Junk food or seven-course feast
Conversion can occur in a moment; new birth happens as quick as you can say “in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” But the process that the Scriptures call being conformed to the likeness of Christ—or “sanctification” for short—that takes a lifetime.
So often, at least in my experience, we want faith’s progress to be easily apparent and its rewards immediately apprehended. In other words, we want our faith to be like our junk food: a satisfying jolt of instant gratification. The Christian life is less like devouring a Hot Pocket, however, and more like savoring a seven-course feast. It can only be had slow.
Slow Faith is embodied by the deep rhythms of the Divine Service, even it's something of an "acquired taste." Inasmuch as the liturgy eschews saccharine sweetness for more subtle textures, it’s fitting in more ways than one that wine should figure so prominently in the Church’s worship. It takes time and tutoring to appreciate the fullness of the liturgy’s flavor. So it is for the whole of the life of faith.
Gradually working our way
In his book The Way That Leads There, Lutheran theologian and ethicist Gilbert Meilaender writes, ”Much of what we learn about human nature and human life comes from gradually working our way into a tradition of thought and learning from predecessors within it, especially those who are acknowledged masters.”
Gradually working our way into a tradition and learning from its predecessors: this is Slow Faith. It neither relies on the fleeting pleasures of emotional highs (though they are welcomed when they come), nor leans on the latest and greatest (though the glad good news of the gospel is ever fresh, ever new).
Slow Faith submits to the Lord who labors long in His vineyard, who as the Master Vinedresser has taught us that ripeness cannot be rushed, that maturity is no overnight achievement, and that the good soil can only bear fruit with patience.
Lent is time for cultivating this slow faith. In a felicitous coincidence of language, the Latin word lente means "slowly." This is the season for slowing down, repenting of our sins done in haste, and attending to the mercy of our Lord—who is "slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love."
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