Friday 20 March 2026
It was foggy as I stepped outside at 6.45 am on my way to the early Mass. Visibility was about 100 yards. Even less as I turned uphill towards the church.
It presented not only a beautiful sight, but an opportunity to fumble some analogy with the gospel. The fog lifting, as it did for the walk home, would work symbolically as my understanding of some passage. So expectations were high.
The gospel reading was from John chapter 7, describing how Jesus’s time had not yet come. And that Christ’s Passion, at Easter, was still two weeks away.
This led me to think about Lent, and the mess so many of my Lenten plans had become.
With two weeks to go, I feel like I’m walking through the wreckage of once great commitments, to the way I would eat, pray, and behave. I was reminded how willpower alone is no guarantee of success, and that I had elevated myself perhaps into a position of perfection, almost. And naturally, had come crashing down.
The fog really had lifted, and I could see clearly.