Having Our Fill

Here's a little scenario for you:

You have two glasses - one is a tall thin one and the other is a bit smaller and more like your typical shot glass. Which one is more full?

       

(No, I did not ask you which one you would rather have...)


The correct answer (drum roll please) is that they are both equally full.

But they are of different sizes - How is this possible?

Well, in her autobiography Story of a Soul, St. Therese of Lisieux explains this phenomenon rather simply as it was once explained to her. (Well, actually, her example was with a tumbler and a thimble, but I decided to take a more modern twist - forgive me.) Both glasses, or containers, are filled to the brim, leaving no room to add any more water. Therefore, even though one glass (meant to represent a person) has more than the other (meant to represent another person), the one with less should not be jealous of the one who has more because he is already full as God has seen fit.

Ok, so St. Therese is obviously better at explaining this than I am. But, hey, I tried.

Others have tried and succeeded better than I as well - one such example of stressing how we should not strive to make our lives a competition can be found in the Notre Dame Daily Inspiration Prayer Archives. (This reflection is short and well worth the read.)

Remember, God has filled each of us as He has seen fit. It's not about who has more or who is on top. God knows our needs and has entrusted us with such.

Let us strive to remember this as we prepare our hearts to enter into this holy Lenten season.

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On a related note, here's a small selection of Lenten resources on the web that may be of use -->

*Pope Benedict XVI's Message for Lent
*Lenten Calendar (free printable)
*Living Lent Daily (Loyola Press)
*Other 6 - Daily topics and prompts to help in the Lenten Journey
*Huffington Post - A Lenten Journey
*Praying Lent - An online Creighton University Resource