From the Pastor's Desk - March 8, 2026

Dear St. Martin’s Parishioners,

In this Sunday’s first reading, the people that Moses has led out of Egypt complain of their condition, “Why did you ever make us leave Egypt?” This same grievance flares up on various occasions throughout the Exodus. In their frustration, they desire to be back in slavery to the Egyptians, where there was at least some level of comfort.

We may find a similar dynamic within ourselves in regard to our Lenten resolutions. Often, I’ve complained to myself after a couple weeks of Lent, “Why did I decide to give up this or that?” I know that a part of me enjoys my attachments and really dislikes the experience of living without them. The truth is that we often derive more consolation from our attachments than from our faith in God. At first, freedom from sin can feel really disorienting and uncomfortable. We ask ourselves if it’s really worth it; can we really expect ourselves to go on living without these creature comforts? Were they really so bad for us after all?

They really so bad for us after all? St. John of the Cross argued that we must be free of all our disordered attachments to progress in the spiritual life. The problem is that we don’t trust God enough to fulfill us, so we turn to created things to make up for this unnerving lack we feel. We are very much like the rich young man who desired perfection in the spiritual life, but when Jesus asked him to sell all he had to the poor and come follow him, he walked away sad. Jesus’ words should prick our consciences during Lent: “whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Lk. 14:33).

If we have found that this Lent is going a little too smoothly or that we are really not challenged, maybe there is an attachment that the Lord is asking us to relinquish that we haven’t yet considered. Have the courage to be honest with yourself and see if the Lord is calling you to a deeper level of abandonment and trust in him. He doesn’t want us to live in a tacit acceptance of slavery to sin but to experience the full freedom of being sons and daughters of God.

In Christ,

Fr. Dave