Been down to the basement lately? Maybe you were searching for an Easter basket last month and stopped for a moment to check out those giant cobwebs and disorganized boxes of who knows what—and maybe you genuinely feared one of those wild dust bunnies might run you over! And what about your husband’s beloved—and massive—collection of ancient fishing magazines? Or your wife’s shrine to old shoes that haven’t seen the light of day for years? What’s with that, anyway? Or maybe while frantically in search of some financial receipts on April 14th you stumbled into that dreaded “catch-all” room each of us has. This is the dirty little secret of your home: piles of unwanted books, abandoned exercise equipment, games that never caught on with the kids … and lots of junk. This is the room you hide from guests (you know the one). You’ve been thinking, for years, about what a great den or game room this would make, if you could just find time to attack it. Or maybe you’ve dared to look into that attic recently—a place that hasn’t been cleaned or organized since the day you moved in twenty years ago. You say to yourself, “Let’s not even go there….”

But even though it’s not pleasant to go there, now is the time to go there. This is the season of Pascha! This is the ultimate time of brightness and renewal. This is a time for positive and energetic change in our lives. It’s the time of the year, too, when the earth comes back to life: birds chirping, gardens greening, flowers blooming. This is the time of year for spring cleaning. Time to brighten that basement, chase away those cobwebs, and get your home fresh and re-organized. Time to let the sun in and allow a fresh breeze to invigorate your senses and stimulate your homelife.

And there’s more. This idea of spring cleaning applies to our hearts and souls as well. There are neglected places—places where it is not pleasant to go, but where we should be going: there are places in our consciences we should be exploring but have been avoiding. There are feelings of anger, disappointment, confusion and despair that have been buried but are still very much a part of us. There is doubt; there is fear; there is guilt. There are relationships we need to be working on or that trouble us—we think about them often, know we should be acting to heal old wounds, yet we do nothing. There are bitter memories that gnaw at us; we replay them over and over, like an endless film, in our minds. There is much baggage, much baggage we need to be free of. But we are not free: we are loaded down, smothered, suffocating.

Again, though it’s not pretty—or easy—now is the time to go there. Because a painful, loaded down, smothering and suffocating existence is no life at all. The Lord hung on the cross for us to take away our burdens and free us from bondage; He doesn’t want us to suffer and be miserable. He wants us to feel free, to be happy, to be joyous, to be at peace, to be thankful for every breath we take … and most of all to love Him and always be with Him.

It may seem impossible, but we can have these things, these things that He wants for us. But it’s not easy; it takes courage, commitment and faith. We have to go to these dark places in our hearts, these neglected rooms of our consciences, and we have to face what’s there. We have to face the pain; we have to face regret; we have to face our failure; we have to face anger; we have to face despair. We have to look in the mirror, and we have to face ourselves. We need reality. We need clarity. We need a real starting point if we are truly going to clean house.

And then we need to let God help us, to let Him take these things away from us. We have to trust Him and take His hand, allow Him to help us up out of the dirt, let Him wipe away the tears. He can help us repair the broken relationships in our lives, and blow a fresh summer breeze through the neglected and stale places of our hearts. He can thrust open those heavy windows in the attic of your conscience through Holy Confession, and you’ll watch with relief and thanksgiving as the shadows of pain and regret are chased into oblivion by the brilliant sunlight. He can teach us to recognize true priorities in our lives, and the junk and useless distractions in that catch-all room of your soul will be no more—clarity and holy organization will rule!

You’ve put it off long enough. It’s time for spring cleaning. Get to work!

With much love in our risen Lord,

Fr. Alex

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