Twice-born folks can point to several or, perhaps, one major turning
point.
One can certainly make too much of such typologies. People and congregations are often more
complicated than such either/or distinctions allow. Yet, there is enough truth in William James
typology to suggest that the season of Lent may need to be “framed” differently
for once-born and twice-born types if they are to embrace the season fully.
In that spirit, I offer this reflection on the meaning of
the season. The origin of its observance
offers us a clue.
Recall that our Lenten observance – the forty days before
Easter – developed to meet two different but related needs. It was set aside as a special time of
preparation for those who were to be baptized at the Great Vigil of
Easter. It was also during this time
that public penance was available for those who had committed “notorious” sins,
so that they could be restored to the communion of the Church at Easter.
The season was therefore an invitation for the whole church
to embrace Christian life as a process of continual conversion. Whether that conversion marked a deepening
commitment to an ongoing experience of grace, such as those preparing for
baptism, or a radical reorientation to a grace from which one had turned away,
as in the case of penitents, or both, Lent underscored that God isn’t done with
us yet.
For the once-born, Lent means that there is even more grace
to experience – we have not yet plumbed the depths of God’s love and the joyful
response that it calls forth from us.
For the twice-born, Lent means that this grace is still available – we
have not exhausted God’s love and the possibility for renewed life offered in
the shape of forgiveness. Lent is the
time to consciously renew our awareness that there is more, more, more:
More Love, more Love!
The heavens are
blessing, the angels are calling,
O children, more Love!
If we love not each
other in daily communion,
how can we love God,
whom we have not seen?
If we love one another
than hope dwells within us,
and we are made strong
to live life in joy.
More Love, more Love!
The heavens are
blessing, the angels are calling,
O children, more Love!
(Shaker hymn, adapted)
This “more” may lighten your heart and confirm the deepest
truth about yourself and the world that you’ve always known: we are held in Love. This “more” may bring you to your knees in
contrition and repentance over the sin that has kept you from realizing the
truth: we are held in Love. For all of us, Lent is a time to cultivate a
deeper compassion for a world that needs more love: a Love which is always,
already available. Lent is a time to
become more transparent to that Love for the sake of the world.
Once-born types remind us that this Love is always
available. Twice-born types remind us
how desperately we need that Love. The
two types need each other. And so we
need Ash Wednesday to prepare us for Easter, and Easter to sustain us through
Good Friday. All of us are called to continual
conversion: to an ever-deeper acceptance of our grace-filled mortality and to an
ever-deeper openness to more Love.
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