The End is Near! Repent and believe in the Gospel!

Though we probably aren’t coming to the end of time, as one would think walking the streets of Rome these days, the unbelievable has been happening in Rome the last weeks.  Snow.  Serious snow.   We are not talking here of a flurry or two, but snow that has blanketed the city and, like any good Italian, has refused to go away. 

This isn’t to say that it hasn’t snowed in Rome before.  Sure it has.  But not for whole days and then remain on the ground for days afterward, this is truly unique.  As you might imagine this ancient city is not really snow plow friendly, so the roads are covered with snow and ice.  What for a normal US city would be nothing to think twice over, Rome just shuts down (despite the mobilization of their fleet of street sweepers).  Buses wont go, trains are shut down, and most people find it a good enough excuse not to go to work.   It has been fascinating watching this.  And though I am a little bitter about leaving seminaries in Ohio and Indiana to come to the Mediterranean and still have snow, the city has a certain beauty covered in white.  So though I may play the cold hating desert dweller, a part of me is enjoying this.

Besides from the apocalyptic weather patterns, here at the NAC we are coming to an end:  the end of the first semester.  I have two more finals this coming week and that will be it; the following week is the new semester.  These kinds of endings, though as dramatic as the work ending spectacle of the movie 2012, definitely brings with it the encouragement of look back at your life (or at least the last semester) and see what you’ve made of it. 

Though survival was goal number one my first semester in a foreign country, it not hard to find where other important goals got ignored along the way.  To be fair with myself, there were many challenges that took my attention away from these things: the language barrier, a new culture, new classmates, new people to live with, new routine, home sickness, etc.   Yet these are excuses, good excuses, but still excuses.  They tell why it was easy for me to do (or not do) the things I did (or didn’t do), not why it’s ok that I did them.  In fact, there is something refreshing about taking a frank look at my failings (read sins), acknowledging that it was me that did them and not my circumstances, repent, and receive forgiveness (read confession).  So now this new semester, instead of looking like 5 more months of the same struggles and same stumblings, is a wide open and clear as the Roman sky after a snowfall (?) and I’m filled with the joy of freedom that only the grace of Hope can provide. 

As lent approaches, I highly recommend this kind of apocalyptic introspection (if you were looking for my recommendation) or perhaps more simply- Repent and believe in the Gospel!

 Well….I still have tests to get ready for….that whole repentance thing, you know…refreshing and joy and …something like that….