My Exodus

All the day I am ashamed,
  I blush with shame
as they reproach me and revile me,
  my enemies and my persecutors.
All this happened to us,
  but not because we had forgotten you.
We were not disloyal to your covenant;
  our hearts did not turn away;
  our steps did not wander from your path;
and yet you brought us low,
  with horrors all about us:
  you overwhelmed us in the shadows of death. Ps 44: 14-19

For all that the Psalms express what we might be feeling, they also express things that will never be true for me. I will never be able to proclaim my faithfulness to the Lord's covenant. Yet that no longer torments me as it did. I know that the Lord is present with me in the desert, just as Jesus knew that He was present with the Father.

Dear friends, at every moment the earth is full of the mercy of God, and nature itself is a lesson for all the faithful in the worship of God. The heavens, the sea and all that is in them bear witness to the goodness and omnipotence of their Creator, and the marvellous beauty of the elements as they obey him demands from the intelligent creation a fitting expression of its gratitude.

But with the return of that season marked out in a special way by the mystery of our redemption, and of the days that lead up to the paschal feast, we are summoned more urgently to prepare ourselves by a purification of spirit.

The special note of the paschal feast is this: the whole Church rejoices in the forgiveness of sins. It rejoices in the forgiveness not only of those who are then reborn in holy baptism but also of those who are already numbered among God’s adopted children.

Initially, men are made new by the rebirth of baptism. Yet there still is required a daily renewal to repair the shortcomings of our mortal nature, and whatever degree of progress has been made there is no one who should not be more advanced. All must therefore strive to ensure that on the day of redemption no one may be found in the sins of his former life.
  
Dear friends, what the Christian should be doing at all times should be done now with greater care and devotion, so that the Lenten fast enjoined by the apostles may be fulfilled, not simply by abstinence from food but above all by the renunciation of sin. - St. Leo the Great, Pope

I think that it is because our pastors in recent decades have emphasized the three great Lenten practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving that I have lost sight, a bit, of a fundamental part of this path to holiness: turning away from sin. Or perhaps it is because I have so consistently failed to do so, despite my intentions.

It is true that we are always to turn from our sin, that this is an every day calling for us. But this season calls us to refocus on that in the context of God's call to us. This time in the desert is part of our Exodus, by which God delivers us from slavery into His kingdom. It is good for me to partake of this manna, which can seem more like drudgery than the gift of God's sustenance, yet the latter is what it truly is.