Perhaps there is a person in your life – let’s create an imaginary aunt for purposes of illustration – who doesn’t use the internet. Maybe you discovered this fact when you said you wanted to email a photo or file to her and you got the response, “I don’t do email and computers. I never learned how to use computers and I am too old to try to learn how to use them now.”

Your reaction would probably be to pity this aunt and think she’s kind of crazy to be living in the 21st century and missing out on all the benefits of the great technological advances of our time.

So let’s say you decided to do something to help your aunt by giving her a new, state-of-the-art laptop computer and a manual on how to operate it. And then, when you came back months later to see how she was doing with her computer, you discover that she only uses it to tell time and once in a while for the calculator function.

If all of what I just described was not imaginary but in fact happened, my guess is that you probably would have concluded that you have a crazy aunt - and you’d probably want your laptop gift back so you could give it to someone who might appreciate it. After all, what good is a computer if its vast potential is ignored and untapped?

As you may know, the season of Lent begins today and it presents an interesting parallel. Ash Wednesday and the forty days of Lent invite you to ask yourself whether your approach to the mysteries of God is like the mythical aunt’s approach to technology.

This season invites you to reflect on God – to encounter God or simply ignore God like so many in our world do.

When you were living at home with your parents, perhaps you went to church on Sunday or perhaps you didn’t. Maybe your parents were religiously devout or maybe they weren’t. Maybe you’ve been reading the Bible from the time you could read or maybe you can’t distinguish David from Goliath (and if you are a Catholic, my bet is you haven’t read much of the Bible).

Regardless of all that, the fact is, you are now a young adult and the questions of God and your existence and your purpose in life are not for your parents to resolve – they are presented to you.

Jesus in the Gospels asks his disciples the question, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” The disciples responded with what they had heard from others. “Some say John the Baptizer, others Elijah.” But then Jesus directed his gaze upon them as individuals and asked them, “And you, who do you say that I am?”

At that point, Peter made his great profession of faith: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God!” Peter’s movement from an immature faith to a mature one would lead him on a journey that in the very next chapter of Matthew’s Gospel placed him on the Mount of Transfiguration. There he witnessed the mystical, mysterious, majestic, and ineffable. He was no longer dabbling like a child in matters of faith – he was now fully engaged.

Perhaps in your childhood if Jesus asked you that same question, you would respond, “My parents say that you are the Son of God so I guess you are.”

But now in college, you are challenged to formulate an adult response to the person of Jesus. Is he the Messiah or was he simply a madman? Can you be a friend of Jesus or would that be like trying to be a friend of Spiderman? If God is good then why is there so much suffering, and why would Jesus suffer on the cross? Questions like these are as countless as our ancestors who have raised them before us.

Our College can provide for you an environment conducive to exploring the mysteries of God and answering these questions, but we can not – and should not – coerce you. Like your aunt who refused to use the manual and take the time to learn how computers work, you can not be forced to find Jesus. It is up to you.

Our Benedictine monks spend their lives addressing these fundamental questions. Their contemplation takes them from the Mount of Transfiguration where Jesus appears in dazzling brightness to the dark night of the soul when even the possibility of faith seems distant. We would not be here together at this college if these brilliant monks had not pursued Jesus Christ and answered as Peter, “You are the Messiah!”

And we are here together to be challenged to mature spiritually – to make adult decisions about who Jesus Christ is.

For Catholics on our campus, the College invites you to come to Mass on Sunday, and expects you to.

This Lent can be a time where you explore more deeply the mystery of the Eucharist. Today we have adoration in the chapel all day. During Lent, on each Sunday, there will be Eucharistic adoration in the Basilica from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm. I will simply say that an hour of adoration can do a world of good for your soul. Mother Teresa used to spend at least one hour a day in adoration. You might want to explore the writings of the great mystics who described the movement of prayer from the head to the heart. In our noisy world, an hour of silence would be refreshing.

Campus Ministry also has regularly scheduled times for confession, including most days before the 12:05 pm Mass. If you haven’t been for a long time, why not go now? Campus Ministry also avails non-Catholic students the opportunity to grow spiritually, and the decision this year to have a non-Catholic minister as a part time member of the Campus Ministry staff is already bearing much fruit.

But at the end of the day, as with our mythical Aunt, it is up to you to decide whether to explore the “deep things of God” or not.

Today as Fr. Fred placed ashes on my forehead (yes, as usual I got the life-size cross on my bald head), he said, “Remember that you are dust and unto dust you shall return.” Those somber words are being spoken throughout the world and will be spoken on our campus at the three Masses we have today at 12:05 pm, 4:15 pm, and 9:30 pm in the Mary, Mother of Wisdom Student Chapel on campus.

Those words remind us that like the technology of yesteryear, we, too, one day will age out. I don’t need ashes to remind me of that – a few weeks ago I was playing basketball with some students one Sunday and when I sat down at the end of the game, my ankles and knees reminded me that most of the warranties on my body have expired.

Yes, Ash Wednesday reminds us that our time on earth is finite and fleeting. The free will that God has given us reminds us that it is our choice to follow Christ or not. I end this blog with two great quotes from Scripture:

“When I was a child I used to talk like a child, think like a child, reason like a child. When I became a man (or woman) I put childish ways aside.” (1 Corinthians 13:11)

“I tell you solemnly: as a young man (woman) you fastened your belt and went about as you pleased; but when you are older you will stretch out your hands, and another will tie you fast and carry you off against your will…Follow me.” (John 21:18-19)