Confession Times
Information about confession times and days and how to make a good confession.
From the Friars: Shoveling, Sisyphus, and Salvation
Scoop. Shovel. Salt. Repeat. It seems endless: all this snow-shoveling. Six years ago, planet earth was caught in the midst of a dystopian novel called “COVID-19”. Now it seems that New England is trapped in the “Myth of Sisyphus”.
In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was the King of Corinth who was punished by the gods for his arrogance, deceitfulness and for cheating death. His punishment? Push a boulder up a hill which will roll back down each time…for all eternity. This futile labor was seen by the Greeks as the worst possible punishment…even worse than endlessly shoveling snow!
Noted existentialist Albert Camus wrote an essay comparing the Myth of Sisyphus to human existence. He states that human life is inherently meaningless (absurd) because man’s search for meaning in this life cannot be reconciled with a universe which is ultimately lacking in meaning. Work, eat, sleep, repeat. What should be man’s response? Rightly, Camus rejects suicide as an option, but wrongly, he also rejects hope, that is, “the leap of faith” into religion. Rather, he suggests that though life is meaningless, we should embrace its futility and consciously rebel against it. For Camus, this awareness makes us greater than our ill-fated snow-shoveling.
If absurdity is true, Camus’ solution may satisfy you (if you’re an existentialist), but Christians can do better. First, there is an end to the snow-shoveling. The plows will not keep pushing the snow back into our driveways for all eternity. The paths we shovel become stable and prove that we’ve beaten Mother Nature. Even better, all of our snow-shoveling can be “offered up”. Every scoop of snow can be united to the Cross of Jesus Christ as an act of reparation for our sinful rebellion against our Loving Father or for prayers for our loved ones. In this season of Lent, is there any better act of penance than snow-shoveling?
The word “Lent” is from the old English word “lencten” meaning “spring” or the “lengthening” of days. Lent, of course, leads us to Easter, Our Lord’s Resurrection and our salvation which gives the ultimate meaning and purpose to our lives.
Likewise, in Spring the snow will thaw and our “eternal” snow-shoveling ends…at least for this season.
–Fr. Andrew
Snow sled-shovel, by Fix 1998 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link